New Look and Subscribe

Here is a new look for the blog.... still trying to get the perfect font but now we can provide you with a subscribe function so that you automatically get notification by email of a new entry. Further suggestions welcome!
Jennifer (Producer)

Hello from Diana

I'm Diana, one of Georgiana's great-great-grandaughters. Georgiana's eldest surviving daughter Sabina married Mathew Hale who had come out to Australia as archdeacon of Adelaide. He later became Bishop of Perth and subsequently Bishop of Brisbane. One of Mathew and Sabina's younger sons was Harold Hale, who was sent to a boarding school in Hobart because there were no schools his father considered suitable in Brisbane at that time. When Mathew retired, the family returned to England. However, after his death a number of them, including Harold, returned to Australia. Harold (my grandfather) settled in Tasmania,married Georgina Officer, and produced 5 children. My father Ted was the youngest. He married Joan Oliphant, and also produced 5 children, of whom I'm the youngest. I'm married, but have no children - only stepsons, nephews and neices.

I've always had an interest in Georgiana, and these days I'm particularly interested in the spirit she seems to have passed on to a number of her descendants, together with the number of us (at least in the branches I know) who have a strong interest in gardens and native plants. Nature or nurture?

One, for instance, travelled to the Middle East with her husband when he went to the First World War, and we have photos of her in nursing uniform at one of the military hospitals, sitting beside the Nile, riding a camel accompanied by the wife of one of our Light Horse senior officers, and listed in the programs of entertainment organised by the wives for benefit of the soldiers.

I'd be interested to hear from any other descendants of Georgiana and to hear any stories of the generations.

Diana West

Diana joins us

Diana from Tasmania is going to join us on the blogging team. It seems that we are being contacted by quite a few descendants of Georgiana and John. Diana (nee Hale), is keen to keep updating the family tree and keep communication up. Our next task is to find a way of having the growing list of "Friends of Georgiana" subscribe to this blog so they get notification of postings automatically.

I'll ask Diana to tell us a little more about herself...

Jennifer

Keppoch House!

Lambs at Ardarndan Farm near Keppoch House.

Last year we spent much time trying to determine where the marriage between Georgiana Kennedy and John Molloy took place. It was a pivotal time in her life journey. Her diary indicates that she saw the proposal as an answer to her prayers because she did not wish to live with her own family and felt she may outstay her welcome with the Dunlop family. She did not underestimate the drastic step she was about to take and she changed her mind just days before the event. Mr. Dunlop counselled her to proceed. Georgians wrote...

"Heard from Captain Molloy which made me very miserable."

"I wished to write and end all but Mr Dunlop would not let me."

"Heard again and was quite distracted with fearful anticipations. I wrote to him & prayed my letter might arrive in time to prevent his coming truly wretched went to Bed after dinner. ...

"Went to Church perhaps for the last time as Georgiana Kennedy. Oh that I had never got into such a perplexity."

The marriage was conducted by Rev. Story (her friend Helen's husband) and we assumed it would have been at his parish church of Rosneath, where Georgiana enjoyed visiting. The only certificate was one written by Rev. Story witnessing the marriage but it did not say the location. Our visit to the Cardross church (where the bans had been read), revealed no records.

Georgiana's diary simply states that on that morning she...

"rose at ye past 7. Received many letters & presents. Closed my trunks. Went to gather my Bridal flowers & put them in their rooms. Fine."

and then the next entry jumps to ...

"I was no longer Georgiana Kennedy at two o'clock after the ceremony set off for Glasgow. We (crossed out) Very strange.
What a night a night this was !!!!!"

The last comment was under restriction in the archive until recently due to the personal nature of the entry but I think in this days and age we can be pragmatic and celebrate a good start to the marriage. This is the only occasion when she ever uses 5 exclamation marks!

Back to the wedding. How could we ever represent it if we did not know where it took place? While we were traipsing the Scottish countryside, Bernice's husband Mike was putting his mind to the problem back in London. He searched the records and found that one of the Dunlop sister's had been married at Keppoch House. It seems that this was a convention of the times. He confirmed that Keppoch House was a fairly new mansion and it was likely that rather that this would have been the venue. It started to make sense. It would have been much grander and certainly easier for the guests to attend. It also makes sense that the diary entry has no mention of travel to a church and as she was living there she simply puts the Bridal flowers in their rooms.

We had asked so many people as to who the owners of Keppoch were. One person told us that it had been made into flats! As we stood at the large gates and Bernice reminded me of the diary passage just prior to the wedding.

" On the lookout for Molloy & Doe. Maggie & I went to the xxxxxx & they came driving up. We walked about a nervous time. Very fine."

Bernice could imagine Georgiana standing on the crest and looking down to see Molloy and Dalton approaching on this very road leading to the house. It would have been a very exceptional moment and the final reality of the threshold she was about to cross.

We posted some messages asking about Keppoch on a local Scottish history site and Marie was a gem to put us in contact with Lorretta the owner of Keppoch House. Loretta has invited Bernice to visit! Now that Bernice is back in London for a stint she is planning to go there soon and promises to take lots of pics for us.

