12 April 2012

WDYTYA Australia: Melissa George

Continuing my global perambulations, the latest Australian WDYTYA episode saw actress Melissa George investigate her ancestor who was a benevolent gaoler in Western Australia.

More touching was the story of her great-grandparents who as children went to Australia under the auspices of Fairbridge Homes. One was the 13 year old son of a Church of England Minister who died leaving the mother unable to cope. The other sad tale was revealed by Nick Barrett in a series of death certificates in Taunton, Somerset; both parents died, one in the 1918 flu epidemic, the other of heart disease, leaving three children in care of a step-mother, sister of the first wife, unable to cope.

It was mentioned in passing in the Fairbridge documentation that the step-mother, Florence Victoria Tames, intended to go to Canada which she did in 1921, on the Metagama to join her sister and brother-in-law, named Hopkins, living in Dartford, Ontario.  A query on Rootschat in February 2011, perhaps when the research for the episode was in progress, found her marrying in Toronto.

Does anyone have anything more recent on Florence Victoria Tames who married Edwin Pett?

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