Since purchasing Ernie Dawson's war medals, I have been trying to find out more about his war experiences.
A search at the National Archives last night for All Records, not just WW1 turned up a digitised 244 page document of post war information. I will discuss this in more detail in a later post. This post, however, is dedicated to a family story that has not previously been documented.
My second cousin Fay asked me earlier this year if I had heard about Bridget's (our great grandmother's) twins - her first born children. Her aunt had told her about them. This was news to me! I only had 16 children born to Bridget Mylan and her husband Harry Dawson. A thorough search of NSW BDMs failed to find the birth or death of twins. A search in Victoria also proved fruitless.
However, while going through the document last night I discovered evidence that the twins existed.
Ernie had applied for benefits under the Repatriation Act and had to give details of his family's medical history. It is difficult to see when this was filled in but it appears to be late 1958 or early 1959.
Ernie's father Harry had died at age 57 from a heart attack. His mother Bridget died at 76 from asthma and heart.
Ernie had six living brothers, Bill, Don, Stan, Cyril (Peter), Norman and Harold who were aged from 42 to 60 and were all in good health. His four surviving sisters, Florence, Dorothea, Doris and Ruth were aged from 50 to 68 years and were in good health apart from one who was only fair!
This record states that 2 sisters had died. This was incorrect as 3 of his sisters had died by this time. Alice died in 1899 aged 9 months and Doreen was only 4 months old when she died in December 1902. Kathleen died in 1954 aged 56.
The most interesting section of course is the number of brothers who had died. There were four. Bert had died in 1957 and Rupert was killed in an accident at Callan Park in 1898 when he was 11 years old. (I have previously blogged about this accident here and here.)
Ernie also had twin brothers who died at birth. Here is the evidence that Bridget and Harry did indeed have twins. I have now added these boys into my family database.
May God bless you both.
A search at the National Archives last night for All Records, not just WW1 turned up a digitised 244 page document of post war information. I will discuss this in more detail in a later post. This post, however, is dedicated to a family story that has not previously been documented.
My second cousin Fay asked me earlier this year if I had heard about Bridget's (our great grandmother's) twins - her first born children. Her aunt had told her about them. This was news to me! I only had 16 children born to Bridget Mylan and her husband Harry Dawson. A thorough search of NSW BDMs failed to find the birth or death of twins. A search in Victoria also proved fruitless.
However, while going through the document last night I discovered evidence that the twins existed.
Ernie had applied for benefits under the Repatriation Act and had to give details of his family's medical history. It is difficult to see when this was filled in but it appears to be late 1958 or early 1959.
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| Dawson family medical details |
Ernie's father Harry had died at age 57 from a heart attack. His mother Bridget died at 76 from asthma and heart.
Ernie had six living brothers, Bill, Don, Stan, Cyril (Peter), Norman and Harold who were aged from 42 to 60 and were all in good health. His four surviving sisters, Florence, Dorothea, Doris and Ruth were aged from 50 to 68 years and were in good health apart from one who was only fair!
This record states that 2 sisters had died. This was incorrect as 3 of his sisters had died by this time. Alice died in 1899 aged 9 months and Doreen was only 4 months old when she died in December 1902. Kathleen died in 1954 aged 56.
The most interesting section of course is the number of brothers who had died. There were four. Bert had died in 1957 and Rupert was killed in an accident at Callan Park in 1898 when he was 11 years old. (I have previously blogged about this accident here and here.)
Ernie also had twin brothers who died at birth. Here is the evidence that Bridget and Harry did indeed have twins. I have now added these boys into my family database.
May God bless you both.
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