Not Sweating the Small Stuff

'Who Really Was My Great-Grandmother Louisa?'

This morning I was looking at an 1860 something photograph of my great-grandmother - over coffee and a croissant, as you do ...

Louisa (nee Smith) at 18 - My Paternal Great-Grandmother

... and realized there were no family stories or histories about her. Not a single one!

Plenty about her husband Jean Theodore. Who called all his sons 'Jimmy' cos he couldn't remember their 12 individual names. And told them to use a dictionary when asked the meaning of a French word - rather than admit he didn't know the English one. The anecdotes go on and on. And on.

I kept looking at the photograph, almost trying to will something out of the image.

The clothes were mid C19 - I did know that she came to this country as a teenager from Scotland around that time. I wondered if this photo was taken before she set out for Australia. Or - less likely - on her arrival in Melbourne. Certainly not in the remote bush where my great-grandparents established themselves. The reverse states in pencil that she was 18 at the time of the sitting.

And why did she make the then perilous journey to Australia? My great-grandfather emigrated from France during the Gold Rush of 1852 and established a vineyard and winery in Bendigo (which still operates) - he was shrewd enough to realize he probably wouldn't find gold but there were other more indirect ways to get your hands on the precious metal!

Did she come here alone? It's hard to image it. With whom then? And what happened to them?

Her father, John Smith?

John Smith c1860

Or these recently uncovered relatives on whom I've already posted? Also, tantalizingly, named Smith. Were they a family group of a father and two daughters? If so, what became of the mother? My mind is racing into Hollywood stories of ... well, you know the formula!


How and where did she meet her husband-to-be? Was it an arranged thing? Before she left Scotland. My great-grandfather had already been in the country nearly a decade when she landed in Melbourne sometime around 1860.

Jean-Thedore and Louisa Embedded in Their Family (1897)

Just a zillion intriguing questions ... and no nearer to having a single clue about my great-grandmother - apart from where she was born and her teenage journeying.

Back to the photo? Maybe there's something I've missed. Something on the back that will reveal all!

By the way, one of my given names is a very old Scottish one, now not at all used. I like to think that there's at least this tiny thread back to this intrepid pioneer woman.