Family history across the seas

Join me on my Cemetery Searching expedition for the 2023 A to Z Blog Challenge. I’ll be re-visiting some cemeteries and preparing for a wish list of others. Some family members will be mentioned but I also have an interest in German family graves as well as those of people born in Co Clare Ireland.

Lutwyche Cemetery, Brisbane, Qld

Several of my Kunkel relatives are buried in this cemetery including:

Colleen Rae O’Gorman (b 1947) twin, died in infancy, on 16 November 1948 and was buried here on 18 November 1948. (Monumental 5-9-30)

Betty Eileen Dwyer was my father’s cousin from his father’s youngest sister. Betty died in an accidental fall at her New Farm unit in the early hours of Christmas 1945. She was widowed when her husband, John Frederick Dwyer, died as a POW in 1943 (buried Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery). Betty was buried at Lutwyche on 27 December 1945 (monumental 5-88-23). You can read reports of her death and inquest here and here. There is a sad connection to Betty’s date of death, as her grandfather died on Christmas Day 1901 from heart issues.

Daniel Joseph Paterson and his wife Isobel. Dan was a Light Horseman in the First World War. It’s sad that his name isn’t included on the gravestone. (Monumental 6-8-69)

I remembered from an earlier visit that there had been a number of people killed in a RAAF accident. Sixteen men share plots in the cemetery. The graphic description of the crash of the Lincoln bomber and its conflagration can be read here. Inquiries were undertaken subsequently. The men were buried on 23 February 1948 with full military honours in Lutwyche cemetery, including a gun salute, the RAAF band, and a fly-over by another Lincoln bomber. You can read the story here) Three of the men killed had previously been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). They were Flight Lt Norman Kobelke, Flight Lt Eric Ellis Williams and Flight Lt Walter Greenough Gardner. (ANZAC-7-79-51 TO 66 mass grave).

Adjacent to these graves I was taken by the inscriptions on the memorial for Walter George Sanders and his wife Margaret Matilda. (Note, the Brisbane grave search incorrectly lists his My husbanname as Walter James Sanders). Walter had served with the 58th Battalion in World War I.

Laen North Cemetery, Victoria

My husband’s maternal 2xgreat grandfather and grandmother are buried in this rural cemetery in Victoria. They had emigrated from Scotland and had been born on the island of Lismore and lived on Mull as well.

City of London Cemetery, England

One of the more challenging things is finding where someone is buried in very large cities, especially in the pre-digital era. I had known my great grandfather, Stephen Gillespie Melvin (SGM) had died in 1926 and been buried in London…but where? Thanks to multiple emails to cemeteries, a mutual research collaboration with a fellow Oxford ADLH student, and phone calls by my friend, his burial location was eventually discovered in the City of London cemetery. His third wife was also buried there a few years earlier, Letitia Melvin. They didn’t live permanently in London but SGM made regular trips there for his confectionery business and to see his brother. Thanks to Philippa’s help I also received copy of the grave. I’m rather annoyed that his fourth wife didn’t see fit to include a memorial to him on the stone, given her inheritance.

This was a big win achieved with collaborative research and brain-storming. In a quid pro quo I was able to help my friend with a research problem here.

Do you have a particular success you’ve achieved with cemetery sleuthing?