Random Family History Discoveries

Macveans

This is information on the Macveans that I was fortunate enough to find while researching for my previous posts on the family. There is no particular timeline here, so let’s just jump straight in.

1925: Polo Gymkhana 28th November

This first article mentions my first cousin 4 x removed, Thomas Chalmers Macvean and his family, plus his brother, Duncan Cameron Macvean’s family.

Article 1: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

The first name highlighted in the article refers to Thomas and his wife, Amy’s, third child, Cameron. Unfortunately, there is no photo of Cameron, but he was about 19 years old at the time he won the men’s bending race.

I must admit I have never heard of a bending race before. I now know it is better known as Pole Bending, and it is a timed event that features one rider and a horse weaving their way through a course of six poles that they must ride through without knocking any over. https://au.streamz-global.com/blogs/articles/pole-bending-what-is-pole-bending-and-what-common-injuries-are-found-in-the-discipline

Cameron lived with his parents and five sisters, Joan, Margaret, Faith, Elizabeth and Zenobia at Nagambie in Victoria on the family property, called “Barwood”.

The Google Map below is the same area in 2025. I wonder if that is the original homestead still standing there.

The Macveans from “Shuma” at Meipoll is referring to Thomas’s brother, Duncan’s family. Specifically, his wife, Gertrude Macvean née Snodgrass and their three sons, Ian, Hope and Evan.

You will notice that Duncan is not named, as he passed away 13 years earlier in April 1912.

I was so lucky that the Family Archives had these two new photos of Gertrude and Duncan above. I also had some luck finding pictures of their three boys.

And I think I might have stumbled upon a better photo of Evan. This one was included in a folder titled “Matthews Family” in the archives. One of Evan and his wife, Alice Jean Wills, daughters, Barbara Cameron Macvean, married a man named Doug Ernest Matthews, hence the title of the folder.

I mentioned “Shuma” in my previous post, “Part Three: The Macveans through the 1920s and ’30s” I was able to pinpoint where it was, thanks to a mention in Duncan’s will of some parcels of land he had in the Parish of Miepoll.

I’m fairly sure that all the parcels of land I have marked with the highlighter on the map below make up the station of “Shuma”. It sits on the traditional lands of the Nguraiilam People. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngooraialum

1954: Death and Funeral Notices, 17th July

These next notices are for Thomas Chalmers Macvean, my cousin mentioned above.

Google Maps had a photo of 11 Leslie Road, Essendon, from 2012.

I think this will be the original structure of the house where Thomas passed away. It was partially demolished in 2015 when the school facility to the left took over the site.

I am unable to locate a photo of the chapel from the 1950s. But I did find the site on Google Maps, and it still has an echo to its previous tenants.

This photo is so sad. The earliest photos of the site in Google Maps date back to 2007, and they show that it has remained in this state, abandoned and empty, since then.

1924: Dancing Dalliance, and a Domestic Cyclone, 6th July.

Yep, this was one of the subheadings of the next article, which was basically the clickbait of the day.

It took me a while to work out who it was referring to; it was actually about the divorce case of Eliza Dobson Goode Ellis, who had been married to Armstrong Poliah Macvean (my 1st cousin 4x removed) and cousin of Duncan and Thomas above.

This is only an excerpt of the article, which spans over half a broadsheet page. The crux of the matter: Eliza liked to dance, but her husband, Mr David Ellis, didn’t and wouldn’t accompany her. So Eliza found an alternative regular dance partner, a Mr Clifford Yates. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168708627

Friends of Mr Ellis spotted Eliza and Mr Yates several times together dancing, and then on one occasion they observed them catching a tram to Centennial Park in Sydney, where they were seen smoking under a tree. The friends went and told David, Eliza’s husband and they all went to the park and confronted them under the tree. It was described that they were lying under the tree embracing, but under cross-examination, Mr Yates stated they were only sitting down under the tree smoking, that no impropriety had ever occurred. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168708627

The problem for Eliza was that Mr Yates, who was single, said that she told him she was single, and she didn’t wear a wedding ring when they were dancing. She also told her husband that Mr Yates was married, and that she only danced with married men, so that there could never be any suggestion of anything improper happening. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168708627

This is how proceedings were summed up in court on the day of the hearing.

So Eliza was found guilty of being a loose woman because she didn’t wear her wedding ring, and she smoked a cigarette under a tree with a man who wasn’t her husband. Poor Eliza, I wonder how she weathered this storm?

There are no further mentions of her after this in the newspapers or any details registered for her on Ancestry.com.au. None of the family trees Eliza appears in has a death date noted for her either, and she doesn’t appear on any of the Births, Deaths and Marriages sites anywhere under Goode, Macvean or Ellis.

There is also sadly no photo of Eliza, but there are court drawings of David Ellis and Clifford Yates from the day of the hearing.

Searching for Eliza on Ancestry.com.au led me to this next fascinating find. Eliza and Armstrong’s divorce record from 1921.

Just to remind us, this is Armstrong, pictured below, or Sonny as he was known. I have shared this photo in an earlier post.

Unfortunately, the record contains no affidavit from Eliza, so we don’t get to hear her side of the story. There is, however, a copy of a letter that she sent to Sonny in his affidavit so we do get to hear her voice for a moment.

There is also an affidavit from a clerk from the firm handling the divorce for Sonny showing that he had served the divorce papers to Eliza and that she signed a photograph of herself as proof of receipt. That photo is not in the file.

I’m going to share Sonny’s affidavit here because I think it is well worth preserving in this format with some context. It is not just a record attached in a corporate database.

Sonny and Eliza were my family; they lived and loved in one of the most tumultuous periods of the 20th century, and Sonny’s affidavit gives us a window straight into that time. Here is their story from Sonny’s perspective.

