Sunday's Child

Away

2012-02-15T22:33:00.005+11:00

Sorry I won't be posting here for a while, due to serious illness in the family.

Why you should clean your refrigerator occasionally

2012-02-03T23:35:00.000+11:00

Well, more often than I do, any way. Like most modern fridges, mine automatically defrosts itself.

Here's what happens when you don't clean your fridge very often -
In the back of the cabinet is a condensor panel that is usually lightly frosted.
Every 6 to 8 hours, this panel is automatically heated for a few minutes, and the moisture falls into a receptor just below.
There's a little drain hole in the middle of the receptor, allowing the water to drain to a pan under the fridge, where it evaporates.

Occasionally (in poorly maintained appliances) stuff sticks to the frostiness, and then falls down and blocks the little drain hole.
This situation is usually indicated by the formation of a puddle under the fridge.
Remediation of the situation involves finding a long thin pointy implement, and poking it down the little hole, followed by mopping out the bottom of the cabinet, and possible the vegetable drawers as well. And the floor.
Truly dedicated housekeepers may even wish to investigate the drain pan, or maybe move the fridge and do a REALLY good job of it. Not me - a girl's got to draw the line somewhere...

Fried tomatoes

2012-01-27T10:07:00.000+11:00

It's fun to write about family history and days gone by, but even better to connect with real live family.
We've just spent a couple of days with Betty and Shirley, two of our Niewand cousins who travelled over from Minyip to visit.
My sister and I played tourist guide - our landscape is very different from the flat Wimmera country - and showed off the Art Gallery, Buda Historic Home & Garden, and the Aladdin's cave that is the Restorer's Barn. Three of my daughters lunched with us at Skydancers Cafe & Nursery, also making connections with rellies we don't see so often. A lovely couple of days!

Now it's Friday, so time to interrupt the family saga with a recipe -

In one of the Little House on the Prairie books (can't remember which one) Laura Ingalls Wilder described the early settlers serving tomatoes for dessert, with cream and sugar. I've never tried it myself, and it sounds a bit odd, but I have had tomato salad with a creamy dressing, and that definitely works.

This serves to remind us that tomatoes, like many of our 'vegies' are indeed fruit - think capsicum, zucchini, or pumpkin - and sometimes they are improved by adding a little sugar to the seasonings. Tomato sandwiches are definitely more 'tomatoey' with a sprinkle of sugar, ditto grilled tomatoes.

This is worth remembering now that the weather is warming up,and the tomatoes are ripening - lots of tomatoes!

Maybe you plan to make sauce, and tomato salad is nice these warm nights, but here's another idea - you could make Fried Tomatoes.

This couldn't be simpler, and makes a good Sunday night supper dish.

You'll need a large, high-sided frying pan (or a big pot). Slice a large brown onion, and soften it in a little oil. Then add chopped tomatoes, lots and lots of them - they will cook down considerably. Season with salt and pepper, a pinch of mixed dried herbs and a spoonful of sugar.
Simmer until reduced by at least half, and beginning to caramelise. This takes a while, and requires regular stirring so they don't burn. When you reckon they're done, taste and adjust the seasoning, and serve on toast.

You could fry some bacon with the onion, and add some crushed garlic, and basil or other fresh herbs, and maybe some chopped capsicum if you have some, but it's delicious with just the tomatoes and onion.

Exodus

2012-01-25T23:04:00.000+11:00

For the next few posts, I'm going to indulge myself by including some speculative scenes - recreations of events as they may have been experienced at the time..

Always in italics, these 'cameos' are intended, like any other illustration, to add life and colour to the story. Please bear in mind, that although based on known facts, these scenes are FICTION. Personalities are merely supposed, and appearances guessed at. At times I have used astrological profiles based on date and place of birth. 'Dolly' Niewand, for example, is almost pure fiction. We don't know what she really looked like, or what the children called her - but I had a lot of fun inventing her!

Now bear with me while I set the scene...

In 1848, the Ministry of Finance in Hanover and the local authorities in the Harz decided to provide financial assistance to emigrants in the form of an interest-free loan, to be repaid within three or four years. South Australia seemed a suitable place, as the new copper mine at Burra would provide employment for experienced miners, and letters from earlier German emigrants were favourable.
The consul of the Kingdom of Hanover to South Australia, Mr C.L. Meyer, was in Bremen at the time and added his recommendation of the new colony. Mr Meyer also offered to help the emigrants to establish themselves. (And to collect the loan repayments, for a small consideration.)

On 8th August 1848, public notices went up, detailing the government’s offer of financial aid for emigration. Information on the climate of South Australia, average wages and the cost of living was also given. Within a few weeks, over 700 people applied. They gave many reasons for wishing to leave, mainly poverty, and a desire for a better future for their children. Some also hoped for less exhausting work, or wanted to escape their in-laws. Those with large debts or large families were weeded out, as were the sick. Dependants could not be left behind as a continuing drain on the government, either.

You'll recall that at this point the family consisted of Dorothea Niewandt (Dolly) and her stepchildren Henriette (Nettie), Friedrich (Fred) and his wife Henriette, Frederika (Freda), and Heinrich (Heinie). It's August, 1848, and Fred and Heinie have finished work for the day...

“Hurry up Heinie, your supper will be cold!” The speaker stood in the road, the late summer sun casting long shadows behind him.
“Hang on Fred, I’m just reading this notice – didn’t you see it?”
“Another notice, who cares? They put up so many – don’t do this, remember that, mind the rules….” The speaker was clearly more interested in his evening meal.
“No, this isn’t about the mine, look!”
Humouring his younger brother, Fred walked over to the notice-board outside the mine office. “Opportunities in Australia” he read and shrugged. “and how are we supposed to get there?”
“It says here the Government will pay our fares, or at least give us loans” retorted Heinie, and grinned. “They obviously want to get rid of some of us.”
Fred smiled too “I can just see myself going home and telling Henriette that we’re off to Australia – like fun!” Heinie laughed aloud; everyone knew his sister-in-law wasn’t one to mince her words.
The brothers stepped out along the path, and nothing more was said on the subject.

But oddly, when Fred mentioned the notice that evening as they ate their supper, Henriette seemed quite interested. She knew that easygoing Fred would stay where he was, doing the same old work, until the day he died. Which was just as likely to be sooner than later, Henriette reflected sadly.
She had already lost her first husband in a mining accident, and she knew miners didn’t make old bones anyway, especially drillers like Fred – the dust got into their lungs, and they coughed their way to the grave.
Despite her sharp tongue, Henriette loved her husband, who worked so hard to keep her and the girls, when there was work to be had. She knew how disappointed he’d been at missing out on the overseer’s job, and it would have meant guaranteed work hours, too. She wouldn’t mind taking a look at that notice herself……

Fourteen groups left the Harz between 1848 and 1854. Once an application had been accepted, often only 4-6 weeks before the sailing date, the family had to sell all those possessions that couldn’t be taken along, and equip themselves as best they could for their new lives. New clothes would be made or bought, and all the necessary paperwork, birth certificates and passports obtained. Goodbyes must have been very hard; for the emigrants leaving parents, brothers and sisters, and the graves of lost children; and for those who stayed behind, farewelling their sons and daughters, knowing they would never see them again in this life, or the grandchildren yet unborn.

The Niewandt family must have been among the early applicants, as they left on the third ship bound for Australia, the Ceres, in December 1849. The passenger list shows Dorothea Niewandt, widow, accompanied by her children Henriette, Friederike, and Heinrich; and Friedrich and his wife Henriette accompanied by the two Dahle girls. The timing could not have been worse for Christian and Henriette, because she was about to have another child, and the baby would be born on the ship.

Other family and friends were part of the group that left Lautenthal for Australia. Andreas Conrad Martin Niewandt was a second cousin to our family. His wife, a relative of Henriette, had recently died, and perhaps he thought a fresh start would be best. Henriette’s sister-in-law, her husband and their small children were also going.

The family in Lautenthal

2012-01-23T14:24:00.003+11:00

Time to do a little genealogy, and look at the composition of the Niewandt family in Lautenthal. Unfortunately it's not possible to post clear diagrams here, so we'll have to make do with a narrative.

Village life centred on the Lutheran church, a beautiful Baroque building built in the mid 1600s. The singing of hymns was an important part of worship, aided by an impressive organ, and membership of the choir was a privilege to be proud of.

The church registers trace the family from 1785, when Heinrich Christian Niewandt married Dorothea Elizabeth Buckbach. Heinrich gave his father's name as Christoph Niewandt, of Bad Grund, thus confirming his descent from the family there.

In 1818, his son, Johann Heinrich Christian Niewandt, married Johanne Friederike Elizabeth Richter, and they had at least four children -

Henriette, b. 1818
Christian Friedrich, b. 1820
Frederika, b. 1824
Heinrich Christian Andreas, b. 1830 (my great-grandfather)

the church organ

Johann's wife died in 1834, and he remarried in the same year to Dorothea Sauerbrei, who had a son, August Lauchs, from a previous marriage.
Johann died in 1846, leaving Dorothea as head of the family.

In the same year, Friedrich married Henriette Dahle (nee Schubert) who had two daughters, Julie and Minna, from her first marriage.

Also living in Lautenthal were Johann's cousin Julius Niewandt, his wife Johanne, and their son Andreas Conrad Martin Niewandt. (possibly there were other Niewandts too, but these are the immediate family)

In the 1840s, life in Lautenthal was becoming increasingly uncertain. Everywhere in the Harz, the mining industry was in decline. Some of the mines had been worked for over 700 years, and their great depth made ore extraction expensive. Imports of cheaper lead from South America caused prices to fall, putting many miners out of work. Everyone expected the mines to close in the next few years.

The mines were owned and operated by the government, and were fast becoming more of a liability than an asset. The miners were well looked after by the standards of the day - they had free medical attention, and pensions were paid to retired miners or their widows and orphans. Even if there was less work for them, miners were not usually discharged, but would receive an unemployment benefit. The amounts paid were very small, but the population was growing, and poor relief was an increasing drain on the government.
Clearly this situation could not continue, and the Hanoverian government began to consider assisted emigration as a solution.

(They did not move fast enough for some people, apparently; they burned their houses down so that they would have nowhere to live, and force the government to act. Not my family, as far as I know)

As the Niewandt family faced an uncertain future, the world outside the Harz was changing profoundly. The population of Europe was growing rapidly, and in Germany food production was not keeping pace with population growth. There was widespread unemployment, and mechanisation was making entire trades obsolete.

Across the seas, America had become an independent country, hungry for settlers, and many German people were already established there. Australia too was beginning to look past its beginnings as a convict dumping-ground, and realise the need for free settlers to develop the country’s potential.
The Niewandts would have been well aware of the opportunities in the New World – there is a record of a Heinrich Niewand living in Montgomery, New York State in 1793. All they needed was the means to get there.

photos from the website Paul-Gerhard-kirchengemeinde Lautenthal

Where witches fly

2012-01-22T23:07:00.000+11:00

Over the years I've collected quite a bit of of more-or-less interesting trivia about the Harz mountains of Germany, where my ancestors lived. Today I've been poking around in some of my old family history docs, and gathered these for your edification -

Where witches fly
The highest peak in the Harz is the Brocken (1142m) known far and wide as the home of the Harzhexen (Harz witches). The witches, mounted on their wooden brooms, sweep across the sky above the Harz to their landing ground on the Brocken.

Long after the introduction of Christianity, the Brocken was the scene of pagan festivities on the Witches Sabbath, on April 30th each year. The witches were said to dance with the Devil until midnight, when the May King would arrive to clean them out. This was also an ancient Norse festival, for the god Odin married Freya on the last night of April.
Pagan beliefs survived in the Harz, perhaps due to isolation, longer than in any other part of Germany. The early Catholic priests tried to fit the festivities into the Christian calendar by renaming the feast ‘Walpurgisnacht’ after St. Walpurga, who was born on the 1st of May.

The legends of the Brocken have inspired several musicians and writers, most notably Goethe’s ‘Faust’. Walpurgis Night festivities continue to the present day, with parties and fireworks, not unlike the American tradition of Halloween, and many of the witches have landed in local tourist shops, hoping to emigrate to warmer climes.

Neanderthal Man was named for remains found in the Neander River valley at Dusseldorf, about 100 miles from Bad Grund.

Harz Roller is the name of a breed of domestic canary bred in the Upper Harz mountains of Germany. The birds were bred in the Upper Harz between Lautenthal and Sankt Andreasberg in the middle of the 19th century and achieved European-wide fame. Since 2001 there has been a Harz Roller Museum in Sankt Andreasberg.

By patient breeding a breed of canary was able to be produced that had a very pleasant, melodious song, full of variety and delivered with an apparently closed beak.

The breeding and sale of this popular breed of canary was an important secondary occupation for the mining folk as was the making of cages for the birds. Especially in the second half of the 19th century the business for these canaries boomed. In contrast to widespread legend, the birds were not used in the mines to indicate the presence of oxygen, they were too valuable for that. The Harz miners used captured wild birds for that purpose.

Miners in the Harz wore a kind of leather apron across their backs. Called an arse leather, the apron was thought to protect the kidneys, and kept their trousers dry, and cleaner.

Kate Greenaway illustration

Hameln (of Pied Piper fame).....is about 50 miles west of Lautenthal. The Pied Piper of Hamelin (German: Rattenfänger von Hameln) is the subject of a legend concerning the departure or death of a great many children from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages.
The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in pied (multicolored) clothing, leading the children away from the town never to return.
In the 16th century the story was expanded into a full narrative, in which the piper is a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizenry refuses to pay for this service, he retaliates by turning his magic on their children, leading them away as he had the rats. This version of the story spread as a fairy tale. This version has also appeared in the writings of, among others, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers Grimm and Robert Browning.

early Bobbin lace

Lacemaking "Here lies Barbara Uttmann, died, 14 Jan. 1575, whose invention of lace in 1561 made her the benefactress of the Harz Mountains." In fact, Frau Uttmann, wife of a rich mining overseer, didn't actually invent lace, but learnt the skill from a Flemish exile.
According to legend, bobbin lacemaking came to the German Erzgebirge in around 1560 because a refugee from Brabant found a room in the house of the family Uttmann in Annaberg. She is said to have had her lace pillow with her and to have taught Frau Uttmann how to make bobbin lace. Barbara Uttmann is then said to have introduced bobbin lacemaking into the Erzgebirge and invented the bolster-shaped lace pillow which is typically used there. Until the advent of machine-made lace, bobbin lacemaking a source of income for many women in the Harz villages.

