Thank you Debra
Great job !!!!
I had tried to do that search and it would not let me.
I see no purchase available on your post. Have you seen that before .
Is it SEALS or any chance its SCALES
I have been trying to fill in where
Mary Helen Scales
Born - 25/12/ 1889 Double Gully Victoria
Mother Henrietta Maria Scales
FAther - not printed on cert but was def Henry Andrews ( HArry ) and had life long r/ship with Mary
Helen .
Mary Helen born Scales
Missing 1889 -1909
1909 -Enrolled POSING AS SCHOOL AGE into Mt Erin Convent Wagga to do their highly regarded singing program. She won everything, excelled in every State music exam and left in 1912 . to tour Australia with TIVOLI we have dozens of Newspaper articles across Aust to WA
We know people change their name commonly in fam history but she took it way to far she was forensic in her attempts to keep people away from her birth info .
1912 - Adult Catholic Baptism WAGGA -changed birth age and date
June 1916 -Marriage -changes age and MOTHERS NAME on cert
Husband - Engineer Ernest Frederic Harris 1880 -1959
April 1917 - First son is born - she changes her age on his NSW cert
1919 - She changes her age on his NSW cert
About 1922 ish she and Ernest Harris move to Malaya where he is a very very well known Engineer and President of the Tin Dredging Assoc , they live all over Malaya and she does a lot of charity concerts for single mothers and children, she is a Soprano and still performing a lot in Malaya , the 2 boys were in boarding school in Melb and traveling up for holidays .
In 1931 she dies suddenly in Malaya and the boys are told it was post a Gall Bladder surgery and reported in papers as post a short illness . My Father attempts to verify this as an adult and cannot i' ll save you all that.
I spend years combing consular records ( Aust seen as British then ) etc, all archives all over the place and all the expected things in Aust and Malaya . We cannot apply for death cert from Malaya as not correct papers etc... The large Catholic Church say they have zero on the burial Register . We know exactly where the funeral was etc..
We have never believed she died as a result of an illness its been very odd all along .
About 6 months ago i found in the Singapore Archives ( like TROVE) that i constantly re check -
A double page spread printed Jan 1932 ( she died Aug1931 ) it was a 2 pg retrospective on Expapts life in 1931 in Malaya.
One of the many columns in that 2 pg spread was called " TRAGIC ACCIDENTS " and featured my G/Mother Mrs E , F HArris -- however zero details of what accident except it name the correct town i have tried to get more info a million diff ways but no luck .
I have read the yearly Medical book for the region in Malaya for the European Hosp hoping to snag a lead as well . Whatever happened to her up there is as much as mystery as her true birth details in Australia.
One a * hypothesis we have after so many years of seeing the issues at both ends of her life is that .
Her husband during their marriage was told the true story of her birth and when he was confronted with the sudden death he would have had to submit what he knew to be true and correct info about her as the informant for her death up there . And perhaps this has led to him expsing secrets that he has somehow prevent ed leaking back to the Aust families .
Mary Helens own birth cert 1889 has an unusual change written by the Registry
She was born 25/12/1889 Reg in feb 1890 and in June the Registry has written in the middle of the record
" Brother in eighth column should read uncle" So what triggered that . ?
I have wondered if in that short period as a teen did she have a baby ? prior to 1909 into Mt Erin
In one Newspaper article where she was interviewed on her last trip back to Australia she said she spent her early years in WAGGA .
So it's all a very tricky story.
Where was she 1889 -1909 ?
She never appeared to have much of a r/ship with her Mother and her Mothers informant did not put her on her death cert but neither did her Fathers and they all knew about Mary she w as very very well known.
