"Returned from Active Service" badge

[Greenhornet_au]

I have found the most amazing thing related to Gerald A Bartlett.

It is a transcript from the Eldest child sibling Verna, she talks about her life and that of the family, it is taken from a recorded interview.
In itself it is an amazing read and the story of the tribulations of his family draw vivid pictures in my mind.
If you know Adelaide and its surrounding country and towns, it will have more meaning.

There is a possibility that the recording is still accessible, potentially we could hear her voice talking about her life, family and Gerald.

I will try to attach it, but will also put up a link to it, it is in PDF format.
Sorry I tried but the file is 2.3mb and the limit to upload is 2.0

http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/archivaldocs/oh/oh1_43.pdf

http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/archivaldocs/oh/oh1_43.pdf

 

[Greenhornet_au]

Well gentlemen Kato has been chasing Gerald Bartlett and we are assembling history almost every day.

Yesterday we went to his War grave site and then his last known address, M1 (Kato's sister) found what we believe to be his brothers War grave
only 2 meters away from Geralds. :Y:
They died in the same year about 7 months apart, from Geralds brothers side we may find a living relative. arty:
We intend to go back and clean up his and the brothers plaque, Kato wants to leave a token of respect.
(The kids noticed, apparently someone left a Crunchie easter egg at another War grave in the Cemetery - no doubt a great great grandchild)

M1 has since then found the rest of the family in the same Cemetery name listings, we will follow this up too.

We also visited his last address, and dropped into the site where Kato found the badge, for a small hunt.

Geralds War grave currently.

Geralds brother we think.

Geralds last known address, a Housing Trust property, I attempted to
find a neighbour that might have known him by door knocking, but none so far - to be continued...

Kato having another look at the site where she found his Badge.

 

[Gilly47]

well done peeps

ray

 

[silver]

Great evolving story Gh, good to see you both chasing up the leads !
:Y: :Y:

 

[blisters]

Enjoying the read great work :Y:
Jon

 

[ChrisD]

Outstanding detective work and a real tribute to you both. It really epitomises what this hobby is all about, how a rusty bit of metal found in the ground can unfurl the pages of history and reveal so many details about the life of a long lost soldier. Hopefully you can follow up with the ABC as it really is a terrific human interest story. Again, kudos to you both.

 

[Greenhornet_au]

Well we have been chasing the Bartlett family all over SA Murray area, and I spoke to Philip Bartlett today on the phone.

Wrong Philip :lol:

BUT he did put me onto a whole new line of the family and I think we are getting close to the 'Pot of Gold',
he expressed that there are a few Bartlett families and not too many close contacts among them, but he was the right age at 70yrs,
and he had lots of family references to his grand parents and back further plus his fathers siblings.
Some of this was immediately recognized by Kato as she is deep up to her elbows digging for family tree info.

We have a new number to call and pretty sure it is the son of CJ and Ruth Bartlett.

Philip I spoke to commended us for our work and was very helpful, he is keen to find out where the path leads to,
he lives about 5min (Mannum) from the find site, I promised to keep in touch and pass him the full story.
Great result from a cold call. arty:

Considering I followed up Philip from an ASIC search, to his previous business, to then getting his personal mobile, to a cold call while he was on a house boat,
it was an outstanding result.

Kato and I were discussing the headstone for CJ Bartlett when I realised there were flowers there, plastic likely but could only be placed there by family
that cared, I knew it had to be one of the sons and their age would be over 60.

Onwards and upwards.

 

[Eldorado]

Wow,the effort you guys are putting into finding Gerald's family is a real credit to you and your children.It is nice to know that there is some people who care about the history of our great nation and the people who fought to make it great.Looking forward to the end result.So proud.

 

[Eldorado]

WELL

It is amazing, some more searching and lucky guessing search terms led us to the SA listings for the

RETURNED from ACTIVE SERVICE badges.

WE FOUND HIM !!!!
On page 318 of 405

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=12339531

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/Sea...eports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=6387447&isAv=N

Now to see if he is still with us or his spouse, and track him down, if not his family.

arty: arty:

Just wanted to say Greenhornet thanks for these links.I was approached by a guy on Instagram after commenting on his find of a Returned from Active Service medal to see if I could find out who received the medal.
I FOUND HIM.The links you provided here were spot on.It took some time to find the right book but I got there in the end.I tried to find some family on Ancestry.com.au but didn't do to well.
The recipient of the medal was Arthur Ernest Smith.The production number was 309426.

