For several years now I have measured the completeness of our family tree by calculating how many of our children’s ancestors I can identify.
Looking back ten generations my children Peter and Charlotte have 1,023 possible ancestors (in practice fewer, with so-called ‘pedigree collapse’, where the same ancestor appears more than once.)
Of these, 388 now have well-documented WikiTree profiles. I know 44 more by name. For these I do not yet have enough relevant facts about them to create WikiTree profiles. I have yet to identify 591 ancestors (of the 1,023 possible).
Chart generated from Wikitree of my children’s ancestors (repeat ancestors are highlighted). I have been making progress on the lower right hand side of the fan chart. My mother’s ancestors are from Germany and are in the pink quadrant.
I made some rapid progress this month by researching Brandenburg parish registers. I havenow identified ten ancestors previously unknown to me and discovered the names of another five. Three ancestors I had known only by name have now been documented sufficiently to be added to WikiTree.
My grandfather, Hans Boltz (1910–1992), was born in Brandenburg an der Havel, about 70 kilometres west of Berlin. His parents and grandparents came from nearby villages, including Freienthal, Götz, Trechwitz, and Deetz. These are only a few kilometres apart, and many of the same families often appear in their parish registers. Over the past month I have been working through the registers on Archion, a German genealogical service that provides online access to digitised Protestant parish registers from much of Germany. Access to these original records has enabled me to extend several branches of my German family back into the eighteenth century.
My grandfather’s ancestors showing their places of birth
The birthplaces of my grandfather’s ancestors are only a few kilometers apart; Brandenburg an der Havel is 40 kilometers west of Potsdam
The completion statistics are a useful way of measuring what I know about mey family tree, but they are not the real purpose of family history. Every newly identified ancestor represents another life to explore. I look forward to continuing my research into my Brandenburg ancestors, not simply to add more names to the tree, but to discover more about the lives of members of my family who lived for generations in the villages near Brandenburg an der Havel.
Hans Boltz and his parents
Related posts
W is for Wilhelmine: My great great grandmother Wilhelmine Henrietta Ritter was born in Deetz in 1862. She was the daughter of a day labourer August Ritter and his wife Johanna Luise Grenzel. In 1884 Henrietta married Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Bertz, a mason, in Trechwitz, sixteen kilometers south of Deetz. She died in Berlin in 1942.
V is for Vizefeldwebel: Fritz Hermann Boltz was born on 17 July 1879 at Trechwitz near Götz
Today is the 222nd wedding anniversary of my 5th great grandmother Dorothy Tobin nee Skelly formerly Duff.
Dorothy Skelly was born in 1768 in Yarm, Yorkshire to Gordon Skelly and Dorothy nee Harrison. She was the middle child of three children. Gordon Skelly was a naval officer and drowned in June 1771 when Dorothy was three years old. I believe Dorothy and her siblings grew up at Yarm. In 1784 Dorothy’s mother died, Dorothy junior was twelve.
On 9 April 1787 Dorothy Skelly married William Duff, an army officer, at Redmarshall, Durham. William was the illegitimate son of James Duff, second earl Fife Shortly after their marriage Dorothy accompanied William on a posting to Canada. They had one daughter, Sophia, born in 1788 in Canada. William Duff retired from the army in 1793. He died at Fulford near York in 1795. Dorothy and her daughter remained in close contact with the Duff family.
On 13 June 1804 Dorothy Duff nee Skelly widow, of the parish of Bloomsbury, married George Tobin of Bristol at St George, Bloomsbury, England. The witnesses were A. Brodie and Clarissa Catherine Trail.
Dorothy Duff marriage to George Tobin on 13 June 1804 in Saint George, Bloomsbury London Metropolitan Archives; London, England, UK; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P82/GEO1/019
At St. George's, Bloomsbury, Captain Tobin, of the Royal Navy, to Mrs. Duff, of Richmond, Yorkshire, widow of the late Major Duff, of the 26th Regiment of Foot.
Two children were born to Captain Tobin and Dorothy: George in 1807 at Bristol and Eliza in 1810 at Plymouth.
Dorothy’s daughter Sophia married Rowland Mainwaring in 1810. The Mainwaring family remained close to the Tobin family.
On 16 April 1838 George Tobin died in Teignmouth, Devon. He was buried in St. Michael the Archangel Churchyard, Teignmouth.
