Alpha Frances Jarvis

FINDING ALPHA FRANCES JARVIS...
This image is of Alpha Frances Jarvis.

Walking down the path of genealogy collecting shattered branches of my Family Tree over the past 4 years, has led me to discover many amazing family members living as well as those who have past over.

But it is the stories that come into being, grow and start to emerge covered in flesh and substance that excites me the most.

The core story that has emerged from my Family Tree expedition has become woven and stitched together with the clues left behind from the choices and actions of my Great Aunt; Alpha Frances Jarvis.

Hunting out Great Aunt Alpha Frances Jarvis is where I started this journey many years ago. Finding her and her family has given me such wonderful opportunities to understand hidden parts of my own self. My own history slowly emerges, blooming like a rose right in front of me. These experiences have filled my soul with immense joy and gladdened my spirit profoundly.

That hunger gnawing away at me for all those years has now been silenced.

After just 4 years of digging with so many discoveries which have finally led me to the true identity and the life travels of my Great Aunt Alpha Frances Jarvis.

These discoveries have unfolded in front of me just like watching the child's game of pass the parcel.

The first layer of paper to be removed from this parcel revealed the history and meanings behind the names Alpha and Omega which had been spoken of so many times throughout my childhood. Only their names where spoken about them and that their father was Spanish and a prominent School teacher in South Australia, Australia.

This first layer of the parcel of my mothers extended family history was all I really had to hang onto for well over 50 years.

This mystery around who these souls were, where had they lived, what happened to them? Did they have families I might just meet one day? My father would often say they were all very beautiful women which used to invoke so many images in my child's mind. The photographs of my mother and my grandmother, when they were young are testimonials to their beauty being a true fact.

Add to those imaginary constructs in my child's mind of a family I had never met other than my mother, her mother and stepfather, my own father and three brothers and one or two short visits with a couple of my grandmothers brothers family homes had left me with a very large empty space that I had to fill with imagined people and imagined lives. This was my imagined extended family that I would like to meet one day and make real.

When I heard the names Alpha and Omega spoken about it became a history lesson that left me always amazed, inspired and very intrigued about that wide world that existed somewhere out there, way beyond my wonderful isolated environment of growing up in the foot hills of Rolyestone in Western Australia in the late 1950 to 1970's.

"Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last letter" is what I was told throughout my life when mums extended family came into a conversation.

"The Aleph and the Thaw are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet as the Alpha and Omegain Scripture, are of the Greek." www.newadvent.org/cathen/01332b.htm Such a rich deep history connected to these names that echoed down the annuals of time. It felt like eternity.

I often wondered about the magic of calling children such creative names with such depth of meaning. This would account for one of the main reasons why my two daughters got their Latin names, Regina and Aves.
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NO IMAGES OF ALPHA FRANCES JARVIS?...

For the first 3 years collecting all my shattered family tree branches and trying to put them all back together I believed I had no images of Alpha or Omega.

My grandmother had kept all of her photographs so that after her passing in 2005 at the age of 91, my mother then squirreled them all away like the family jewels but not one of Alpha had surfaced, well that's what I believed.

This was in complete contrast, I believed back then, to the very large number of images of Alpha’s younger sisters Lulu and Clytie that were in my grandmothers photographic collection.

Over those first three years I was searching for my extended family I would travel hour and half up to my parents country home to go through all those family photographs with my mother.

There was a very large collection of these images and my mother did remember 90% of the people in them. She was able to share so many informative stories about many of the images which gave me many clues to be able to return home and do further research through many on line sites.
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When I first started writing this story I chose another mystery image to represent Alpha. I had chosen to write about Alpha under that other image because I .....
(revising this text has come to this point....I will continue at a later date to bring this story up to date as of September 2012)

Thanks to my cousin Kay and her wealth of genealogy experiences over the 30 years she has been tracking the Allen family tree I was at least able to date this image to a year it was taken.

Who this image is of is still unknown to me and for that matter everyone else in the family I have been able to share it with so far. After cousin Kay told me I could identify the year this image had been taken from a book in the State Library by its business details stamped on the base. I discovered at least it was taken in 1897 at Rembrant Studio, Boulder City, W.A. This would make this young lady in the image at least 15 to 20 years of age (in my estimation from looking at other images of the female family photographs of this time.) This means that any female family member who would have been born from 1877 through to around 1882 with dark hair and still alive in the Gold fields of Western Australia could be a candidate.

