It’s been a while since I wrote a genealogy blog, mostly as the topic of ‘strong woman’ had me a bit stymied. When I think of how all of my ancestors, both female and male, arrived in Australia, often in dreadful conditions, I consider all of them strong. The recent Covid-19 lockdowns have not helped, limiting opportunities to visit archives and hunt down more information on my ancestors.

So, I’ve decided to mix and match a few topics and while I’ll mostly stick with the 2020 ’52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks’ list, I’m going to replace a few from the 2021 list that relate more to my ancestors and their stories.

This post is my week #10 though was #51 last year and the prompt is ‘Holidays’.

For many of us holidays and travelling mean a journey, usually somewhere interstate or overseas. However, in December 1939, my paternal great grandfather’s journey from Windsor to Trangie was enough to earn a mention in the ‘Personal’ column of the Windsor and Richmond Gazette: “Mr A. Hulbert, of Newtown, Windsor, left last week-end for a well-earned holiday, which will be spent at “Silverdale”, the station property of Mr. C.L. Herring, of Trangie” [1]. Why was Albert (and presumably his wife Mary) visiting Trangie? The date of the article was 22 December 1939 so they were going to spend Christmas with their daughter Irene who married Cecil Herring in 1928. Irene and Cecil’s first child, Derek, was born in August 1939 so Albert and Mary would also see their one-year-old grandson as well.

While going through a tin containing images from my dad’s paternal line, I came across many images showing holiday activities, but also in amongst the photos were a number of postcards as well, featuring the Show Boat Kalang on Sydney Harbour, Taronga Park Zoo and Robertson Park in Orange.

However, two postcard images are of interest as they are unlabelled and feature snowy landscapes. Where the images were taken is unknown but I would guess they were either taken around Canberra, ACT or the Snowy Mountains in NSW. My favourite of the two is of a snowman – not just any snowman but a gigantic snowman that must have taken a number of people armed with ladders some time to build – he even has hands, a scarf, hat, coal buttons and a moustache!

Even though times have changed, that very human urge to take a photograph or purchase a postcard to remind one of journeys past was just as powerful then as it is now.

References

1. PERSONAL (1939, December 22). Windsor and Richmond Gazette (NSW : 1888 - 1965), p. 4. Retrieved April 2916, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85811741