On 30 August 1840, two years after her husband, Dorothy Tobin died at Gosport, Hampshire, aged 73 of ‘Affection of the heart’ according to her death certificate. At the time of her death she was living in Anglesey, a hotel that had been built by Robert Cruikshank, a local attorney and developer; he was Dorothy’s solicitor.
At some time between 1815 and about 1830 portraits of Admiral Tobin and his wife Dorothy were painted. We do not know who painted them, who they were painted for, when they were painted, nor how they got from George Tobin to Admiral Mainwaring. The portraits are now at Whitmore Hall.
The portraits of Admiral George Tobin and his wife Dorothy at Whitmore Hall
Clarissa Catherine (Porter) Trail (1764-1833) witness to the Tobin Duff marriage; I am not sure how she is connected to Dorothy or George Tobin, nor can I identify A. Brodie, the other witness.
Champion Lodge, formerly known as Woodlands, in Great Totham near Maldon, Essex, was built about 1877 for the local businessman Edward Hammond Bentall (1814-1898) as a residence for one of his sons. The architect was Henry Cowell Boyes (1846-1900). Bentall’s plans changed and he sold the house.
Totham Lodge House, now a Home for Elderly persons. c.1880. Red brick. Red plain tiled roofs. 3 red brick chimney stacks with attached diagonal shafts, moulded capping and bases. Asymmetric plan. 2 storeys and attics. Left hipped 2 storey gabled bay, 2 adjoining gabled bays to right. 1:1:1 bay window ranges of vertically sliding sashes, some of 3 lights, to central bay a first floor oriel with hanging tiles under. First floor moulded brick decorative arches to left and right bays, the latter with tall windows under. There is a red tiled lean-to porch to left of centre bay with stained and leaded lights. Attic 3 light small paned casements to right and centre bays, the latter with striated plain and fish scale hanging tiles. Main red tiled porch to right return, brick plinth and glazed timber frame, glazed double doors. Interior features include square main hall with segmental pointed arched arcade supporting a balcony approached by a grand open well staircase. Moulded ceiling over. 6 panelled doors with reveal panels. Kitchen surround panelled with patera. Stained and leaded windows and similar windows to some doors. Many red tiled floors to ground floor, and much vertical beaded board panelling to walls throughout. Originally the home of Lord and Lady De Crespigny.
Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny (1847-1935), the fourth baronet, bought the house and moved there in 1879. He renamed it Champion Lodge.
The Maldon regatta was held in August 1879. Sir Claude C. de Crespigny who had lately become a resident in the neightbourhood donated two prizes for swimming.
Sir Claude was a keen sportsman and set up a steeple chase course in the grounds. He hosted shooting parties and and filled the house with hunting trophies.
The Tatler, December 3, 1902, Page 20. Retrieved from Newspapers.com
The annual Point-toPoint Meeting of the Rifle Brigade held at Champion Lodge in April 1913. Sir Claude and Lady de Crespigny are pictured in the lower left The Sketch, 16 April 1913 from FindMyPast
The church of St Peter’s, Great Totham, is near the entrance to Champion Lodge. In 1882 a private pew was built in the church for the de Crespigny family; the family could sit apart from the congregation, and they could enter without having to go through the rest of the church. The church contains a number of monuments to the de Crespigny family.
In 1910 following the death of the oldest son of Sir Claude a mausoleum was built in the gounds. When the house was sold, the mausoleum was demolished and the remains of the de Crespignys now lie beneath a new family monument in the churchyard at Hatfield Peverel. They are further commemorated in the west window of St Peters Great Totham, and in windows at Hatfield Peverel.
Photograph of the mausoleum at Champion Lodge about 1913 from Essex historical biographical and pictorial edited by John Grant. page 156 retrieved from archive.org
The estate was sold in the 1940s after the death of Henry (1882-1946), the sixth baronet. It became a country club known as Totham Lodge. From 1953 it became a nursing home.
Essex Chronicle, 9 January 1948, Page 5. via Newspapers.com
Raul de Crespigny the 5th baronet – afyer the death of his father in 1935 Claude Raul Champion de Crespigny (1878–1941) became the 5th baronet and lived at Champion Lodge. He died without children.
The baronetcy passed to Raul’s cousin Henry Champion de Crespigny (1882-1946). Henry did not marry. Champion Lodge was sold after his death.
