The Tree of Me

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia.   Biographical Entry Hamburg the 13 Aug 1885 My Dear Wife and Children Last week I sent you a letter informing you that I thought I would be unable to go through America home. Now I must inform you that I could get no passage in the ship Austral which I was intended to do because it is full and that a full week before she is ready to sail and there would be no other ship leaving before the 5 September so I took passage through America to Sydney which cost me £32.5.0 and am leaving tomorrow evening from this port for Philadelphia. I hope this will find you all well the same as it leaves...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia.   Biographical Entry Beilstein  Marbach the 24 July 1885 My dear Wife and children I have received 3 letters from you since I am in Germany the last two dated the 31 May and 2 June and I received the letter of recommendation from the Lodge as well as the 4 Expresses I see that you are all doing well and get on with your work well as for giving you any instructions or advice is of no value now because we are too far apart and I see through the letters that you manage right enough. When I wrote my first letter to you from here I was only 3 days here and they were wet so I could tel...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia.   Biographical Entry Beilstein the 1 July 1885 My Dear Wife and Children I have arrived safely in Germany and I found a very great change among my brothers and sisters as they are all dead except my sister Rosina but I would not have known her and she would not have known me if we did not know that we were brother and sister by our name and still we always keep looking at one another and fancy that we must be mistaken the way I got myself known to Schantz our brother in law was through saying that I had a message from myself and that I wished to see him. Well we were almost talking a half h...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia.   Biographical Entry John Elder Port Said the 22 June 1885 Dear Wife As I thought to get this letter away yesterday and so concluded it I was disappointed as we only left Ismalia about 2 o’clock on Sunday and we were the sixth vessel in going so we did not get very far when the vessel in front of us ran on sand and so we had to stop till it got off again which was more than 1 hour consequently we did only go about 10 miles on Sunday today we will be in Port Said if we have luck as we can only go very slowly about 4 miles an hour We haven’t seen and passed the spot where the accident was whic...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia.   Biographical Entry Ismalie  John Elder the 20 June 1885 My Dear Wife and Children I am going to let you know how we are going on since I wrote first I must tell you that Aden is in Arabia and a more desolate country you can have no idea of nothing but high precipitous hills with not a vestige of vegetation neither trees grass or bushes could be seen anywhere only either bare rocky hills sand or black burnt soil it is impossible to describe it on paper it has to be seen to know what it is after we left we thought it would become better but it remained the same right through to Suez Suez yo...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia.   Biographical Entry 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 ...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. This is his third letter home. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia.  Biographical Entry John Elder  Adelaide the 17 May 1885 My dear wife and children I wrote to you from Melbourne and also I received a letter from you of the same same content as the one I got in Sydney when I wrote last I was not yet in the city so could tell you nothing of it since I have seen a good deal of it Directly we were on the wharf I went and posted my letter and had one or two hours in the city the Sydney is a fine city but is not a patch to Melbourne because the street are all two chains wide and are all straight the next day I went again an...

My husband's family are very fortunate as his great grandfather travelled back to Germany from Armidale, NSW from May to September 1885. While visiting family he sent many letters back to Australia and kept a diary of his time overseas. I'll post his letters on the day they were written. This is his second letter home. These letters can be seen at the University of New England (UNE) Archive in Armidale, NSW, Australia. Biographical Entry 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 o'clock and the Sydney Harbour I can give you no idea for his...

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...