Favourite Photo

This is a difficult one. Over the years I have collected and had so many photos sent to me. I get very excited over these, I love them, especially if I had not seen the person before. 

Many years ago I was given the album that belonged to my three times great grandparents. One photo of have him shows a gentle old man with thick white hair and beard, which my three-year-old granddaughter exclaimed excitedly when I told her who he was…” and he is Santa!” I feel he would have liked that. 

However, a more recent photo was of my great-great-grandmother Maria Royle (Nichols) born in 1836 in Hobart. She was illegitimate, however, DNA has shown she is most likely the daughter of George Edols, who died before she was born. We believe her mother may have worked for him and possibly came to Australia as a servant to his wife and family. 

Maria (pronounced Mariah) married Roger Royle, an ex-convict, when she was just seventeen. She had two children before they made the move to Sale in Victoria. She then went on to have another twelve children, including my great-grandmother. Despite all of these children, she gained work as a monthly nurse/midwife. 

The photo, I was sent, was of her in her nurse's uniform. In it, she looks tall and slim. Her hair is tied back, under a cap, very tightly and it looks like she does not have teeth. She looks quite formidable and her face quite sharp and pointed. Her eyes are quite strange, possibly very pale and she has high cheekbones. There is a photo online of her brother, he too has these very same cheekbones and is more proof they are related, they are very much alike. 

On the back of the photo, it is written “Mrs Royle Snr. Dad’s Mother.  Maria Royle born Tas, 1837. She bought 1/2 of Sale into the world with presence Dr Horgenor. She would go into the homes of her patients for 1 month, apart from caring for the mother & new babe, house kept for the husband and other children” There is also a sticker for an enlargement and framing from M.P. Butler and Sons, of Bairnsdale. 

Interestingly, the family bible states that Maria was born on 26th March 1837, however her Christening certificate states she was born on 27 Dec 1836 and was christened 23 April 1877. 

There were two Dr Haganauer’s in the area, Gus and Henry. Henry was based in Traralgon and changed his name to Hagan after the war. However these men may have been a bit young to assist Maria with her deliveries, but maybe one of them did in her later years as a nurse. 

A couple of years later I was sent another photo. This is one of Maria with her youngest daughter, Mary (Molly). In this one she is in a wheelchair. Her death certificates states that she suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis and Heart disease and this was for ten years. This is the photo I find is one of my favourites. She put on some weight, softening her features and making her look to be a gentle soul. It is the one where I just wanted to give her a cuddle. The great, great-granddaughter who sent the photo was not sure it was the same lady, but a study of both photos, you can see it is the same lady. 

This is one ancestor I really admire. Having fourteen children of her own, and then going out to help other women would not have been easy. Many women work and have families these days, but with not so many children.