Rowland Mainwaring (1782 – 1862), one of my 4th great grandfathers, was a British naval officer. He kept a diary and published several books based on it. One of these was ‘The First Five Years of My Married Life‘ (1853), a detailed account of his activities afloat and ashore, particularly of 1815, his final year of active service in the Navy.
At the time he was commander of the Paulina, a 16-gun brig-sloop of the Seagull class with a crew complement of 95.
There, new orders awaited me; and, without anchoring, I was directed to proceed to Corfu with dispatches, and from thence to Zante, with the transport Enterprise, and there embark the Phygalian Marbles for conveyance to Malta, his Majesty's Government being very desirous for their speedy transmission to England.
In the name of common patience, which was of the most consequence, preventing the depredations of two fast sailing privateers, or convoying a transport laden with blocks of stone!
Confound the Phygalian Marbles! With all due respect to his Majesty's Government, and the wise and learned people of the British Museum, Cognoscenti, Diletanti; and all the other entis and tantis, I wish they had been at the bottom of the sea;--(the marbles, I mean.) I calculate it was, at least, a loss of two thousand pounds to me.
However, in the course of time, the "Phygalians" were embarked, and February 28th, we sailed for Malta.
The Phygalian Marbles known as the Bassae frieze
The Phygalian Marbles are a series of twenty-three sculptures in alto-relievo. They represent the combat of the Centaurs and Lapithæ, and that of the Greeks and Amazons. The sculptures are dated at roughly 420–400 BC. The marbles are known as the Bassae frieze.
According to the Greek traveller and geographer Pausanias (c.110–c.180), the temple was designed by Ictinus, an architect active in the mid 5th century BC and believed to be one of the architects of the Parthenon.
The nearby citizens of Phigaleia are said to have built the temple in gratitude to Apollo for delivering them from the plague of 429–427 BC.
The temple blends Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian styles.
The temple was first recorded by western traveller Joachim Bocher in 1765. Its sculptures were excavated in 1811 by architects including Charles Robert Cockerell and Carl Haller von Hallerstein, then auctioned and purchased for the British Government in 1814.
The continuous marble frieze that ran around the interior of the temple’s cella (inner chamber) is a rare surviving example of interior temple decoration from the Classical era.
Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Earl of Elgin’s Collection of Sculptured Marbles; &c. (1816). United Kingdom: J. Murray.
My second-great grand aunt Viola Julia Constantia Champion de Crespigny was born on 25 November 1855 at Daisy Hill (present-day Amherst). She was fourth of the five children of Philip and Charlotte Crespigny. At the time of Viola’s birth Philip was a gold warden, responsible for enforcing mining regulations and settling disputes on the goldfields.
For Viola’s eighth birthday, in November 1863, the Crespigny family and some guests had a picnic at Mount Glasgow, about six miles southeast of Amherst.
Viola Crespigny
One of the guests was a young man named Reynell Eveleigh Johns (1834-1910), at that time a Clerk of Petty Sessions at Barkly and Mountain Creek (Moonambel) near Avoca; Avoca is thirteen miles from Amherst. Reynell Johns, who kept a diary, has an entry for the picnic. The Moonambel author Merri Hogan quotes this in her 2015 book The Solomon of Moonambel : Reynell Everleigh Johns : a fascinating odyssey:
We enjoyed a most delightful pic-nic at Mount Glasgow, a volcanic hill about seven miles from Talbot. The pic-nic was in honour of Viola (Vi) Crespigny’s 8th birthday, which is tomorrow. We started from Chapman’s a little after noon & on reaching Mount Glasgow put up a tent in a pretty spot at the foot of it & had lunch. That over, most of us ascended the hill & enjoyed a splendid view.
Johns then lists everybody present and brags that he and Vi beat them all to the top. They returned to Talbot before walking to Crespigny’s where they enjoyed an evening that went until 1.30 am. The next day he returned and had lunch with them before walking to Avoca. He had a wonderful couple of days.
Hogan, M., & McAdam, N. (2015). The Solomon of Moonambel : Reynell Everleigh Johns : a fascinating odyssey by Merri Hogan with Noreen McAdam. Full Point Publishing.
The A to Z Blogging Challenge is a friendly annual event where participants post every day of April (except Sundays), matching each of the 26 posts to a letter of the alphabet.
This year, 2026, marked my thirteenth year taking part. My theme was the Victorian goldfields. Both my ancestors and my husband Greg’s were connected to the diggings as miners and administrators.
