April 2009

Donald,

I attach a photo of my Grandmother Elizabeth and
her sister Alice, Daughters of Samuel Jerrams and
Sarah Pritchard, (they were born at Kemeys
Inferior, Near Newport, Monmmouthsire, South Wales
UK,) circa 1950, taken by a street photographer in
Cardiff, South Wales.

Its not the quality of the ones in this last issue, but the
only one of the two of them, I do have a fair photo of
Alice which I will attach on a second mail, Gran Fry
suffered with Cataracts and her sight was poor, Aunt
Alice never married she was a Nannie to a Surgeons
family and was a lovely lady.

Best Regards.

Ray Lloyd

Note: Ray Lloyd is descended from Samuel
Jerrams of the Wappenham family, whose
father Thomas was the brother of William (1778-
1859). William was the father of James Jerrems
b1812 (the father of the Civil War veterans) and
Joseph Jerrems b1814 (Sandra’s great great
grandfather).

</rayjean1@tiscali.co.uk>

Samantha (on the left) and Jessica: Anita McDonnell is
our mother; Brad is our dad. We now live in Sydney.

I can hear you asking “But who were Uncle Arthur and
Aunty Mame, and why were these people from Chicago
in the Sydney photos?

Therein lays a story, which involves the Sydney and
United States members of the Jerrems family. Bear with
me and I will tell you.

Uncle Arthur

But who was Uncle Arthur? Seasoned readers of the
Journal could skip the next two paragraphs because
they have heard it all before, but I always explain the
historical context of my main characters afresh so that
new readers can understand where the characters fit
into the “Jerrems” family picture.

Uncle Arthur was born in Sydney in 1872, his parents
being William George Jerrems l and Mary Nicholl
Jerrems. You have heard a lot in the Jerrems
Journal
about Arthur’s father, who had been in the family that
migrated to Melbourne from Gainsborough in the 1850s,
and you have heard about Arthur’s siblings including
William George ll, Helen, Alexander, Donald and
Annie.
But Arthur has been keeping his head down. Until now,
that is.

Briefly, after leaving Australia the family migrated to the
United States, spent time in England, and then returned
to the United States, finally settling in Chicago in the
mid
1880s.

Arthur’s parents William and Mary became
wealthy through William’s tailoring business. They were
actively involved in social affairs in Chicago and
entertained frequently, so Arthur would have had an
early
introduction to Chicago society. For instance there are
1892 Chicago newspaper references to Arthur’s parents
and Arthur holding receptions at their home.
After he finished school Arthur studied at Harvard and
joined the very lucrative family tailoring business. He
seems to have been overshadowed somewhat by two of
his more famous brothers, William George Jerrems
Jr (who was a great coin collector) and Alexander
Nicholl
Jerrems (who was a well known gridiron player).
These brothers show up a lot in newspapers but
Arthur only gets occasional mentions. Mainly, Arthur
shows up as being in the “Chicago South social set” in
the 1890s before his marriage to Mary Morse in
1896.
Like his father and his brothers William and Alexander
he belonged to a number of social and sporting clubs,
which businessmen tended to do in those days.

Aunty Mame
Aunty Mame’s actual name was Mary, but in those
days “Mame” was a popular alternative (I cannot
describe it as a diminutive because it has the same
number of letters). Mary was born in Iowa in 1877.
Later
Mary, her parents (who included her father John) and
two sisters Emma and Elizabeth (Bessie) probably
moved to Minneapolis (in Minnesota) and then
(definitely) to Omaha (in Nebraska), where her father
worked for the Union Pacific Railway. Finally the family
moved to Chicago, where John worked for the Missouri
Pacific Railway. It was in Chicago that Mary would have
met Arthur.

My Aunty Vi mentioned that Mary was a very good
piano
player, which brings me to a snippet in the Omaha
World Herald in 1902 saying that Mary had composed a
song in Chicago and had had it published.

Why call them “Uncle” and “Aunty”?
My Aunty Vi, who died several years ago in her mid
90’s,
referred to them in this way, so the practice has
remained. This has the advantage that when I tell my
wife about my “jottings” (as we call them) she knows
exactly who I mean. After all in the family annals there
are so many women named “Mary”, and four named
Arthur, that I need a shorthand method of referring to
them.

I heard about them some years ago from Aunty
Vi, who remembered vividly their visit to Sydney in
1926 (she was about 17 at the time). This was the first
time I had heard about Jerrems relatives living in
America. Arthur showed her a photo of the impressive
New York store, which always stuck in her mind. The
visitors were welcomed warmly and made a big
impression. They asked if Aunty Vi’s older sister
Essie would like to stay with them for a while
in
Chicago.

