Starting with the information on hand

Before I go haring off to Australia, even if it is only virtually, I'd best check out what I already have on hand. As I showed last time, I have a handwritten family tree with first names only; nothing helpful like last names, dates or addresses. It's a sketchy start.


I also have a travel diary, a very small book with a green cover with notes on the places seen, the weather and some information about people; mostly first names again. There are some small black and white photos between the book's pages and there are actual notes on the back of the photos. Again, the notes are helpful to a degree but they lack clarifying last names and locations. There is one photo of a house with a sign that says "Lyttle" on the fence. Was this the name of the family or the name of the house? The '50s was a time when people still named their houses.


But there was another document that shed a bit more light on the information that I already had. Fortunately, Harold S Chambers was not married when he signed up for WWI and had to name a next of kin on his attestation papers. This was altered later when he married but the previous entry was still legible showing the information for his Australian cousin with an actual address and last name; looks like Lyttle was a family name although it is spelled differently on the record.

It must be remembered that the address on the war record predated the information on the travel documents by about 40 years, so changes may have happened during that time period. The Australia of the '50s was probably a lot different than the Australia of today as well. I just hope that I will be able to find traces of the family I am searching for.