In order to fill some of the gaps and gain more information about this period, it would be wonderful to discover if the Dunlop sisters have any diaries or letters in an archives in Scotland. They were very well educated and like Georgiana would have been prolific writers. So perhaps our Scottish friends might discover them?


Jennifer (Producer)

Letters at CRO

Here we are - a researcher's dream come true - arriving at the Cumbria Record Office which is located within the castle walls. And then... you can't see Bernice's hands shaking, as she undoes the first package.

The first item is a hand drawn map of the Swan River Colony by John Molloy. It is such a treasure. We hope one day it will be sent back here. It would surely be put under glass - and there we were holding it! We realised that the extraordinary amount important archive in the UK, meant that it would not rate as highly as it does here in Western Australian

Bernice would not mind me telling you she was gasping and near hysterical for much of the time as she came across new items. I clicked away for two days straight and bought back the loot which we are now working on. Our hero back here in Western Australia is Patrick Richardson-Bunbury, a direct descent of Georgina, who is transcribing the extremely difficult letters, many of which are cross-written (to save paper and postage).

More on Patrick's progress soon.

Jennifer

Crosby Lodge near Carlisle

A last minute dash to Crosby Lodge, the childhood home of Georgiana, was made possible by the generous reception by the owner of this beautiful private hotel, Mrs Patricia Sedgewick.Mrs Sedgewick has a deep interest in the life of the original owners and particularly Georgiana. This house was built for her parents by Elizabeth Kennedy's father, whose estate mansion was adjacent. I think perhaps Crosby Lodge has a feminine aesthetic with delightful proportions. The Sedgewick have invested in and restored it in an admirable manner. Just imagine staying there and look out of the very windows and see the view that Georgiana experienced. Another dream of which I aspire!

Jennifer

Research in Scotland

The beautiful Knockderry Hotel. Ask for the front room if you are lucky enough to get there! I had no idea when we booked what type of establishment this was and asked if it had a view! It is sensational.

We took so many photo's I would have to work full time just to upload them and so look forward to when we get the interactive new media project up and going. This stone and the shells are so intrinsically beautiful, as is the whole environment. No wonder Georgiana loved the coastline at Augusta in Western Australia, which has distinct similarities with the river, ocean and inlet in a wilderness.

We were given a wonderful reception from author Richard Reeve, at Kilgreggan, who has written a tome on the local history, "A Victorian Burgh", ISBN 0954709233. He has us eagerly listening until late in the first evening. "

Archivist, Mike Davis, was extremely helpful in locating many of the locations and texts.

Jennifer

Dreams of Scotland become real

The Clacken: what was this? While much of the village was now urban the Clacken had been preserved. It was the town centre and trade and meeting place.


Ah... the Clacken at Rosneath mentioned in so many historical writings and we were here and finally it made sense. Alistair McIntyre guided us through our first exciting connections.

For Helen Story

This is the original church at Rosneath where Georgiana attended while staying with the Story family. We thought that she may have been married there but further investigations reveal otherwise.

The new manse at Rosneath. Finally we discovered that the original house was in such a bad state that Robert Story used the material to incorporate into this new building and there are no remains of the old house where Georgiana stayed with her friends.

This is the new church at Rosneath undertaken by Robert Story after Georgiana had departed to Australia.

Bernice had this goal for a long time - to visit the gravesite of Helen Story who was Georgiana's dearest friend. It seemed fitting that as we had come from the resting place of Georgiana in Busselton, Western Australia to Rosneath, the place she loved. The first afternoon at Rosneath was spent searching the beautiful cemetery in the fine drizzle with our local host, Alastair McIntyre. The graves are in the grounds of the original church which is crumbling. After many hours we made a late dash to the Helensborough Library and with the help of Mike Davis, who showed us some old records, we plotted our search for the next day.

No wonder we could not find it! It took a determined effort to pull the brambles back from the Story family monument. It was an unashamed tearful time, as we two friends, gave our little speech in recognition of their friendship and set the flowers on the side of the inscription to Helen.

I can't quite make out the writing, perhaps Bernice recorded it?

It says something about sister and calm in the storm...

Jennifer

Jen in London and then...!

Last year I was selected by the Australian Film Commission to undertake training and internship at the New Media Department at the BBC London. Of course this was fantastic as I had really done all the training that I could in Australia. The intense training was specific to managing complex New Media projects. The internship gave me a chance to be in a dynamic working department and really seeing what goes on. Everyone was very generous with giving me sessions and meetings. They also gave great feedback on the Georgiana project.

Good timing meant that our researcher Bernice was in doing a working a stint in London at the same time. We made the most of the opportunity and used our last research funds to go from London to Rosneath in Scotland and the Cumbria Record Office for a location recce and to get digital copies of the letters at the CRO. Words cannot describe how excited we were and what a fabulous opportunity this was.

The very first photo (of many) looking over to the Rosneath Peninsula.



Jennifer (Producer)