Now the fact that there are no images of Alpha in my grandmothers or my mothers extensive photographic collection is an indicator to some important aspect of this ladies story that I have not yet cracked or for that matter may never crack but am driven to see if I can at least understand why.

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My mother grew up with very little family contact. She was an only child and the photographs reflected the major happy events that marked family time together. Snapshots where all that remained of their entire lives other than the physical truth that we did exist. Because my mother and father are real and my brothers are real then we did have to have family ancestors before them. This physical truth that we did exist is all I could hang onto as a bright flashing arrow pointing to where more truth could one day be mined, dug up and brought out into the light of day that would finally form into "my" extended family.

The rare times these family images did get brought out into the light of day caused deep longings in me to know these people, to get to know their stories. I so wanted to hold onto these images of my ancestors until they had burned themselves onto my minds surface before they would be stored away for another year or two before I could get to see them again.
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ALPHA FRANCES JARVIS FIRST BORN...
Alpha Frances Jarvis was the first born child to Henry Martin Jarvis (Widower) son of James
married 18 Aug 1877 St Lukes Church Adelaide, South Australia to his second wife Frances Elizabeth White (Single) daughter of George Tyler William and Roseanna Lock.

If Henry was born in 1827 he would have been 50 years of age and already retired from the army when he married Frances White in South Australia. Frances White would have been 26 years of age and most likely looking after Henry's youngest children from his first family after his first wife, Clara had died. More about Henry's first family in another chapter.

Alpha Frances Jarvis was born 10 months after Henry's second marriage on the 9/7/1878 Southwark South Australia, District Hindmarsh (Book 205 Page 287) to Frances Elizabeth White.

Frances Elizabeth White, Alhpa's mother died some time during or just after giving birth to her 6th child, Omega, in 1887 at the age of 33. Alpha would have only been 9 years of age at that time. Here younger brothers and sisters were Lulu Dagma 1880, Frank 1882 -1882, Clytie Grace Darling 1884,
(Gideon Jarvis Jarvis) Gibson Clarence 1885, Omega 1887-1887.

The next time Alpha Frances can be tracked in the records is when she is 18 years of age on the goldfields, Western Australia getting married in 1896 to a William George Ashton /Reg 107 COOLGARDIE.

Then in 1903 Alpha Frances is in Cottesloe, Western Australia giving birth to her only child,
Elgar Ashton. His father's name that is recorded on the record book was William George Ashton (no. 485). Note how long this is after Alpha was married before giving birth to Elgar and she has no other children that are recorded in Western Australia. This is very unusual for this time in Australian history. Without birth control for these women, back then in the isolation of the Australian European communities, the normal pattern of married women was once they got married they got pregnant every 18 months or so until either they died, usually due to complications during or just after giving birth or their husbands die.

The tracks left in the sand of the records world of Alpha's movements that I sieved through the screen of the computer in the State Library of Melbourne, Victoria Australia revealed many new gems. In searching through Electoral roles, Post Office records, Shipping lists and Microfiche and old Newspapers slowly started to build a picture of this great Aunt over the proceeding years from the birth of her first child back in 1903 Western Australia to her arriving here in Melbourne Australia many years later.

James Street, Perth Western Australia in 1903 and 1906 Alpha is recorded as living there in the States Electoral Roles. Searching through the same records I could not place her husband living with her or any body else with the last name of Ashton living at this address. But I do find under the name of Alfa Frances Ashton in the 1903 and 1906 (under the title of "Voters at James St), Electoral Roles living at 153 Lake Street, occupation as home duties, again no one else with the name Ashton living there. (note the spelling change to the name Alpha in this record)

Departing Brisbane, Queensland Australia 1912 Alpha Ashton, born ABT 1883 (29).
Arriving London England 25th May 1912. Ports on Voyage Sydney, Ship Name; Osterley Shipping Line Orient Steam Navigation company Ltd official No 128287. Further scratching through the records found another entry stating that Elgar Ashton (9) was her son accompanied by his mother and Alpha the wife were leaving Fremantle and arriving in Plymouth, England. It was also recorded that she was not accompanied by a husband. I would like to point out here that in 1912 Alpha would have actually been 34 years of age not 29.
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COUSIN LESLEY'S EMAIL CLUES...
All of the facts I have collected so far about my family have come from research on the internet, library visits in my home town of Western Australia, oral history from my mother, grandmother and very recently my dear cousins I have made contact with only over the past two years. Most of the history that I have collected over the past two years is the reason I went into the State Library of Melbourne to seek out Alpha's whereabouts’ was because of this story shared to me by my cousin Lesley, now living in Germany. This story was told to her from her 92-year-old mother, Shirley, who was on a holiday with her at the end of last year (2010).