The Lichtenstein Cave is an archaeological site about 10 miles to the south of Bad Grund. The cave is 115 metres long and was discovered in 1972. Finds include the skeletal remains of 21 females and 19 males from the Bronze Age, about 3000 years old. In addition, about 100 bronze objects (ear, arm and finger rings, bracelets) and ceramic parts from the Urnfield Culture were found.
DNA tests on 300 local inhabitants showed that 40 of them were descendants of these Bronze Age people.
The Lichtenstein site is closed to the public, but the Museum am Berg at Bad Grund has an exhibition about 'the oldest family in the world'. In addition the museum looks at life in the Bronze Age and displays a number of artefacts from the period.

Katie's broccoli salad

2012-01-22T13:58:00.000+11:00

For a variety of reasons, I haven't had time to blog lately, so I'm playing catchup today. Here's your Friday recipe -

photo from Wikipedia

We are constantly told that broccoli is Good For Us, and we should eat it often. I do my best - we probably have it once a week or so - but it can be teeny bit boring.
My daughter Katie has a solution; she makes this broccoli salad, and it's always popular at family gatherings.

You will need:

2 big heads of broccoli, cut into very small florets and the stem cut up into tiny pieces
¼ purple onion, chopped fine
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup sultanas
3 rashers of bacon, cut finely and fried until crunchy

Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise (real egg mayonnaise, not sweetened)
Apple cider vinegar to taste (start with 1 tab)
Sugar to taste (start with 1 tspn)
Mix well until sugar is dissolved

Mix all together and add dressing.

Thanks for sharing, Katie!

Update: Katie says - "I must give credit where it's due, to Hugh's sister-in-law Melissa, who made it for us when they visited a few years ago. It's travelled far and wide, this recipe (because it's so yummy)."

A Sunday reflection

2012-01-15T15:06:00.000+11:00

No, not a sermon - perish the thought! Just some stuff I've been thinking about as I explore my family history.

When you fill out a Census form - or join Facebook - you are invited to specify your religious beliefs. For many of us, that's the only time we give any thought to religion. But for our ancestors, religion was the stuff of daily life, a vital part of a person's identity. So today I thought I'd look into the belief systems of our German and Irish forbears, and how they came about.

A very short history of Christianity.
The need for some kind of spiritual or religious belief system seems to be an integral part of human nature. Since the first men and women gathered around a fire, every society on the planet has had its rituals and its gods. Even today most individuals acknowledge some Deity or Higher Power as part of their personal ethos. The belief system of our immediate ancestors was Christianity. Whether they were German Lutherans or Irish Catholics, religious beliefs shaped their lives and the societies in which they lived.

In the year 2000, many of us are not regular churchgoers, and are more likely to be passionate about social issues than religious ones. But until recently, religious belief and worship were part of everyday life, and influenced many life-changing decisions.

Sermon on the Mount - Fra Angelico

Christianity began with Jesus Christ, an orthodox Jew born at Bethlehem in around 4 BC. Jesus lived for most of his life at Nazareth in Galilee, where he worked as a carpenter like his father Joseph. At the age of 26, Jesus was baptised by his cousin John the Baptist. Following a period of spiritual retreat in the desert, he began to teach the word of God and to heal the sick. His essential message is contained in the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in the Gospels.

To the Roman rulers of Galilee, Jesus and his followers were a potential source of civil discontent. He had a large following, and was openly critical of the Jewish leaders of the day. On a visit to Jerusalem in AD 30, Jesus was arrested and accused of blasphemy by the Jewish establishment. He was handed over to the local Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, who ordered his execution. He was crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Convinced of his resurrection and ascent to Heaven as the Son of God, his followers, notably St. Paul, spread his teachings around the Mediterranean. The Romans, normally tolerant of religious diversity, were irked by Christian refusals to acknowledge the Emperor as a deity, and fed quite a few of them to the lions. Martyrdom added lustre to the new religion, and it continued to spread throughout the Roman Empire, until in 312 the Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome.

After Constantine’s death the Roman Empire was divided in two. The eastern Empire, based in Constantinople, remained Christian, but western Europe fell to the invading barbarians. Christianity lost ground, and large areas of Europe had to be re-converted in the 6th century. By 1054 the eastern Christians could no longer accept the authority of Rome, and the Christian church split in two - the Eastern Orthodox church, ruled by a Patriarch, and the Roman Catholic church, led by the Pope. The mediaeval Papacy became increasingly powerful with the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, and the wealth and influence of the church led to increasing laxity and abuses.

Martin Luther

In 1517 a Prussian monk and theologian, Martin Luther, was increasingly dismayed by the corruption and decadence of the Church hierarchy. He felt that they had strayed a long way from the original ideals taught by Jesus Christ. When Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of a Catholic church in Wittenberg, Saxony, he was initiating a religious debate in the accepted way. But his protest was the beginning of a new religious era, and heralded the end of the absolute dominance of the Catholic Church in Europe.

His objections, publicised throughout Germany by the emerging printing industry, played right into the hands of the local heads of State, long frustrated by the absolute power of the Holy Roman Empire – really an arm of the Church – and when Luther began urging local rulers to rebel against the iron-handed authority of Rome, they were much inclined to listen. In 1529, many German principalities and towns signed a document of ‘Protestation’ against the Emperor. Thus the members of the new, reformist Lutheran Church came to be known as Protestants.

Irish church ruins

Lutheran dissidence was soon followed by Calvinism in Switzerland, and the English reformation which had began with Henry VII’s rebellion (for his own reasons) against the Pope. Protestantism was popular with the common people, who had resented the huge wealth of the Roman establishment. Europe was quickly divided into the Protestant northern countries and the Catholic south, and religious and civil wars followed.

The Reformers purged their churches of Popish practices and returned to the Bible and the teachings of Christ as the word of God. In the atmosphere of religious fervour which followed, excessive zeal and bigotry were almost inevitable, with long-reaching results for many of our ancestors. Fighting for one’s religion, or enduring persecution for it, tends to confirm a belief in the ‘Rightness’ and ‘One Trueness’ of a personal creed. So Catholics and Protestants became implacable foes, each equally hating and fearing the other, a situation which has endured almost to the present day, and has influenced the decisions and shaped the ways of life of both our Catholic and Protestant forbears.

Even today, many of my relatives actively practice their Catholic or Lutheran faith, and strive to live as good Christians, and for many their faith is a source of comfort and sustenance.

There seems to be far more tolerance between Protestants and Catholics now, unlike the bigotry my parents experienced before their marriage. Today our distrust seem more directed towards members of the Muslim faith, due to the activites of a misguided few.

Interior of Lutheran church, Bethany, SA

For my German forbears, their religion had many positive aspects, not the least of which was literacy - since Martin Luther decreed that all children should attend school, so they could read their Bibles and their hymnbooks. Many parties of Germans emigrating to Australia were actually church congregations, including their Pastor, and a church and school were the first buildings they erected on arrival. Family historians have cause to be grateful to the Lutheran pastors, in Germany and Australia, for the meticulous records they kept.

My great-aunt was a nun

By contrast, my Irish convict forbears, Thomas and Bridget, were both illiterate, having been born in an Ireland occupied by the British, where the education of poor Catholic children was discouraged. But theirs had been a Catholic country for centuries, and succeeding generations were quick to take advantage of any schooling available, and become devout members of their Church once more.

I was raised in the Catholic faith, but as a teenager I became disenchanted with many aspects of the Church. Like many since, I was confused and uncertain of the value of religion in my life. For most of us, that's the end of the matter- we continue to observe the values we have learned, while rejecting faith in a Supreme being.

And yet, all the major religions - Catholic, Protestant, Judaism, Muslim, Buddhist and others - have rules that show us how to live in the world, observing the rights of others, striving for goodness within ourselves. Without this foundation, how do we manage to be good citizens and good people? Have we, in rejecting religion, thrown the baby out with the bathwater?

Paradise slice

2012-01-13T20:19:00.000+11:00

Gillies Pie and cake shop in Bendigo used to make Paradise slice, but they stopped :-(
I was sad about this, and decided to make my own version, based on a cake my mother used to make.
This is a slice with a pastry base, topped with a light fruit cake, and it's yummy.

Preheat oven to 180C, grease and paper a 19 x 29 cm slice tin.

For the base - 125g butter, 2 cups SR flour, 1 cup light brown sugar
Mix flour and sugar, rub in butter to make a fine crumbly mixture.
Press 1/2 the mixture into base of tin. (if you have scales, use them to evenly divide the mixture by weight - otherwise, it's easiest to make two batches of the mixture, using half the ingredients)

The cake - to remaining half of mixture, add
1 well-beaten egg, 2/3 cup milk,
1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice,
and 1 cup mixed dried fruit.
The mixture will be a bit sloppy, that's OK.
Spoon it onto the base, and bake for 45- 60 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

Allow to cool in the tin, then ice with pale pink icing, and sprinkle with 100s and 1000s.

This is Mum's original recipe - she called it Armenian Spice Cake.

Preheat oven to 180C, grease and line an 8" square tin (20cm or therabouts)

For the base - mix 2 cups plain flour, 2 tsps baking powder 2 cups light brown sugar.
Rub in 1/2 cup butter (125 g) until you have fine crumbs.
Place half the mixture in the bottom of the prepared tin, and press down well.

Cake mixture - 1 tsp carb soda, 1 cup milk, 1 beaten egg, 1 tsp ground nutmeg.
Dissolve soda in the milk, add the beaten egg and nutmeg, and stir into the remaining crumb mixture.
Pour onto the base, and bake approx 1 hour, until firm when tested.

When cool, ice with white buttercream icing, and sprinkle with nutmeg. (or may be decorated with chopped walnuts if desired.)

BTW, Gillies still sell the best meat pies from their shop on the corner of Williamson St. and Hargreaves Mall, and just a block away, also on Williamson St., the Eaglehawk Bakery sells a wonderful version of Beesting Cake. Just in case you're peckish...

Life in Lautenthal

2012-01-12T16:46:00.003+11:00

The record of St Andreas Kirche in Lautenthal show the Niewand family living there from 1785 until they emigrated in 1849. Lautenthal takes its name from the Laute river which flows through the town, and is an ancient village, dating back to at least the 1530s, though the area was inhabited for thousands of years before that.

(Click to enlarge pictures)

Illustration from a book published in 1658. Plumes of smoke at left from the smelters.

The old mine buildings at Lautenthal house a Museum of Mining. It is even possible to be married in the old mine chapel. For the traditionally minded, St. Andreas Kirche still faces the Markplatz as it has done since Martin Luther’s day, though he might be surprised to discover that the church is now shared with the Catholic congregation!

Many residents today run guest houses for visitors, or work in the tourist industry. A modern tourist brochure lists the attractions: in the winter there are snow sports, in the summer sailing on the lakes and hiking through the forests. You can also take a health cure at one of the sanitariums, which features a pump house for the mineral water, a heated pool and mud wraps. The fresh, clean mountain air is an added attraction.

Mining in the Harz
Archeological studies have shown that there were mines in the Harz since the 3rd century. This early mining was done with the simplest technologies. The mines were just holes in the ground down to a depth of about 40 metres, and the ore was brought up with hand winches. Between 1348 and 1379 the Black Death (bubonic plague) raged across Europe; nearly all the people in the Harz died and mining ceased.
In 1532, a prospector found a large silver deposit in the valley of the Laute river, and mining began again with the support of the regional lords. As so many years had passed, nobody knew how to mine any more, and workers had to be recruited from other mining regions.
Most of them came from the Erzgebirge region, near the Czechoslovakian border, and they settled in the Harz with their families. To encourage the new workers, the lords granted special privileges, called "Bergfreiheit" (literally ‘freedom of the mountain). These privileges included

Lautenthal coat of arms

exemption from taxation
the right to hunt
the right to brew
the right to fish
the right to cut wood
the right to vote

(The history as written implies that the local lords granted these privileges from the goodness of their hearts, but it doesn’t seem likely. The diminished population after the plague had meant labour shortages, and consequently improved bargaining power and general conditions for the peasants of Europe. Those imported miners seem to have been pretty good industrial negotiators.)

Lautenthal, like most of the towns in the western Harz, dates from this time, and the area soon became prosperous. Originally silver was mined, and later lead, zinc, tin, and some copper. Mining continued there until the 1930’s, when cheaper foreign ore caused most of the mines to close.
Only two mines continued: the Rammelsberg at Goslar, closed in 1988, and the Hilfe Gottes at Bad Grund, which closed in 1992.

Mining has always been difficult, dirty and dangerous work, and the Harz mines were no different. Despite their privileges, the miners of Lautenthal and Bad Grund worked long and hard for their wages.
Originally the only light the miners had was a candle – just one candle each, there was no other lighting in the shafts or in the tunnels. Later carbide lamps were used, and eventually electric lighting.

As the mineral veins were followed into the rock, the mines became ever deeper – some of them as much as 400 metres below ground. So every morning the miners climbed down on ladders. It took about an hour to get down to the working face, and after they had worked their 8 or 12 hour shift, another 2 hours to climb back up again. This 3 hours of climbing wasn’t paid time, either.

In the 1830’s someone finally invented a kind of Bosun’s Ladder, powered by the mine waterwheel, which shortened the up and down time to about 20 minutes each way. Even better, hardly any physical energy was needed. It wasn’t terribly safe, of course, but one can’t have everything.

In the 16th century the only power source for the mines was the huge wooden waterwheels. which enabled the ore to be winched up to the surface. To power these wheels, reservoirs were dug, over 70 of them through the area, connected by ditches.

The only way to keep the mines dry enough for working, was by means of drainage tunnels cut through the rock. For a long time there was no powder or dynamite for blasting, so the tunnels were hewn out by hand with a hammer and miner’s bar. A miner could cut out about 3 metres of rock in a year.

Every mine had a chapel near the entrance, where the miners would assemble before going underground. Here prayers would be said at the start of each shift, followed by a roll call. This not only recorded each man’s working hours, but enabled the management to know how many men were underground in case of an accident.

The miners were well trained – a young miner or Berggesell, (literally ‘miner’s mate’) served an apprenticeship before he could call himself a Bergmann (miner). But miners didn’t often make old bones; if you managed not to fall down a shaft, and avoided anything heavy falling on you, there was still the prospect of ‘miner’s disease’ or silicosis. This was a lung disease caused by breathing the dust in the mines.

