Do you have a favourite photo?

This photo now lives in the "family history bedroom". I stare at it every day.

Actually it captivates me.  It is quite possible that I knew it as a young child as it was more than likely hanging in my grandmother’s old flat  where I spent my early years.  It's large, stained and watermarked. When it was found it had probably spent 40 years lying flat in the top of a wardrobe hiding amongst the Kerr photos.

It's obviously been displayed in large frame at some stage. Perhaps it belonged to the bride? It took me a while to even know which side of the family came from until my eagle eyed husband spotted it in a video montage my mother had put together in the 1980s. So it went from the Kerr pile to the Gadsby pile of photos.  A little later cousin Wendy identified everyone correctly having known each of the characters.  It was taken at the wedding of my Great Aunt Selina (Lena) Gadsby 1890-1954 and Alexander Thurlow 1888-1962 in Balmain in 1918.

For the first time I was seeing my Grandmother Julia 1903-1954 and my great grandmother Selina Gadsby nee Smith 1869-1935. Young Selena aged 28 married Alec aged 30.

l-r Maude Gadsby, Robert and Alec Thurlow, Lene Gadsby, Selina Gadsby, John Robert and Julia Gadsby

The story is that Alec was a fellow travelling to Australia with his brothers; he met Lena who was travelling from London to Sydney on the “Zealandia” with her 4 sisters, baby brother and mother in 1912.  They were to meet up in Sydney  with her brothers and father Thomas as they were travelling by different transport. Lena had left behind her fiancé, Ben a butcher in London but had many weeks to while away the time on the journey.   Lena struck up a friendship. Alec and his brothers were lifelong friends with the Gadsbys when they landed in Sydney.  

Mother Selina though was not happy about the friendship and dispatched letters to Ben back in London to make haste to Australia.  Details about Ben are a little sketchy but he did come to Sydney at some time later in the next  few years. In a strange turn of events Selena Sr ran off with Ben when he arrived in Sydney and literally set up shop with him a small goods store in North Sydney.  Another little Gadsby child had been born – Edith in 1914.

With Selina taken off with Ben it was left to her daughter Lena to care for the baby and other siblings  before she eventually married Alec in 1818. Dad, Thomas Gadsby with his eldest’s help had been holding the household together, working as a bricklayer to keep the wolves from the door.

It is an incomplete family photo as several of the family is missing. To me Selena, my great grandmother looks like she doesn't belong. Is it the dress?  At first I had assumed she was a maid. She’s standing at the rear behind the bride and the groom who is seated.  They don’t look entirely happy to be lining up together for the shot. Julia a shy 15 year old, my grandmother is standing to the right. In three years time she will be a bride herself.  Her older sister, Maude Rose, 18 is seated on the left. Alec had his brother Robert Thurlow (standing) as his groomsman- you can see the resemblance?

Seated in the front is Selina’s brother John Robert (Uncle Jack).  At only 20 he looks frail. When Cousin Wendy describes him she says he's just back from the war- gassed in France- but his war records show no sign of gassing. Rather he seems to have suffered from shellshock and in this shot he looks a little haunted.

Missing from the photo is Thomas Gadsby, Lena’s father. Sadly a rare chance of a photo missed- we have none of him. Within a few years all of the older children will have married but sadly this is the only wedding photo.

Also missing are brother Harold and Thomas who have been away at war.  The littlest children are not included in the shot-Kitty, Grace, William and Edith. They were probably too young to attend the wedding.

Since I started doing family history the photo with its stained backing stands on an easel over looking (supervising?) my research desk. It accompanies me on my family history journey.  Naturally it was the theme photo of our 100 year Gadsby family reunion. Other family photos of the small children didn’t come to light until years later so this is truly treasured.

It's a moment in time captured for what it’s worth – a partial gathering of the clan whether they liked it or not. I'm so glad to have it and for a while it was the only childhood photo of my grandmother.

Taken a year so so later some of the missing siblings got in the shot

l-r rear to front Harold, Frank Kelf, Kitty, Maude, Julia and Grace Gadsby c 1920

Alec and Lena were well off, owned their own business and own home. They ran a toilet towel business-Hygienic Towel Supply which later became the Snow White Towel Company. Occasionally the nieces were employed. Alec and Lena had no children but often gave their spare rooms to those in the family in need of a place to stay.

I never knew Lena or Julia. They died in 1954 the year before I was born.  This shot of them laughing and playing with my cousins looks like a much happier shot. Perhaps it's a few little squirming cuties that is missing from the wedding shot above. 

Julia, Jillian, Lena and little Airdrie c1952