1
Armed Forces / Re: Edward John (Ted) French
« on: Tuesday 02 April 24 00:01 BST (UK) »
Thanks for your help, Allan! This is great.
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2
Armed Forces / Re: Edward John (Ted) French
« on: Monday 01 April 24 14:06 BST (UK) »
ADDED His occupation at the time of the census would suggest he could have taken that photo
Which occupation? Masonry?
3
Armed Forces / Edward John (Ted) French
« on: Monday 01 April 24 10:15 BST (UK) »
I'm wondering if anyone can further help me with information on Ted French's service.
We have been having quite the discussion about him and some rare tank images found in his collection in New Zealand over at The Great War Forum here
https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/252471-the-crew-of-mk-v-tank-9189-at-battle-of-amiens-8th-9th-august-1918/
In particular I am interested in NOK, residential address etc so I can try to work out who his family were.
He apparently served in WWI as Edward John French
Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry, Service No 240680
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173454373/edward-john-french
Not sure where he was born but he gave his birth date as 1894, however I suspect this was not accurate and was more likely 1896-1897.
He was in Pewsey, west of London when he married in 1923 and the couple also had a daughter there in 1924. At some point around 1925-1927 they permanently migrated to New Zealand to the gold mining town of Waiuta.
I'm still trying to figure out if he actually took the tank photos or was in some way associated with the Port Erin Workshop...or the front the tanks participated in. it is obvious he had some connection to have the images but also, he was a panel-beater and painter by trade so his service spent there would kind of make sense. However he also owned a wet-plate camera and took photos.
Thanks in advance.
We have been having quite the discussion about him and some rare tank images found in his collection in New Zealand over at The Great War Forum here
https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/252471-the-crew-of-mk-v-tank-9189-at-battle-of-amiens-8th-9th-august-1918/
In particular I am interested in NOK, residential address etc so I can try to work out who his family were.
He apparently served in WWI as Edward John French
Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry, Service No 240680
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173454373/edward-john-french
Not sure where he was born but he gave his birth date as 1894, however I suspect this was not accurate and was more likely 1896-1897.
He was in Pewsey, west of London when he married in 1923 and the couple also had a daughter there in 1924. At some point around 1925-1927 they permanently migrated to New Zealand to the gold mining town of Waiuta.
I'm still trying to figure out if he actually took the tank photos or was in some way associated with the Port Erin Workshop...or the front the tanks participated in. it is obvious he had some connection to have the images but also, he was a panel-beater and painter by trade so his service spent there would kind of make sense. However he also owned a wet-plate camera and took photos.
Thanks in advance.
4
Australia / Re: Missing Resting Places: Morris Family Mystery
« on: Friday 08 September 23 14:08 BST (UK) »I suspect he did not tell his wife that he was Jewish. A new start in a new country would make it easy to change his story. So there would be no reason for anyone to insist on a Hebrew burial.
Good point. I'd never thought of that. It would be hard to get away with but possible. I always say if something is technically *possible* then it's not *impossible*.
5
Australia / Re: Missing Resting Places: Morris Family Mystery
« on: Thursday 07 September 23 08:09 BST (UK) »Hi, I would not assume that there is no memorials at the crematorium. I have parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who were cremated at Rookwood and they all have memorials, some in the Rose Gardens.
Due to the cost of placement in the Rose Gardens the majority have Niches in the many Walls. I would send an email to Rookwood Crematorium, you never know you might find a memorial.
good luck, Cass
Thanks Cass I have written to the Crematorium. Hopefully they will respond although, I am not counting on it.
6
Australia / Re: Missing Resting Places: Morris Family Mystery
« on: Thursday 07 September 23 08:04 BST (UK) »Funeral Notice: SMH 21 July 1969
MORRIS — The Relatives and Friends of the late Mr NATHAN (NAT) MORRIS, of 26 Hopetoun, Street Camperdown are invited to attend his Funeral to leave St. Stephen's Church, Church Street, Newtown, Tomorrow (Tuesday), after service commencing at 1.15 p.m., for the Rookwood Crematorium.
So he REALLY left the Hebrew faith! Quite a few things point to this.
One being the Newtown area had enough of a Jewish population to have their own synagogue there which was fairly close to where they lived, a few minutes walk away.
Their son Frank was buried in a CoE sector of Rookwood. I'm presuming the Broughtons were CoE. Nat did not stick to the Hebrew naming tradition for sons which was skipping a gen to name the child for their grandfather which was Nathan, instead naming Frank for his brother and Frank's grandpa Nathan wound up as the middle name.
Nat married outside the faith, had his funeral in an Anglican church, and was not interred in Hebrew consecrated ground.
My grandpa, Nat's uncle, also left the faith but he had his own reasons. He married twice outside the faith and also divorced and did not attend Synagogue. It just wasn't the done thing. That didn't stop the family interring him in the Hebrew Cemetery though. They insisted on it and made sure it happened.
Anyway I suspect this had something to do with both of their respective distancing from the family. It was pretty much unheard of to renounce your religion and culture, even informally.
Thanks for transcribing this. Trove doesn't want to cooperate today and won't show any of the funeral notices quoted in this thread. It's giving me the shits.
7
Australia / Re: Missing Resting Places: Morris Family Mystery
« on: Thursday 07 September 23 05:03 BST (UK) »Funeral notice for Marjorie May MORRIS states Rookwood Crematorium
https://postimg.cc/2Lpdjdr8
I'm assuming that neither of them ever got memorials at the crematorium and perhaps the ashes were just scattered by family members somewhere requested. I think this was just beginning to become more of a popular trend around this time. Three of my grandparents were scattered but I think up until the 1970s it wasn't really the done thing.