The family tree of our children highlighting the ancestors who were on the Victorian goldfields in the second half of the nineteenth century.
At first glance, structuring posts around the alphabet can feel arbitrary. Yet over the years I have found it a useful discipline, prompting me to explore unexpected corners of my family history and topics I might otherwise have overlooked.
This year I looked beyond my immediate family and wanted to understand more about this period of Victoria’s history and what our ancestors experienced, from the formal structures of officials, police, and licences, to the everyday realities of mining, tents, roads, and schools.
I found the illustrations of S.T. Gill helped to bring the goldfields to life.
“The new rush” by Samuel Thomas Gill In the collection of the National Library of Australia
“Fossicking” by S. T. Gill State Library of Victoria Accession No : H25966
As always, one of the highlights of the challenge was connecting with other bloggers. This year I visited:
Many of these are bloggers I have followed for much of the past thirteen years, and it is always a pleasure to reconnect each April.
The A to Z Challenge continues to be both a discipline and a delight. I learn a lot by researching and preparing my posts. I enjoy and learn a lot from reading everybody else’s posts too.
I appreciate the coordination efforts of the A to Z Challenge Team managing the event each year.
I am already looking forward to the April 2027 A to Z challenge. See you all again next year. – Anne
Philip was 6’2″ tall, had blue eyes and dark hair. The light horseman’s uniform differed slightly from that of the common soldier’s drab khaki with the addition of polished leather accoutrements and spurs. The slouch hat was adorned with an emu feather plume, a symbol of the light horse.
Philip was assigned to the 5th Light Horseand embarked on 2 March 1918 from Sydney on the “Ormonde” with the 30/5th Light Horse. On 6 April he disembarked in Egypt and marched in to camp at Moascar near Ismailia on the west bank of the Suez Canal.
The Australian Light Horse in Egypt Trooper Philip Champion de Crespigny, identified by an inscription as the third from the left. Photograph from the collection of his son John
June 3rd, 1918 Egypt Dear Con, I was delighted to get your interesting letter a few days ago, the first time I have heard from you for quite a long while. It must be simply Heaven for you to again be living with your own after three years of this stunt. Physically I get through this excellently but serving in the ranks presents hardships pecularly its own. The total secession of social life and often of congenial companionship produces depressing affects against which one has to battle. I dont know if this letter will catch you in Australia, letters from Melbourne tell me you are thinking of returning here or to France in July, but no doubt Trixie will send this on. Since my arrival here 9 weeks ago I have been stationed at Moascar Camp close to Ismailia which you must know well. Number 2 Australian hospital is in this camp, Number 26 stationary in Ismailia. I am within a few days of completing a stereotyped course of training and hope very shortly to get into the firing line. Training camps provide the acme of bordum though mounted work is not quite so bad as infintry drill. I have not yet met a single individual whom I knew prior to my inlistment. It is all so far very dull and damned uninteresting. Of course Egypt would be a facinating country to explore, but beyond two days at Suez I have not yet been beyond Ismailia. I would give anything for movement and for events. I know far less about war news now than I did when I was cable editor of a Metropolitan Morning Paper. But I am developing a stoic like attitude of believing nothing I hear and being prepared to do whatever unexpected thing is required of me. Seriously I dont mind the physical hardships a scrap. Through some strange paradox men who appear to feel thin things most are those who have never known real comfort. William James defines the highest result of education as a successful cultivation of the capacity to act correctly under unusual circumstances. Experience here corroborates the wisdom of that great philosopher, and I think Australia's blunders in the conduct of this war I mean out here are to be traced to her lack of a class of people of general culture. I dont know if the cencor will give me any additional latitude when writing to an AIF Colonel but I suppose I have gone far enough towards being critical and there is certainly no news to tell you specially as you know this desolate country so much better than I do. My facilities for letter writing are likely to be strickly limited in the immediate future but I will write when I can and I hope you will let me hear from you regularly. with love to Trixie and the children if this catches you in Australia. Always your affectionate brother. Philip Champion de Crespigny
After training, Philip was transferred on 6 July to the 1st Light Horse as a trooper. On 12th July he transferred to the 2nd Light Horse.
Philip was at Moscoar Camp near Ismailia. He was then transferred to Jerusalem and on 12 July to Mussallabeh in the Jordan Valley near Jericho.