If mining was hard on the men, it was also hard on the local countryside. Rivers were dammed and the original forests were cut down for timbering the mine tunnels, and later to make charcoal for smelting the ore. The native bears and wolves are now extinct, but lynxes, which were also extinct, have recently been re-introduced to the Harz. Deer, foxes, and badgers still remain.

Extensive reforestation has also taken place - the Harz is now a National Park - and there is a beautiful Arboretum at Bad Grund.

If you want to know more about the region, there are websites for the Harz, Bad Grund, and Lautenthal.

Images in this post from Wikimedia & Wikicommons

Fatherland

2012-01-11T14:59:00.001+11:00

My father's family, the Niewands, came to Australia from Germany in 1850. (When we speak today of our German ancestors, we are actually referring to our German-speaking ancestors, as the modern nation of Germany was not established until 1871). Before that were a number of small states and principalities.

They lived in the Harz mountains region of Lower Saxony, and the menfolk worked in the mines there.

Most of what I know about the family comes from Lutheran church records in two villages, Bad Grund and Lauthenthal. If you look in an atlas, you will find the Harz mountains just south of Hannover, but Lautenthal is too small to show up on most maps.

I have traced the family back to the early 18th century, which is probably the most we’ll ever know. Earlier church records do exist, but they are written in Old German script, and can only be read by experts.
[It is possible that the family may have originally moved to the Harz in the 16th century, from the Erzgebirge region of Eastern Germany, over near the Czechoslovakian border. A very similar family name, Niesewand, is found in that region.]

The original family name was NIEWANDT, according to the old church registers I have seen. This has undergone several changes in Australia, the main branches of the family now using the forms NIEWAND, NEIWAND, and NEIVANDT.
The family members still living in Lautenthal now use the form NIEWAND. The original pronunciation of Niewandt was neevahnt. Niewands today say neewond.

The multiple and often confusing baptismal names also deserve a mention here. A child might begin life with 3 or 4 given names, usually taken from their baptismal sponsors. Often the last given name would be the one used in everyday life, perhaps in abbreviated form. Thus Dorothea Ernestine Mathilde may have been Dorchen or Tillie to her family; likewise Carl Gustav Ferdinand might be Gus or Fred, or even Fritz if there were too many Freds around already.

Because several family members had the same names, I have taken the liberty of assigning more familiar ‘pet’ names at times in this account, for the sake of clarity; these will be indicated as the story unfolds.

Our German ancestors were Lutherans, and some of their descendants remain so today. It was customary to choose a partner within their own or neighbouring congregations, a practice which continued for several generations in Australia. The Lutheran pastors kept careful records as successive generations were baptised, confirmed and married according to the familiar rituals. Much of our knowledge of earlier generations has come from Lutheran church registers.

Some branches of the family gradually fell away from the Lutheran church as they became assimilated into the mainstream of Australian society, and lost touch with their German language and traditions. Most remained Protestants, though, in thought if not in practice.

The Germans were a small but significant group among the early settlers of Australia. Some left their homelands for religious reasons, but for most, the motives were economic and socal. Either way, it was a momentous decision. To better understand why the Niewand family left, and the traditions and skills they brought to their new country, we must look back in time to their European origins.

In 1850 the Harz Mountains were part of the Kingdom of Hanover. In modern Germany, this region is called Niedersachsen. These are the most northerly mountains in Germany, between the Weser and Elbe rivers. The range is about 100km long and 32km at the widest point.

The area where the Niewand family lived is the Oberharz, the northwest part of the mountains. Nestled in the valleys are found the villages of Bad Grund and Lautenthal. For hundreds of years the main occupation was mining, as the area is rich in minerals. Today the mines are all closed, and the main industry is tourism.

When Germany was divided after World War II, the Iron Curtain ran right through the middle of the Harz and much of it was off limits to the public. For 45 years the area escaped ‘development’, and has since become a Nature Park. Now that the soldiers and their guard dogs have left, tourists come to these misty mountains to enjoy their gifts.

view of Lautenthal

Today the forests have regenerated or been replanted, and the deciduous beeches, oaks and elms make a fine contrast in autumn against the dark green of the spruce trees. The first snows of winter bring a different beauty, and always there is the sound and sparkle of water. Chattering streams tumble down rocky hillsides, and dozens of lakes reflect the mountains in all their moods.

The earliest record found show the family living at Bad Grund in the early 18th Century. The books of St. Antonius Kirche record the births of the children of Hennig Heinrich Niewandt and his wife, Gesa Maria (no surname entered). A little mystery surrounds Gesa Maria – her name was entered in the register at the baptism of her daughter Dorothea, but is deliberately omitted from the baptismal records of succeeding children. She was obviously out of favour with the pastors of the time, and may well have been excommunicated, but we can only guess at the reason. The name Gesa is unique in the parish records, which suggests that she was in some way foreign to the village. Orphan, religious dissident, runaway servant, gypsy ? – we will never know.

Hennig and Gesa Maria had four children –

Dorothea Maria b. 1719
Johann Christoph b. 18-7-1723
Johann Jurgen b. 1726
Georg Christian b. 1730

Johann Christoph Niewandt married Dorothea Echert on 5-1-1745. I wrote about their wedding in an earlier post.
There’s an interesting little story here. Johann was only 21, and still a Bergersell - apprentice miner. Under the strict rules of the Mining Guild, he wasn’t supposed to get married until he finished his training. He would have have been fined, and possibly had his apprenticeship extended. The date, January 5th, was midwinter, not the usual time for a wedding. All is explained when we look at the next entry.
Johann and Dorothea’s first child, Maria Sophia, was born on February 10th, just a month after the wedding. They had seven children in all-

Maria Sophia b. 1745
Johanne Friederike Marguerite b. 1748
Zacharias Heinrich b. 15-8-1751
Johanna Christina b. 1753
Maria Sophia b. 1755
Johann Friedrich b. 1758
Heinrich Adam b. 1760
There are no more entries in the church at Bad Grund.

At some point after 1760, at least some of the family moved to Lautenthal, about 10 km from Bad Grund.

Fried rice

2012-01-07T13:57:00.001+11:00

This recipe would probably horrify a Chinese cook, but it works for me. I don't have a wok, and it's really not necessary to use one. I prepare all the ingredients, and then combine them in a large pot.

This amount will serve 3 people.

Ingredients
1 cup Jasmine rice
1 medium onion (or use spring onions)
3 rashers bacon
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups frozen vegies - peas/peas and corn/frozen mixed vegies.
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
any other vegies you like - broccoli florets, sliced mushrooms.

Method
Cook the rice according to directions on the packet (I prefer the absorption method)
When it's done, fluff it up with a fork, and put aside.

Heat a frypan and add a little oil. Beat the eggs lightly and pour into the frypan, cook gently until set. Remove the resulting omelette to a plate and chop roughly. Set aside.

Fry the onion, mushrooms (if using) and bacon in the same pan. When cooked to your liking, transfer to a large saucepan or a deep frypan. Add the rice and egg, stir gently to combine.
Mix in a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce - you can add more at the table, if needed.

Lightly steam the frozen vegies, celery and broccoli, (I do them in the microwave) and add to the pot.

You're done! Either reheat gently on the stove top, or by the bowl in the microwave.

40 Bags update - I'm plodding along with this, still de-cluttering the kitchen, haven't removed a lot of stuff in the last couple of days, unless you count grease and dust - I have too much open shelving!
The Resident Grandson took down the cover of the exhaust fan today, it's currently soaking in a bath of washing soda. And he ~~washed~~ scrubbed the wall above the stove, a huge improvement.

First bag

2012-01-03T20:17:00.000+11:00

Well, not a bag, actually, more of a bin.

Tonight is bin night, and my wheelie bin is stuffed with most of the former contents of my pantry.
I stocked up on garbage bags yesterday, and today was the first day of my 40 Bags in 40 Days project.

I knew this would be the hardest clean-up job of all, and I've done it! Throwing out food, even if it's way out of date, is sooo hard. I felt really guilty.

Never mind that there were packets and jars that were YEARS out of date, it still felt wrong. Tinned food doesn't seem to have use-by dates, but if I couldn't remember buying it, I chucked it.

There were some interesting finds - several packets of tea bags (I never drink tea) bought for visitors, or more likely, to dye fabric. Two bottles of apple cider vinegar - I hate the stuff! Four jars of honey in various stages of sugariness. Yes, I know it keeps forever, but still...

And literally dozens of packets and jars of spice and herbs, some of which I know for certain were ten years old! Still have to wash all the empty jars and refill them.

Not one, but two defunct food processors were lurking in the bottom of the cupboard, along with some empty coffee tins that I couldn't bear to throw out. All gone now.

Here's my eerily bare pantry. At least I know what's in it now!

I'm not going to bore you with a blow-by-blow account of each day's decluttering, but maybe a weekly update, to keep myself on track. I think it's going to take more that 40 days....

A new year

2012-01-01T13:29:00.000+11:00

A bright new year begins, I hope it's a happy and peaceful one for all!

New Year's Day is a time to think about the year ahead, make a few plans, set a few goals. It's usually the day when I go through the new calendar and fill in all the birthdays and special anniversaries. But I haven't bought a calendar yet, so that will have to wait.

I don't really do New year resolutions, believing they are doomed to failure, but I found this idea on Clover Lane and it's pretty tempting. It's called 40 Bags in 40 Days.

The idea is that, one day at a time, you rid your house of 40 bags of stuff...things you don't love, don't use, junk, accumulated stuff, clutter, garbage.

Originating on one of the many Catholic Mommy blogs, it began as Lenten challenge (40 days in Lent) but you can do it any time of the year - and take as many days as you need to declutter your home.

The important things is to keep the momentum going - clean out one area/room/cupboard EVERY DAY until you're done.

I'm reminded of the quote from William Morris: "Have nothing is your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

You need a plan - make a list of all the places you want to clean out, and then each day you fill one bag or box with stuff you don't need or want - toys, clothes, papers – anything, a box of books, an old TV. Anything that you can count as clutter is fair game.

If you Google "40 bags in 40 days", you'll find lots of bloggers who took up the challenge, and posted pictures of terrifyingly neat wardrobes, cupboards, drawers and bookshelves. If you're interested in pursuing the idea, Sarah on Clover Lane has some helpful suggestions.

Now those of you who know me may be aware that my house would benefit from some decluttering. I'm the original packrat, and can't bear to throw out anything that might possible be useful - one day.
I won't embarrass myself by showing pictures of my sewing room, but even apart from the explosion of fabric and "stuff" in there, there's plenty of scope for decluttering in the rest of the house - I could spend a week on the kitchen alone!

But the idea of taking it one bag/day at a time appeals to me. Maybe I could do that.

And if, like so many ~~resolutions~~ Good Ideas, I run out of steam, at least a few areas of the house would be tidier - I can't lose, can I?
Better make a list. Now let me see -

pantry
sink cupboard
saucepan cupboard
baking cupboard
overhead cabinets
kitchen drawers

I may possibly need a skip....

Tipsy trifle

2011-12-30T11:30:00.004+11:00

I've been neglecting the blog over Christmas, a bit preoccupied with making biscuits, wrapping presents, and general celebratory activities.
Our family gathering on Boxing Day was a lovely day as always - a chance to catch up with all our nearest and dearest, exchange presents, and eat heroic quantities of festive food.
There were prawns. There was cold ham, turkey and chicken, and a bewilderment of salads.

For dessert, I usually contribute a dish of trifle, but this year I made hot toddy sauce instead. We also had pavlova, David's wonderful home-made icecream, Susie's divine sticky date pudding, and a huge platter of Katie's organic cherries and apricots.

photo from Masterchef

Despite this, Some People were disappointed by the lack of trifle. So I offer this recipe, so they can make some for themselves - and so can you, it's not very difficult.
Trifle is often referred to as "Tipsy trifle", and stories abound of people getting drunk on it. My recipe has just half a cup of sherry, so you'd have to eat the entire dish to get even mildly tipsy... probably best not to give it to the kiddies, though.
I've read that the Italians call it "Zuppa Inglese" (English soup). This is not intended as a compliment.

Ingredients
1 purchased Swiss Roll (this is not about the quality of the cake)
1 medium-sized tin of Pineapple Pieces in Natural Juice.
1/2 cup Sherry (I use McWilliam's Cream Sherry)
packet of Port Wine or Raspberry jelly
300 ml jar of whipping cream
Thick vanilla custard (made with custard powder)
Method
Make up the jelly according to directions on the packet, place in the fridge to set.
Slice the Swiss Roll, and roughly cut into cubes. Strew in the bottom of a large bowl.
Drain the pineapple, saving the juice.
Arrange the pineapple pieces on top of the Swiss roll chunks.
Mix 1/2 cup of pineapple juice and 1/2 cup of Sherry, and drizzle over the cake and pineapple.
Make a thick custard according to directions on the packet, using 2 cups milk, 3 tablespoons custard powder, and 1 tablespoon sugar.
Pour custard over the soggy cake and pineapple, and place in the fridge to set.

Just before serving, chop the jelly roughly with a knife, and arrange on top of the custard. Decorate with whipped cream. (Jelly round the edges, whipped cream in the centre - or vice versa)
Enjoy the sweet, sloppy decadence...

You can use other fruit, too - peaches, apricots, berries - and decorate the top with fruit or shaved chocolate or nuts.

My father

2011-12-19T14:48:00.000+11:00

Now that I've finshed the story of my Irish ancestors, it's time to explore my German heritage.
Before we look at the history of the Niewand family, I'd like you to meet my Dad.

John Frederick Niewand was born at Willaura in Victoria on November 16th, 1906.

He died at Castlemaine on September 16th, 1962.

He was the grandson of German immigrants who came to Australia in the early 1850s, eventually settling at Minyip, Victoria.

Dad was a devoted husband and father, who showed his love by working hard all his life to give us everything he could.

A quiet and unassuming man, he had no enemies, and many friends. When he died, my mother, my sister and I were surprised at just how many people came to pay their last respects, and in some cases to speak of some small kindness he'd done them.

Always a farmer at heart, he had built up a successful poultry farm and hatchery at Barkers Creek, but the last few years of his life were spent as a shopkeeper in Castlemaine.

Dad loved his chooks, and also enjoyed woodwork; wherever we lived he built something - poultry sheds, a new kitchen for Mum, small items of furniture. He treasured an old carpentry book - and his tools (woe betide the child who left a paintbrush uncleaned) and once told me that if he'd had the choice, he would have liked to be a cabinet-maker.