8
Australia / Re: Missing Resting Places: Morris Family Mystery
« on: Thursday 07 September 23 04:57 BST (UK) »He was born in Scotland so was a British Subject, therefore no requirement to be naturalized.
Debra
People still did it though so there must have been some advantage to it. I've looked at documents and it wasn't exactly an easy process. The police would go to great lengths to follow every lead and reference and interview everyone mentioned in your memorials and statements.
9
Australia / Missing Resting Places: Morris Family Mystery
« on: Wednesday 06 September 23 17:24 BST (UK) »
I have a few family mysteries yet to solve and this is one conundrum.
I cannot find the resting place of my first cousin Nat Morris and wondering if any members here may have some new searching ideas/leads to try.
Nat died in Newtown, Sydney in 1969 according to his death certificate, and after that the trail goes cold.
Some background in brief which may be helpful. This was not his real name. His government name was Larten Slatopolsky known as 'Nuskie' to the family. and he was born in Glasgow into a Jewish migrant family. He took the gentile name Nathan.
In the 1920s he absconded from Scotland without telling the family and migrated to Australia where he shortened his forename to Nat and took Morris his father's name as his last name becoming 'Nat Morris.' I haven't found any evidence he changed his name officially or ever naturalized.
In 1931 he married Marjorie May Broughton from an old NSW pastoral family. They had one son Frank who died in childhood at five, so there were no descendants. They lived in Camperdown around the back of Newtown for life.
The family did eventually find out where he was but he excommunicated them essentially. He didn't want anything to do with a reunion of any kind. I have no idea what the reason was behind all of this but something serious must have happened now I think about it. Nobody now knows. I get an inkling from a family story he just didn't want anything to do with being Jewish or his old life for reasons known to himself.
I have searched every cemetery and database I can think of. Including all the Jewish cemeteries. It was very unusual for someone of a Jewish family not to be interred in consecrated Hebrew ground even if they had left the faith. He's not in Rookwood or Springvale. I think it's clear he was an exception to this general rule. yes I have checked all the name variations, government names, variations, misspellings etc.
Here is where it gets even weirder, Marjorie's resting place ALSO cannot be found! So not just one but two people. I'm wondering if it is possible they were cremations and this was somehow unrecorded or, records are perhaps incomplete, but I think this would be unusual. Were pauper burials unrecorded in NSW state?
Marjorie's mother had several siblings but amazingly I haven't been able to track any descendants from any; except one branch, her aunt Mabel Alice Audet which also fizzles out. I was hoping someone may have more info but that line of inquiry has been unsuccessful.
Marjorie died 1978 and left her estate to Alfred Alexander Audet the lawyer son of her aunt Mabel. So she died with means, probably owning their house in Camperdown, rather than broke.
After that the trail also goes cold.
It's so odd. I haven't had a case I can't eventually crack yet but this one has me stumped. Thanks in advance.
Associated surnames: MORRIS SLATOPOLSKY ZLOTOPOLSKI BROUGHTON AUDET MELVILLE GIBBONS MCGUIGAN PRICE SAXON
I cannot find the resting place of my first cousin Nat Morris and wondering if any members here may have some new searching ideas/leads to try.
Nat died in Newtown, Sydney in 1969 according to his death certificate, and after that the trail goes cold.
Some background in brief which may be helpful. This was not his real name. His government name was Larten Slatopolsky known as 'Nuskie' to the family. and he was born in Glasgow into a Jewish migrant family. He took the gentile name Nathan.
In the 1920s he absconded from Scotland without telling the family and migrated to Australia where he shortened his forename to Nat and took Morris his father's name as his last name becoming 'Nat Morris.' I haven't found any evidence he changed his name officially or ever naturalized.
In 1931 he married Marjorie May Broughton from an old NSW pastoral family. They had one son Frank who died in childhood at five, so there were no descendants. They lived in Camperdown around the back of Newtown for life.
The family did eventually find out where he was but he excommunicated them essentially. He didn't want anything to do with a reunion of any kind. I have no idea what the reason was behind all of this but something serious must have happened now I think about it. Nobody now knows. I get an inkling from a family story he just didn't want anything to do with being Jewish or his old life for reasons known to himself.
I have searched every cemetery and database I can think of. Including all the Jewish cemeteries. It was very unusual for someone of a Jewish family not to be interred in consecrated Hebrew ground even if they had left the faith. He's not in Rookwood or Springvale. I think it's clear he was an exception to this general rule. yes I have checked all the name variations, government names, variations, misspellings etc.
Here is where it gets even weirder, Marjorie's resting place ALSO cannot be found! So not just one but two people. I'm wondering if it is possible they were cremations and this was somehow unrecorded or, records are perhaps incomplete, but I think this would be unusual. Were pauper burials unrecorded in NSW state?
Marjorie's mother had several siblings but amazingly I haven't been able to track any descendants from any; except one branch, her aunt Mabel Alice Audet which also fizzles out. I was hoping someone may have more info but that line of inquiry has been unsuccessful.
Marjorie died 1978 and left her estate to Alfred Alexander Audet the lawyer son of her aunt Mabel. So she died with means, probably owning their house in Camperdown, rather than broke.
After that the trail also goes cold.
It's so odd. I haven't had a case I can't eventually crack yet but this one has me stumped. Thanks in advance.
Associated surnames: MORRIS SLATOPOLSKY ZLOTOPOLSKI BROUGHTON AUDET MELVILLE GIBBONS MCGUIGAN PRICE SAXON