This is the story emailed to me from cousin Lesley...

"Shirley today was somewhat off with the pixies. It does occur on some days and other days she is perfect with her memory so this is what I gleaned from this afternoon’s conversation when she was not concentrating on how she was going to paint a painting of the area here. She was greatly worried over not being able to get the trees right.!!! A typical way-would artist.!!!!!! She said to try again in the morning hours as she can remember better then.

So here we go about Aunt Alpha so far from what I know as of this arvo.
Alpha lived for many years in London. I asked Shirley about how long. She told me well over 20 years or much longer. Sorry cousin this is only what she told me this afternoon so I cant be more explicit.
She was very tall with beautiful skin and could sing, whistle, and yodel and was a great cook.
In London they all called her Lilly Langtry as she resembled her so very much. Who was Lilly Langtry??? Will Google her when I finish this note.

Alpha was married to someone who worked for the East Indian Tea Company.!!!
Mum can’t remember his name and doesn't know whether he was English or Australian.
They had one son and then her husband died so she returned to Oz and moved to Melbourne for a while. She had a falling out with her son and they broke off contact. She then lived with Vera and Shirley for a while in Sydney until she remarried a man called Caplan or Caplen who lived in Cabramatta also in the Sydney area.

He became ill and died and shortly after Alpha died of cancer from which she had been suffering with for some time. I asked Shirley how old she was then at the time and she figured that she was about 12 or 13 at the time so guess the year was about 1931 or thereabouts. Have no idea whether any of this info is correct so please be patient with us now. Shirley tends to switch over from one subject to another and went into her remembrances of her beloved Uncle Gorden who was for her a wonderful brother figure for her. They spent so much time together in Sydney.
Thats about all I can tell you at this stage.
Will certainly get on to Mum when she is not so off.!!!

Love and Light to you and all your loved ones,
Your cousin,
Lesley."
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FINDING ALPHA FRANCES CAPLIN...
I had found Alpha Caplin’s death details on line before I went to Melbourne February 2011 because of this wonderful story from cousin Lesley. The on line website for finding births, deaths and marriages for Sydney gave me those details without any real effort. That is what it is like doing genealogy. Once you have enough meat to add to a bone you can find so much out about what it is you are seeking but if you only have a bone it makes your searching very hard indeed.
Death...1941 CAPLIN ALPHA FRANCES, father HENRY MARTIN
mother, FRANCES ELIZABETH place, LIVERPOOL SYDNEY NSW (12470)

Well you would think at this stage I should be able to find a marriage certificate for Alpha and Mr Caplin would you not? All my search had revealed so far was that Alpha Frances had been born Jarvis and had got married in Perth Western Australia and became Alpha Frances Ashton. Then had a son Elgar Ashton. These two unattended by the father head off to London, England and as the email from cousin Lesley states they had both returned to Australia through Melbourne, Victoria and Alpha then had gone to Sydney and married a Mr Caplin and herself had died there.

So why could I not find a marriage certificate for a Alpha Frances Ashton? When I typed in just Caplin in the marriage section the clue was staring me right in the face at that time but I had missed it completely and it would not be until I had spent quite a few hours in the Melbourne State Library looking for Alhpa Frances Ashton that it became clear why there was no marriage certificate for her to a Mr Caplin. More on that later.
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FINDING ELGAR ASHTON MELBOURNE VICTORIA...
When I was in Melbourne, Victoria this past February, 2011, I met up with my very dear cousin Kay in the Victorian State Library. Kay was down in the city visiting family when she had let me know we could spend a short time together so what better place for us two to hangout in but in the State Library.

As I had just come from Sydney after meeting another cousins 91 year old wife, Viva Rodwell who was related to us both through my great grandfathers sisters son. Kay had unearthed this wonderful women and her husband’s family branch on my last trip to Melbourne only that previous November. I had a lot to share with Kay about the stories of Viva’s life and showed her the images on my camera I had taken of the Rodwell families’ photos and newspaper articles. This wonderfully gracious lady, Viva and the Rowell side of the family tree will be shared in another chapter of this book.

