Grandmother's black box…….when I opened it I found a treasure of fascinating family history consisting mainly of memorabilia collected by my maternal Grandmother during the early years of her life. As a young school mistress Anna May Ough travelled out to distant to Hong Kong to marry Thomas Kirkman Dealy in 1894. Thomas was an ambitious and dedicated teacher in the Hong Kong educational service and had already been in the colony for 10 years. Anna spent the next 30 years married to Thomas until his death in 1924. Their years together were spent mainly in Hong Kong, but they also spent significant parts of their lives in places as far apart as Australia, French Indo-China, Japan, France, Belgium, Macao, Singapore, China, Russia, and England. They had three children: Frank, Sydney and Margaret.
The contents of Grand's Box were mainly about her early life. Much of what was in the box was about the awful family tragedy caused by the loss of her two sons whilst they were serving with the AIF in the Great War of 1914-18 and the sadness of the aftermath. She did not add anything to the contents after Thomas died in 1924.
I found photographs, oil and water colour paintings, albums, autograph books, old watches, Chinese money, French trinkets, Australian Armed Forces insignia and badges and much else besides. Bequeathed to me over sixty years ago the box was left to moulder until I opened it some forty years later. It was this treasure that provided the inspiration to set up a family web site through which to share Gran's history with the wider family and also provide a memorial of sorts. Hopefully,the generations that follow mine will find much of interest in the material offered and perhaps the inspiration to add to it.
Copyright of all parts of this site is owned by M.& M.M. Ough Dealy.
This page last modified on Thursday 22 July, 2021