Notes

Note N1137 Index

==========
from Grayling Family History website : http://members.optusnet.com.au/rgrayling/biog_topsie.htm
2008-07-08

Extract of a letter from Mrs. Harris 1953.

Extract form Arthur Mee's 'Somerset' of the Kings, England.

GERTRUDE (TOPSY) HARRIS

AND THE GRAYLING FAMILY HISTORY

In 1951 Topsy was living in Melbourne and by chance, heard a local politician urging people to encourage an interest in our "early days". It was the very subject that was starting to interest her since her Mother's death the previous year (21 August 1950).

She, strangely enough, found herself in the very place she had left in 1917, and she miraculously met some of her distant cousins' descendants (Graylings at Dandenong) who gave her a Family Tree going back to 1752 in Kent. She had known that her great grandfather was supposed to have been the first tailor in Melbourne and that his brothers and sisters had come out at the time, but enquiries at the library showed lists that included even her great, great grandparents, whose farm on, the Tamar River, raided by blacks and bushrangers, with barns burnt, was forced into bankruptcy.

She located Winnie Tranter at Heidelberg and began to reconstruct virtually an eye-witness account from the stories and anecdotes that -Minnie passed on to her. There were also many trips to Lexton and letters exchanged with the folks there. But one of the big breakthroughs occurred when she received a letter from Nance Love, dated 2 October 1969, which begins, "...My cousin, Hector Walker, at Upotipotpon, gave me your address, I am trying to find out where in Ayrshire my great grandfather Reid came from. Hector, told me you are a distant relation of ours and that you had done a lot of research into our family tree..." That was the beginning of a warm and supportive friendship with many items of crucial interest exchanged between them.

Topsy was always reassured by what she saw as "the Hand of God" in our ancestors' and present day trials and tribulations. Her own young life hadn't been easy, with an enforced split-up of the family unit in 1912 following the 1908 murder of her father John Joseph Tilley through being too honest over a game of billiards at the local pub in Jeparit. Her mother had managed to keep the family together for about four years until she was raped by a drunk who was himself immediately killed climbing out the window - almost an act of God The shock of all this caused Kate to have a nervous breakdown, so the well meaning," local priest and Welfare intervened and the family ceased to exist as a unit.

In her 20's Topsy converted to Protestantism, due to the benevolent influence of Archdeacon R.B.S. Hammond in Sydney, who was instrumental in locating her lost sister, Clare, for her. After 10 years of deep involvement in Christian activity, she met a young missionary chap at church, who was bound for the Northern Territory. She married him in Darwin and commenced about 15 years of intense commitment to serving, God and the Aborigines in the outback, with all the accompanying scarce resources that entailed in those days.

Prior to her husband's accidental death in 1955, she had communicated with and visited Frank and Ruby Grayling at Kaniva and Minnie Preece at Wolsely, gathering more information and re-establishing, emotional kinship ties.

Jim Harris. (Son)
Alice Springs, 4 August 1982.

==========

Notes

Note N1138 Index

==========
Old Narrabri Cemetery - Inscription for Donald Lincoln Hardy

Cemetery: Narrabri Old General
Family Name: Hardy
Given Names: Donald Lincoln
Birth Date:
Death Date: 6 Jun 1948
Age: 41y
Remarks: son/Henry George L R & Elizabeth
Portion: Meth
Row: 1D
==========

Notes

Note N1139 Index

==========
NSW BDM - Death - 11156/1911 - HARDY, OLIVER J - OLIVER J - MARY J - NARRABRI
==========
Narrabri Old Cemetery - Inscription for Oliver John Hardy

Cemetery: Narrabri Old General
Family Name: Hardy
Given Names: Oliver John
Birth Date:
Death Date: 12 Aug 1911
Age: 11m29d
Remarks: son/Oliver J & Mary J
Portion: RC
Row: 1I
==========

Notes

Note N1140 Index

==========

Birth - 14763/1900 HARDY ELLIE M OLIVER J MARY J NARRABRI
Death - 44507/1971 KELAHER ELLIE MARIE OLIVER JOHN MARY JANE PARRAMATTA

==========

Notes

Note N1141 Index

==========
NSW BDM
Death - 28072/1948 HARDY IRENE HILDA WILLIAM SMITH LOUISA FIVE DOCK
==========

Notes

Note N1142 Index

==========
Leslie George Slack-Smith
Birth: unknown
Death: 2002

Note: 88y; h/Eileen; father

Burial:
Coonamble Cemetery
Coonamble
New South Wales, Australia
Plot: Lwn

Created by: T.V.F.T.H.
Record added: Feb 27, 2010
Find A Grave Memorial# 48865837
==========