Joseph Alexander Becker

Joseph was born in May 1887 in Rob Roy near Queanbeyan and Michelago, New South Wales. He was the second child and second son, but first surviving child in his family. His parents were dairy farmers, though later his father would be described as a labourer.

His youngest two sisters were born after the family had moved north to the Illawarra region and it was here that he met his wife. Joe married Susan Millar at Corrimal in 1907.

They raised a large family and re-located from Illawarra to the Northern Rivers district to take up dairy farming with their eldest six children. Some of Joe’s married siblings, his parents, younger siblings and his wife’s sister-in-law had also made the move north in the late 1910s.

In 1926 Joe was thirty-nine, a father of ten children farming at Tuntable Falls. Their eldest son was making frequent appearances in court in Lismore for drunkenness which was likely troubling for Joe and Susan at the time.

Joseph is the last of my daughter's eight great grandparents - although in 1926 none of her grandparents had yet been born. Next we move on to the next generation back, follow on to see who we will meet.

Susan Bissell Millar

Susan was born in Bulli, New South Wales in June 1888, although at her marriage she gave her birthplace as Austinmer. Her father was a miner, like most men living in Bulli and the surrounding area. She was the fourth child and third daughter in the family.

Susan had her first child when she was eighteen, five months before she married Joe Becker in Corrimal in March 1907 with the consent of both their parents since they were both minors.

Toward the end of World War One there was a big migration in New South Wales from the south to the Northern Rivers where dairy farmers were in high demand. Susan and Joe followed her elder sister Jane and her family there. Her sister soon returned to Bulli though. Joe’s parents had also moved to the Northern Rivers at about the same time.

In 1926 Susan was thirty-eight; life was busy running a household and managing children. Their tenth child and third son arrived, Susan will have had help with the domestic chores as the older children all lived on the farm. Susan and Joe remained there for some years, eventually moving off a farm and into Lismore.

Violet Ruth Cooper

Violet was born in 1896 in Manakau, Horowhenua. She was the second child and second daughter in her family. Her father was a builder/carpenter and sometimes farmer. They moved around the Horowhenua and moved to the Waikato by the time she was seventeen. She was always known as Ruth.

In 1919 the family had moved to Auckland and were living in Mt Eden. Typically as a woman, her occupation isn’t recorded on the electoral roll. She is simply a spinster. But she did work as a typist in the office for Burns Philp in Hamilton before she was married and briefly as a waitress in Auckland.

She had married Thomas (Wal) Davys in 1924 in Hamilton. Before her marriage she lived with her parents in Firth Street Hamilton East which runs along the north side of Steele Park. Wal, was living with his mother and sister in Cook Street which runs north to south on the eastern edge of Steele Park. They were almost neighbours! Ruth and Wal began their married life living with his mother and sister.

In 1926 Ruth was thirty and the couple had just welcomed their first child.

Thomas Walter Davys

Thomas was born April 1900 in Taupiri, a small town on the Waikato River where his father ran a sawmill on the banks of the Mangawhare Stream which is a tributary of the river. He was the sixth child in his family and the fourth son. He was always known as Wal.

When he was seven the family moved to Tamahere where they ran a store and his sister was postmistress. Another seven years passed and they moved to Hamilton and his father died the same year. Thomas left school then and worked with his brothers who ran a bakery in Oxford (now Tirau) for a short time.

He had joined the Central Waikato Electric-Power Board as a clerk by the time he first appeared on the electoral roll in 1922, and would work there for the rest of his life.

In 1926 though, he was twenty-six and had been married for two years. He and his wife were living with his mother and elder unmarried sister. In January of 1926 they had welcomed their first child.

Robert Hogg

Robert was born in Lemington, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northumberland in 1905. He was the second, but eldest surviving child of his parent’s marriage.

In July 1919, aged fourteen, he emigrated with his parents and two younger siblings to Australia.

Whether he returned to school on arrival in Australia is not certain. Once old enough to appear on electoral rolls he consistently gave his occupation as a labourer. Robert’s father and younger brother were bricklayers so perhaps Robert was working with them, or maybe he was working in one of the many mines in Illawarra.

On the 1930 electoral roll he was living in the same road as his parents, but it is unclear whether he and his young wife started their married life in a home of their own, or whether they were living with his parents.

Robert had married Mavis Denniss, a local girl from Unanderra in August 1926 and they were expecting their first child. He was twenty-one, starting a new chapter of his life.

Albert Victor Fuller

Albert (Bert) was born in the spring of 1906 in Christchurch, New Zealand. He was the third child and second son in his family.

In 1926 he was likely nearing the end of his apprenticeship with P.D. Duncan in St Asaph Street. His elder brother had also completed an apprenticeship there a couple of years earlier.

His brother had gone away for a week to Auckland with a mate, but ended up in Sydney – sending his friend back to tell his mother he had found work in Victoria and wouldn’t be returning to Christchurch. After that episode, I imagine there may have been a bit pressure from his parents that Bert should secure a steady job in Christchurch.

In 1926 he was twenty years old. Not yet old enough to appear on an electoral roll, but he will have been living at home with his parents in Riccarton. He played xylophone and saxophone in dance hall bands and was a keen photographer.

Elsie Lilian Timms

Elsie was born in the northern hemisphere summer of 1907. She was the second child and second daughter in her family. At the time of her birth her father was employed as a coachman at Cranford House on Kenilworth Road near Blackdown and Old Milverton, Warwickshire. They lived above the stables in a small coach house.

In the summer of 1926, she celebrated her nineteenth birthday. She is the second youngest in this list of ancestors alive in 1926, and in fifty-nine years’ time she would become my daughter’s great grandmother.

Five years earlier at the 1921 census, Elsie was still in school aged almost fourteen. But by now she will have been working to help her father, a taxi driver, support the family. Working in service was mentioned but no further details as talking about her childhood was not really a place she wanted to spend time in her later years.

The year 1926 though, will have been filled with mixed emotions for the whole family. Elsie was living with her father and siblings at 6 Stamford Place, Milverton. On 14 August 1926 her elder sister was married, there would have been a lot of excitement, fun and planning in the lead up to the big day. But it would also be tinged with nerves, anxiety, and sadness – with a bit of excitement. Elsie’s sister and her new husband were bound for New Zealand where he had been offered a position in Greymouth, on the West Coast.

Laura and Ernie sailed from Southampton on 10 September 1926. Did Elsie and her other siblings travel to farewell them as they sailed? Or perhaps there were earlier tearful goodbyes as they left Milverton to travel to Southampton.

The days and weeks after their departure would have seen Elsie impatiently waiting for mail to arrive with news of their voyage and of their new home.