For as long as he lived, I knew that I was truly loved; no matter what I did, or what mistakes I made, I could always be sure of his love and support. And he taught me to waltz.

Hot toddy sauce

2011-12-16T14:39:00.001+11:00

Dried fruit has always been part of traditional Christmas fare, but today many of us find plum pudding and brandy sauce a bit of a challenge.
Here’s a lighter alternative for your Christmas dessert, a fruity sauce to serve over icecream.

Ingredients
3 heaped tabs Golden Syrup, 1 cup water, 1 tab arrowroot powder, 2 tabs brandy or rum.
1 tab each of chopped almonds, cherries, raisins, sultanas, currants, apricots, and peel. (or use mixed dried fruit) 2 tabs lemon juice.
Method
In a saucepan, heat the golden syrup, and allow to boil for 3 minutes.
Blend arrowroot with a little water, and add to golden syrup with the rest of the water. Add spirits and stir until boiling. Remove from heat, stir in mixed fruit, almonds, and lemon juice. Stir well and pour into a clean jar. Store in fridge.
To serve, reheat and pour over vanilla icecream. May be garnished with whipped cream.
Notes
Best made a couple of days ahead, to allow the flavours to mellow. You can double or triple this recipe, which will keep for months. Sherry works too…

New cardigan

2011-12-13T20:04:00.001+11:00

Just finished my latest crochet project, a nice warm cardie. This was started months ago, but then languished until recently.

Now it’s done, and looking good – just in time for summer! The wool is Classic 8 ply wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills, in Cranberry. I bought 4 x 200g balls, and didn’t have much left over.

It was worked sideways, starting at the centre back. I used a simple stitch combo – pairs of half treble stitches, stacked on top of each other.

The hem and sleeves were finished with a singly row of double crochet, and the front bands are worked in 1dc, 1ch, with the dc worked in the one chain space in succeeding rows (5 rows).

Now I can get on with those crochet squares I’ve been making…

Washing machine update - the new hose arrived and was installed. Machine now working beautifully!

Washday blues

2011-12-09T16:05:00.001+11:00

I'm a pretty frugal person - I don't like the concept of replacing stuff just because it's old.
This week my washing machine had it's 30th birthday - I bought it in December 1981.
Since then, bless it's stout little heart, the Kelvinator has washed clothes, garage overalls, and even nappies (my daughter had it for a while back in 1984) without missing a beat.

Apart from replacing a pump some years ago, it's required no maintenance. It still washes just fine, but the lid is broken. I repaired it once, and wrote about it here, but when we reached thepoint of wedging a piece of cardboard behind the lid to make it go, the Resident Grandson began to ~~whinge and moan~~ gently suggest that maybe I should buy a new machine.

I resisted; why pay big dollars for a new machine when this one was still working (more or less)?

But I did mention to my sister that maybe I might consider a new machine, and if she saw one at a garage sale, I'd be interested.
She found me this - a Kleenmaid, the kind you find in laundromats. It's a heavy duty workhorse, with a ginormous bowl, which would easily take a doona or a big blanket. And it cost just $25.

It arrived on Saturday arvo, and on Sunday the Resident Grandson connected it up, and we decided to give it a trial run, without clothes.
As it filled, we noticed something. Water. On the floor. We shut it off, and I mopped up.

On Monday, our friendly local handyman came to take a look, and quickly found the problem. This hose has a hole, where no hole should be. The machine had apparently been stored in a shed for a while, and rats had feasted...

Finding a spare hose was problematical. Thank goodness for Mr Google! It seems Kleenmaid washers are no longer available in Australia, but there are a few places that carry parts.
Several emails later, I located a hose, and ordered it online. Hope it arrives soon, I'm running out of clean clothes...

Rabbit stew

2011-12-09T10:48:00.001+11:00

As a child, I ate a lot of rabbit stew. The meat was free, and properly cooked, it's delicious. Rabbit meat is virtually fat-free, and therefore a healthy source of protein.
Any chicken casserole recipe can be adapted to use rabbit instead, if you're lucky enough to find a source.
Before cooking your rabbit, there's a couple of things you need to understand.
Rabits are muscular little creatures, and the meat needs long slow cooking to tenderise it. And it can be a bit gamey, so soaking it first is a good idea.
This is how Mum prepared rabbit stew.

Cut the rabbit into portions, and soak in cold, salted water, for at least an hour.
Dry the meat, and brown it in a frying pan. Remove and place in a heavy pot.

Then fry a roughly chopped onion and several rashers of bacon in the frypan. Add these to the pot with the rabbit. Pour some hot water into the frypan, and scrape up all the brown bits. Pour this water over the rabbit in the pot, and add a pinch of mixed herbs and two or three thickly sliced carrots.
Cover and simmer gently for about 1 + 1/2 hours, or until the meat is tender - will depend on the age of the bunny.
Remove the meat to a plate, and thicken the gravy with flour, and a dash of Parisian essence if liked.
Serve with mashed potatoes and peas or beans.

Parisian essence was a browning agent, made, I think, from caramelized sugar. You probably can't buy it now. Today I would use Gravox as a thickener. Sliced celery would be a good addition, and a slurp of red wine would also go well.

A bit of history (from Wikipedia)
Everyone blames Thomas Austin for the rabbit problem in Australia. He released 12 wild rabbits, specially imported from England, on his property, Barwon Park, near Winchelsea, Victoria, in October 1859 for hunting purposes. Many other farms released their rabbits into the wild after Austin. At the time he had stated, "The introduction of a few rabbits could do little harm and might provide a touch of home, in addition to a spot of hunting."^[5]

Aussies have been hunting them ever since!

But rabbits were first introduced to Australia by the First Fleet in 1788. They were bred as food animals, probably in cages. In the first decades they do not appear to have been numerous, judging from their absence from archaeological collections of early colonial food remains.

However, by 1827 in Tasmania a newspaper article noted ‘…the common rabbit is becoming so numerous throughout the colony, that they are running about on some large estates by thousands. We understand, that there are no rabbits whatever in the elder colony' [i.e. New South Wales]^[2]. This clearly shows that a localised rabbit population explosion was underway in Tasmania in the early 19th century. At the same time in NSW Cunningham noted that '... rabbits are bred around houses, but we have yet no wild ones in enclosures...’ He noted that the scrubby, sandy soil between Sydney and Botany Bay would be ideal for farming rabbits^[3]. Enclosures appears to mean more extensive rabbit-farming warrens, rather than cages. The first of these, in Sydney at least, was one built by Alexander Macleay at Elizabeth Bay House,'a preserve or rabbit-warren, surrounded by a substantial stone wall, and well stocked with that choice game'^[4]. In the 1840s rabbit-keeping became even more common, with examples of the theft of rabbits from ordinary peoples' houses appearing in court records, and rabbits entering the diet of ordinary people.

So rabbit has been an integral part of Australian cuisine since the first white settlement. Many a farmer has cursed them, and they have caused untold damage to the environment and the economy. Still, they're damn good eating!

Simple muffins

2011-12-02T17:55:00.001+11:00

The Resident Grandson had a sudden yearning for muffins, and asked for a recipe. He wanted them NOW, so I fell back on the basic recipe for Little Cakes. It goes like this -

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup milk
1 + 1/2 cups SR flour

Method
Line 2 x 6 cup muffin tins with paper liners, heat oven to 200C
Warm the sugar slightly in the microwave, add butter and beat well. Beat in eggs and vanilla, then milk. Lastly stir in the sifted flour. Share out between paper cases. Bake for approx 15 mins, until just brown on top. Allow to cool a little, and ice with chocolate icing. Eat.

Modifications
TRG only made half this quantity, and mixed them by hand with a wooden spoon. He added 1/2 cup of choc chips, which sank a little, but nobody minded. It's not a true muffin recipe, so they were very light and spongy, and utterly delicious.

This is the recipe I used for quick and easy cupcakes years ago; I used to add some sultanas, and sprinkle brown sugar on top - no need for icing. Or you can make them plain, and ice them fancy...

Homemade pizza

2011-11-24T13:29:00.001+11:00

Yesterday I tried a new recipe, for The Easiest Pizza in the World, found at Everybody like Sandwiches. A no-rise, no knead dough? I didn't think it would work, but to my amazement, and the delight of the Resident Grandson, it worked a treat! Here's the recipe

the easiest pizza dough in the world
1 packet of yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 c warm water
2 1/2 c flour
1 t honey
1 t salt
2 T olive oil
2 T fresh rosemary, chopped (optional)
cornmeal
Preheat oven to 210C. In a large bowl, add in the yeast and warm water and stir until the yeast dissolves. Add the flour, salt, honey, rosemary (if using), and olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon vigorously until combined. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
Sprinkle cornmeal onto a walled baking sheet and press dough into it until thin. Add toppings of your choice and bake for 20-25 minutes until pizza crust is golden and cheese is bubbly.

Notes
I followed the recipe pretty much as written, but left out the rosemary. I didn't have cornmeal, so just floured an ordinary baking tray and pressed (well actually, rolled) the dough out to cover it. Next time I'll divide the dough in half and make 2 smaller pizzas.
I used bread flour - cos I had some - and would again.

This is the yeast I used - it keeps for ages in the fridge. That's a lot of yeast for the amount of flour, but there was no yeasty taste. And it was cooked all the way through, the bottom was lightly browned, and it didn't stick to the tray.

It made a very large pizza (leftovers tonight) but it was delicious! Will definitely be doing this again!

I used the toppings requested by TRG, and they were expensive - Leggo's pizza sauce, red onion, some capsicum, hot salami, and Mozzarella cheese. But I could make a much cheaper version, I'm sure.
Next time I'll add the honey and oil to the liquid, and then stir in the flour, sifted with the salt.
The dough was a bit sticky when mixed, I had to work in a bit of extra flour. And I did knead it, just a little...

Now I'm wondering, what else could I do with this dough? Top it with bacon, pineapple and cheese, maybe?
And if I baked it without any topping, and maybe left it a trifle thicker, would I have Turkish bread? Then I could make some Anybean Hummus! (see below)

Or, what if I rolled the dough out, spread it with say, pesto, rolled it into a sausage, and sliced it - pesto rolls?
And then there are sweet possibilities - cinnamon scrolls, perhaps? If you experiment with this, let me know!

This handy little idea comes from Grill a Chef, the blog of chef Joshua Stokes

Anybean Hummus
1 can of beans
1 splash of an acid (citrus or vinegar)
a handful of nuts
some salt
some pepper
a pinch of a spice or an herb
a glug of oil

Spin the ingredients you have chosen in a food processor until smooth. Taste. Adjust. Taste again. Adjust until satisfied. Serve as you would any other hummus that you have purchased at the market... but would not feel as rewarded eating.

Oh, and if you like recipe-surfing, try this - Food Gawker

Quilters

2011-11-23T17:32:00.001+11:00

Spent some time at my quilt group, Goldfields Quilters, today. It's always interesting to see what people are making, and for once I had the camera.

Lorraine's latest quilt is a showstopper. Great graphic design, one of those quilts that you just keep looking at and finding new details.

Lorraine and her family had a very sad time last year, and we all got together and made up a collection of blue fabrics for her. This is what she's done with them.

This is a queen-size quilt, and she is hand-quilting it. Detail of the centre.

Christine is using her father's ties for a hexagon quilt.

And Brenda is making great progress with her amazing quilt -

tiny, tiny hexagons, joined with fine hand stitches.

She says it's getting rather heavy, and this back view shows why.

Such talented quilters, and good friends too. We have a great time on meeting days. Wish I could share Eileen's latest joke, but it's a bit rude...

An American connection

2011-11-21T10:43:00.001+11:00

The story of my great-grandfather Micheal Maher is the perfect illustration of what happens when family details are not recorded and passed down. Micheal (that's not a typo - he signed his name to several documents with that spelling) is something of an enigma. No records have been found of his arrival in Australia.
In 1868 he married Annie Hassett, in the Catholic church at Hamilton.

The marriage certificate shows that he was born in 1842 at Thomastown, Kilkenny, and his parents were Thomas Maher and Mary Read. He began his life in Australia as a labourer, but when he died at Minyip, Victoria in 1913, he was a wealthy man, owning nearly 2500 acres of land.

He and Annie had five sons and two daughters. His sons were each left a farm, and the daughters received 500 pounds each - a large sum in 1913.

When Micheal and Annie married, their residence was Port Fairy, but they moved to Ararat - at least two of their children were born there.

In 1874 the family moved to Minyip, taking up land near Annie's brothers, the Hassetts.

Over the years, Micheal continued to buy land and pay it off - his long and complicated Will gives details of several farms, some still mortgaged.

Some time between 1908 and 1913, Micheal returned to Ireland. It must have been after 1908, because he brought back a present for my mother, Annie Maher, his first grandchild. The present was a child's knife, fork and spoon set, with ornate silver handles, in a leatherette case - now owned by one of my nephews.

Micheal presumably still had some family connections in Ireland, but that information is now lost to us. What remained was a story of relatives in America - either Micheal or one of his sons supposedly exchanged letters with a Stephen Maher, who had settled in America. My mother had a vague memory of this, and thought Stephen or one of his sons was a doctor...
Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, it's now much easier to research your family tree. Using Ancestry.com, several family members have discovered that the American story is true!

Stephen Maher was actually Micheal Maher's uncle; he left Ireland in 1825 and settled in New Haven, Connecticut, and two of his grandsons were indeed doctors. There are many Maher descendants still living in Connecticut today.

Anne & Jane Maher

Micheal and Annie's children (not necessarily in order, I don't have all their birthdates) were -
Thomas m. Grace Kenny - no children
William, m. Ellen Kenny - stillborn child
Michael, m. Amelia Sullivan - Frank & Mollie
John, M. Elizabeth Drum - Michael, Kathryn, Veronica & John
Patrick, m. Agnes Sullivan - Annie, Eileen, Kathleen & John
Anne (Sr. Philomena, Brigidine Convent, Wangaratta)
Jane m. James Hickey - no children

Two of Micheal and Annie's sons also visited Ireland.
Thomas retired from farming and took an extensive world trip, including Ireland.
Pat (and probably Ag) went to Ireland, and brought back souvenirs - a silver Celtic cross pendant for my mother, with her initials, A.M. engraved on it. Mum treasured her cross, and wore it often; my sister has it now. Pat also sponsored an Irishman, who worked on the farm for some years.

