The Tree of Me

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather, Jacob Scheef travelled on holiday to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting remaining members of his family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time away from home. Jacob Scheef - personal collection John Elder Aden the 8 June 1885 My Dear Wife and Children I am having the chance now to let you know how I am  getting on since I left Adelaide where I sent my last  letter from. First my health and appetite is very good  and in general I am well placed with the eating on the  ship board as we have always fresh meat and potatoes  the bread is even new and of first class quality Now I am going  to let you now about the progress we made and the sights  we have seen. Adelaide is a very nice Town but a good  deal smaller then Melbourne it has a splendid Botanical  Garden but the harbour where we laid on was the open sea  We ...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather, Jacob Scheef travelled on holiday to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting remaining members of his family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time away from home. Jacob Scheef John Elder Melbourne the 14 May 1885 Dear Wife and Children! I am in receipt of your letter which I received in  Sydney just half an hour before we started from  which I see that you are all well except David and  I trust you will take good care of him with his cold  and am glad that you had some rain the white  bullock you can either kill or sell him if you can get  £5 - 10s for him and break the Strawberry or roan bullock  in with Glover. We left Sydney on the 12 this month at 1 1/2 clock and the  Sydney Harbour I can give you no idea for his beauty  and grandeur every half hour of steaming it presents a fresh panorama after coming outside on th...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled on holiday to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting remaining members of his family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the date they were written. European Hotel 90 Castlereagh Street Sydney the 7 May 1885 My Dear Wife and Children I am glad that I feel in good health and believe far better than in New England. My knees do not trouble me at all since I left home and neither do I feel anything in my inside since I left but my new boots give me a good deal of trouble so I bought a pair of shoes as well as my other clothes. My passage I paid for yesterday and have seen the vessel I am going in it is a grand ship when I was in it I found scarce my way out of it again. Yesterday there came two German warships into the Harbour so is also the English warship Nelson and they are anchored side by side there...