Then, on November 8, 1921, Sonny and Eliza’s marriage was officially dissolved with the issuance of the Decree Nisi.

1906: Dagging Machine. September 15th

Yes, you read that correctly, a Dagging Machine. This story involves Sonny’s brother, William Armstrong Macvean.

I wasn’t able to find a photograph of the machine, but I did find an illustration of one in a printed advert by Messrs. Hall Bros, Melbourne.

I also worked out what William was referring to in the article when he states “A.W.P’s reference ‘On the Wallaby‘”. A.W.P. was a journalist for “The Pastoralists’ Review” and his monthly column was called “On The Wallaby“.

I even managed to find A.W.P.’s original mention of the machine, which is in the June 1906 column.

A.W.P. mentions in the column that they had been travelling through the area, stopping in to visit various stations.

A.W.P. also shares in the column that he is a photographer too, and he actually took a photo of the lunch on that day.

How incredible! This image is from 119 years ago. I can’t be certain, but I think that might be William on the left in the front.

A.W.P. also took a photo of the old Homestead on his visit.

I found another family link when searching for information on Thurulgoona. It was actually owned by William’s brother, John Macvean’s father-in-law, Sir Simon Fraser, father of Marion Jane Macvean.

The Thurulgoona Homestead sits about 90 km south of Cunnamulla and 30 km north of the Queensland-New South Wales Border. It is still in operation today, but it is now run as a farmstead for visiting tourists.

Thanks to this amazing resource on the National Museum of Australia’s website showing the indigenous lands of Australia, I was able to confirm the entire station is situated on the traditional lands of the Kunja and Muruwari Peoples. https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/images/map-indigenous-australia

I also managed to find this fantastic hand-drawn map of the station on the Australian National University site. It is undated, unfortunately, but shows the paddocks and water bores in detail.

It also shows the Homestead site.

1894: Marriage; Macvean-Weale, 4th of June.

This is the marriage notice of Campbell Cameron Macvean, my 1st cousin, four times removed (brother of Duncan and Thomas mentioned above), to Miss Sara Gertrude Weale.

You will notice that the Rev. Allan Macvean is officiating again. Allan is Campbell’s Paternal Uncle and also officiated at Campbell’s sister, Anne’s, wedding to Francis Were. (Covered in the previous post mentioned above)

“Exonia” Campbell’s mother’s house, where they marry, has been lost to history. There is no photo of the house that I can find anywhere. I did manage to find an earlier notice from 1892 that actual gave a street address for the house.

I did my usual trick and checked out the “Melbourne & Metropolitan Boards of Works Maps” in the hopes that the house might be identified with the name printed on it, but no luck.

I have, however, managed to piece together the length of Cromwell Road, Hawksburn, using the maps, so we can at least know that Exonia is one of these houses below.

I suspect it will be one of the larger ones with the grand driveway approaches, like no. 43, 40 or 35.

It would be amazing if it were No. 4, as the State Library Victoria had this gem sitting in its archives.

Cromwell Road has another link to the family. Did you notice the huge property in the second tile of the map above, named “Bunalbo”? It was actually the house where Campbell’s sister Anne and her husband Francis were living at the time of Campbell and Sara’s wedding.

Here is just a quick look at some of the events of their lives that were mentioned in the press while they were living at Bunalbo.

Tiled Gallery 1: Courtesy of Trove, National Library of Australia

1899: Marriage; Shelford-Macvean, 8th of November.

This is the marriage notice for Flora Joan Jane Macvean, my first cousin four times removed (sister of Campbell, Duncan, Thomas and Anne mentioned above), to Mr William Shelford.

Nice to see Bunalbo making another appearance. Obviously, Anne and Francis were happy to loan their beautiful home to Flora and William for their wedding reception.

St. Martin’s, where they marry, is actually situated on Cromwell Road, just like Exonia and Bunalbo. It is the first church pictured on tile 4 of (Map 1) above.

The Stonnington City Library has one photo of the church available on its website, dating back to around 1900, which is likely what the church would have looked like at the time of the wedding.

The National Library of Australia has a short history of the church printed in 1933 in their collection, and it is digitised. It has a photo of the Rev. T. H. Rust who married Flora and William.

The other Reverend who assisted Rev. Rust is actually the brother of Flora’s sister-in-law, Gertrude Macvean née Snodgrass, married to her brother, Duncan.

The short history of the church also contained another piece of family history. The house next door to the church, which will eventually become the Vicarage, was owned by Anne and Francis Were.

The house, luckily still stands today.

Flora and William were not the only family members to marry at St. Martin’s and by the Rev. Rust.

Yes, that is Flora’s brother, Thomas Chalmers Macvean and his wife Amy Brailsford Burdett’s wedding notice. Unfortunately, no hidden photos of Amy or Thomas are anywhere to be found.

1918: NAGAMBIE BRANCH, 7th June.

This next article mentions the efforts of Mrs Mary Macvean née Gibson, married to Hugh Macvean, brother to Thomas Chalmers, Flora Jane, et al. above. Mary is on the Red Cross committee and is also selling and buying the fundraising badges, pictured below.

I’ve searched everywhere again for a photo of Mary but nothing. I did find one of Hugh taken when he was about 15 years old.

There is a heap more information to share with you, but I’m going to try something different and keep these random information posts a bit shorter than the usual 40-minute reads I publish. Just to mix it up.

Oh yeah, and fun fact, I have dipped my toe into the world of AI. The featured image for the post banner was entirely created by AI. I just put in instructions to create the image of the bookshelf with the parchments on it and to insert a title of “Random Family History Discoveries.” I tried it four times, and it just would not put in the word “History” for some reason. It is the birth of Skynet, isn’t it?