(First of some posts on grandmothers)
In prior ancestry themed posts, both Milton & June talked about their parents. Their accounts were full of details about each of their father’s side of the family but much less information for their mothers. My goal is to fill in some of that missing information and to start it off is Elsie May Guest, June Wayne’s mother.
When I was growing up in Japan, I only knew her as “Nanna Furner”. I didn’t even know her maiden name. As a child, I viewed my grandparents as vague ideas of “older people” yet never considered the complexities of their lives. I knew she sent us, her grandchildren, Christmas gifts and I do remember Mom telling me to make sure I didn’t make any spelling errors when I wrote a thank you note. Mom humorously related the story of a time she had misspelled a word in a letter to her and heard all about it in the reply letter. When I then moved to the U.S., I remember exchanging cards and a few letters back in the 1980’s. She even unexpectedly sent me some money when I was in college just at the time that I was trying to scrape together enough money to buy a car. She was the only grandparent I ever communicated with via letters. But unfortunately, she died a few years before I visited Australia for the first time as an adult.
In 2011, when I started doing research using the ancestry website, Mom and Dad were both very eager to find out more about their mothers. Looking back at some old emails, of me asking Mom for details, she had only some basic information to offer. Here are excerpts from a couple of emails back in 2011:
June: On my mother’s side, my mother’s name was Elsie May Guest, born in Benalla or Geelong Victoria. She passed to glory in February 1987 at the age of 95. She died of old age. Her birthday was in October. I think she was born in 1892. Her father came from England. He was a railway station manager, I think. I don’t know about her mother. Her brothers were Frank Guest and John Guest, and her sister was Maude Guest.
Mary: I think I may have found her birth records – it shows 1891 in Richmond Victoria – which is only about 80 km from Geelong. If that is the same person, her parents are listed as John Guest and Mary Bentley
June: She was born in Victoria; she often mentioned Benalla, but I think she went to school in Geelong.
Mary: I’m putting a link to a site where Elaine found a poem posted by one Elsa May Furner in April 1931, do you think that was your mother?
June: Yes, my mother wrote poetry. She was a journalist for a while before marriage, very much into literature.
Back then Ancestry.com did not have nearly the information they do now. Companies were just barely starting to do DNA testing for ancestry purposes, and I didn’t do my DNA test until 2018 well after Mom had “passed to glory” herself. Now that I know more, I want to share this with not just those that would call Elsie May Guest – Furner their grandmother, great grandmother or even 2x great grandmother, but anyone who enjoys a slice of history and ancestry.
First a fun story of how I came to get the image at the top of this post. In a blog post back in December, I mentioned that all my (and my siblings’) cousins are all our paternal Whan (Wayne) side. I noted that June had no nieces or nephews so thus we had no cousins on that side. As I was typing those words, I was wishfully thinking, “surely, she had some uncles or aunts out there somewhere”. Also at that time, I was searching for old photographs because it seemed that the only picture of “Nanna Furner” was the group shot seen below. I believe (but am not positive) Nanna Furner is on the right with Nanna & Poppa Whan on the left. (More about Nanna Whan in a future post).
A few weeks ago, I logged into my Ancestry account and noticed a “hint” – a green leaf symbol – on Elsie May Guest in my tree. I clicked on her profile to see what was new and was stunned to see that someone had uploaded a picture of her! A younger Elsie – something I had never seen before in my life! I thought could this really be her? Where did this come from? Ancestry.com showed that in fact I was a distant DNA match with the person who had uploaded the picture. I sent her a message with excitement basically saying Wow that’s my grandmother! I think we are 3rd or 4th cousins!! And right away I got a response and was so excited to read the following introduction:
“Hello Mary – I was delighted to receive your message. I discovered the photo of your grandmother – who was my great – great aunt – only 2 months ago. It was amongst a box of old photos which belonged to a cousin, given to me after she died. The Maude addressed on the back of the photo is likely my grandmother, Maude Eva Willett Guest (1905-1982). She was Elsa/Elsie’s niece, and apparently close. My mum, who I grilled for family stories, said Elsie was the aunt her mother talked about most. – Victoria”
And just like that – I found a cousin on June Wayne’s side! I was touched by the fact that Elsie had a niece who thought so much of her. To explain the connection, Elsie was the youngest of seven children. Her oldest surviving brother, Alfred (Alf) was fifteen years older than her and would be my granduncle. He was Victoria’s great grandfather. To put it simply, Victoria and I are second cousins, once removed.
And with this exciting new family connection, a whole lot of information on the Guest line was unlocked. Most of what follows in this post is a result of all the research and family history Victoria has provided to me. She has been an absolute treasure of Guest family information and I love having a new cousin. (Thanks!!)
Reviewing the information Mom had in the 2011 emails, it was correct but far from complete. Mom knew the names of John, Frank and Maude but she missed the oldest brother Alfred. Alf died in 1939 and Mom (June) would have been a young teen and living in Goulburn, New South Wales; far removed from Melbourne area and thus probably might not have heard much of that uncle.
