Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries

 It seems over the last few months I have been blogging mainly about prominent men who call Rookwood "home". Today's blog is about a remarkable woman that I expect most of us haven't heard of. The details about her are relatively scarce but I have found some information that sets out her astonishing life. I have mentioned her briefly before in a blog about her second husband, but she is more than deserving of recognition of her own! ADA HANNAH COFFILL nee AMBLER nee MORRIS! Ada was born in May 1863 in Sydney Australia about the 9th child of 12 to John Morris and Sarah nee Hart. Her mother Sarah came from Gloucestershire England. Sarah's father died when she was 11 and her mother Hannah together with his sister Ann took to theft to supplement their incomes. They were both caught stealing clothes including an expensive coat, subsequently went to court in 1835 were found guilty and transported to Australia for 7 years. Hannah with her daughter Sarah and Ann wit...

 As you meander amongst the headstones in the older part of Rookwood there are many graves that mention -"accidently drowned, accidently killed etc." and it reminds us of a time when Occupational Health and Safety did not exist. Employment, especially the manual work that attracted a higher wage, came with many risks to health as well as and life and limb.  Today's blog is about a slightly different kind of accident, one still quite shocking but one that is a little more unusual. WILLIAM MOON  William Moon was born in Brightling Sussex England, on the 5th of November 1829, one of sixteen children to Jesse Moon and his wife Ann. Remarkably only two children died in infancy, the rest living to adulthood.   His father, Jesse, came to Australia with his family, his wife and eight children, as an assisted immigrant in 1839 onboard the vessel the Prince Regent. William was ten years of age, and the family settled into life in the Redfern area.  William married Ha...

 As it is Remembrance Day, I am paying homage to an artist you probably haven't heard of. A man who had a prolific career as an illustrator and landscape painter, later becoming an official war artist with many paintings held by the Australian War Memorial. ALBERT HENRY FULLWOOD Albert was born on the 15th of March 1863 at Erdington, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, the son of Frederick John Fullwood, jeweller, and his wife Emma. He was the middle child of six. From the age of 15, Henry, as he was better known, attended Birmingham Institute on a scholarship. The census in 1881 shows most of the children living together, Henry as a jeweller and artist. Upon completing his studies and soon after his father had died, he migrated to Sydney arriving in December 1883 on the Rialto. He was listed as a lithographer (printmaker). Henry soon found work at John Sands Ltd and became a black and white illustrator for the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and travelled extensive...

 Melbourne Cup was to be the theme of my Rookwood blog this week, but I received a call for help via a Facebook message from the person who set up a group I have joined - Australian Headstone Images - regarding clarification. The name on the headstone in Rookwood came up with another alias and she wanted to know who this person actually was, so I decided to have a quick look. Well, what a find this man turned out to be. I've always maintained that Rookwood is full of wonderful people, many of whom lie under unassuming standard issue headstones - this man is one of them. WILLIAM "FIGHTING BILL SPARKES" PARKES William was born in April 1818 at the Cooks River in an area known at the time as Parkes Run. He was one of 12 children born to John Parkes and his wife Margaret Southern, both convicts. John had been granted 50 acres of land in October 1831 and the land was known with several versions of the name Parkes until it was renamed Earlwood which it is known by today. ...