On this day in 1920.....

Francis James Woodlands, my Dad, was born in a small private hospital in Victoria Avenue, Chatswood on 31 December 1920.  Dad celebrated his birthday on New Year's Eve for 89 years prior to his death on 18 August 2010 at Royal North Shore Hospital.  Family history didn't become my passion until after Dad's death but he was a great story teller and is often with me on this journey.  While there were many stories of his parents' families, the lingering question of what happened to his father's sister was one I tried to solve for Dad and his cousin Gail in 2008. I now realise what a novice I was back then!  Gail and I now have the answer but, along the way,  we discovered that Myra was Dad's half aunt and Gail's full aunt...so there's much more to the story than any of us had imagined.  

I often wonder if Dad knew that his Dad's father wasn't James Woodland Snr, the grandfather that he knew, and that his father's birth name was Oswald Cahill and changed to James Oswald Woodlands when he was 8!  I'm certain that he wouldn't have known that his grandmother had gone to court to get maintenance from Cornelius Bray for little Oswald.    I do know that Dad was devoted to his parents and sister and devastated when his father died at only 54 years of age.

So it's the day for raising a glass to Frank......

Mum cherished this photo of Dad taken around the time they met

Dad cherished this photo taken with his father, Jim Woodlands, and grandfather, Frank Gersbach, at the family business in Military Road, Neutral Bay. Dad was named Francis in memory of his uncle, Francis Joseph Macleay Gersbach, who died in 1919 during the Spanish Flu Pandemic.

What a little angel!  But there was a touch of devil as well!   As a small child, Dad was making deliveries with his father.  Dad was left in the car on a steep section of Spurson Street, Neutral Bay and decided to see what happened if he released the handbrake....fortunately Dad survived to embellish the story throughout his life and deliveries continued after some minor repairs. 

James Oswald Woodlands and Margaret Essie Gersbach married on 9 August 1919 at St Michael's Catholic Church Stanmore.  Essie's mum and brother had died earlier in the year from pneumonic influenza.  Jim and Essie lived with Essie's father, Frank Gersbach, and sister, Rene, moving from Stanmore to Chatswood and then Neutral Bay.  Dad's sister, Patricia Margaret (Pat) was born on 7 November 1930 just prior to his 10th birthday.  After completing his intermediate certificate, Dad attended business college but decided it wasn't for him and returned to the family business prior to enlisting in the Second World War.  He saw service in New Guinea and New Britain.  On his return, he worked briefly for a grocery chain as the family business had ceased to operate after Jim's death in May 1946.   Under a government funded scheme, Dad retrained as a cabinet maker and continued in the trade until his retirement.

The day my parents met!  Dad had met Mum's brother, Jack, during their army training.  They suggested their parents and sisters meet as they lived so close to each other.  So when Dad returned to Sydney, Pat took him down to meet Mr and Mrs Lutge and Beryl!  Mum was 14, Pat was 12 and Dad was 21.  They were "seeing" each other by the end of the war but didn't marry until 1952.  Jim Woodlands had died in 1946,  Frank Gersbach the following year and Rene, Essie's sister, had died in 1937.  Dad took on the role of the head of the house until he overheard him mother saying to a friend one day that she doubted Beryl would wait much longer for a proposal.  Dad recalled that he walked straight down to the Lutge home and "told Kel I'd like to marry Beryl".  Finally.....

Mum and Dad were married at St Joseph's Catholic Church Neutral Bay on 7 May 1952.  Their "wedding breakfast" was at Windsor Gardens in Chatswood which remained very fashionable on the Lower North Shore for decades.

Honeymooning in The Blue Mountains was very popular in the 1950s.  Mum and Dad stayed at San Souci Guesthouse.  Housing was very difficult after the war, Mum and Dad lived with Mum's parents.  Two significant events occurred on 12 April 1953, I came along and they rented our family home in Hale Road Mosman which was purchased with the assistance of a war service loan some years later.  Mum and Dad always enjoyed returning to the Blue Mountains for a day trip or short break until our last day trip 20 years ago.  

After a few weeks of cleaning and painting, we moved into Hale Road in time for my christening. Elizabeth came along two years later.  We even had water views from the front and back gardens in those days!  Dad thought living in Mosman was like living in paradise surrounded by family with the beach down the road and so many adventures close at hand.   We still laugh at Dad's comment when his nephew Robert moved to Mosman just a few months before he died-

"You know Robert there are only two types of people in this world."

We all wait to hear what he's about to say......

"Those who live in Mosman and those who want to live in Mosman."

Around the same time, we were having a coffee outside the local swim centre watching the swimming classes and Dad again showed me the pleasure that he took from the simple things in his life-

"You know Chris, the happiest days of my life were spent at Balmoral Beach teaching you all to swim."  

Dad really enjoyed our annual visits to North Haven not only because of the beach but it was close to Port Macquarie and Kempsey where his maternal grandparents, Francis Gersbach and Margaret Killion, had lived prior to their move to Sydney in 1891.  

Mum and Dad moved to a local nursing home in 2008.   Here's Dad opening his birthday presents on his 88th birthday and on Anzac Day in 2010.   Dad talked very generally about his time in the army but mainly when he was asked questions.  It was only in the later years that he would attend the local RSL on Anzac Day or wear his medals.  He was grateful for the War Service Loan that allowed him to buy a home for his family and the "Gold Card" that he received after his retirement.  

And you never know when you're going to see a good "salmon back" cloud formation Dad... Sadly not much chance of one floating over Macquarie Park today!