Ripping Yarns and Tragic Tales – 8 August 2021

I hope your week has gone well. We have had a slight increase in temperature here, (Kalgoorlie-Boulder), which has been lovely. I hope wherever you are, this has been the case. We recently had a reader join us who lives in Boulder, but in Colorado USA. She said how odd it was that her descendants came from Boulder in Western Australia and now she and her direct relatives are in Boulder in the USA. A bit like me coming from an English coal-mining town to a gold-mining town here.

Not sure why, but we have had an unprecedented number of people join our newsletter in the last few weeks, some 184 new readers! I am so pleased that others are enjoying the stories and perhaps they are encouraging friends and family to join us. I would like to say a big welcome to all of our new subscribers and I hope you stay with us. Our numbers are now getting close to 8000. I will let you know when we reach this amazing milestone. As always, I love to hear from you and will always reply (it takes me a while though sometimes) – research@outbackfamilyhistory.com.au. One lady suggested that I publish fewer stories than the 4-5 that I post each week. Though I don’t wish to bombard our readers with too much information, I do feel that of course, not all stories are of interest to everyone, so I try to mix up the subjects so there will be at least one story that appeals. I would love you to read them all of course. (:

I know that I have mentioned the ‘Epic’ event (to me at least) of the completion of my upgrade of the records of the two Leonora Cemeteries. This was started before Christmas 2020 when the website was upgraded by the wonderful ladies at www.designsense.net.au. In this, we set up a basic template that will be applied to every cemetery on the website which gives uniformity to the information and makes it easier to read across the site. The ‘Yard Stick’ Cemetery was picked as Leonora as they are the most supportive of us as they provide us with some funding which allows us to continue and are always very proactive to anything to do with the history of the town. I hope that you will have time to have a browse through the ‘new and improved’ records which have now been uploaded  The Shire of Leonora link directly to the Outback Family History website from their website so that they don’t need to worry about anything and we handle all enquiries apart fromissuing location maps. Once a year they send us any new burials which have occurred in the previous 12 months so it is continuously updated. A comprehensive report has just been sent to the shire, so fingers crossed they like how it looks. One visitor to the site said:

It would be great if all cemeteries had such detailed and comprehensive records online.

All information has been sourced from records in the public domain or from the families of the deceased over many years. The following are some examples that will give you an idea of how it looks. Sadly though, many of the entries only have a surname and an initial which just isn’t ok, so if you could provide more detail on any of these that would be great. Most of these are burials within the last 30 years or so as these are the hardest to research and get further details on. If would like to visit the pages the first one is Leonora Cemetery A-

Eva Helen DAVIES - nee BUTTFIELD

Eva Helen DAVIES – nee BUTTFIELD

DAVIES Helen Eva — 83yrs, d 11 Dec 1935, at Leonora Hospital, Old Age Pensioner, Cause: Senile heart and blood pressure, Cerebral Hemorrhage, Father: John Parker BUTTFIELD (Magistrate), Mother: Anna Louisa CAREY, Born: Gumeracha SA, In SA 45yrs, In WA 38yrs, Married to Thomas Richard Walter DAVIES in Blinman SA at age 16yrs, Children: Anna Louisa 65yrs, Eva Alice 60yrs, Walter Buttfield 58yrs, Lillie Agnes Susie 55yrs, 2 males deceased, Reg 27/1935 Mt Margaret, ANG, Buried Leonora Cemetery.

Mary HUNTER and her twin sons

Mary HUNTER nee INGALL and her twin sons

HUNTER Mary — 29yrs, d 1 Dec 1905, at State Hotel Gwalia, Cause: Premature childbirth of twins, Father: Frederick Blucher INGALL (Mine Manager) Mother: Mary Ann GODDARD, Born Cobar NSW, in NSW 19yrs, in WA 10yrs, Married at age 26yrs in Kalgoorlie WA to William Lambert HUNTER, 3 deceased males, Reg 59/1905Mt Margaret, Buried: Leonora Cemetery.

HUNTER unnamed male twins — ½ hr, d 29 Nov 1905, at State Hotel, Leonora Cause: Premature Birth (Twin), Father: William Lambert HUNTER (Hotel Manager), Mother: Mary INGALL, Reg 1533-4/1905, Buried Leonora Cemetery.

HUNTER William Lambert  48yrs, d 29 Jul 1918, at State Hotel, Gwalia, Occ: Hotel Keeper, Cause: Carcinoma of Kidney, Father: Robert John HUNTER (Stock Agent), Mother: Ann Sarah LAMBERT, Born Auckland New Zealand, In NZ for 32yrs, In WA 38yrs, Married twice, 1st to Mary Elizabeth INGALL in Kalgoorlie WA at age 32yrs, 2nd to Blanche Maude PENNY in Northam WA at 38yrs, Children: 1st marr 3 males deceased, 2nd marr: Iris Lambert 8yrs, Enid G 6yrs, Robert Bayley 3yrs, Reg 18/1918 Mt Margaret, ANG, Buried Leonora Cemetery.

If you do happen to have a relative or descendant buried in one of the two Leonora Cemeteries, I would very much appreciate it if you could check the entry to make sure it is correct and let me know if you wish anything added or changed. A photo of the person would also be most welcome.

A special thank you to all of those who got in touch with me with kind messages about the death of my little dog and constant companion. Your kind thoughts were much appreciated. I must admit I am finding it very hard to cope with her loss as is my daughter who had her for a few years before she came to live with us. The house seems so very quiet and empty without her, she was such a vital part of our lives it will be hard to fill the void she has left.
Rudyard Kipling, a big dog lover, could not have said it better in his verse – ‘So why in – Heaven (before we are there) / Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

I hope where ever you are Mo, you are barking at everyone and everything. Till we meet again.

I hope where ever you are Mo, you are barking at everyone and everything. Till we meet again dear girl.

I hope that you enjoy this week’s stories, so it’s goodbye from me.

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My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

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