Pat Maher (on right) and his cousin, Pat Kelly.
Annie Hassett's sister, Honorah, married James Kelly, and the two families were always close.

Micheal died in 1913, and is buried with his wife in the Minyip cemetery. Some of his descendants still live at Minyip.

That brings my Irish history to a close, I hope it hasn't been too confusing! All the information here, plus a bit more, will be published on my website, Marcie's Memoirs. Still tinkering with that, I'll reveal it soon...

Now it's time to tackle the history of my German ancestors, and be warned, I have LOTS of information about them!

Trevor's salad

2011-11-18T16:09:00.001+11:00

When the weather warms up, we dust off the salad recipes. This is a recent addition to the repertoire, which I first tasted at grand-daughter Lucy's 18th birthday party. Made by her Dad, Trevor, it was the perfect foil for the curry dishes served that night. Turns out it goes with everything, it's ridiculously easy to make, and doesn't need a dressing!

Ingredients
mixed lettuce leaves
fresh tomatoes
small continental cucumber
3 or 4 spring onions
small tin crushed pineapple(in natural juice)
pepper and salt

Method

slice the lettuce leaves (think salsa)

dice the tomatoes

slice the cucumber lengthwise in quarters, then chop

slice the spring onions (scissors are fast)

drain the pineapple

Mix all ingredients in a salad bowl, add enough pineapple juice to moisten,

season generously with salt and pepper.

(no quantities given, you can make this for 2 or 10)

Two for the price of one today - this is a salad my mother used to make, and it's still a regular feature of our Christmas lunches.

Orange and onion salad.

oranges, peeled and sliced
salad onion, finely sliced - or red onion, or spring onions
mayonnaise (some of us like the old Condensed Milk mayo with this)
Delicious with cold chicken or ham.

S'pose I'd better give you the mayo recipe too, but this is really only for lovers of condensed milk...

Condensed milk mayonnaise
1/2 tin Nestles condensed milk
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup oil
1 level tsp. mustard powder
1/2 level tsp. salt

Method
blend mustard & salt with a little vinegar, stir into condensed milk, add rest of vinegar and stir. Slowly add oil, stirring until combined and thickened.
This keeps for a long time in the fridge.
What you do with the remaining condensed milk is your affair...

Grandad's last trip

2011-11-13T22:42:00.001+11:00

Yesterday my sister and I attended an annual cousins' gathering, all of us descended from two Sullivan sisters who married two Maher brothers.

We lunched at the historic Craig's Royal Hotel in Ballarat.

This gorgeous old pub is a Ballarat landmark, built in 1853 at the height of the goldrush, and recently refurbished to full Victorian glory.
There were eight cousins in attendance, plus partners, and we had a great time. We've known each other for sixty or seventy years, and grey hair and wonky knees haven't dimmed the fellowship.
Josephine brought a treasure trove of family photos, and Brian and Bernadette heard the story of our convict ancestors for the first time. There was a great-aunt's diary, a collection of old newspaper clippings, and lots of reminiscences.
Barry told the best story of the day, about the death of my grandfather, Pat Maher. Pat lived all his life on the farm in Minyip, but when he retired, he used to divide his time between visiting various family members. In 1949, he went to visit his sister Jennie in Sydney. Unfortunately, he died there. The family knew he'd want to be buried in Minyip beside his wife and daughter. So...his son Jack, and nephews Frank and Michael, decided to bring him home.
Barry was just a nipper, but he remembers it well. The war was over, but petrol was still rationed - they wouldn't be able to buy any on the way. "Dad had all these 4 gallon drums." Barry told us. "He filled them up with petrol, put a bit of rag over the hole, and screwed the caps on tight. Then he stacked them in the boot." Jack's car was a big old pre-war American model, something like this one.

It's about 1000 kilometres from Minyip to Sydney, and on the roads of the day, the trip probably took them about 24 hours each way. "They collected Pat, and brought him home on the back seat, with the three cousins sitting in the front. They delivered him to the undertaker in Minyip, and went home and had a beer."
Understandably, this story gave rise to a few questions. There was a spirited debate as to whether you could have fitted a coffin across the back seat of the car. Consensus - no, you couldn't.
Barry stuck to his version of the story, backed up by his sister Pat. You really don't want to hear all the suggestions that were made for the best way to convey your deceased relative home in the back of the family car...
When we stopped laughing, we wondered - are there laws about that sort of thing? Do you have to get permission to take a body interstate (with or without a coffin)?

Anyway, that's how Pat Maher made his final journey, and was duly interred in the Minyip cemetery beside his beloved Ag. And I'm sure Jack, Frank and Michael treated him with all the care and respect he deserved - he was much loved.

Cat on a hot tin roof

2011-11-13T09:26:00.001+11:00

Audrey rises to new heights...

Ooh, it's a long way down!

Baking 101

2011-11-11T16:25:00.001+11:00

In COOKING, experimentation is good - a pinch of this or that, or a new ingredient, can lead to wonderful dishes.

But BAKING is different.

So I've put together a few notes for those just starting out - when I was learning, I wish someone had told me a few things...

Butter and sugar, eggs, flour and liquids, interact in weird chemical ways.
Some recipes depend on beating in lots of air, others rely on various rising agents. Too much sugar is sticky and sickly, too little will give you a dry, crumbly cake.

So when you're baking, stick to the recipe. Follow the method, check the oven temperature, use the right sized tin. All the recipes I give here have been made dozens of times, and adjusted here and there until I'm sure of success.

Every kitchen should have at least one set of measuring cups and spoons - and make sure they are Australian measures - American measures are different.
When measuring flour, spoon it into the measuring cup, take a knife, tap the cup sharply, then level the top. Flour and associated dry ingredients should be sifted - if you don't have a proper sifter, use a large strainer. Or as a last resort, stir the flour vigorously with a whisk, or even a fork.
You can replace half the white flour in a recipe with wholemeal flour - any more than that will require extra liquid, and may throw the recipe out of balance.
You really need some sort of scales - electronic ones are good, but expensive; I managed for many years with el cheapo mechanical scales.
An electric mixer is great, but hand beaters will do the job - even a good old-fashioned wooden spoon works, if you have time, energy, and good arm muscles. My mother used to cream butter and sugar with a fork - over the years the tines of her baking fork wore down on one side - a bit alarming when you think about it, where did all that metal go?
The microwave is a boon - it's much easier to cream butter and sugar if you warm the sugar a little bit first.
Buy the best ingredients you can afford - cheap flour is often poor quality. Doesn't matter with sugar, it's all the same anyway. Use real butter, of a reputable brand, never margarine (shudder). Use real vanilla extract, not imitation, and cochineal, not some chemical colouring. I rarely use artificial colourings or flavours, even for icing.
Buy icing mixture, which has some cornflour added, and is less likely to go lumpy.
Store all your baking supplies in airtight containers - opened packets absorb moisture and the contents go stale more quickly. Look for big jars at the Op shop.
Collect cake tins in various sizes - square, round, loaf and slice pans. They don't have to be non-stick; again, Op shops are a good source. If you buy muffin tins, look for the 6-cup ones, easier to rotate in the oven for even browning.
Buy the freshest eggs you can find - check the use-by dates, and keep them in the fridge. Stale eggs don't have the same rising abilities as fresh ones. And always break an egg into a cup before you add it to your mixture - saves nasty surprises!
Home baked cakes and biscuits (in fact any food you prepare yourself) are much better for you than commercial products - no artificial colours or flavours, no preservatives, no hydrogenated fats.

Friday favourites

2011-11-11T15:39:00.001+11:00

Carrot cake

This is the best carrot cake recipe I know.
It's a large cake; you'll need at least a 20 cm square pan, or a large deepish slice tin.
It's dairy-free, too.

Preheat oven to 180C, grease your pan, cut baking paper to fit the bottom.

Ingredients
2 large eggs (60 g)
1/2 cup oil (I use canola)
3/4 cup raw sugar
2 cups (about 300 g) grated carrot
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 + 3/4 cups SR flour
1/2 teasp bicarb. soda
1/4 teasp each of cinnamon and nutmeg

Method
Prepare carrots & walnuts - a food processor is faster than grating the carrots. Walnuts can be placed in a plastic bag and crushed with something heavy - rolling pin, chopping board.
Beat eggs, sugar and oil until light in colour
Mix in carrot and walnuts, then stir in flour (sifted with soda and spices) stirring only until combined.
Pour into tin, bake 30-45 mins, or until a knife inserted in the middle come out clean.(Who remembers when Mum used a straw to test cakes??)

When cold, ice with white icing, sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg. The icing would be nicer with a teaspoon or so of butter, but then it wouldn't be dairy-free, would it? Your choice. Lemon juice is good for mixing the icing, too...

Flower garden

2011-11-09T15:18:00.000+11:00

I love to crochet - it's faster than knitting, you get to play with lots of pretty colours, and you end up with something useful and beautiful. Here's a glimpse of my latest work-in-progress, a flowery afghan. It's based on a Granny Square variation by Lucy of Attic24, but I've tweaked it a bit.

First you make some little circles.

They become bigger circles.

Then you turn them into squares.

After you've darned in all the ends (my least favourite part of the exercise) you block the squares, so the finished rug will lie nice and flat.

Blocking means you pin them out flat, spray with water, and leave them to dry

Then you sew them all together...

I calculate I'll need 165 squares altogether; I've made 120 so far.
Don't know what I'll do with it yet, I hope to finish it by Christmas.

I can write up the pattern, if anyone's interested...

But wait, there's more!

2011-11-07T22:07:00.001+11:00

Now that we’ve seen Annie happily married to Fred, you mightthink I’ve run out of Irish ancestors to tell you about. Well, not quite.

If you’ve been payingattention so far, you may have noticed that most of my stories are about thewomen in my family. That’s no accident. All too often, it seems to me, familyhistorians follow the male line, and the wives and daughters get barely amention. But their stories are just as important.

Life was hard for all of our pioneer forbears, both men andwomen, but I think the toll was greater on the women. Living in a time when lawmakers, doctors, and clergy were exclusively male,women were essentially powerless. For most, marriage was the only careeravailable. To them fell the burden of bearing and rearing children, making ahome wherever they found themselves – sometimes far, far away from theirhomeland.

And yet, when you think about it, women made the greatestcontribution of all in a new country. They were responsible for raising thenext generation, keeping them safe and well fed and healthy, sending them toschool whenever they could, and generally preparing them to make their way inthe world. No strangers to worry, hard work, and sadness, I hope they also knewlove, and saw at least some of their dreams come true.

Now I’m going to tell you what I know of my great-great grandmother,Anne Hassett (nee Kennedy), and her daughter, Annie Hassett.

In 1991, I travelled to Ireland as part of a Europeanholiday.
I wanted to find out more about Anne Hassett, among others.
The onlyinformation I had came from her death certificate. Anne Kennedy was born in CoClare, Irelandin 1797. At the age of 25, she married Patrick Hassett, farmer, and they hadsix children – Andrew, Mary, John, Honora (Norah) Martin and Annie.

I arrived in Ennis, and hired a car (no public transport beyondEnnis). My first port of call was the Clare Heritage Centre at Corofin, where Idiscovered that there are no surviving records of births, deaths and marriagesfor Crusheen. But the Griffith Land Valuation of 1855 showed that Anne Hassettrented a cottage and land near the village of Crusheen, about 10 km north ofEnnis.

I drove there, and took lots of photos, wanting to rememberthe place she had left behind, and the familiar sights she had known.

Thecountry around Crusheen was lush and green, with little stone bridges andbeautiful lakes.I didn’t find Anne’s cottage, but it probably looked somethinglike this one.

In 1864, Anne, now a widow, left her homeland to emigrate toAustralia.She was 66 years old. She had probably never travelled beyond her villagebefore, but now she packed up her bags and embarked on a journey across theworld. She wasn’t alone – her youngest daughter, Annie, accompanied her. Annehad a powerful reason to emigrate; her older children were already in Australia, andhad sent money home so their mother could join them in the new land.

No shipping records have been found so far, but familytradition tells that the older children went first, probably as assistedimmigrants, and when they were established, they sent for their mother. Itseems likely that John, Norah, and Martin travelled to Australiatogether, and settled around Port Fairy. Family tradition tells of Norah, whoworked for a Dr. Scott at Hamilton,and for 2 years never collected any pay, but got her employers to save it soshe could send it back home to bring her mother out.

(No record has been foundfor the oldest daughter, Mary, but she was still alive when her mother died, soshe probably married and was thus recorded under a different name. Oldest son, Andrew is shown as deceased on Annie's death certificate - he presumably died in Ireland, perhaps as a child.)

Before long, Norah and Annie were married, and lived in theArarat district. Norah married James Kelly, and Annie married Micheal Maher.Martin and John Hassett had also found wives, and before long Annie Hassett hadgrandchildren to cuddle.

In 1872, the Government opened up land for settlement in theWimmera, and the Hassett brothers and the Kellys moved to the Minip district in1873. Annie and Michael Maher followed in 1874. Annie Hassett went with them –in fact, a 640 acre block of land was registered in her name.
What a change ofscenery it must have been for her! From the evergreen hills of Ireland to theflat plains of the Wimmera, where the only relief from fierce summer heat isthe sparse shade of a sheoak tree, and the ground cracks open in the summer. Itwas good wheat-growing country, though, and I expect Annie found someconsolation in seeing her family well on their way to success in their newcountry.

She died at Minyip in 1877, aged 80, and is buried at Rupanyupcemetery. Recently the cemetery trustees decided to mark some of the oldergraves, and there is now a permanent memorial in her name.

(My thanks to PamMurphy for the photo).

Bachelors and Spinsters

2011-11-05T09:54:00.000+11:00

After the death of their mother, Annie and her sister Eileenlived at the farm in Minyip, keeping house for their father and younger brotherJack. There was plenty to do; housekeeping without electricity is no easy job –no vacuum cleaners, washing machines or refrigerators. Cooking was done on awood-fired stove. At haymaking and harvesting time there would often be extramen to feed – and they expected hot dinners, too!

Outside the house there were poultry to feed, cows to milk, andgardens to tend. Most people were as self-sufficient as possible, making butter,preserving fruit and growing vegies.

You might think that life in a small country town would bepretty quiet – dull, even. But you’d be wrong. Country people are pretty goodat entertaining themselves! Annie and Eileen had a very busy social life. Perusalof the local newspapers of the time show that there were plenty of socialevents - a kitchen tea, a concert, a card night, a twenty-first birthday party.