The 1st Light Horse Brigade resting on the road between Jerusalem and Latron July 1818 Collection of the Imperial War Museums retrieved through Wikimedia Commons
On 13 July 1918 he wrote to his children from Mussallabeh in the Jordan Valley near Jericho, where Australian Light Horse units were defending the heights at Mussallabeh and Abu Tellul on the edge of the Judean Hills.
Children of Philip Champion de Crespigny about 1912: Lorna eight, Frances nine, Philip six, and John four
For God, For King & For Country 00000000000000 Y.M.C.A. Mediterranean Expeditionary Force 13th. July 1918. My dear Children:- I am addressing this to Frances because she is the eldest, but I am writing it to all of you because one letter may be made interesting when four would not contain a connected story - I am going to tell you what getting into the firing line is like After we left Camp we travelled 27.miles in carriages, then we changed trains and got into trucks after marching 2.miles We passed an Internment camp full of Turkish prisoners they were surrounded with double barb wire fences about 10. feet high - but they had tents and blankets and I believe are mighty well treated - We passed about 40.on the road they were going in and were as villainous looking fellows as ever cut a throat. There were 32. of us in our truck and 40.trucks on the train We lay on the floor and when the train stopped it jolted and rolled us all over twice; but when it started it jolted and rolled us over again, so we all got back to where we were, without any trouble - We travelled all night and in the morning were in the Promised Land of the Bible -you will remember how Moses led the Children of Israel for 40.years over the Desert and at last before he died the Lord led him to the top of a high hill and showed him the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey which he was not to reach, but which the Children of Israel settled in after three centuries of bondage under the Pharoahs, the Kings of Egypt - We saw ten miles of orange trees, olives, grape vines and other orchards - Then we passed among huge tree-less mountains, where, in ages [line missing… ] stones in terraces or steps so that the soil would not wash off the steep hill sides We saw great herds of black goats feeding - At last we came to old Jerusalem - we saw the hill where Jesus Christ died and the Mount of Olives - We went to a Camp for the night and in the cool of evening I walked to the top of a hill from which, as the sun was setting I could see all over the temples and tombs of Jerusalem (the Holy City it is sometimes called) and Bethlehem, where Christ was born, about six miles away and I walked on the road that Christ used and saw many old monastries and other ruins It was all very strange and very beautiful - Next day, at daylight, we left by motor car for Jericho where the road runs down mountains and we passed the spot where the good Samaritan of the Bible found the traveller who had been robbed and beaten by the robbers - We saw the cave that the robbers lived in and all the way the place was a hive of Military activity - horses - motors - camels - mules - big guns - camps and work - We pulled up near the Dead Sea where the water is 1292.feet below the level of the Sea We were in the lowest place in the world not covered by water - We rested three hours and then saddle horses came for us - Then we passed beneath Mount Temptation where the Devil tempted Christ and offered him all the wonderful things you can see from the top of that mighty peak Christ turned from Satan and said "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" - After about an hour we reached the base of our Regiment and rested there till evening - When it grew dusk we took fresh horses and rode out here to the front line - We had to come at dark so the Turks would not see us to fire on us We rode along the valley of the Jordan, a flat about 10. or 15 miles across and then we turned into the ranges - It was a weird ride - We passed many other armed parties -some going out on night patrol work-some going to take up positions in the mountains all riding silently with pipes out and a lot of us met at a watering place over-running a creek and I met several men from Queensland whom I knew. When we turned into the hills we passed through trenches and barb wire entanglements and then rode along a deep twisting gully where we reached regimental Headquarters in a place you would never find if you searched for a month - I was detailed to my squadron and found a place among the rocks where I slept very soundly till the heat of the risen sun awakened me to another day - By night it all looked so wild and strange that I did not know whether I had become an Italian brigand or a desperado of the Rocky Mountains - In the morning I found myseld up in a little fortress where I don't think the shells can touch me a piece like this is cut out of the side of the mountain and I have made walls out of boulders like this with a couple of long pieces of iton meant for barb wire entanglements - I have made a rafters and for a roof I have a very large blanket - Here I sit and sleep and smoke and read