Search This Blog

Thursday, September 6, 2012

No 22 (September 2012)

Select Abstracts

"Sam and the Swan Family of Stratford". research on Samuel Swan, licensee of the Shakespeare Hotel, has shown a previous marriage (and lost daughter), and extensive migration of brothers and nephews. Sam and his wife Fanny did not have children, all the Swans around Stratford descending from other family members. An oil portrait from the collection is reproduced, and details sought for its provenance. pp5-6

Invoice from Sam's nephew, who was a long-time saddler in Stratford.

"Jospeh Shires: One of the original snake-oil salesmen". brief history of Shires, who was at various times in Stratford, married in 1876 at Ramahyuck, and died in the 1890s at Bairnsdale. In between, he travelled around Australia selling his snake-bite remedy, and gained particular notice when he allowed one of his snakes to bite a Police Magistrate, and he died. pp7-8

"Kelly the Grocer, 1890". The index by Joan Allen to the records of a local grocer continues. This issue if the letters from G to Mc. pp9-10.

Available from Stratford and District Historical Society, P.O. Box 145, Stratford, 3862, for $3.00 for a single issue, plus 60cents p&p.

SUBJECTS
HOTELS
SNAKES
SHOPS
GROCERS