Bessie Jane DIXON (1849-1940)

Bessie Jane Dixon was my great-great grandmother. She was born in April 1849 in Port Albert, Victoria which was the first stop her parents Charles and Ann made on their journey away from Tasmania. Like many convicts and their families, Charles and Ann decided that better opportunities and a fresh start awaited them in Victoria, and sailed with their young son, Charles Joseph to Port Albert, where Charles got work as a butcher.

Two sisters, Phoebe and Annie were also born in Port Albert, but by 1854, the family had followed the gold trail to the diggings at Castlemaine, a town which experienced a massive population explosion in the early 1850's, mostly of  miners and their families. Chasing good fortune, the Dixons were in for a very hard time. The conditions around Castlemaine were very tough- most likely the young family were living in a tent, or a shanty hut made from canvas or bark. It was overcrowded, and contagious diseases spread quickly. Young  Charles died aged 9 in 1854, then little Annie. In 1857 first Ann, then their baby daughter Susannah Maria died of 'debility', caused most probably by the disease and malnutrition so prevalent in these environs.

By the time Bessie is 8 years old, she has lost her brother, two sisters and her mother. Her grandmother, Frances appears to be with them at the time of Ann's death, and it is likely that she stayed with the family to help Charles raise the two girls. We know nothing of Bessie's childhood after her mother's death, but certainly, she and her father stayed on in Castlemaine, where she met and married a local blacksmith, Frederick Kempson and raised her own family. Bessie's remaining sister, Phoebe moved to East Gippsland with Frances, who lived in Rosedale for many years. Unfortunately Phoebe died in Sale in 1890, aged 43, just two years after her father.

Bessie and Fred appear to have had a good marriage, and raised 6 of their 8 children to adulthood. Sadly, two daughters, aged 2 and 18 years passed away and much later in 1916, a son Frederick was killed in France. I wonder if those early experiences of death made it easier to deal with the death of her children? The family are regularly mentioned in the local accounts of sporting competitions and regional festivities, and so they must have been well enmeshed in community life. After Fred's sudden death in 1905, Bessie moved with her girls to Coburg in Melbourne. She lived a very long life, dying at age 90.

Bessie Jane must have been a strong woman in our family, and most certainly a survivor. The daughter and granddaughter of convicts, she learnt how to survive in tough times, and make the most of difficult circumstances. I suspect that this is where her daughter, Eleanor got her "just get on with it and do what needs doing" attitude. I wish that I did know more about Bessie. Nana must have known her quite well, as they lived not far away for several years before Bessie's death, but she didn't speak of her to me.

I wonder also if she knew much about her parent's early life, especially her father's convict years, and his youth in London. When he died in 1892, Fred acted as informant on Charles' death registration, but he wasn't able to provide any detail about his parents or birthplace. Perhaps, then, this is where the 'stain' began to be hidden, and Charles didn't speak of his past to Bessie. We can only guess.

Before I finish off, I want to include a small piece I found on Trove which is perhaps testament to Bessie Jane's spirit of resilience!

A Plucky Woman
Castlemaine, 30 December

Mrs Kempson, who resides at North Castlemaine, had an exciting and dangerous experience yesterday. When crossing the small paddock in which stands the Lutheran Church she was attacked by an untethered cow. With much pluck and determination, she seized the cow by the horns, and although pulled about violently, she managed to retain her hold until assistance arrived, when she was rescued from her perilous position much exhausted and bruised.

Bendigo Advertiser
Monday, January 1st 1906.

Eleanor Olive KEMPSON (1882-1956)

Eleanor, aged abt 18 years

Eleanor Olive Kempson was my maternal great-grandmother. Born in Castlemaine, Victoria in September 1882, Eleanor was the 6th of 8 children to Fred and Bessie Kempson, and grew up in the goldfields region of Victoria, where her father worked as a blacksmith. Fred and Bessie were not religious people, and with no grandparents and extended family around her, I guess Eleanor and her siblings lived a fairly relaxed and self contained, albeit hardworking, childhood. The Kempsons were active in their community social events, such as picnics and sporting festivals. Even so, times were pretty tough in late 19th century Victoria. A small daughter had died shortly before Eleanor's death, and another older sister, Edith, passed away when Eleanor was 10 years old.
The family lived in Milkmaid Flats, just outside Castlemaine.

Ossie Hurne

When Eleanor was 26, she became pregnant, and married Albert Hurne, a widowed journeyman. The couple settled in Melbourne, but the marriage never really worked, and Eleanor was left on her own with their small son, Oswald for most of the following 4 years. In 1912, she applied for a divorce from Hurne, on grounds of abandonment. the divorce was granted, and she married Joseph Battersby, a wheat farmer from Tatura,Victoria.