and write all day and this morning the shells have been coming over pretty lively and I have been amusing myself watching them burst on the opposite side of the gully, but they are not likely to hit me because the hill protects me - Some of them are not 100 yards away and all day we rest, but at night we go out to the trenches and sometimes to listening posts beyond the trenches and beyond the barb wire - Turkish raiding parties come out to us but we always belt them back - The last time they left behind them, shot through the head a German Sergeant - After we have put in a week or so at this, horses will come for us and we will go out for a rest - Personally I don't want a rest - This is quite good fun I am writing in my little half dug-out half-fortress and I can't sit up quite straight inside while I have to enter or leave on my hands and knees, but I can lie out full length and the crevices in the rocks make handy shelves for my tobacco, matches, book, water bottle, pickles,canned fruit, jam to I am very comfortable inside and have it all to myself I am not expected to entertain and no one calls for the Rent - Everyone here is very nice and considerate to the newcomer and we don't have to wear uniforms, but any old thing which is cool This is the hottest place I have ever been in my life, sometimes 130.in the shade -If you would each like to have a copy of this letter, I am sure if you ask him, your Grandfather will get one of his clerks to type it for you with thin paper and carbons 6. or 8.copies can be typed at once. The last mail is not yet all delivered, but it has so far brought me two letters from Mummy, one from Jack, 2.each from Frances, Lorna and Philip and 3.from your Grand father - all dated during the first half of May and I will write to the others when the balance of the mail come in. Always dear Children Your loving Daddy
On 14 July, the day after he wrote the letter and poem to his children, Philip was killed in action in the Battle of Abu Tellul at Mussallabeh near Jericho.
Australian Imperial Force unit war diaries, 1914-18 War Australian War Memorial – AWM4 Subclass 10/7 – 2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment War diary 11-14 July 1918
2nd Light Horse Regiment, Jerusalem, 28.11.18.
To Col. de Crespigny.
Dear Sir,
Your letter of 23rd Oct October to hand. I regret not having advised you re your Brother's death.
He joined the Regiment on July 12th 1918 from our details' camp Moascau and was attached to "A" Squadron, who at that time were holding the point of a very nasty salient at Musallabeh (12 miles north of Jericho), where an attack had been threatening for several days. On the 14th July your brother was with a troop who had to hold a forward bombing post (one officer and ten other ranks). The Germans, under cover of darkness and a heavy barrage, advanced up close to our forward line & before we could withdraw the 'post' had it surrounded. The attacking force was a specially selected Brigade of Germans who had orders to capture Jericho. They outnumbered us by 20 to 1, and very soon all our forward posts were surrounded, but never gave in. All fought like true Australians from 3 a.m. to 10 a.m., and inflicted very severe casualties on the enemy. Reinforcements arrived at 9 a.m. when the counter attack was launched. Very soon the white flag was shewing, and within an hour all our posts were recaptured and all our men who were temporarily 'prisoners."
This attack was of especial note as it was the first time the Germans had been used against us as a body. Their attempt to capture the regiment was disastrous, ending in them leaving 500 unwounded, 90 wounded, and 200 dead, besides all the machine and automatic guns. Our casualties were under 100.
Your brother fought till the last, and gained the admiration of his officer and comrades. His body was brought back to a small Military Cemetery at Alui Tellul, near Jericho and buried by Chaplain Clarke. A small cross marks his resting place, awaiting the Graves Registration Committee, who are erecting suitable headstones to all our fallen heroes. They have an elaborate scheme out for this work, and if you write to the Imperial, War Graves Commission, Alexandria, they would forward you their printed pamphlet re their scheme.
I am sorry to say all 'snaps' taken were failures, owing to great heat down in the Jordan Valley.
Philip was initially buried at Mussalabah on 16 July 1918.
The grave of Trooper Philip Champion de Crespigny of the 2nd Australian Light Horse Brigade of Bendigo VIC, who was killed in action on 14 July 1918. This is the original grave which has been incorporated into Jerusalem War Cemetery. Photographed about 1918 by Coulson, Oswald Hillam (Ossie). Australian War Memorial, item id B03314
Philip was reinterred at Jerusalem War Cemetery. His headstone is inscribed: “HAVE MERCY UPON HIM LORD AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON HIM”
Jerusalem War Cemetery is 4.5 kilometres north of the walled city and is situated on the neck of land at the north end of the Mount of Olives, to the west of Mount Scopus. The cemetery is found on Churchill Boulevard, near the Hadassah Hospital.
