Edgar George Abbey (1891-1917)

Courtesy War Memorial

George started work as an apprentice joiner and, when his father moved to Warrnambool to manage the Co-operative Box Works in 1913, George found work there as a joiner.
George enlisted in the AIF on 15 July 1915 and, after his initial training, he was sent to officer training school in Broadmeadows where he was promoted to Sergeant.
On completing his training George joined the D Company of the 38th Battalion.
The Battalion embarked on 16 Jun 1916 for England on HMAT Runic. After training in England, the Battalion left Southampton at the beginning of December 1916 for France and the trenches. At about this time George was taken by the Field Ambulance to hospital suffering bronchitis but was later discharged and returned to his unit.
He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on 6 Jan 1917 and to Lieutenant on 19 April.
The 38th fought in its first major battle at Messines, in Belgium, between 7-9 June 1917.
After the battle the 38th Battalion provided working parties to maintain the trenches when they were subjected to bombardments of mustard gas shells at night. It was during this time that Lieutenants Abbey and Wyndham were killed while in a command bunker at Messines. Unfortunately it was the last shell of a shoot which struck the shelter in which these two officers had sought cover. The loss did not end there. The same shell, in addition, accounted for the death of Sergeants Onions and Cunningham and Private Marlow. All were buried in the Kandahar Cemetery.
George was one of 76,836 Australian casualties in 1917.
He had served for barely two years.

Degrees of separation

There are lots of degrees of separation.
This is one example.
Bruce Ralston found some sasines and deeds in relation to our mutual ancestors. One such ancestor is William Ralston for whom Bruce found a marriage contract (which I have been unable to find this visit).
But I did find that a William Ralston (which one I'm not quite sure) entered into a Deed of Mortification. This has nothing to do with injured pride.
Indeed a notable jurist, Alexander Irvine,, set out the Scottish legal meaning of a Deed of Mortification.
Alexander was one of the Irvines of Drum Castle. James Hamilton Irvine was a younger son from Drum Castle.
And I used to find my horse at the bottom of [James] Irvine's paddock when I came home for school holidays.
I also used to ride my horse across Campbell's paddock.
Named after William Campbell of Dunmore (whether Victoria, Australia or Kilberry, Argyll).
William Campbell and his two school friends James Irvine and Charles Macknight originally selected Dunmore Victoria in 1842. Unfortunately for William his elder brother James died in 1839 just as William was planning his journey to Australia. Nevertheless William came to Australia but had to return home in 1847. But he retained his investment in Dunmore, Victoria. However, William died in 1865 just when the partnership required funds to purchase the freehold of Dunmore, Victoria.
So the remaining two partners sold part of the run to Thomas Brown of Squattleseamere (where I lived as a child) and acquired short term funds from the merchant Horace Flower.
But misfortune struck again in1873 when Charles Macknight died.
Subsequently my great grandfather Samuel Baulch obtained the Rose Park portion of Dunmore before obtaining the rest of Dunmore (including the paddocks Irvine's and Campbell'sin 1895.)

Liquidate

Just a little post relevant to only a few but I couldn't help myself. I have in the last few days spent time looking at Deeds and Sasines - in Secretary hand, in Latin, crowded on the page to save paper (all for bed time reading at home) or, after the paper shortage has eased, written in lovely copper plate that fills pages and pages.
Yes, there is some information here but what attracted my attention was the penalties for not paying for purchases on time. For example, John Smith agreed to pay John Brown "at Whitsunday next one thousand pounds stirling with the sum of two hundred pounds sterling of liquidate penalty in case of failure".