There was plenty of sport for those so inclined: football,golf, tennis and cricket. Lavish afternoon teas and suppers were the norm.

Mum used to tell the story of a school friend from Ballarat,who came to stay on the farm for several weeks, and Annie and Eily did theirbest to show her a good time. When the lass returned home, she spent severalweeks in bed, suffering from “nervous exhaustion”!

By the late twenties, most people had a car; the Mahers had aFord, a ‘tin Lizzie’ and it went everywhere, over the roughest of roads, and evenacross paddocks. Their next car was an Essex,followed by a Chev.

Every little community for miles around had at least one Ball; Bachelors and Spinsters Balls were all the rage (not the drunken affairs we hear of nowadays) and people drove a long way to attend them.

One the way home from one such occasion, in wet weather (themain ball season was winter) the car skidded on the greasy road (I’m talkinghere about an unsealed road which consisted of two wheel tracks with a grassycentre – you can still see a few tracks like that in the Wimmera - and landed inthe table drain (wide shallow drain at the side of the road). They werehopelessly bogged, and had to trudge across the paddocks in full evening finery- long dresses for the girls - to the nearest house where they stayed the restof the night. It was not uncommon for them to return home early in the morning, when the boys would milk the cows and thengo to bed.

Everyone had dance programmes, with a little pencilattached, so the boys could book dances.

When Mum died, we found a few of them amongher keepsakes.

In this one, the writing is my father’s, and I wondered why ithad been kept for so long. The date was July 15^th, 1927, and Fredhad four dances with Ann.

She would have been just 19, Fred a couple of years older.What happened that night that caused one of them to keep the dance programmefor all those years?

Over the next years, Annie had several boyfriends, but theyall fell by the wayside; in a couple of cases, Mum said, because they were drank too much, and there was No Way she would ever marry a drinker! She had seenseveral relatives suffer the miseries of living with a drinker.

But Fred was always there, a good-looking, rather shy chap,and a beautiful dancer, too. Trouble was, he wasn’t Catholic, and thus not asuitable partner for a good Catholic girl. At what point Mum changed her mindon this, I don’t know, but Fred and Annie announced their engagement at St.Patrick’s Ball in Minyip, in 1936. Not a popular choice with her family, as I’vewritten elsewhere.

By now, Eileen was about to be married, and brother Jackwould soon follow suit. When that happened Jack would take over the farm, accordingto the custom of the times, and Annie and her father would have to move out. Inthose days, sons got farms; daughters were expected to marry (probably anotherson with a farm, but at least someone who would support them). But Fred, thenext-to-youngest of thirteen children, was never going to inherit a farm, sothey would have to provide for themselves. Fred had worked for an older cousinsince leaving school, and was saving as much as he could to buy his own farm.

Annie at back, right

Annie would also need to earn a living, and she had alreadyarranged to train as a nurse, at the Ballarat Base Hospital.She would not be paid for the first six months, but would at least have herkeep, and could live in the Nurses’ home.

Annie enjoyed her training, and made many friends among theother nurses. The work was hard, but interesting. During her third year at the Hospital,she caught diphtheria, and was very ill, missing weeks of training.

She stillmanaged to pass her finals, and became a registered Nurse. She had to make upthe lost weeks, of course, but finally she and Fred were able to marry.

(See also “A marriage of two cultures”)

When life hands you lemons...

2011-11-04T13:47:00.000+11:00

...make Lemon Butter!

If you have lots of lemons, this is a Good Thing to do with them.
But if you have to buy your lemons, avoid nice shiny fruit that has been waxed - your local fruit shop might have wax-free lemons.
I know the wax used on fruit is supposed to be "food grade" and harmless, but I don't fancy eating any, all the same.
Lemon butter's easy and quick to make in the microwave - no more endless stirring of a hot saucepan!
You will cook the mixture in short bursts, stirring between times. I use a wire whisk.

This recipe, from my daughter Susie, has more sugar than most, which means it will keep for ages.(as if!)
Prepare your jars first - small jars are best. They should have lids that will make an airtight seal. Baby food jars are good. (This recipe will fill 7-8 small baby food jars). Jars and lids should be clean and perfectly dry.

You will need
a 1.5 litre capacity microwave-safe jug
A wire whisk is useful if you have one...
4 eggs, well beaten.
4-5 lemons (you need 1/2 cup of lemon juice)
500g sugar
125g butter

Method
Grate rind from lemons, then squeeze the juice, discarding seeds.
Place sugar, butter, rind and juice in microwave jug, cook on high for 1 minute.
Remove and stir, cook another minute. Remove and mix in the beaten eggs.
Then cook in approx seven x 30 second bursts, removing and stirring each time. Mixture should expand and develop lots of tiny bubbles. When it reaches this stage, don't be tempted to "give it one more go" - it may boil over!
Pour into jars, topping up as the bubbles subside a bit. Put the lids on immediately, so the heat creates a seal as the mixture cools.
Store in the fridge. Delish on hot buttered toast, or a filling for tarts or sponge cake.
Maybe you could make a lemon version of the Butter Sponge from last week?

Audrey

2011-11-01T18:13:00.002+11:00

Some of you will know that Crystal, my sweet little black cat, was tragically killed a few weeks ago. She had been with me for 14 years, and always slept on my bed at night. Life just wasn't the same without her.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I visited the lovely folk at the Castlemaine RSPCA shelter, and came home with this little girl.
She's just 14 months old, a pale "tabby tortie".

After much debate (including a hilarious discussion on Facebook), we named her Audrey, for the eyeliner she wears around her pretty green eyes.

She settled in well, found my bed a comfy place to sleep, and soon learned that our old dog was no threat.

She was supposed to stay inside for several weeks, but oh, how she longed to be out!

Finally the great day came, and she had her first look around her new garden.
So much to see!

So many interesting things to explore...trees to climb, butterflies to chase, it's all quite exhausting really.

Time to curl up and sleep awhile...

Ag and Pat

2011-10-30T19:04:00.002+11:00

My grandparents, Agnes Elizabeth Sullivan and PatrickNicholas Maher, married at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat, in Feb. 1907, Both were aged 27. Theyhad probably known each other as children, for Pat was born and lived all hislife at Minyip, and Ag had lived there as a child with her parents – her twoyounger brothers were born there.

Accordingto my Aunt Eileen, they met again as adults when Pat had sheep agisted nearBallarat, and before long they were married. It’s a beautiful dress, isn’t it?Perhaps made by Ag’s sister Kit, who was a tailoress…

Pat had afarm just out of Minyip, and their house was called “Looranna”. A few yearslater, in 1911, Ag’s older sister Millie married Pat’s brother, Michael Maher,who had a farm just across the road.

(Accordingto Mum, another Maher brother, Jack, was keen on Ag’s younger sister Belle, butshe turned him down. Mum also thought Ag had been engaged to someone elsebefore she married Pat.)

Ag and Pathad four children. The first was my mother, AnnieAgnes Maher, born in Ballarat in 1908. Then came Eileen Mary, b. 1910, andKathleen Theresa, b. 1911 – all born in Ballarat – apparently Ag went home foreach birth. The youngest, John Patrick, was born at Minyip in 1912.

Theyhad a happy marriage, by all accounts - when they were at home on thefarm, Ag would always go everywhere with Pat, even just for a drive down thepaddock in the buggy. She said her husband was more important, and householdtasks could wait.
Ag’s healthwas ‘delicate’ though no-one seems to know exactly what was wrong with her. Shewas apparently prone to bronchitis, (no antibiotics in those days) and it seemsthat all the coughing weakened her heart. Mum said she always had help in thehouse when her children were young.

Perhapsthis goes some way to explaining why the children were all sent to boarding schoolat an early age. Mum was just six years old when she was sent to board with theBrigidine nuns at Wangaratta. Presumable this was chosen because Pat’s sisterAnne (Sister Philomena) was there, and would keep an eye on the little girl.

At thetime, many Catholic families sent their children away to school, because therewere no Catholic schools in the smaller towns. Annie, understandably, hated it;she said she used to cry herself to sleep every night. A couple of years later shewas joined at Wangaratta by her sister Eileen, and then the youngest sisterKathleen. Their brother Jack would in his turn be sent to St. Pat’s in Ballaratfor his education. At least he had family in Ballarat, and could presumably goto them on weekends. The three little girls in Wangaratta weren’t so lucky –they only went home once a year, for the summer holidays.

Kathleen Maher

Thisarrangement intensified the tragedy when the youngest girl, Kathleen, died atboarding school, aged just nine. She apparently had Bright’s disease, whichwould now be called acute nephritis – inflammation of the kidneys. There was notreatment then, and by the time the nuns realised that she was very ill andcontacted her parents, it was too late. Kathleen died in May, 1920, and isburied beside her parents at the Minyip Cemetery.

I havenever been able to understand how any parents could send their children awaylike that, but I suppose it was considered normal then. It had a profoundeffect on my mother, who always found it hard to show affection – she was not a‘huggy’ person.

The twoolder girls did not return to Wangaratta, finishing their schooling inBallarat, where they boarded with their Grandmother Sulllivan, and Aunties Kitand Rose.

Ag’s healthworsened, and Pat installed a share farmer and moved to Ballarat for fiveyears, so she could escape the heat of the Minyip summers. Ag had a dreadfulcough, and TB was suspected, but no doctor could ever find any trace of it. Theymust have gone back to Minyip, for Ag died there on the farm on October 17^th,1927.

Annie had already moved home to Minyip to look after her mother, andremained there to keep house for her father and brother Jack, while Eileenstayed in Ballarat.

The farm waseventually passed to Jack, and Pat divided his time between visits to variousfamily members. I remember him staying with us at Lubeck, a quietly spoken man, with endlesspatience for small girls. Sometimes I would sit on Granddad’s knee and playwith his pocket watch, and occasionally I was even allowed to help fill hispipe! The plug of tobacco was kept in a small tin, and Granddad would shavebits of tobacco off with his pocket knife, which then had to be carefullypacked into the bowl of the pipe – “but nottoo firmly dear, or it won’t draw”… Pat died in 1949, while on a visit tohis sister Jane in Sydney.

Friday favourites

2011-10-27T23:30:00.001+11:00

Orange cake (butter sponge)
This is a lovely light, fine-grained cake. It's not a real sponge cake (I'm not very good at those) but it's easy to make, especially if you have an electric beater. A hand beater will do the job, just takes a bit more muscle power.
Preheat oven to 180C, grease and paper a 20cm round or square pan.

Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup SR flour
3 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
grated rind of 1 orange
Method
Mix sugar and sifted flour in a basin, add eggs, then milk, orange rind, and lastly melted butter. Beat well for 3 minutes (mixture should get lighter in colour) Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, turn out onto a wire cooler.
Orange icing
Icing sugar, 1 tsp butter, rind and juice of 1 orange. Mandarin segments make a nice decoration.

Variations
1. flavour with 1 tsp vanilla essence, ice with chocolate icing, sprinkle with coconut.
2. Spice cake - add 2 tsps cocoa, 1/2 tsp cinnamon. 1/2 tsp nutmeg (sifted with flour).
3. Add one or two passionfruit to cake mixture, and also to the icing.

You can also split the cake (slice it horizontally) and fill with whipped cream.
When I had lots of people to feed, I used to make double the quantity, and bake it in a baking dish (roasting pan).

The Sullivan family

2011-10-27T15:21:00.000+11:00

On April 5^th 1874, Mary Ann Hannigan marriedJames Edward Sullivan, at St Francis Catholic church, Melbourne – the same church where her parentshad married. Sadly, her father, Thomas Hannigan, died on May 23rd, just a fewweeks after the wedding.

James Sullivan was born in 1843 in Co. Cavan, Ireland, but his family moved to Scotland whenhe was one year old. James emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 21, and later to Australia. For most of his life in Australia, James worked as a gangeron the railways, and was known as the only Irish ganger with a Scots accent.

Gangers on hand-operated trolleys. Safe rail travel dependson well maintained lines. Steel rails were fastened to wooden ‘sleepers’,supported on ballast – coarsely broken stones.

The gangers travelled up anddown the railway lines checking for loose fastenings, and replacing brokensleepers and warped rails.

James and Mary Ann had seven children, five girls and twoboys.

Their first child, Amelia, wasborn at Yan Yean, just north of Melbourne, in 1875. James couldn’t have beenemployed with the Railways then, as the line was not extended to Yan Yean until1889. The family moved to the Western district, where the next four childrenwere born, at Hamilton, Branxholme, and Condah. Then James worked on constructionof the rail line from Murtoa to Warracknabeal, and they lived at Minyip, wheretheir two sons were born.

It must have been hard to packup furniture, bedding, clothes and kids, and move to another small town. It issaid that on one occasion, set down beside an isolated railhead with no houseready for them to live in, Mary Ann sat down and wept. And who could blame her?A newcomer with another new home to set up in primitive circumstances, littlemoney, no kith or kin apart from her own small family, and great isolation.

Mary Ann was able to earn someextra income by working as a crossing keeper, opening and shutting the gates atthe level crossings.

Throughout their travels, theSullivans remained strong in their Catholic faith, and when they finallysettled in Ballarat the girls attended Loreto Convent. The family made theirhome at 801 Armstrong Street,Ballarat North, where they were to remain for many years. Their house (no longer there) wascalled “Cavan” in memory of James’s Irish origins. James died in Ballarat onthe 6^th of December, 1918.

The Sullivan girls had beautifulnames - Amelia Mary (Millie), Rose Ann, AgnesElizabeth (Ag), Catherine Alicia (Kit), and Isabella Margaret (Belle). Theboys were James Edward (Jim) and WilliamJohn (Will). Agnes was my grandmother, and I remember several of the othersfrom my childhood – Auntie Rose, Auntie Kit, Uncle Jim and Uncle Will. It was Millie who wrote the letter to my mother, mentioned in this post.

Some years ago a couple of glassphoto negatives were discovered and developed. One shows Mary Ann, a littlewizened lady in black, with her eldest daughter Millie and grand-daughter Molly.She had lived to see one of her sons, Jim, return safely from France in WW1,and she had nine grandchildren.

What changes she must have seen during herlifetime – from bullock train to steam train to motor car, from uncertain maildelivery to the telephone and radio, and from the wild country of herbirthplace to the bustle of working-class South Yarra.

The other photo is of my grandmother, Agnes Sullivan,who married Patrick Maher. (Her sister Millie would marry Pat’s brother Michaela few years later). Both Millie and Ag were married at St. Patrick’s Cathedral,Ballarat.

