I’ve spoken before about how our home came to be built, here. Originally owned by Fredrick Goleby, and given to his daughter, Mrs A M Johnson. What gets me really excited about our home, is it’s history. Yesterday I got lost in the treasure of information available on Trove. Mr Fredrick Goleby was a very well know Ipswich identity, however I have struggled to find information about his Daughter and Son in Law. Yesterday I did find, that Mrs A M Johnson was quite the socialite and a very well traveled one at that. I also went on to find a few loose ‘connections’ or at least little bits of information that I will hold onto as connections to these former owners of our home.
Mr and Mrs A M Johnson, were married in March 1913, and honeymooned at the spectacular “Morven” located at Sandgate. I grew up in Redcliffe, had my first job at Sandgate, and call all of that area home.
At the time of their honeymoon, Morven was owned by Mr McConnel of Cressbrook, and was later sold to the Catholic church, is still stands today in the grounds of St Patrick’s College. Some of the McConnel family still reside on the family property at Cressbrook, and in my previous life as pharmacy assistant, this family were clients of mine. Our older sons regularly play school rugby and cricket at St Patrick’s College.
Mrs A M Johnson, was widely traveled, she gave talks at the local Ipswich church groups to relay tales of her time spent in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The family holidayed frequently at their holiday home at Southport.
This is about where my knowledge runs out. I so must make an appointment with the history section of the library to find out more. In the mean time, I can sit in our beautiful Pen Y Llechwedd and dream about the days gone by.
Have you ever used Trove? Does your home have a history?
Nicole xxx
Wow i just loved this! So interesting.:)
Thanks Kat, we are so fortunate to have a home with a researchable history. Very exciting indeed! xx
I haven’t heard of Trove but I am off to explore it! How fascinating and exciting. A home with history is so fabulous- just imagine the stories those walls could tell!
Trove is amazing! you’ll love it xx
Imagine if your house could talk, all the stories it could tell! That’s the beauty of living in a more mature house, especially one as beautiful as yours!
Omg, it’s so romantic. I love historical homes. Our house is a quite old but not that old for the region (Loire valley, france). It was built in 1880 something. It’s now devided in two big flats but have many details from the past. Like the tiles, the wood everywhere… We struggle and put a lot of money in maintaining the external walls. But we will do it step by step. We also have some plumber problems of course and all that jazz. I’ll show you some pictures once if you like. xx cathy
Cathy, I would so totally LOVE to see some pictures. Would you be interested in participating in the “My Favourite Space” series? xx
Oh yes why not! It’s exciting! That could be the french touch of your serie. We are kind of proud of our old house. It’s not finished but very “authentic” (can you say that?) xx cathy
I love this kind of stuff, trove is amazing although I’ve come to a bit of a dead end on my research of our house. And not that I’m cyber stalking but I’ve seen a mention of Ipswich a couple of times in your blog and many houses like this are around the Centre which is where I live in our workers cottage which we too are renovating!
Hi Eva! I have a little secret myself, I did know that you are local. My Sons hairdresser mentioned that you live locally, when I explained to her I am a blogger. I have wanted to contact you, but didn’t want to sound stalker like >insert blushing face< You are correct we are on Waghorn St at Woodend. Ipswich is a beautiful city, we moved here just short of a year ago from Wivenhoe, we are loving living near the City. Are you enjoying your renovating process? Oh and thanks for taking the time to drop by xxx
Ahhhh..OMG…same suburb!!! Have sent you a PM!