Thus far

First night in Edinburgh. My room is 58 steps above the street (in the gay corner of town I am told). So it's time for reflection. I'm often asked if I use ancestry.com for my family research. Yes I do but it isn't the only source nor necessarily the best. As the program Who do you think you are illustrates very well there are many others avenues to rich primary source material. Of course not all information is correct. John Burke Ryan's will included his brother Matthew as an executor but Lieutenant Colonel Sir Edward Michael Ryan had died several years previously in 1812 taking dispatches from Java to India. And while I found William Newman in the 1941 Census using Find my Past I can only find him in Ancestry using the piece reference. Of course there are transcriptions and omissions and I have had lots of fun using wild cards looking for Wilberforce (Wilberfoss and Wibberfoss). FamilySearch allows the use of wild cards at the beginning of a name which is really useful. And just because I can't find anything just yet doesn't mean it isn't to be found. Less than 30% of data filmed for London has been indexed for online use. This is despite the fact that about a million indexes are being added weekly I think it was to online databases. I know a little about John Fulford, builder, who died in London in 1824, his son John, his clergyman son John and his Penshurst doctor son John. I have a will of John Fulford of Middlesex who died in 1751 which mentions his son John and his grandson John so I am confident that I shall find more about John Fulford in Middlesex if not in London then in Westminster. Incidentally, I loved his place of worship, St Andrews Holborn. Much preferred it to the new St Pancras which was all Victorian grey stone gloom. Serendipity is a good source too. I walked down from St Pancras to find the Foundling Hospital Museum. Inside was a picture of Christ's Hospital where my ancestor Charles Salter went. Amongst all the portraits of the Governors of the Foundling Hospital. The way to immortality seems to be to get an emerging artist to paint your portrait and then donate it to your charity. Bit like head masters or mistresses.

Monopoly and Family Feuds

Kings Cross Station, Fenchurch Street Station (known as something else now) and Liverpool Station (or was it Liverpool Street? Seen Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall, Angel which isn't a street in Islington). And haven't gone to Jail. Found a map about my ancestor John Fulford's proposed development near the Foundling Hospital in late 1780s early 1790s together with insurance and surveyor's certificate. The Mews houses are still standing but the actual houses were demolished in the 1920s. Today found a Chancery case where John Burke Ryan's younger brother threw the book at him over the management of their father's estate. Contains lots of lovely information - about 200 camera frames worth so I am now in the market for a good stitiching program to put it all together. I also have in mind a barrister to explain to me the equity of redemption and why the Sheriff exceeded his authority in selling the assets of John Burke Ryan who had been declared an outlaw for not paying is debts - almost three hundred pounds for wine bought. In genealogical heaven!

William Lord

The wealthy could afford to pay for their passage to Australia. The poor could qualify for government assistance to help them migrate. But what about the ones in between? Such as William Lord perhaps who, with his family, arrived at Portland, Victoria in January 1857. The family was Protestant, literate and the children were all teenagers or in their early twenties so were able to work.
Was it this ability for all the family to work once they arrived in Australia that enabled them to select land in the township of Cavendish? Or did they bring some resources with them? For William Lord is listed as having rateable property in the parish of Kilmmuckridge, County Wexford in Griffith's valuations completed between 1847 and the 1860s (see http://www.askaboutireland.ie/). Or had the potato blight driven them into poverty and off their land after the valuation was done?
The Lords were the only family from Wexford aboard the Mary Ann. How did they travel from Wexford to the Mary Ann which eventually left from Plymouth?

Copper, cuckoos and coffee

Just as I am preparing to leave I have found that the Cheescake Factory serves coffee in a china cup, that there is a bookshop two train stops away in a shopping centre that is pleasant and doesn't remind me of what I imagine the factory outlet for the $2 shop would look like or what a town suffering from the GFC might look like.
Sunday before last we went out to Keneecott copper. The mine must be the only thing that is in full swing on a Sunday. Just a big hole where a mountain was really. There even must be a bigger one in the world as Kennecott's claim to fame is confined to the North American continent. Has the Chilean copper mine taken over as the biggest, deepest etc/
Past lots of new houses built roof to roof like the new estates at home. Notice I didn't say eaves to eaves. Copper seems to sustain the local economy.
As well as the church. Suffered a sermon (albeit short) two Sundays in a row now. Confining the choir to female voices (with the first descant I have heard), clarinet, flutes and a harp doesn't make the melody bright and beautiful. Nor does singing When I sruvey the Wondrous Cross at the speed of a dirge impart any wonder into the voices. I like my Hymns Ancient and Modern. Although not so modern anymore I suppose.
Which brings me to the cuckoos. Which are driving me ... To introduce tourists to the wildlife in Utah some of the walk signs are sounds of local bird life. Including said cuckoo. And what sounds like a Indian miner suffering heat stress.
I now have four door cards, left my money behind when I went to the Post Office yesterday and asked for help because the photocopier wasnt' recognising my room card as a photo copy card. So I think I have the hang of this place.
Trying to cram in a few more films before London. And then lots of work in Edinburgh.