22 December 2012

The mystery box





Percival Milverton


The mystery box

Sometimes we are given objects in boxes about the past we do not really comprehend the contents of until we go rummaging through. They may sometimes be something that would help as the building blocks to learning more about family member’s lives and where they had lived. Pictures, school certificates and even house insurance receipts fill in the gaps that might be in the families lives like where they lived down to the street and suburb. When families move house or pass away many of these records do have a tendency to disappear into storage or even taken to the local dump without thought. What doesn’t seem to be of value, could actually be valuable to many family historians in the form of primary sources.

When I was holidaying in New Zealand, I stayed with my grandparents for around five days before I would travel to Auckland and then home in Australia. Not long after I had arrived at their place, my grandmother pulled out a box that was sitting under the computer desk. It was a jumble of things that had been placed in there and on top were several old photos with the edges torn folded to the shape of the box. These photos I had recognised their importance as I knew the subject matter, these a2 size photos were of firemen sitting in front of a camera. I knew these photos were of my great, great grandfather, Percival Milverton when he was involved with the fire brigade in Palmerston North between 1900 and 1945. One other item was a photo album, which had many pictures that I had never seen before. Some of these were of the Milverton family members with several that were from the late 1800s. One of the pictures was of Queen Victoria for her Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

It actually took me several days before I was able to have the time for an in-depth look through this box. It didn’t help that I had started just before 10pm and it took me longer than I had expected. Luckily on my person I had several folders one was a normal one and the other was one of the big A2 folders for the bigger sheets of paper. I had used this on other parts of my trip especially when getting some information on another branch of the family while in Wanganui with the surname of Watt through the local archives. As I was pulling things out of the box, many of the loose documents I was placing into folders as I did not want them to become torn or fall apart once I put everything back into the box neatly. I was allowed to take a few of the things I found home, which would be around 5 days away. The folders actually started filling up with many school certificates and other documents from around 1912 to 1980.

I did not take every file or document home with me as there were still stuff in the box when I left mainly as my bag would end up becoming over weight when I left on the plane. Some of the heavier items I did leave letting my grandmother know that I would collect them at a later date. What was left behind was interesting in their own right. Some of these items included seven motor Caravan association bulletins between 1979 and 1981, A ribbon and ribbon case for the Ancient Order of Foresters, two books about stock and purchase prices including if the animal was lost in the bush or died, various letters that had been written around the 1940s and two telegrams. I did find another two photo albums down towards the bottom of the box, which had pictures from my great grandmother’s younger days just before she was married. Not that most of the text helped me very much when it had the usual that people write is “me”.

The next morning I showed what I had found to my grandmother and said she had not actually been through the box herself. I surprised her with many of the photos and we set out with identifying many of them especially since she knew a lot of the people. I had never seen these photos before and not many of them did identify who the characters were. On several of the photos, I wrote the names of the people along the borders or on the back of the picture themselves. It did take several hours to actually look through the photos and I made sure the albums, I was taking with me home were safe in my bag. Before leaving I did place the loose photos that I was not taking with me back into the box, but into a bubble wrap bag, where I hope they would be safe from the elements. The return home would be several days in Auckland before flying back to Australia with the albums in my hand luggage.

The copying of the letters, photos and other documents did take several days to complete. I was careful when removing loose photos from the albums to places them back into their exact place they were. On closer inspection several photos from my great, great grandfather’s album had pictures of locations from America, which included early ones of fire brigades. These could only have come from the uncle who had gone to America. I had assumed the family had been estranged when Frederick Milverton had been left behind in England. Several pieces of evidence recently have shown this was not the case. Frederick had two photos in Percival’s album including a portrait wearing the uniform of what I soon learnt was that of a Judge Advocate in the US, several photos showing American landmarks and fire brigades. Another was as witness in the 1904 wedding of Amelia Milverton to John Harold Watt in Palmerston North and the death notice of Frederick within the Palmerston North paper clippings for the Palmerston North fire brigade, where Percival Milverton was Superintendent.

The records I have received will lead to further enquiries for further research. The portrait of Frederick Milverton has led to contact within the United States to learn more about his service within the Judge Advocate beginning from WWI, through a historian familiar with the records. The correct storage of old photos to preserve them for longer, while in storage or someplace safe. The pictures of the other Milverton’s and even several Lissington’s will eventually lead to more people in the pictures being identified. Research into Percival Milverton has already shown results especially when pictures have been discovered of him when he was younger. Research into his record through the Fire brigade in Palmerston North has been fruitful especially when records are found in Newspapers and National Archives in New Zealand. This does not mean the research has been concluded as there will always be questions, which need to be answered.

One of the records I found

2 comments:

  1. Brad, this is a wonderful blog. It is interesting to learn of your history and for the pointers you give others conducting their own research.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Sharon. Not many people would be given boxes of information full of goodies. I thought it was something I had to write.

      Brad

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