Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and suffering of all those who have served".Observed on 25 April each year, Anzac Day was originally devised to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Anzac Day is also observed in the Cook Islands, Niue, Pitcairn Islands, and Tonga, and previously was a national holiday in Papua New Guinea and Samoa I have found several people who had enlisted and also fought for Australia in my family tree. Close to Home, My grandfather Charles Henry was a Rank Signalman WW2 Posting at Discharge SIGS 3 AUST DIV The 3rd Division was deployed to New Guinea in early 1943. Charles Brother in Law George Millendon Bisdee ( My great Uncle) served for almost a year in the Korean war from 1952 to 1953 in the Royal Australian Infantry Corps 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment. Charles Uncle Augustus Hahnel ( My second great Uncle) served in WW1 a Sergent in the 51st Battalion leaving for France/England/Egypt on 03 August 1915 and returning to Australia 28 February 1919. ( I have found Gus complete military records, with medical (even includes dental) and transfer notes and statements of service in a 20 page document.) Serving in the next war, WW2 is Gus' youngest brother Charles Richard ( My second great Uncle), he served for 3 years as 3 Aust Landing Craft Workshop Sec. To the saddest find I have found in the family military history is my great aunt Lily's first husband, Kenneth Kroenert, was aged 22 on the enlistment form at the time of enlisting the 9th of November 1939 in the 2/11 Australian Infantry Battalion Rank Private, marrying my aunt on the 1st of December 1939, son Howard was conceived before being deployed o/s. He was a POW in Stalag VIIIB when he died after a short high fever. He was accorded a military funeral by his German captors, never to meet his only child. Lily must have been distraught and maybe not mentally coping, as she had given her child to Kenneth's NSW family to bring up as their own child. Then on my fathers side, I have found my 2 x great Uncle Albert Russell Emerson who enlisted at the age of 20 years, although I was able to find a attestation form, I have no further information. Although I am sure that many more have served, I have not yet come across any more records .and with that, They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them
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My 3 x great grandfather James Bisdee came to the Swan Colony in Western Australia in 1851 as a convict on the convict ship the Minden with his son, Edgar. They were charged, imprisoned and then transported for sheep and chicken stealing in Somerset 1848. I had found a fair bit of information on Edgar, his marriage, his children, his shenanigans and his death, however there was no other information I had for James after his conditional pardon in 1853. When he was transported, he left his wife and 5 other children behind in England. I knew the date everyone in ancestry had for his death was wrong. They had him dying in Hutton Somerset in 1891.
Part of James' condition for his ticket of leave was he was not allowed to leave Australia. I am not sure if that was just for the remainder of his sentence, or if it was forever. However his wife in England remarried in 1857, since James was still alive ( however been transported) I have done just a touch of reading of divorce and found that: "If one party to a marriage disappeared for seven years it was, by the eighteenth century, generally assumed that the deserted one could marry again, though if the errant one returned, the first marriage took priority Desertion and bigamy were not infrequent, but prosecutions were rare." and "Bigamy having become a quite frequent crime (2,555 cases were tried between 1805 and 1861), commissioners were appointed in 1850 to inquire into the law of divorce and, in 1857, the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act put an end to actions for criminal conversation and took away the authority of the church courts in divorce matters, placing them under a court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, presided over by three judges.". Considering James was incarcerated in 1848, Harriet (also known as Henrietta) would have grounds on desertion. James would have travelled to Victoria between 1853 and 1855 as a marriage banns record states he was married to a Emily Jane Cruse on the 26th of February 1855. This is where it got tricky. This marriage record states James as 38 years of age ( he would have been 54 years) That he was a widow in 1850 (Harriet/Henrietta was still alive and well in England) and that 2 of his 3 children were alive ( he had left 5 of them in England, and 1 in Western Australia). The marriage record also has his mother and father as James Bisdee and Jane Fry of Worle, which are his parents ( I have found baptism records for James and some of his siblings). I have no doubt this is the same James, I am a little shocked that he was able to shave 17 years of his age! 1858 has more records! There are more marriage records for James ( I have no idea what happened to Emily Jane) he married another widower Phillis Newbould nee Cowper and so far through my search I have found they had 3 children together, James was in his early 60s. On the 12th March 1881, at his residence, Dandenong Road, Prahran, James Bisdee of Somersetshire England, died after a long and painful illness, believed to be buried in St Kilda cemetery. |
AuthorMy name is Davina and I have been researching my family history since 2011. I started with almost nothing but ended up with a wealth of information and I needed an outlet to show and display all the information I have found. Archives
September 2023
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