Kay shared all these amazing stories of her latest family discoveries and how she had found them. Kay has so much capacity in finding truth out of the smallest particles of detail. It is very clear to me that all those Allen ancestors skills and great capacity learned in the gold fields of Australia to hunt out gold over generations have been inherited in this lady for her to be able to find anything if she puts her mind to it.

After Kay had showed me around the genealogy section in the Library and showed me how to find people through the electoral roles microfiche we said our good byes until our paths would meet next. Now with all this newfound confidence to tackle the genealogy section I headed back by myself a few days later to hunt out, dig up, reveal the whereabouts of my cousin Elgar Ashton, son of Alpha Frances Ashton (nee Jarvis).

This should have been easy to find Elgar's movements there in Melbourne. I had his name, his mothers and fathers names and I was in the Melbourne State Library where all the local details should be right there at my fingertips so why was I finding it all so very hard to track him and for that matter Alpha.
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All I could find was the death details of Elgar Ashton and a possible whereabouts of his fathers grave also. I had no idea what had happened to Elgar's father, William George Ashton. After finding the details of Alpha's marriage to him in Western Australia he disappears out of the records there so I find it very strange that he turns up now here in Victoria, if this is even his father?

Writing down all that I had found so far regardless if it was correct or not was all I could show for hours of work. Details I had at that point were...Died Elgar Ashton, father William George mother Alpha Frances Jarvis, place Fairfield Victoria, age 37, year 1940, Reg. No. 6135.

His fathers details, if this is even him were; Death Ashton William George, father Robert, mother Cathrine O'Brian, place Richmond, age 55, year 1931 Reg. No. 3001. I had even found where this person was buried; Ashton William George, cemetery St Kilda General Cemetery, Roman Catholic Monumental Compartment B. grave 335 Buried 14/03/1931. I knew at that point this was either useless or a very important piece to my puzzle and I had better write it down because there was no guarantee I could find it again.

The idea of going out to see this grave site at that point in time was not going to be feasible even if I could be sure it was Elgar's father. Time that I had left in Melbourne was short and I needed to find Elgar's grave site at least to see if there had been other names recorded on it. Had Elgar married, did he have children that might still be alive here in Melbourne?

With the clock ticking away I returned to the State Library of Victoria the following day and commenced cross referencing, playing around with what I did have and do strange things like type different combinations of names. It was while I was doing this last ditched attempt of finding where Elgar's grave was that I stumbled across this entry on Ancestry.com website (I had only just discovered Ancestry.com was free at our Library's)... Alpha Frances Ashton mother Elgar Jno Evans born 1903 death 1940 Fairfield, Victoria.

Evans, they had changed their name to Evans. Elgars name was Elgar Jno Evans, no wonder I could not find records in the microfiche and telephone records and all the other places I had been looking. I had the wrong name.
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NOW FINDING ELGAR JON EVANS...
The name Alpha, that strange and very mysterious name was all I had had to hang onto all throughout my life that had kept calling me to hunt her out. Alpha's name was all I had of my great Aunt and it was that name that I had used to track her and her sons details down. I had finally cracked this. After I found this piece of the jigsaw many other details started to pour out of the web sites and microfiche. I dived back into all those records that I had spent days searching through with the name Ashton and now I was back with the name Evans.

What I found...
Australian Electoral Roles for Elgar Evans
1931 South Yarra, Fawkner, Victoria
1936 South Yarra, Fawkner, Victoria
1937 South Yarra, Fawkner, Victoria

Australian Electoral Roles for Alpha Frances Evans
1931 at 286 Toorak Rd, home duties. Elgar Evans was at this same address and his occupation was motor mechanic (M.

Married, Alpha Frances Evans 1934 New South Wales, reg. place; Liverpool, NSW Husband, Caplin John (Reg.No.2210)

When I had looked for Caplin and Ashton getting married back in Perth after cousin Lesley’s email with Shirley’s oral history I had seen this entry but did not think twice. It had not for one second dawned on my very blond brain that Alpha could have remarried.
Marriage...2210/1934 CAPLIN JOHN EVANS ALPHA F LIVERPOOL. I had not even suspected that Alpha had changed her name while overseas. I should have realised the name Alpha was her and at least written it down.