Now, more about their lives.

Arthur and Mame Marry

Arthur and Mary were married on a Wednesday in
October 1896, Arthur being about 24 and Mary about
19.
The wedding ceremony took place at the house of
Mary’s parents at 7-30 pm, with a minister from the
Episcopal Church officiating. Alexander (Arthur’s
brother)
was best man, and a reception for 250 people followed
after the wedding ceremony. Quite a gathering! A
mandolin band provided the music, probably
somewhat avant guarde for those days, long before the
advent of Harry Belafonte.

Arthur travelled quite
a lot, sometimes with Mary. I have
picked up references to him travelling to Europe in
1910, 1913 and 1916. He probably also travelled with
his parents when he was younger (for instance the
family went to Europe for a four month trip in 1891).
They had one child Arthur Wallace, who was born in
about 1900 and died in late 1947. Readers will
remember that his first wife (nee Leonore Grace
Smith) painted
the painting of a rooster with a backdrop of a
coloured shawl , the shawl having later been
handed down to her grand daughter Leonore
(as described in the Journal article of July 2008). This
means that Arthur and Mame were the younger
Leonore’s great grandparents.

The 1910 Census refers to Arthur and Mame having a
servant, unusual these days but very common in those
days.

We then have a large gap in my research until 1926,
when Arthur and Mame turned up in Sydney, and were
photographed.

The photographs of Arthur and Mame

The photographs were probably taken on the stairs at
the front of my grandparents’ house in Greenwich
(the house is still there but the house was
extended
later so I cannot be completely sure about the location
of the photo). The three photos were provided by my
second cousin Laurel, who has been
mentioned on occasions in the Jerrems Journal
(remember the article about Laurel’s adventures in New
Guinea with her husband Laurie, in the May
2007 edition?).

Arthur is the genial man at the top left of the left hand
picture, looking very sartorial in his “Jerrems Tailors”
waistcoat and suit. Aunty Mame, equally smartly
dressed, is below him.

The photo has a caption referring to their visit in 1926.

We know from shipping records that Arthur
and
Mary returned to the US in the “Sierra”, which arrived in
San Francisco on April 23, 1926. So the photo was
probably taken at least a month earlier, although it is
somewhat of a puzzle as to why they are so warmly
dressed. The answer probably is that they were all
dressed in their universal “Sunday Best” clothes, which
ignored the practicalities of which season it was.
It is very likely that Arthur and Mary visited the
Melbourne
branch of the family also.

The other people in the photos

A short history lesson is needed for readers to
understand how the other people in the top left photo fit
into the family tree. Arthur’s father had eight siblings,
including my great grandfather Charles (the
bearded gent in the middle of the photo). Charles
trained as a printer and bookbinder in Melbourne
and a short time later moved to Sydney, where he
married Susannah. Their children included
Charles Jr (Laurel’s grandfather), my grandfather Alf,
and Richmond.

In due course Charles Jr married Doris and they had
three children, Charles (Laurel’s father), Elsie and
Doris. In the meantime Alf married Esther and they had
four children, Vi and Essie (referred to earlier), Alf and
my father George.

Turning to the top left photo, which has a mixture of
families, we have in the back row from left to right,
Arthur, Laurel’s aunts Elsie and Doris, Laurel’s
grandmother Doris, my grandmother Esther (slightly
higher) with Laurel’s mother Jessie below her.In the
next row we have bearded great grandfather Charles
and my grandfather Alf, and in the bottom row we have
Mame, then my great uncle Richmond, my
father George and my uncle Alf
(Doug’s father and Ari’s grandfather).

The top right photo merely contains the men and boys
in the top left photo.

The people in the bottom photo, taken at a different time
but in a similar period, are (top row) my grandmother
Esther, Auntie Essie, Aunty
Vi (the “flapper” in the striped dress), middle row
my grandfather Alf, and bottom row my Uncle Alf and
my father George.

Arthur and Mame Afterwards

Sadly Arthur and Mame died comparatively young
(Arthur in 1931 in his early 60s and Mary in 1932 in her
late fifties). At the time of his death (he took ill after a
game of golf and died two weeks later) Arthur was the
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Jerrems Inc,
tailors. Mary died the following year of “heart disease”.

Tom and Vanessa (daughter of Susan Jerrems Begat
and Didier Begat) will be married. Tom and Vanessa
are both graduates of the University of Florida. A grand
time is expected by all!

If you would like to see the wedding website, click on
the link below:

Tom and Vanssa
Seitz