Elsie was born in Richmond, a suburb of Melbourne on October 1st, 1891. Her father John Guest was an engine driver with the Victorian Railways. Her mother Mary Bentley–Guest, sadly suffered from epilepsy and depression. June’s maternal grandmother died in 1913, Elsie would have been about 22 years old at the time. John Guest died in 1926, the year June was born so it is understandable that June did not know much about her maternal grandparents,
The following description is direct from Victoria as she explained it so well, no need for me to try and paraphrase:
“John’s railway work required him to move around a bit. Elsie’s childhood was spent in, first Melbourne, then Sale, followed by Benalla, then – in about 1906 – the family finally settled back in Geelong. Geelong felt like home for John, where he’d spent most of his childhood. And it provided an opportunity for the extended family to live close to one another for support. My great grandmother, Ada Constance Martha Willett (Elsie’s eldest brother Alf’s wife) died in 1906, when my grandmother was only nine months old. Two spinster great aunts, Martha and Elizabeth Bentley – Mary’s sisters – stepped in to look after the children. They were living in different parts of Melbourne at the time – Alf had a bakery in Surrey Hills and the great aunts were in Brunswick and Brighton. They went into business together, buying a bakery in Geelong West (Guest and Bentley) and the aunts bought a house at 221 Pakington St, just around the corner from John and Mary – and Maud and Elsie, who were still living at home. They lived at 49 Villamanta Street.
My grandmother reported being taken to or sent calling at Villamanta Street, where she rarely saw her grandmother, (Mary Bentley) who spent most of the latter years of her life in bed in a darkened room. Maud (Elsie’s sister) married George Harrington Brownhill in 1910, while Elsie remained at home until about 1916. She was a nurse – I wonder whether her mother’s ill health inspired her choice of profession. The 1916 electoral roll lists her at St Albans Hospital, Wangaratta; in 1919 she was, first in Melbourne (Hawthorn) and then back in Geelong, living at 25 Myers St. with her sister and brother-in-law – and she’d changed career: she’d become a journalist! George Harrington Brownhill is famous for being the first native born editor of the Geelong Advertiser. It seems likely he helped her get a job at the paper.”
Mom’s (June) comment to me that she remembered her mother being a journalist was accurate and now I know why she was a stickler for spelling! Her grandfather, Elsie’s father, John Guest did indeed work for the railways – not as a station manager as Mom vaguely recalled but as an engine driver.
I pondered the life of Mary Bentley my great grandmother and did a little research about the period and how depression was treated, especially for women. Mary Bentley had two other children who died young. Her first child died at six months, and later another child died at under two years old. I can’t help but think this impacted her. In one account her epilepsy and depression came on about four months after Elsie’s older sister was born. In the late 1800’s, postpartum depression wasn’t even a diagnosis I don’t think. Women were often shuffled off to asylums for extended stay without the treatments and counseling services we have today. I find it poignant that a hundred years later, Mary Bentley’s granddaughter, June Wayne would be a therapist working with people dealing with conditions including depression. I think she would have been fascinated with this information and knowing Mom’s inquisitive mind would probably have studied up on the connection between epilepsy and depression. But it is also not surprising that Elsie never shared that sad chapter of her life with her own daughter. It must have been a challenging childhood growing up while her mother struggled with depression.
The big mystery for me is how did Elsie meet Warren Furner of Goulburn. In her twenties, she went from being a nurse, to a journalist and back to a nurse. It seems unlikely that during this time she would have traveled up to Goulburn, NSW almost 500 miles to the northeast.
Here is my working theory: Warren Furner joined the army July 1915. He was sent to England and then to France (this was World War I). Records show that during the years 1916 to 1918, he was sick at times and also fractured a finger. As the war ended in November 1918, it took some time to bring all the troops back to Australia. According to his war records, he was from England sent back to Australia on the steamship Ascanius. As the record below shows he “Returned 4/4/19”.
According to newspaper archives, the Ascanius arrived in the Melbourne on April 4th, 1919. It is possible Warren got off there rather than stay on the ship as its next stop was Sydney. Perhaps, he needed some medical attention. He was officially discharged from the army on June 17th, 1919, two months after he arrived in Melbourne. According to their marriage certificate she was a nurse at the time. So my imagination has jumped to the theory that they met at a hospital and fell in love 🙂
They married on March 30, 1920, less than a year later. At the time of their marriage, Elsie was living on Irving Rd, Toorak where her brother John George Guest lived. Warren was staying in a hotel in Spencer St., Melbourne.
Within a year of their marriage, their first child, Geoffrey Furner (June’s older brother) was born on March 5, 1921 in Goulburn. Warren was 31 and Elsie was 29. Also it seems Elsie preferred the name Elsa as she began to use this more as she got older.
So from a vague idea of a grandmother to finding all these layers in life of Elsa was eye opening. She had a large family: there were many Bentleys and Guests with a history leading back to England as well as the early days in the Melbourne area. Some of that will be content for a future post so stay tuned!
The above was a poem written by Elsa and printed by the Sydney Morning Herald on April 4th, 1931
From the Land Down Under to the Rising Sun 