Now it all made so much sense, Elgar and Alpha had come back to Australia by the name Evans and where living together until something happens and Alpha goes off to Sydney where her nieces, and sister are living and marries there only 3 years later, 1934. The Electoral Roles for NSW Australia have recorded for the C'wealth: -Werriwa state:-Bankstown for both 1936 and 1937
Caplin AF. Cabramatta Rd, Cabramatta homeduties (F.
Caplin John Cabramatta Rd Cabramatta no occupation (M.

Final resting place of my dear dear great Aunt is in New South Wales, Australia and this chapter closes on this part of the mystery for now. There is no time to loose, all energy must go now into tracking down Elgar's movements to see if I can find his grave site before I head back to Western Australia in a few days time. I need to see if he has got married and if I can find anything else out about him.

Looking further into the Australian Electoral Roles for Elgar Evans in Victoria, Australia I found the area he was living in was the same electoral boundaries but not the same house addresses. Commonwealth :-Fawkner and State:- Prahran were the same for all three years listed on the Ancestry.com website. His address in 1931 we have already mentioned as being 286 Toorak Rd, and both he and Alpha were listed as living there. Where as for 1936 the address was 3 Portland Place, motor Mechanic (M and in 1937 his address was Fitsgerald Street. motor mechanic (M.

At both the Portland and Fitsgerald address there was another person now living with Elgar and that was a Mrs Mary Doreen Evens. Married Ashton Elgar, spouse Family name Davies, spouse mother name?????? Mary Doreen, Reg. Year 1932 Reg. No 5803

Elgar had died only a few years after his marriage to Mary in 1940 and there is no other election until 1943 where I find a Mary Doreen Evans C'Wealth:-Maribyrnong. Subdivision of Ascot Vale.
State Flemington. address 18 Bank Street, home duties (F

In 1943 I also find a Mary Doreen Evans now living in New South Wales. C'Wealth: New England Sub: Raymond Terrace. State Gloucester at The Snug, Nelson's Bay, home duties (F
Also the same electoral role, state sub. in NSW but another address was recorded for the 1949 elections the address for that year was Victoria Parade, Nelson Bay NSW.
This exact same information is repeated for 1954. But there was a second entry for 1954 and that was for Mary Doreen Evans at 285 Bromide Street, C'Wealth: Darling Sub. Broken Hill West, State: Stuart. As Ancestry.com only goes up to 1954 in there Electoral roles I headed off to explore Melbourne cemetery's seeking where I could find the grave site details for Elgar.

After some real hard sifting through microfiche for this information after being guided by a very helpful Librarian showing where to at least start this search I found Elgar's grave at Springfield Victoria. Just to keep me on my toes Elgar’s name on the records was spelt differently.
Elga Evens 6/7/1940 Type B location. Exp.030-23000B0017-0043HKL000/00/0000 7
6 Fitzgerald St. South Yarra, Mrs MD Evans, Church England Monumental Compart. B section 17 grave 43.

I was so very, very happy and as I still wanted to come back to that Library I could not yell at the top of my lungs or do my magpie call. I was just over the moon. After a very good friend had agreed to very kindly drive me out to where this cemetery was on the other side of Melbourne and a far way out of town. After getting great maps and directions at the Administrative office my friend and I sent out to finally accomplish what had up until that point just been a wish and hope for me to achieve.

My friend and I set out in the mapped area with great energy until we realised none of the graves had numbers and although the map showed very clear and defined grave sites when you actually get there, on the ground, there are no head stones for over half of the graves. To add to the difficulty we faced in finding this exact grave was that none of the pathways between each set of graves was clearly defined either. We headed back to the corner and counted very methodically until I found Elgar’s grave hidden under a very low growing paper bark tree. This tree was sheltering his grave just like a large umbrella. It was so peaceful and a very beautiful place.

The grave was in perfect condition and the words on it were very simple and read;
"In loving memory of
Elgar (John) Evans
1903-1940"
And it did not matter how hard I stared at the large space below these words there was nothing else written there. I had accomplished this quest and was happy to return back to Western Australia to continue the next stage of this amazing journey of reconstructing my shattered family Tree.
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ELGAR ASHTON'S FATHER; WILLIAM GEORGE...
As I found pieces of genealogy that may be of interest to my dear cousin Kay I would send them to her when I was still in Melbourne February 2011. On the day before I was heading back to Western Australia she sent me a small email with an image attached that at first I could not open.