When their father died, there wasn’t muchmoney, and several of the girls went out to work – Ag was a teacher, and Kittrained as a tailoress. They had a busy social life too. Millie kept a diaryfor 12 months, (she had a bet with one of her sisters), and wrote of going todances, parties, and visits to friends. They had no car, relying on the tramsto get around, and sometimes walking home after the last tram had gone. Thisdiary also records the birth of my mother, on a hot January day in 1908.

Thebirth took place at the Sullivan family home, the temperature climbed to 105F, andwet sheets were hung around the room to combat the heat. The diary is now held by theMinyip Historical Society.

Jim Sullivan served in France during WW1,and was badly affected by mustard gas, but returned home safely. He laterworked for the railways, and never married, sharing a house in South Yarra with his sister Kit. It was here that MaryAnn died in 1932, aged around 80.

An Irish orphan

2011-10-24T13:16:00.001+11:00

In Ireland, the period between 1845 –1852 was the time of the Irish Potato Famine.

potato blight

Potatoes were the only food thatthe poor could afford, and their crops were destroyed by an outbreak of phytophthera infestans, or PotatoBlight. The Irish called it an Gorta Mor– the Great Hunger. You can read more about it here.

During the famine, over 1 millionpeople died from starvation and disease. Even today, over 150 years later,people still argue about the famine, it’s causes and effects. Some call it genocide.Everyone agrees on two facts:

1. Irelandwas part of the United Kingdom, under the administration of theBritish Government.

2. The Government responseto the crisis was so inadequate that over 1 million people died.

deserted famine village

Many of those whoescaped death were forced to live in overcrowded Workhouses, places of harshdiscipline and inadequate food. Thousands died in the workhouses too.

Another millionsurvivors of the famine emigrated to the Americasand Australia.

During the Faminethere were more than twice as many able-bodied females as males in Irishworkhouses. These girls had very limited employment and marriage prospects andlocal ratepayers who supported the workhouse foresaw years of expensivepayments for their support and those of the children they might produce.

In Australia, on the other hand, whitemales outnumbered white females by at least two to one and by eight to one insome districts. Earl Grey, the British Secretary of State for the colonies (amember of Lord John Russell's Whig government) thought he could solve Australia's problems of a shortage of labour andan imbalance of the sexes, by alleviating the overcrowding in Ireland's famine filled workhouses.As part of Earl Grey's Pauper Immigration Scheme, over 4,000 female orphansarrived in Australiafrom Irish workhouses between October 1848 and August 1850. You can read moreabout the Irish Orphan Girls here.

In theory, girls aged14 to 18 would volunteer to emigrate to Australia on an organised andsupervised scheme. In practice, they didn’t have much choice.

The girls wereinspected by a Government official, who selected those he consideredhealthy-looking and well-behaved. The Poor Law Union had to supply each chosengirl with a large box containing a generous set of requirements for the longvoyage.

The girls, with theirnew possessions, set off under supervision in horse transport for the nearestIrish port from where they sailed to Plymouth onthe south coast of England,and thence to Australia- a voyage of several weeks by sailing ship.

Twenty ships arrivedbetween 1848-50, most went to Sydney, six to Melbourne, and three to Adelaide. The girls were soon recruited asdomestic servants and snapped up as wives.

On board the New Liverpool, which arrived in Melbourne on August 9^th,1849, were two sisters, Biddy and Mary McDermott. Biddy was 19, Mary 18. Bothclaimed to be able to read and write. The girls had come from the workhouse inClonmel, Co. Tipperary,and were described as orphans. They would have had plenty of familiar faces onthe voyage out – 24 other girls from Clonmel were on the same ship.

Mary was employed byEdward Fannonsey(?) of Melbourne,and Biddy went to work for John Wright of Goulburn, her wages to be $10 for 6months. (it seems likely that Biddy went, not to the town of Golbourn,in NSW, but to a property on the Goulburn river, near Yea in Victoria.)

On December 27^th,1849, Biddy married Thomas Hannigan junior at St. Francis church, Melbourne. St. Franciswas the first Catholic church built in Victoria,and the only place for Catholics to be married at that time. The young couplewould have had to travel to Melbournefrom the Goulburn, a journey of several days by wagon. Did Biddy have a chanceto see her sister Mary while she was in Melbourne.?

King Parrot Creek

Thomas and Biddy spent their married life in the Yea district, at least some of it at King Parrot Creek. They had twelve children –

1. Mary Ann b.1October 1850 - 30 August 1932, born at Yea
2. Thomas b.1851 - 20 March 1875 aged 23 died at Alexandra
3. Catherine b. 1853 - 1 April 1860 aged 7 years died of Diptheria
4. Bridget b. 1855 - 1935
5. Margaret b. 1856 - 18 April 1860 aged 4 years died of Diptheria
6. Joseph b. 1858 - 17 April 1860 aged 2 years died of Diptheria
7. Elizabeth b.4 May 1860
8. Josephine b. 31 January 1862 born at King Parrot Creek
9. Catherine b.4 January 1864 born at Muddy Creek, Yea
10. John b. 2 June 1866
11. Elisha (Lena/Eleanor) b.1869 - 1902 aged 33
12. Francesb.1872

Their first child,Mary Ann, was my great-grandmother, and family legend is that she was the firstwhite child born in the district. This birth was never registered, so there wasno birth certificate for her.

Another family story, however, wasnot passed down – the story of Thomas’s convict parents. He may have toldBiddy, but I doubt if their children knew, and certainly my mother andgrandmother had no idea of their convict heritage. It was only in the 1990sthat family research by a descendant, Brian Sullivan, uncovered the secret.

Did Biddy remember her losthomeland with sadness, or was she simply grateful that she and her sister hadescaped the horrors of the famine, and were able to build a new life in Australia?There was tragedy even here, when the three little ones died of diptheria –perhaps the birth of Elizabethjust a few weeks later gave her some solace?

Tom Hannigan died in 1874, aged 48.The youngest child was only 2 years old then, so how did Biddy manage alone? Ihave not been able to find a record of Biddy’s death, so it is possible thatshe remarried after Tom died, and thus her death is recorded under a differentname. If she lived to old age, there may not have been anyone in the family whoknew her birthplace, or her maiden name.

Several of Tom and Biddy’s daughtersmarried, and there are now many descendants from this couple. Their familynames, for anyone who is researching, are – Sullivan, Gardner, Jones, Nickle, andGrimwood.

Taking a closer look Part 2

2011-10-23T14:40:00.002+11:00

Continuing the story of Thomas Hannigan (senior) and his wife, Bridget Brown.

The early years of the new settlement at Launceston wouldhave been very busy. Everything needed to sustain life had to be provided bythe occupants, or brought in by ship. Buildings had to be erected, and landcleared for growing food.

By the time Governor Macquarie visited thesettlement in 1821, he found various government buildings, erected and occupiedsince his first visit ten years earlier, including military barracks,commandant’s residence, lime kilns, blacksmith’s shop, stores, watch house andgaol, and a chaplain’s dwelling. The Rev. John Youl, an Anglican minister, hadbeen appointed the first chaplain in 1819. On his arrival, he toured thedistrict for three weeks, marrying 41 couples and baptising 64 children, someof the latter belonging to newlyweds, who had been waiting for an opportunityto be legally married.

On arrival in the colony, convicts wereeither set to work for the Government, constructing roads and buildings, orassigned to civilian employers. It seems likely that Thomas Hannigan was amongthe latter, and travelled to Van Diemen's Land as a servant to the free settlerin Paterson'sparty. How he came to be a sailor is a mystery. There is no mention in hisrecords of a conditional pardon, and it would have been many years before hewould have been allowed the freedom of going to sea. He must have been fairlywell-behaved in the colony, as he attracted no attention until thetransgression of 1837.

By 1820, Thomas was married to a convictwoman, Bridget Brown. There is no mention in Thomas's records of"permission to marry" and being Catholic, he would not have acceptedan Anglican ceremony; so probably Bridget was a 'common law' wife.

I have very little information about her, apart from an entry in the book"Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls" by Phillip Tardif. (This isa history of over 1600 female convicts who were sent to Tasmania between 1803 -1829.) It makes fascinating reading.

Brown, Bridget (or Wilson)

Convicted at Dublin City,November 1815. Transported for stealing apparel - 7 years.

Trade, servant. Age 24 (1817)

Colonial experience

1817: 27 August arrived at the Derwent from sydney aboard the Elizabeth Henrietta

1820 & 1821 Musters: wife of Thomas Hannigan, Port Dalrymple

1820: 28 December Assaulting Mary Harman. Bound over to keep the peace.

1825: 19 October Wife of Hannigan. Breaking open box andstealing sundry articles of wearing apparel therefrom, the propert of Mrs. Maxey.Charge dismissed.

1826: 29 March Launceston. Assaulting Isabella Whittingham. Boundover to keep the peace for 3 months.

1827: 8 March. Drunk and disorderly. To find sureties for her goodbehaviour for 3 months.

1829: 21 October. Being drunk and disorderly. Reprimanded.

1830: 15 November. Using threatening language to Mary Beard and grosslanguage before the Magistrates. To sit in the stocks 4 hours and find suretiesto keep the peace.

1836: 29 March. Drunk and disorderly. fined 5 shillings.

1836: 12 October. Drunk and disorderly. Fined 5 shillings.

1837: 21 April. Being drunk. Fined 5 shillings.

We can surmise something about Bridget's life from the record. The secondsurname, Wilson,may indicate that she was married, or at least living with someone, at the timeof her conviction. Did she have children? She was 23 at the time of her trial,so it's quite possible.
If she did, she never saw them again.
Notice the dates of her court appearances - almost always in October or March.Did she celebrate the birthdays of those lost children, perhaps? (All purespeculation, of course).

Returning to the Cornwall Chronicle report of her death, we can perhaps read between the lines:
“It came out in evidence, that deceased ... resided with a man named Thomas Henshaw, uponMr. Lawrence’s sheep run, about five miles from Launceston. On Thursday eveningshe was taken unwell; on Friday she became worse, ... on Saturday, about one p.m., as she was gradually sinking,Henshaw went for a Mrs. Smith to attend her, and then made the best of his wayto Launceston for a doctor; Mrs. Smith, on her arrival, gave deceased somegruel, and then some tea, upon which she almost instantly expired, in whichstate she was found by Dr. Grant upon his arrival....”

Reading this report, I am struck by the care Bridget received in her illness.Henshaw "went for a Mrs Smith to attend her" and Mrs. Smithdid her best to minister to the dying woman. Henshaw "made the best ofhis way to Launceston for a doctor" a distance of 5 miles - perhaps hehad a horse? The doctor attended, so Henshaw or his employer must have beenprepared to pay for his services.
So even in her last moments, Bridget was loved and cared for. That's good toknow.

Thomas and Bridget had at least fivechildren, but only two, or possibly three, survived. When Bridget died, theirdaughter Mary was in gaol, and their son Thomas was about 14 years old.
At that time, only the children of the well-to-do were educated. Poor childrenwent to work as soon as they were old enough to be useful. Thomas may have beenemployed on the property where Bridget was living with Thomas Henshaw, or hemay have already followed in his father's footsteps, and become a sailor.

Friday favourites

2011-10-21T17:31:00.000+11:00

Drop scones

Also known as pikelets, these are a handy thing to know about if you've run out of bread, or have to feed a hungry horde at short notice.
A little lower on the culinary scale than Proper Scones (which are an Art Form, whereas any dill can make drop scones) they still make an excellent vehicle for jam and cream, or butter and honey, or whatever else you fancy. This is the recipe I've always used, from the old Aerophos cookbook, c.1953.

Ingredients
2 cups SR flour (I used one each of white and wholemeal flour)
1/4 tsp salt, 1 level tablespoon sugar
2 eggs, 1 1/2 cups milk, 2 tablespoons melted butter (or 1 tab. oil)

Method

Mix flour, salt and sugar in a basin.
Beat eggs, add milk.
Make a well in the flour, add milk/egg mixture, stirring to blend.
Lastly stir in butter or oil.
You'll probably need more milk if you use wholemeal flour.
Drop spoonfuls (a soup spoon is good) on a heated, ungreased (non-stick) pan. I used an electric frypan set at 180C.
Turn with a spatula when bubbles form on the surface and start to break.
Remove when done, and repeat.
This quantity makes about 3 dozen drop scones, depending on size.
Towards the end, I added a grated apple to the batter, and ate the first one sprinkled with sugar, and a little cream added. Delicious!

A slight problem about these Friday recipe posts is being overcome by the urge to actually make whatever you're writing about, like today (and last week) It's a habit the Resident Grandson thoroughly approves of...

Pancakes are related to drop scones, beginning with a batter, and cooked in a frypan. But pancakes, apart from being larger, should be thin and delicate and tender. For this you need a different recipe, and a slightly different method. This recipe comes from one of the Moosewood books, and is pretty much foolproof.
I use a 20 cm nonstick pan for these, over a moderate flame.

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour, 1 cup milk, 1 egg, 1 tab oil, 1/4 tsp salt.

Beat everything in a blender until smooth.
No blender? follow the instructions for drop scones, but beat very well, then allow mixture to stand for 1/2 an hour.
(You may need to add more milk or water to thin it down again)
Heat a few drops of oil in the pan, pour in about 1/4 cup of batter, swirl it around in the pan.
When the top is just about set, flip over and brown the other side. Repeat.
You may need to experiment a little to get just the right temperature; the first one or two pancakes may not be quite perfect.
Sprinkle with castor sugar and freshly squeezed lemon juice, roll and enjoy.

In Paris, street vendors cook your pancakes while you wait, huge, paper-thin ones, spread with apricot jam, or Nutella, and wrapped in a twist of white paper. Mmmmm!

Taking a closer look

2011-10-19T16:17:00.000+11:00

NOTE: this post is about ThomasHannigan senior. Wouldn't want you to get confused :-)

A family historian is like adetective, examining the available clues, following up leads, making deductions– and sometimes, educated guesses. The more you know about the general historyand events of your ancestor’s era, the more likely it is that his or heractivities will make sense to you (and your audience).

Genealogical research is gettingeasier all the time, due to the increasing amount of material available online –Googling key places and names will often provide more information.

Sometimes you have very little basic,authentic information about an ancestor. In the case of Thomas Hannigan, I havethe transcript of his trial in London in 1800, abrief record of his conviction in Tasmaniain 1837, and a newspaper paragraph of the same date.

