December 2009 – Edition 57

Merry Christmas to the Jerrems Family around the
world.

Images from the 2009 Jerrems
Journals and the annual report from Angie, our
Guardian Angel.

Enjoy!

Greetings from Alexander Nicholl,
Annie (Vincent’s
grandmother) and Donald (my grandfather) in the
January Journal.

Ray’s grandfather Edward Healy
Smith (sitting) and Alf, his brother (killed in France).
Ray’s
grandfather, with his trademark lantern
jaw, is dressed in the uniform supplied to him as a
member of B Company in the 13th Field Ambulance
Unit. He also served in France in World War l.

UK’s Ray LLoyd’s 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.

Hi Donald

Jessica, the daughter of Brad and Anita (Anita
is our daughter) met Santa Claus on 12th December
at a Xmas Party organised by Jessica’s Pre-School
Kindergarten. Jessica looks happy to be
photographed with Santa, and is holding her present
brought by Santa in his sack.

The scene is typically
Australian, with four years old Jess in a light dress
and wearing a cap (the temperature was about 28
degrees Celsius/ 80 degrees F) and a backdrop of tall
eucalypt trees. Younger sister Samantha let
out a yelp when she came up close to Santa to collect
her present and declined to be photographed.

In a lovely gesture of community spirit Santa was
brought to the party by the Willoughby Fire Truck
(for want of a more accurate name), which drove
around the oval to the assembled children and
astonished adults (including cricketers) with its lights
flashing and siren sounding. It made me think of my
third cousin Mark Healy, who is a Fire Brigade
Captain in California. I am sure that Mark would
appreciate its significance.

Best wishes to you and Sharon for Xmas and the New
Year, and thanks for all your hard work putting the
journal together.

Ray and Di

Tom and Vanessa (daughter of
Susan Jerrems Begat
and Didier Begat) married in May.

Laurie and Laurel Gray’s
Christmas Greetings 2009

Dear Friends and family,

We are very happy to be bringing you our Christmas
news and love and joy this year from Mayflower
Retirement Village Gerringong. More than twenty years
ago John and Helen Robinson saw the need for an
aged care complex in Gerringong. They inspired the
people of the Uniting Church and indeed of the whole
town with their vision. (‘The Mayflower’ was the vessel
which brought people from England to New Plymouth
in North America in 1620 in search of a home where
they would be free to worship God as they believed He
was leading them.)

We have been involved with Mayflower Retirement
Village since those earliest days of the vision and for
the ten years Laurie was minister of the Uniting
church in Gerringong he was also the chaplain of the
retirement village. Is it any wonder we feel at home
here? Our two bedroom unit looks out over the roofs of
the school and the new Elhambra Estate towards
Gerroa and green paddocks to Coolangatta Mountain.
We and our neighbours put out seed for a variety of
birds morning and evening and watch beautiful
sunsets each evening. Laurie enjoys leading a
singalong with the residents of Boronia each Tuesday
afternoon and singing in the Church choir each
Sunday.

With our love to you

Laurie and Laurel

Left to right: Olivia,
Jacqueline, Mia and Warren
Jerrems

Sandra Walcyk, from a branch of the
Jerrems
tree, collaborated on November’s month’s story
line. Joseph Jerrems b1814 was Sandra’s great great
grandfather.

Watch for another upcoming story.

Here are Sylvia and John
Kirkwood, two more of Sandra’s great great
grandparents. The photos date back to the early
1870s and are the oldest “family” photos we have
received.

We will tell you more about Sylvia and John in a later
Jerrems Journal.

This is a photo of William Rubery Bennett and Violet
May Bennett (nee Jerrems). Known as “Aunty Vi” to her
nephews Ray and Doug Jerrems, her grandfather
Charles Jerrems was one of the family which
migrated to Melbourne in the 1850s.

The photo, taken in the late 1930s, is part of a NSW Art
Gallery exhibition celebrating her late husband’s
artistic career. The photo was originally black and
white but was rather extravagantly tinted by the
photographer.

Merry Christmas everyone. It has been a pleasure
serving as your Guardian Angel this year, except for
another security breach noted below.

According to my GA handbook, my mission statement
is to keep Jerrems family members happy, healthy
and stop them from doing anything incredibly
stupid. I
succeed most of the time.

However we have an exception: Old Ray Jerrems,
the
family ghost, has been giving me trouble, popping
up
here and there, gate crashing Nicole Kidman’s
wedding, barging into the 2007 G8 Summit and
appearing at Obama’s Inauguration…and now!

Most of you have heard of the White House gate
crashers at last month’s State dinner. Pictures of the
interlopers were widely published. But wait … there
was another unauthorized guest: Old Rascal Ray also
crashed the same State dinner.

I am sure the U.S. Secret Service did not want the
public to know of another intruder, let alone a ghost.
His picture was released to me by a friendly guardian
angel in the White House. Old Rascal Ray is waiting
in line to greet President Obama. Look at that roguish
smile. If I could just get my hands on that wispy guy…