The Arsenic Century - James C. Whorton

As 2011 is the National Year of Reading here in Australia I decided that I'd needed to start today. Each time I go to Sydney I treat myself a book from Kinokuniya. I love to browse their history section and always have to contain myself to select only one from several that look interesting. On my last visit I purchased The Arsenic Century - How Victorian Britain was Poisoned at Home, Work and Play by James C. Whorton. You can read a review here. Already I am enthralled.

Apparently there was a network of women in Essex who "placed poison and knowledge of its (arsenic) use in women's hands so they could do away with any bothersome person." Members of the community knew what was happening but did not often report their knowledge. Many women murdered their husbands and several children. These women probably don't have any living descendants today as I think they got rid of them all!

Poorer members of the community could pay Friendly Society memberships (life insurance policies were out of their league) and join burial clubs. Upon death, the cost of a funeral (and a little profit along the way)
could be met. It became common practice to enrol children in these clubs. In Manchester there was a saying, "Aye, aye, that child will not live, it is in the burial club!" Living as we do today, this is inconceivable.

As well as being used for devious purposes, arsenic killed many Victorians via green wallpaper, cake ornaments, baby powder and pints of beer. The list goes on and on. It's a wonder anyone survived!

If you have family who lived in Victorian Britain I think this book will be a must. In fact, I'm off to bed to read more now.

Caroline Chisholm

I am currently in England visiting my daughter who is working in London. Naturally I decided I would have to spend some time on genealogical pursuits. The problem was where would I choose for a few day's retreat from London? In the end I decided to go to Northampton to visit the grave of Caroline Chisholm. Caroline is known as the immigrant's friend. She was a well known social reformer of her day. Why is Caroline significant to me and my family? You may recall that Caroline Chisholm was on the original $5 note in Australia. As well as her image there was a picture of a ship. That ship was the Waverley . Caroline agitated at the Home Office to reunite the wives and families of convicts with their husbands and fathers. On 22 June 1847 she wrote that she ‘had just left the Home Office and had obtained a passage per Waverley for forty-nine souls.’ SMH 9 August 1847, extract from letter 30 March 1847. My great great grandmother Matilda Agnew, her older siblings James, Joh

My WW1 soldiers (2) - Ernest Lee Dawson

Ernest Lee Dawson (500) (1885 - 1968) This is the second post in a series of posts over the next few years to remember all the men in my extended family who enlisted in World War 1. So far I have identified 26 soldiers who enlisted between 20 August 1914 and 2 November 1918 and I feel sure I have missed some. Of the twenty six, five were killed overseas or died here in Australia. My aim is to publish these posts on the 100th anniversary of their enlistment. Ernest Lee Dawson (my great uncle) was the eldest child of William Henry Dawson and his wife Bridget Mylan. He was born in the Cooma district of NSW in 1885. On 25th August 1914, less than three weeks after the outbreak of the First World War Ernie, a farmer who lived at Old Bonalbo enlisted in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment in Lismore. Ernie had previous military experience. In 1906, he answered an advertisement to join the Shanghai Municipal Council Police Force, as a recruit. He was appointed on 10th Ja

The Tree of Me

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