Fresh eyes for a Cooley family in Kent early 1900's?

[Sluggie]

Thanks IgorStrav, much easier to understand now putting all info together like that.

Goldcoast...... my grandmother (i called Nana) was Dorothy Kathleen Vivien Foster, nee Read, we too would have meet as i also went to that reunion in the 80's..........remember the incident of a boy that went through the wall??
that was me accidently pushing my older brother and having him fall through the wall! 

I meet your grandmother a long time ago (about 25 years), i knew her as "Aunty Eve" also Aunty Gladys was there.  We had more to do with their younger sisters Mavis and Audrey.

I have a memory of nana saying there was gypsies in her family
i am going to go through my nana's photos tomarrow see what she has, though i do know she didnt have much at all, i have a war photo of her, will post if wanted

[goldcoast]

IgorStrav you are amazing summarising all that but I too feel like I need a lie down to digest it...

Sluggie, yes we must have met.  I don't remember the brother through the wall incident, I was probably trying to control my own three children who were equally kind to each other :-)  I do remember that when we arrived in the middle of the night, having driven from Wollongong after working there until midnight, we found an old man with a head wound wandering the carpark and were about to call the police until we saw him in the light and realised he unmistakeably the lone surviving brother.  They all looked so alike...

I have three children for Dorothy, is that correct?  You need to pm me so I can give you access to my tree as well.  If you were born in Sheffield, Tasmania I think I know who you are. I have a lot of photos of the family as Evelyn my grandmother become the other mother and inherited Alice, Syd and Gladys to live with her as well as having her father stay very frequently.  Also I have some photos of the reunion.  It was quite funny really as my children and their immediate cousins only knew Evelyn as their granny and when we all assemble the first morning they all 'look at all the grannies' as I was quietly trying to shut them up...

I also had the story of gypsies in the family but I think IgorStrav has covered that with itinerant worker. It was such a strong thing from my granny I wonder if they did even think of themselves as gypsies in the broader sense.

Look forward to seeing any pics you have, I can send many more recent ones than I have posted here.  Did you see the family pics on, the photo restoration board on rootschat?  Some very kind people have done the most amazing things with the family picture of Arthur, Bertha and kids before they left England for Australia.  Have a look here http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,585182.0.html

Goldcoast or Goldcrest, either is fine by me 

[IgorStrav]

Great to be in touch with another fourth cousin, Sluggie!

I am fascinated by the snippets from your grandparents, Sluggie and Goldcoast, about the "gypsy" connection, and the fact that it seems to have been spoken of as almost Romany type background.

I have already posted somewhere that my great uncle Henry Albert had very distinctive dark curly hair, and a dark complexion, very different from his other siblings, and his grandfather Richard Corke was described, on his entry to the Navy, as swarthy, with dark hair and hazel eyes.  My son has also got very distinctive dark extremely curly hair, and hazel eyes.  Is this the "gypsy" heritage?  Do you have any of this in your family?

Now, Sluggie, what I want to know is whether there is extreme caution in YOUR family about fires in the bedroom?

I see you have now completed your three posts, so that I can send you a personal message.  I will give you my email address and if you will give me yours, I will invite you to see the tree.

Please do look at the photograph restoration thread Goldcoast has attached, I think the restoration is great!  Is this the same thread where we compare Royd's ancestors, my great grandmother Victoria Adelaide (daughter of Richard Corke jnr), and Bertha(Cork)(Cooley)Everden?

It would be great to share other family pictures to see if any other likenesses emerge?

[goldcoast]

I notice some missed words in my previous post, sorry about that, my brain and fingers aren't always in unison.

Am keen to hear if Sluggie has a fire story...

Could we have Romany heritage?  Bertha Cooley had dark wavy hair...

My sister is pretty much dark skinned black hair but we also have Indonesian ancestors many generations back

DNA one day I guess will tell it all...

Goldcrest

[royd]

I'm really looking forward to see any photos Sluggie may have - wouldn't it be great to see a likeness somewhere ?   

[Sluggie]

 this is a picture of Dorothy Kathleen Vivian Foster, nee Read, one of the five children born in Australia to Bertha and Arthur Read, im not sure now if she does look her mother

[Sluggie]

Dorothy Kathleen Read with her husband Thomas Richard Foster on their wedding day 1947

[Sluggie]

sorry no fire history that we are aware of
my nana....Dorothy had dark wavy hair also
sorry... nana didn't have much pictures, we send what she had.  when they left Tasmania to live in Victoria, someone broke into their house and took some things, pictures included!!!

its strange that on Bertha's death certificate it has her father as Nathan Cooley and mother Mary Ann Everden??? bit backwards, she died from kidney disease.....uraemia, chronic nephritis, acute gastroenteritis
states also she was born in East Mawling Kent England

[IgorStrav]

Thank you for the photos, they are very interesting to see. Whilst I can't at the moment think of who they are trundling me of, there is a resemblance which I will have to think about. Beautiful woman!

Re Bertha's death certificate, don't forget the details will have been provided by someone else, who didn't know the facts for certain and may have been confused. What those details indicate is that the informant knew Bertha's father was called Nathan; that her parents hadn't martied( and that she had also been called Evenden. Which is all correct, they just got the names the wrong way round

So sorry there aren't more pictures, must have been great to see Bertha and the whole family!