With the inclement weather the day before affecting various social gatherings around Perth and Fremantle, perhaps the Masters sisters were apprehensive about what to expect on their wedding day. Maybe they instead took comfort in the fact that they were both going to be June brides (an auspicious month to be married) and that rain …
Most of my regular readers would be all too familiar with the stories of Thomas Crampton, Matilda Maria Hurst, Matilda’s admittance to Fremantle Asylum and the strange disappearance of Thomas Lisle Crampton (their son). It is a story (and a family) that consumes me. Throughout 2015 I went to great lengths (including multiple visits to …
On Saturday, 5 January 1833, one of the earliest Western Australian newspapers, The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, was printed and distributed to the Swan River Colony. Edited by Charles Macfaull, Volume I, number I, was four pages long and cost one shilling. The Colony was still in its infancy (having only been established …
Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers should be aware that this blog post may contain images or names of people who have since passed away. The Australian bush can be a place of both great beauty and great fear and a search on Trove can show that being lost in the bush was a …
Enoch Barratt (sitting) with Maria Barratt (right) out the front of Windsor House. The story of Maria Barratt and her store ‘M. Barratt – Wardrobe Dealer & Registry Office’ essentially began when she married Enoch Pearson Barratt on 25 October 1877. Both were widowed (she was 52 and he was 65) and the idea of …
Finding Family 