Samuel Thomas Gill (1818–1880) was born in Somerset, England, the son of a Baptist minister, and educated in Plymouth. Trained partly by his father, he worked in London as a draftsman and silhouette artist before emigrating with his parents and siblings to South Australia in 1839. By early 1840 he had opened a studio in Adelaide, offering portraits of people and animals and producing sketches suitable for sending back to Britain.
In 1852 Gill travelled to the Victorian gold diggings making sketches in June and July 1852. He afterwards returned to Melbourne and arranged to publish his material.
ARTISTIC.–We have seen a series of twenty-four sketches of life at the diggings drawn by Mr. Gill (S.T.G.), from Adelaide, which deserves notice, as the best sketches of the kind which have yet appeared. The artist evidently possess[es] a fund of humour and graphic power, scarcely inferior to Gavarni himself. The landscape delineations, are also very happy, the characteristics of the trees and vegetation being well marked. They have been lithographed by Macartney & Galbraith; but we are not aware if any are yet on sale in Geelong.
FINE ARTS.–We have received from some mysterious quarter a series of twenty-four very spirited and well executed sketches of the Gold Diggers and Diggings of Victoria. They are apparently drawn by some gentleman signing himself S.T.G., and are most admirably lithographed by Messrs Macartney and Galbraith, of Collins-street. Some of the sketches of Diggers, evidently from life, are not the most pleasing in the world, but there is an air of evident truthfulness about them, combined with a vigour and a dash of humour which should lead to a very extensive sale. We have no clue to their price, but the very cover in which they are enclosed is quite a gem in its way.
Eight weeks after the first “Diggings and Diggers As They Are“, the second series was published on 11 October. This series included “Zealous gold diggers, Bendigo July 1st 1852“.
This first edition of the two parts of “Diggings and Diggers As They Are” was in black and white.
A woman nurses her baby in one hand, while she rocks the gold-extracting cradle with the other. Her infant daughter handles a shovel, loading the ore-bearing soil into the cradle from the wheelbarrow, while her husband pours into the cradle the buckets of water with an “Aquarius”, a long-handled dipper in which the “bucket ladle” is attached to a pole.
In 1872 Gill published “Gold Fields of Victoria during 1852 & 3 comprising fifty original gold sketches” which included a different composition entitled “Zealous gold diggers, Castlemaine 1852“. The children he includes in the scene are older than the infant in the previously published versions.
“Zealous gold diggers, Castlemaine 1852” by S. T. Gill Watercolour. Part of The Gold Fields of Victoria during 1852 & 3 comprising fifty original gold sketches (1872) State Library of Victoria Accession No : H141536
Samuel Gill spent only a short time on the goldfields in 1852 but from then he developed a repertoire of images that he used many times over. The different versions of “Zealous Gold Diggers” show clearly that used and reused elements of his compositions.
Further reading
Grishin, S. (2016). S.T. Gill & his audiences. National Library of Australia Publishing.
On the Victorian goldfields the weight of gold was given in units of the troy system.
The smallest troy unit was the grain, nominally based on the weight of a single cereal seed. Then came the pennyweight (24 grains), the troy ounce (20 pennyweights), and the troy pound (12 ounces). A troy ounce is 31.1 grams, heavier than an avoirdupois ounce (28.3 grams). With a few exceptions, the avoirdupois system was used in Australia for common goods until the adoption of the SI (“metric”) system in 1988.
Miners and officials commonly recorded gold in ounces and pennyweights. The abbreviation d in pennyweight, dwt, is from denarius, the Roman coin whose symbol was borrowed for the British penny.
Annual gold production was recorded in the Mineral Statistics of Victoria, which provided detailed yearly returns across the mining districts. Modern estimates of Victorian gold production are derived from these returns and from Mining Surveyors’ Reports.
From Table ME 1-6 Gold Production, Colonies and States 1851-1982 Vamplew, Wray, 1943- (1987). Australians, Historical Statistics. Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, N.S.W., Australia, page 88
Victoria’s highest annual total for one year was 3,053,744 troy ounces (94,982 kg) of gold in 1856.
Since 1851 Victoria has produced more than 2,500 tonnes ( some 80 million ounces) of gold. This would form a cube of about 3.6 metres.
Today gold is worth about Aud$6,500 per troy ounce, so eighty million ounces is worth five hundred twenty billion dollars, $520,000,000,000, in today’s money.