When I did open this image it was a South Australian newspaper article informing the reader of Alpha's marriage to Ashton back in Nov 1896, the article was published Jan 1987; that super sleuth Kay had done it again. Who would have thought to go look in a South Australian Newspaper for a Wedding in Western Australia two months after? Well it makes sense in hindsight, yes I have learned yet another great Family tree research skill, thank you Kay.

I did not really see anything that needed my attention, at that time, so I simply printed the email she had sent me and put it into my folder with my paperwork I took with me to the Library thinking nothing more of it.

My last day at the Victorian State Library revealed no new leads and I found nothing extra to add to my quest and as I was about to meet up with my eldest daughter to spend sometime together before we were to meet up with my other daughter and head off to the airport I farewelled the Victorian State Library until my next visit to this beautiful city.

As I was sitting in my daughters car waiting for her to finish work I went through my file of notes that I had collected over the days I had been visiting the Library there in Victoria and was very carefully reading them and cross referencing data when I re read the newspaper article that cousin Kay had emailed me the day before. What makes this story even more remarkable was that I had finished reading all the notes and the notes I had scribbled on this email with the article from Kay and only re read it again because I had re read everything else and there was nothing left to read; lol.

It was the name of Ashton's father in this newspaper article that kept screaming at me so I went back and re read all my data again from this trips visits to the State Library. It dawned on me that the details I did copy down of the person I thought could at least be Elgar's father turned out to also have recorded in his death details that his father's name was Robert. This was too much of a coincidence not to be the same Ashton married to Alpha all those years before in the goldfield's of Western Australia.

Then to add to that the newspaper article said that Ashton had come from Victoria and St Kilda all the same details on this Ashton's death details. On further reading of my notes I found even more notes about this same person. I had actually found several sources of data about this same man that had all converged to being the same person described in this tiny newspaper article sent the night before by my dear cousin Kay.

But until I make those final record searches he could still “not” be our Ashton's father.

Article from cousin Kay emailed to me the day before I was to return to WA;
MARRIAGE
ASHTON-JARVIS-On the 6th November, 1896,at St. Andrew's Church, Coolgardie, by the Rev.A. Craven, George, eldest son of Robert Ashton, of St. Kilda, Victoria, to Frances (Alpha), third daughter of Henry Martin Jarvis, of Fremantle, W.A. (late of Southwark, SA.)
source;
The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA:1889-1931) Wednesday 27 January 1897 page 4 of 8

I did not have time to go to that grave, as I needed to be on a plain heading back to Western Australia in one hour. My dear daughters did agreed to go and find this grave and find out if there is a head stone and see what data is recorded on it.

Information I did collected on William George Ashton in the Victorian State Library 2011;

Born William George Ashton, 1876, St. Kilda, Victoria, father Robert Ashton,
mother Catherine O'Brian Reg. No.12472

WA Electoral Role 1903 Ashton George William, Kanowna Firewood line, Kalgoolie.
Vic Electoral Role 1909 Ashton George William, Balaclava, 18 Nightingale St, St Kilda, Labourer
(M at the same address Annie Ashton home duties (F
Vic Electoral Role 1914 Ashton George William, Fitzroy North, 572 Rae St. North Fitzroy driver (M
at the same address Lilian Rebecca Ashton home duties (F
Vic Electoral Role 1919 Ashton George William, St Kilda 18 Wilgah St driver (M
Vic Electoral Role 1919 Ashton George William, Balaclava, 44 Nightingale St, St Kilda, ???? (M
Vic Electoral Role 1924 Ashton George William, Balaclava, Beach St, East Camberwell, rly. emp.
(M
These went on and I was not sure at that time if this was Elgar's father so I stopped recording them correctly and did not go on to other dates. Something I might get back to when I know for sure this is the right person.