The Londontrial records, though entertaining, don’t tell us what happened to Thomas in Australia. Forthat I must rely on a photocopy of an entry in the Tasmanian convict records:

Port Arthur ruins

Name – Hanneghan, Thomas.

Height 5’2”.Age 59.

Occupation - sailor.

Tried at Launceston, Oct. 5^th, 1837.

Sentence 14 years.

Birthplace - London.

Religion RC.

Read and write – neither.

Relatives – 1 son, 1 daughter, & wife,in Launceston.

Ships – Earl Cornwallis and Francis.

Offence – Receiving.

A further note in the records says: “Transportedfor receiving part of 2 promissory notes value 3 pounds… monies the property ofWm. King….. 3 years Port Arthur,conducted to be reported.”

Directly above this entry is therecord for Thomas’s daughter, Mary Ann, tried on the same day for Larceny, andsentenced to 7 years. From this we learn that Mary Ann was aged 16, and 4’11”tall. Also illiterate, she was employed as a Laundress & House Servant. Shewas Native-born. Mary Ann’s family consisted of a mother, sister and brother inLaunceston.

Inside Port Arthur

The newspaper article adds little: “Mary Haneghan, convicted of stealing onepair of trousers, value 5 shillings, and various monies, the property of Wm.King. Sentence, 7 years. Thos Hanagan, Hugh McGlocken, and Rebecca Barton,severally convicted of receiving part of this said property. Sentence, 14 years,and the prisoners Thos Hanagan and Hugh McGlocken, be sent to Port Arthur.”

Little enough to go on…but therecords do tell us quite a lot about Thomas and his family, and of course,raise questions.

His birthplace is given as London. Was he reallyborn there, or was it just his place of residence when he stole those sheep?

He was a little short bloke, hisdaughter even tinier. Seems this may have been genetic, not merely the resultof a poor diet – my own mother was not much taller than Thomas.

Both father and daughter claimed tobe Roman Catholic, despite a lack of Catholic clergy in Van Diemen’s Land at that date. Both were illiterate, (which arguesthat Thomas Junior was, also).

The family details are interesting,with a discrepancy between the two accounts. Were there 2 Hannigan daughters,or only the one, Mary Ann? The son is presumably Thomas junior.

There is apublished passenger list for EarlCornwallis which list Thomas as one of the convicts on board, along withhis co-accused from London,Richard Coleman. I haven’t found any further information for Coleman.

The Francis is the mostinteresting, and leads us to a new view of Thomas’s colonial history.

A schooner of 41 tons, the Franciswas assembled in Sydneyfrom frames sent out in the Pitt which arrived on 14 February 1792.Launched on 24 July 1793, she departed Sydney on her first voyage, 8 September, to Dusky Bay, New Zealand.
A little later, in 1801, the Francis accompanied the Lady Nelson ona voyage to Newcastle, collecting 75 tons ofcoal which were exchanged for nails and iron in Sydney with the master of the ship EarlCornwallis, Capt. James Tennant. (note the connection with Thomas’sconvict transport.)

We next hear of the Francis in 1804, when she formed part of an expeditionto Van Diemen’s Land.

Initially the British authoritieswere uncertain if Van Diemen’s Land wasconnected to the mainland, or a separate island. The matter was settled by anexpedition conducted by Bass and Flinders in 1798, when they explored BassStrait, and sailed right around the island in the Norfolk. The Tamar Riverwas entered and mapped, and the mouth was named Port Dalrymple. They werefollowed in 1802 by Freycinet and Faure from the Naturaliste and 1804 by William Collins in the Lady Nelson.

Fear of French settlement ledto the Governor of NSW sending an expedition under Lieut. Colonel WilliamPaterson to establish a settlement at Port Dalrymple (in addition to the southern outpost at Risdon, the fore-runner of Hobart).

On November 4th 1804, Lieutenant Colonel William Paterson,and a fleet of ships HMS Buffalo, the HMS Lady Nelson, the Francis and theIntegrity, entered the Tamar heads on the north coast of Van Diemen's Land, with a party of 181 including 74 convicts, soldiers,one free settler, and a doctor. Thomas Hannigan was thus oneof the very earliest white settlers in Tasmania!

An outer cove on the easternside of the Tamar (George Town),was chosen temporarily and the settlers made camp there. George Town is now considered the oldest town in Australia(1804). Only the cities of Sydney and Hobart are older. In fact John Batmansailed from George Town to settle Melbourne.

View of South Esk river

Paterson continued to explore the Tamar for abetter area, on findng two good streams of fresh water he named the area York Town (Beaconsfield) and wouldtransfer all the settlers here before Christmas. The following day November12th 1804, a large group of Aboriginals approached Paterson's camp, appearing to be quitefriendly. They attacked a Marine guard and were fired on with muskets by theMarines. One native was killed and another was wounded.

Despite the hostility of the natives, Patersoncontinued to explore the area without further incident. Good pasture land andthick forests were found at the head of the Tamar (Launceston). Paterson also discovered and named the North Esk and the South Esk Rivers, and he was most impressed with the Cataract hediscovered in a gorge of the South Esk river.Choosing to stay at the York Town settlement,Lieutenant Paterson moved the small settlement to a more fertile area he namedPatersonia, (Launceston) in March 1806.

Tomatoes in pyjamas

2011-10-18T13:14:00.000+11:00

We've all heard of Bananas in Pyjamas, but I have Tomatoes in Pyjamas!

There's very little topsoil in my garden, so veggies must be grown in containers. I planted these four tomatoes a couple of weeks ago - 2 Romas, and 2 bush Cherry. We can get frosts here almost up to Christmas, so they need to be protected at night. Easy enough when they were tiny, but now that I've staked them, it's a bit more problematic.

So I cut up an old doona cover (3$ at the op shop) and made individual bags to put over them on frosty nights.
Voila - tomatoes in pyjamas!
They look kinda spooky, don't they? Just imagine them on a moonlit night...

The strawberries planted in old tyres are flourishing, lots of flowers already.
I planted rhubarb, silver beet and sugar peas in the styrene boxes.

Really, this is more of a fruit garden if you think about it - tomatoes, strawberries, rhubarb...

Something has been munching on the lower leaves of the sugar peas, so the other day I mixed up some Nicotine Tea (cigarette butts soaked in water - eww!). It makes a nasty-looking brown brew, which I poured around the peas, and on the lower leaves - hopefully that will fix the problem!

Thomas Hannigan Junior

2011-10-17T23:41:00.000+11:00

When Bridget Hannigandied in 1840, her son Thomas was effectively alone in the world. His father,Thomas Hannigan Snr., had been sent to Port Arthur, his older sister Mary was serving 7 years fortheft.

Thomas Jr, born in 1826, would have been 14 years old.

According toresearcher Brian Sullivan, Thomas went to sea, working on ships that sailed upand down the east coast of Australia, from Sydney to the new settlement at PortPhilip, and on down to Launceston and Hobart. The shipping lanes were busy, as schooners and sloops carried timber, livestock, passengers and mail. There werenew settlers and their (mostly convict) employees, intent on making the most ofthe new land being opened up. Thomas would have watched as horses, cattle andsheep were offloaded for the pastoral runs of Port Phillip. He would have heardtalk of fortunes made and lost, and business opportunities aplenty for thosewho weren’t afraid to work.

He would also have discoveredthat convicts, and their descendants, were held in much greater contempt in themainland states.

In the early years of Van Diemen’s Land, convicts at first outnumbered freesettlers, and even in 1846, 75% of the adult males were, or had been, convicts.

Most had gained ameasure of freedom, those who could find a wife had married and settled down toa measure of working class respectability. Many had started a small business,and were often successful and well-accepted members of the community.

It is important toremember that few of the convicts were actual criminals, as we understand theterm today.

Most were ordinary working class people, who had been caught “helpingthemselves” to something that didn’t belong to them – a few sheep, some game, apair of trousers – in an effort to make ends meet. The overwhelming majority ofthose transported to Australiawere convicted of fairly minor thefts, and most did not offend again. Thereally bad offenders – murderers, arsonists, and the like, were summarilyexecuted.

So the residents of Van Diemen’s Land were very willing to live and let live;it simply wasn’t done to enquire too closely into another fellow’s past, forfear of what you might find.

Not so in the otherstates. NSW had received about the same number of convicts, but had far morefree settlers, and there was consequently more freedom for suspicion as to theother fellow’s history. Convicts and their offspring were thought of asbelonging, without possibility of redemption, to the “criminal classes” , andthus to be shunned by all right-minded people.

Port Phillip, which wouldbecome the colony of Victoria in 1851, prided itself on being free of theconvict taint, and the new Government tried to stop ex-convicts from settlingthere, even passing a law to that effect. They were too late, of course;thousands of former convicts had already moved there, though probably fewadmitted to their origins.

Thomas was a sensible young man. When he abandoned the sea, sometime in the late 1840's, he too kept his origins to himself.

He began working as a carrier, taking goods from the Port of Melbourne up to the Goulburn river district, and carrying farm produce down to the city. Presumably, at least at first, he was employed by one of the squatters who had settled along the Goulburn. And here he would meet his wife.

Friday favorites

2011-10-14T16:26:00.001+11:00

Potato Boston bun

This keeps fresh for a couple of days, and is far nicer that the commercial kind.

But it is very sweet - I can't eat a lot of it.

Preheat oven to 180C and grease and paper two loaf pans, or two 18-20cm round tins.

Ingredients
small packet of instant mashed potato (100-125g)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup mixed fruit
1 cup milk
2 cups SR flour

Method
In a large saucepan, make up mashed potato according to directions on packet. Stir in sugar and salt.
The mixture will liquefy (fascinating). Add mixed fruit and milk, then flour. You should have a fairly stiff, sticky dough - adjust quantities of flour and milk as needed.

Divide between two tins, and bake for about 40-45 mins, or until a straw or skewer comes out clean. Wait five minutes or so, then turn out onto a wire rack. When cold, ice with pink icing and a sprinkle of coconut. Serve sliced and buttered.

Boat People

2011-10-09T17:30:00.002+11:00

We hear much of Boat Peopletoday, refugees seeking safety and a better life in Australia. I am always remindedthat my own ancestors were Boat People too.

They also sailed in woodenboats across dangerous waters, sustained by hope for a better future.

In many cases they wereunwilling emigrants, virtually exported by their countries of birth - the Irishconvicts, the German miners, the Irish orphans. Only a few were free settlers. Onarrival in Australia,they often experienced further persecution and bigotry. Not much has changed,it seems.

The convicts were the loweston the totem pole, leading to concealment of convict origins by latergenerations, but even the free Irish were not held in high regard. The Irishwere used to this, of course, and undaunted by it, continuing a long traditionof rebellion against authority. This resilience stood them in good stead asthey made their way, over generations, up the social ladder.

James Scullin

Many of theirdescendants would become active in trade unions and politics. James Scullin, the sonof Irish Immigrants, became Prime Minister of Australia in 1929.

An Irishman of myacquaintance once remarked that there are two kinds of Irish – “lace curtainIrish” and “bog Irish”.

The former were those who strove to “fit in” andquickly became “respectable” – pillars of the Catholic Church, their childreneducated by nuns and Brothers – some even becoming priests or nuns themselves.

The latter never quite lost their attitude of irreverence and contempt forauthority, and were sometimes described as “agin the government” as the sayingwent.

Ned Kelly springs to mind.

Whatever you think of Ned’s exploits, hisfamily undoubtedly suffered discrimination and injustice, and Ned wasn’t goingto take it lying down. He is probably the most famous Irishman in Australianhistory, even today. Less well remembered are the three policemen he killed - Sgt.Kennedy, and Constables Lonigan & Scanlon (all Irish names, you’ll note).

The Germans were moregenerally respected as hardworking and God-fearing, but they too sufferedpersecution during the first and second World Wars, though some of their sonsserved (and died) in both campaigns.

Despite the manydifficulties they encountered, my ancestors were undoubtedly better off intheir new home – better fed, with opportunites for work, ownership of land(undreamed of in their native countries) and education for their children.

Recently I was asked which group I most identified with – the Germans or theIrish. I plumped for the Germans; I had a German surname, and was raised mostlyamong family of German descent. They were good people, industrious andlaw-abiding.

But when I think of feisty little Bridget Hannigan, with the oddsall against her, shouting abuse at the magistrate, I hope I’ve inherited someof her spirit too.

Friday favourites

2011-10-07T11:53:00.000+11:00

Today's recipe is an old family favourite - Chocbit biscuits. The recipe came from a Fairy margarine promotion, published in the Sun newspaper some time in the 1960s. I used to make dozens of these biscuits to take on our annual beach holidays - though they never lasted the full three weeks! The recipe is as I found it, except for a reduction in the amount of sugar. And of course I never used margarine, always butter. I've always included the sultanas, but purists can omit them.

Chocbit biccies

Preheat oven to 190C, line biscuit trays with baking parchment.

Ingredients:
125g butter,
3/4 cup sugar,
2 eggs,
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 rounded cups
SR flour (10 1/2 oz or 330g)
1/2 cup sultanas, 3/4 cup Nestle chocbits

Method:
Cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix in sultanas and chocbits, lastly flour. Place level tablespoons of mixture on tray, and bake 15-20 minutes, until lightly coloured, turning trays around as necessary.

I'm adding a bonus recipe today, these were also a holiday favourite. Always popular with lovers of peanut butter, these are sooo good, crisp and crumbly when new baked.

Peanut butter biscuits
Preheat oven to 180c, line trays with baking parchment.

Ingredients:
125g butter, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tabs peanut butter (any kind -
I like crunchy)
1 egg, 1 heaped tablespoon coconut
large cup SR flour, 1/4 tsp salt.

Method:
Cream butter, sugar and peanut butter, beat in egg.
Stir in coconut and the flour, sifted with salt.
Roll into balls and flatten with a fork. Pace well apart on tray - they spread.
Bake until lightly coloured, watching carefully so they don't burn.

Last time I made these, I added 1/2 cup of sultanas, I think it was an improvement.

HINT: Most biscuit recipes allow a bit of tinkering; mixture too dry? add a little milk. Too sloppy? add a spoonful of flour.
But note: the amount of sugar in both of these recipes has been reduced a little - don't be tempted to cut it further. Sugar is a humectant, and a reasonable amount is needed to maintain the moisture level of baked goods. Just sayin'.