 

[Greenhornet_au]

Eldorado,

THAT is AWESOME :Y: :Y: :Y:
great when a plan comes together, and maybe a family member will be around some where if your friend
is willing to search a little, try 'Trove' - newspapers, birth deaths, the town records of where he received the RAS badge - so many places to look for info.
.
.
We still have not found direct family to Gerald Bartlett, but have a great lead to a gentleman that is very old but very with it
that did know him.
Just have not found a number to call yet.
I got that info from assisting to setup up a Bunnings BBQ for a Fundraising Club, the guys running it were all older and appreciated my assistance,
luckily a small mention of the family rang memory bells for some of the guys and they were very happy to help me in return.

 

[Greenhornet_au]

NEWS FLASH

Earlier I have written about finding some 'transcripts' of Gerald Bartlett's oldest sister telling an interviewer about the her family and their life
between Murray Bridge and Adelaide and over the years of travels and life, her life.

So far the only thing was the text transcripts, but today Kato has told me about a discovery she made at School.
She is in year 9 and has an assignment for English to do, so she thought she may write about Verna, the Bartlett family first child, a daughter.

Kato found the actual voice recordings that the transcript is taken from.
These have been archived in the SA State Library and available online now, Kato has been amased at the family life in the late 1800's,
admired Geralds older Sister, and NOW she can listen to her voice describing her family.

Simply astounding to listen to her voice 100 yrs from her birth.

More so that it is available on-line now.
I had been pressing Kato to go to the library and search the archives to find the cassette tapes of the interviews, just to hear Verna's voice

The link if you would like to hear her talk about life and family.......

https://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/nodes/view/909

 

[shakergt]

Well done.

 

[Greenhornet_au]

O M G !!

How strange is life? Downright spooky sometimes.

Listening to the opening credit info Verna was interviewed on the 23rd July 1986 - today is the 26th July 33yrs later

Her address was 38 Mahogany Avenue, Dernancourt SA, that is where the interviews took place.

Now for the creepy thing about all of this since Kato found Geralds RAS Badge at Burdett.

I grew up not more than a few kilometers from where Geralds Sister lived in her later years, I have passed the front door on that street
maybe 30+ times and used to swim at a public pool 300m from her door on the street, as a teenager.
There is a good chance I have knocked upon her door asking if they had any beer bottles they would donate to the Scouts,
I used to wander the Torrens River past her door, later years I ran in a State Election, her home in my Electorate, I put pamphlets in her letterbox.

Kato has walked past the house only a couple of months ago with her boyfriend, he lives nearby.
We passed it a few weeks ago in the car all together.

How does it come to be that we are even now living only 5min away ?

All of this from finding a single badge, in the middle of no where 100km away, with only a few numbers to trace a persons life.
Full circle from Kato finding the RAS given to Gerald, to then end up with me possibly having met and spoken with his Sister close to where I grew up. :8

I will be trying to track down the Woman that did the interview to ask her why she chose Verna ?
There must be something about the family or Verna herself of deeper interest or meaning.

AND yes we are still digging on Gerald's direct history

Some stuff is meant to be, and stranger than fiction, hope the hair standing up on my arms goes settles down soon. :8

 

[Wishfull]

That is weird. Maybe her soul wanted you to find it. Maybe you were led to the place it was lost.

 

[Manpa]

Positive proof that it's a small world.

 

[nucopia]

Amazing story and adventure GH
Thanks for sharing the journey so far..

 

[Greenhornet_au]

Well Kato has been doing work following more leads.

In the past we have found where Gerald lived last before he passed away,
A pic of the house is in an earlier post we may return and request a hunt there in Spring.
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=338181#p338181

We may also turn up and request a hunt at Verna's last home too, it is so close, we should try.

The one thing Kato has been hanging to locate, is their Family home in Murray Bridge.
So Kato has picked up some more clues and believes that she can locate maps of the older land titles in the area 1900's,
cross reference that with old railways plan maps via a friend that has those records, she thinks we may find their home as it may still stand,
and we already have a theory where it may be.

It would be pretty nice to find their house and some small personal items from the past.
One thing we now know is that the poorer they were, the less you find around a home, they were more careful of loss.
Unless the house burnt down.

 

[Greenhornet_au]

That is weird. Maybe her soul wanted you to find it. Maybe you were led to the place it was lost.

Maybe Wishfull, I reckon Kato just attracts things to her.

Its like a big circle about the Bartlett's, our family circle over laps an edge, and a 1870's tailor's circle also over laps an edge to the Bartlett's and our family.

I'm not superstitious, but it is strange to think how it comes together.

Maybe I went to school with Verna's kids... :8 :lol: :lol: :lol:

That really would be the last straw !!