Grandmother Jean Lovel Booley and grandfather Bob Williams taken in Ballarat in the late 1920’s. picture courtesy of Leigh Williams of Ballarat For nearly two decades I have wondered how a girl from Ouyen in Victoria’s Mallee district married a boy from some 350 kms away in Ballarat, but the answer is so simple I should probably … More A Home Affair: how grandparents meet
A grassy single plot within the Ballarat Old Cemetery hides the heartbreak of an immigrant family who fled political unrest in England to seek a new start in colonial Australia, the proposed new land of opportunity, health and wealth. No gravestone exists in this country cemetery in Victoria’s west to count the mounting death toll as Suffolk-born Robert Francis Booley (1829-1875) … More A Grave Matter: Booley family plot at Ballarat’s Old Cemetery
With blistered feet and juggling two maps as well as a camera and my handbag I came to an abrupt halt, lost among a sea of higgledy, piggledy-laid graves. The 42 hectare (106 acre) Melbourne General Cemetery is a bewildering place for the uninitiated, particularly for this country girl after a four-hour early morning drive. The lass at … More Lost in the AfterLife
“As the centuries pass, there will arise a great craving in Australia for exact and positive information as to her participation in the World War, and the marvelous deeds performed therein by her virile sons.” (Wanliss, N 1929, p.17) Update: 7th June 2016: Click here for MEMBLOG of the men of the 3rd Reinforcements to … More History of 14th AIF Battalion to aid mystery war photo search
Jim Booley didn’t come home from the first World war. Seventy years later his sister Jean started into tears when asked what happened to Jim. She fetched a handkerchief and drying her eyes turned and put the kettle on. ‘I was just a little girl’ she said plaintively. ‘I didn’t get to say goodbye.’ Jean sat … More The Booley Boys at War