“Diggers on way to Camp to deposit Gold 1852” by S. T. Gill Two diggers and their dog walk purposefully towards a government tent. State Library of Victoria Accession No : H5384
““Gold buyer” Forest Creek 1852” by S. T. Gill A digger selling his gold at a store on the diggings. The gold buyer weighs the digger’s gold on a jewellers balance. State Library of Victoria Accession No : H5310
“Govt Mt Alexandra Gold Escort en route for Melbourne, 1852” by S. T. Gill Troopers as mounted escort for two horse drawn drays laden with gold in bullion boxes. The senior trooper rides a grey horse. State Library of Victoria Accession No : H25974
In the nineteenth century a great many miners on the Victorian goldfields were Chinese. They called the diggings ‘Xin Jin Shan’ (新 金 山), New Gold Mountain. The Californian gold rush, in decline by the 1850s, became known as ‘Jiu Jin Shan’ (舊 金 山), Old Gold Mountain.
The number of Chinese miners in the Colony of Victoria was highest in 1857, when it was estimated there were 36,237. This number declined to just over 6,000 in 1883. In 1861, 38,258 people, 3.3 per cent of the Australian population, had been born in China.
Chinese miners in the Colony of Victoria 1855–1883. Statistics about the numbers and distribution of Chinese are available for 1857 to 1883 through the Geological Survey of Victoria (GSV).
Men from villages of Guangdong went abroad to seek their fortune. To pay for the journey to Victoria, they borrowed money, sold land, or sought the support of clan and district networks. They travelled in organised groups from the same villages.
Most of these gold-rush immigrants were indentured, contract labourers. However, many made the voyage under the credit-ticket system managed by brokers and emigration agents. Only a small number of Chinese people were able to pay for their own voyage and migrate to Australia free of debt.
Some European diggers were suspicious and resentful of Chinese miners, and there were anti-Chinese riots on some gold fields.
In 1855, Victoria passed The Chinese Immigration Act, more formally An Act to Make Provision for Certain Immigrants (No. 39 of 1855). The Act limited the number of Chinese passengers on a vessel to one for every 10 tons, imposed an entry tax of £10 for each Chinese immigrant arriving in Melbourne, and appointed protectors to regulate the activity of Chinese and shield them from attacks.
Chinese miners evaded the immigration tax by coming overland to Victoria. Robe in South Australia became the main port of entry for Chinese arriving in Australia. More than 17,000 Chinese walked over 300 miles to the Victorian goldfields.
In May 1855 a protectorate was established at Bendigo, with Captain Frederick Standish appointed as Chinese protector. The Chinese population were expected to live in seven ‘villages’. In October Governor Hotham formalised and expanded the system, appointing Chinese protectors at Ballarat, Avoca, and Castlemaine. The Chinese were moved into ‘villages’. In time protectors were appointed for Maryborough and Beechworth.
Chinese protectors on the goldfields were assisted by interpreters, scribes and headmen appointed from the Chinese camps.
With these changes Chinese miners were obliged to pay not only for the miner’s right but also a £1 annual “protection” fee.
In February this year I looked at the Chinese on the Avoca Goldfields. My sources for learning more about the community were court cases, inquests, naturalisation documents, cemetery records, and newspaper reports of achievements, disturbances, and misbehaviour.
In 1857 there were about 6,850 miners on the Avoca goldfields of whom about 3,000, just over 40%, were Chinese. From 1869 to 1879 Chinese miners outnumbered European miners on the Avoca goldfields. In 1871 there were estimated to be 2,398 Chinese miners in the Avoca division and 1,066 European miners, 75 % of the miners in Avoca that year were Chinese. Over the years the number of Chinese miners declined until, in 1883,there were only 150 Chinese miners left in the Avoca district.
In my reading I found remarkably little mutual suspicion and hostility between the European and Chinese community in the Avoca district, and a great amount of live and let live. When the Maryborough and Avoca Railway opened in 1876 the contribution of the Chinese community to the pageantry of the occasion demonstrated it was said, the existence of a considerable reservoir of goodwill between the Chinese and European participants.
John Alloo’s Chinese Restaurant painted by S.T. Gill
John Alloo was one of the first Chinese on the Ballarat goldfields. His restaurant known for its slogan “Soups always ready”, served European food including plum puddings, jam tarts, roasted and boiled joints of meat, and vegetables.
Anne's Family History 