The topic for week 16 was “Storms”. When I think of storms here in Australia, I think of what would have the most impact, and I came up with “floods”. This made me think of what I had read in the book “St Andrew’s Church Newry: Celebrating a Centenary 1885-1985”, by Florence Pearce , about the marriage of William Smith and Mary McCole in 1916, on page 15:
When Mary McCole married William Smith at Lornswood in 1916 the area was experiencing terrific floods. The Rev.C.A. Fraser, the minister from Maffra, could not come by the lower road so had to cross Carr’s Creek in his buggy — even contemplating swimming, if necessary, to keep his appointment!
Since I didn’t have an exact date of the marriage, just the year, I searched Trove for a marriage notice.
I also searched on Trove for articles in 1916 in Victoria for “Maffra storms” (without quotes). One of the articles I found was:
Another article I found was
William Smith was the brother of my ex-husband’s great grandfather, Thomas Smith. His relationship to my ex-husband is:
His wife, Mary Agnes McCole, was the daughter of Margaret Clyne, who was the sister of Louisa May Clyne. Her relationship to my ex-husband is:
Background of featured image is a photo from Unsplash – https://unsplash.com/photos/b_ZeDZJ6R2I Photo by unsplash-logoMichał Mancewicz