Died Ashton William George, father Robert, mother Cathrine O'Brian, place Richmond, age 55, year 1931 Reg. No. 3001.
Buried; Ashton William George, cemetery St Kilda General Cemetery, Roman Catholic Monumental Compartment B. grave 335 Buried 14/03/1931.
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ALPHAS IN BETWEEN MISSING YEARS...
What happened to Alpha after her marriage and being in Cottesloe giving birth to Elgar and then off to England for over 29 years and returning back to Melbourne with another name? I have found a lot out about this great Aunt but now have even more questions. The random information that I have dug up so far that has not been recorded in the rest of this story is;

Australian Electoral Role 1903-1954,
1903 and 1906 Alpha Frances Ashton, James St. Perth Western Australia

Electoral Role 1903 and 1906 Voters at James Street.
Alfa Frances Ashton, 153 Lake St, home duties (note the spelling change in her first name)

mum never did meet Alpha???????
need to check out WA electorial roles to see if an evans name is living in james street Perth WA during the 1903 and 1906 time frame.????

what is coming to me on this subject is rather interesting mate and would love your view on it...

what I found studying both the records of William Ashton described on the prison records that you found first and the William Ashton described in the army records you found a bit later are NOT THE SAME MAN...

the markings and height and the character described in the two sets of documents are absolutely different people...

we know the man described in the army records was Alpha’s ex husband... we know the newspaper records of the divorce are real...BUT and A very big BUT is the information in them about which William Ashton they are referring to...

I think and this is where I could be wrong BUT as the police officer giving evidence in the divorce case spoke about the William Ashton in the prison records thinking it was Alphas husband when in fact it was one of the aliases used by the criminal one...getting my drift...then when you read the newspaper article a little closer it states that our William Ashton was not in court when all this info was being used to convict him...so even if the police officer did know very well the criminal William Ashton he did not know Alpha’s William Ashton as he is not in court to be seen as a different man...and worse Alpha’s husband William Ashton was not there to plea his innocence...

now I do not believe for one minute Alpha’s William was not a bit of a lad and even may have got himself into a lot of hot water and may even have had a jail term but the man who got bravery medals and re enlisted to go back to war after being discharged due to mustered Gas poisoning...no this is not the same character at all...so I think you
and I have a very interesting chapter of injustice of character here...

and I would then place a lot of money on that it was this miss representation of character of Elgar’s father that cased the huge rift between Alpha and Elgar...when they returned to Victoria and Elgar either saw his father before he died or met Williams family after his death in 1931 the real story, the truth would have come out and I very strongly believe would have been far tooo much for our dear Alpha to except that the man she thought was a monster was far from it...

what do you think mate...?????

where did you find the prison info...is it pos to go back to that site and keep looking what else might be there about these two William Ashton’s...????

If this William Ashton was such a nasty bit of work he must have then had a lot more prison records...which would prove that this is not Alphas husband...and the policeman was talking about the wrong man...

((((((FROM KAY....
Then show them the dates and names for the divorce and ask for help to find the index film and divorce film in the filing drawer, the machine is a buggar to use and to copy from. These should be available as 100 years old. All the info should be there, I am winging these instructions, but to be sure, perhaps a phone call to ask them might help.

OK, going by these days poor old Alpha had to put up with an awful husband, I will go back later and find all those court proceedings, I saw one In Kalgoorlie about 1909 and one in Broken Hill and then in New Zealand, hmm, not sure all is he but the Kalgoorlie one will be.

I just found another newspaper bit for 1913. I think he committed adultery too, I don't think it was final until then. Wait on will get that one. Oh yes, the same story as the first two files was in Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885-1954) Saturday 20 April 1912 p 25 Article
from FREE BMD'S thought I might have found them on the London Registers,but in Lambeth.
Marriage Jun 1916 Ashton Frances A Evans Lambeth 1d 767
Evans Graham B Ashton Lambeth 1d 767

s the first two files was in Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885-1954) Saturday 20 April 1912 p 25 Article
from FREE BMD'S thought I might have found them on the London Registers,but in Lambeth.


So now we have to find out if Graham B Evans was in the British Military and died. )))))
Died 4th July 1940 Queen's Memorial Infections Diseases Hospital, Fairfield, City of Heidelberg County of Bourke.

Residence 6 Fitzgerald street, south Yarra. City Prahram
motor machanic
Elgar John Evans 37 years male

cause of death Septic broncho-pneumonia 3 days scarlet fever 10days

it stated age of marriage 28 at South Yarra, Victoria
married Mary Doreen Davies
two children...
Louanne, 6years
Lionel Elgar, 2 years

YES HE DID HAVE CHILDREN...NOW GUIDE ME ON HOW i FIND THEM OR AT LEAST THE BOY AS WE KNOW HIS COMPLETE NAME...
the boy was born 1938
the girl born 1934

and as my electoral roles stated she moved to NSW 1943 and the last one I found was
1954 285 Bromide st,
C"Wealth; Darling
State; Stuart
Sub. Broken Hill West