Eleanor strikes me as a woman who was prepared to stand up for herself and her family. She initiated a divorce, which was still considered somewhat shameful and was reported publicly, in order to regain control of her life. Eleanor faced the authorities after Albert Hurne died at war, determined that young Oswald would receive his entitlements, and his medals.

Ossie working the horses

In the years after her marriage, the Battersby family expanded quickly. Three girls, Kathleen, Olive and Anis were born, followed by David and Joseph (Norm). They were a tight knit group, working the farm together, and enjoyed a strong community relationship with families on surrounding farms. In 1924, tragedy hit when 16 year old Ossie was struck by lightning whilst working a team of horses out in the field.


" When Dad came home with the terrible news of Ossie's death, we kids cried our hearts out. I can still remember clinging to Mum's apron as she tried to phone for a doctor, a funeral director and police. What a dreadful time it must have been for her...". David Frederick Battersby, 2001.

The family had recently moved to Chillingollah East, near to Swan Hill, and their property included the mail contract and telephone exchange, which Eleanor managed as postmistress from 1923-1936.

Eleanor

Farm life was pretty good until the depression hit, along with drought and plagues. Joseph became ill, and died suddenly in July 1933, leaving Eleanor and their five teenage children to run the farm. By 1936, with the two older girls married, she decided that they no longer had a future on the land, and determined that her boys should learn a trade she moved them all to St Kilda, Melbourne.

Eleanor moved into a house with a mixed business attached, and Anis, David, and Norm each found steady work. When war came, both the boys enlisted, which must have been the source of much worry- Eleanor had lost a brother, Fred at Gallipoli. Her mother, Bessie, and sisters Queenie and Beatie lived in nearby Oakleigh, and another sister and brother were also in Melbourne, so there was plenty of extended family for support. Bessie was quite elderly by now, and no doubt Eleanor also wanted to be nearby for her.

I really admire Eleanor for moving her family to the city. It must have been very difficult- perhaps heartbreaking to give up their land and their friendships. She certainly seems to have been made of tough stuff. Life in Melbourne was kind to them all, and her children all married, had children, and stayed in the area for several years. Dave and Norm returned from war, and resumed their lives, but when Dave decided to move his family up to Queensland in about 1954, Eleanor chose to follow the sun with them. They settled in Towoomba, where she spent the remainder of her life until she passed away suddenly from heart failure in 1956.

NB David Battersby wrote "The Joy and Sadness of Mallee Living", in 2001, with help from his daughter, Cheryl. To read his full account of these years, look under the Battersby page.

Beginnings...

It was my maternal grandmother, Anis Howarth Battersby Poussard who first gave me the genealogy bug. She was by nature someone who loved to find connections between all sorts of people, and spent years documenting the names in her family tree (and skipping over those less savoury ones!) Family reunion picnics with her extended family, and visits as a child to her elderly aunts, Queenie and Beatie, instilled in me a strong sense of belonging to a much bigger family picture. I still have her almost indecipherable handwritten notes and charts alongside my own early research attempts, typed up on the manual Olivetti.  It wasn't the coolest pastime when I was 16, 18, 25...-I was always slightly embarrassed to own up to this fascination with the dead and buried. My love of cemeteries, and dusty old archive repositories was at odds with the youthful exploits of the 80's.  The State Library of Victoria was my idea of heaven, trawling through microfilm for hours, often to no avail. My heart would race (still does) as I turned flakey, delicate pages of 19th century books and papers, trying to reconstruct the lives and understand hardships faced by my favourite characters in the family story.

I began a teaching degree, but left to follow my passion and complete a BA(Hons)History. This study, and backpacking through parts of Europe gave me richer perspective on my emigrating ancestors, and I spent a couple of years living in the UK, where I was able to indulge my love for archival research, and visit some sites of my own family's origins.

Queenie and Beatrice Kempson

Of course, modern family life eventually took hold of my time and resources, and genealogical pursuits were put aside for several years while our children were small. Then, rather suddenly, the availability of records and indexes on the web exploded, and allowed me to delve in again from home.  I have since completed  the Certificate of Genealogical Studies (SAGS), undertaken archival research and record retrieval for many overseas researchers, tutored groups of keen family historians, indexed records, studied convict records, and learned so, so much more about the history of my own family.

I wonder what my grandmother would have made of on-line research? It's a world away from her collection of notes, lists  and letters, but she was a modern woman and I know that she would have embraced it wholeheartedly.

My children are older now, and so once again I'm able to lose myself in the Archive Centre or the State Library- between school bells anyway. It still feels like heaven, too.