Interesting Things Happen

Last Sunday, my daughter-in-law received a Facebook post from a previous neighbor concerning a visit the neighbor was having with a Thredgold Australia relative.  Immediately, I heard about this post and started some detective work.  Within a short period of time, I had found out who was visiting who.  This detective work put me in touch with a relative I met two years ago, C.S. Thredgold, who knew exactly what was going on.  Via e-mail,   I told her about this Blog.    Now another relative from Australia  (who I didn't know about before, M Field) has reached me via this blog because of my communication with C.S.      What a small world the Internet has made.  This all happened within just a few days.  Interesting things do happen with Family History.

Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas Sails to America

Maurice left for America on 26 April 1930.  He set sail by himself.  His other family membes had come a while before him.  He left many behind in Australia who he would never see again.  It's hard to imagine, but the call to America must have been over-riding of the desire to stay in Australia with the loved ones there.  "Courage" is the word I would use to describe this.  He was only 17 years old.  Here is the link to his Identification Check with the Matson Navigation Company to sail on the ship, "Sierra."

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Lee-Thomas%2C%20Maurice%20-%20Matson%20Navigation%20Company.pdf

Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas

All of the pertinent information about Thomas Henry Lee that I have is now posted.

 So now let's turn our hearts to my father, Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas (b. 6 May 1913).  He  was the only son born to Thomas Henry Lee (Henry Lee-Thomas) and Ruby Thredgold.  Ruby went on to have five other children by a second marriage. Therefore, he has five half brothers and sisters. Maurice was called, "Grandps Fluffy" by his eight grandchildren and how his great grandchildren also refer to him as such.  The nick name came about because Maurice often referred to his wife (Florence Christensen ) as "Fluffy."  "Grandma and Grandpa Fluffy" became their grandparent terms. 

Maurice was born near Melbourne, Australia; lived most of his childhood near Adelaide, and immigrated to America in 1930.  He became a citizen of the United States on 24 March 1937.  The link below will take you to a copy of his birth certificate and citizenship certificate.  There is also a copy of an article appearing in the newspaper, "Ogden Standard Examiner" announcing his citizenship. 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Lee-Thomas%2C%20Maurice%20-%20Birth%20%26%20Naturalization%20Records.pdf

Thomas Henry Lee Photo

A real "treasure" is what I would say about this photo.  This is Thomas Henry Lee (known as Henry Lee-Thomas at the time of this photo) with his wife Ruby Ellen Thredgold.  The youngster in the middle of the picture is Maurice Reginald Lee-Thomas.  Maurice is my father and the only child of Henry.  A military uniform is on Henry so this could has been taken before he left with the Australian Army or possibly he was home on a leave.    A framed copy of this is in my office where I see it each time I go there.  I'm not sure if my copy is the original, but it is in the frame that I inherited from Maurice.

Long Pause

Soon after arriving home from vacation, I got busy and posted on April 10, 2011.  As I went to view my blog, the link to the Henry Lee-Thomas burial information wouldn't open.  I couldn't figure out what was going on by myelf, so finally contacted an IT person who figured it out today.  I had been making my posts and links via "Internet Explorer."  Just a few weeks ago, I switched to "Google Chrome" as my Internet Browser.  Come to find out "Chrome" doesn't make the correct links for the blog.  I must remember to use "Explorer" when working on blogs.  I plan to get back to routine posting schedule now. Please go to the April archive to find the April 10 post with picture of the Henry Lee-Thomas burial site.   By the way, I just purchased a new computer.  It's a Lenovo ThinkPad.  It came from Costco.com so there are 90 days to try it out.  So far, I love it (except for getting it set up).

Henry Lee-Thomas: Burial Information

Henry Lee-Thomas was buried in Belgium.

Some years ago a cousin from Australia, Margaret Lee Haag (cousin to Alan Lee who we visited in 2008), went to Belgium and found this war Memorial.  Margaret was instrumental in finding me and my brother Stephen Lee-Thomas and connecting us to the family in Perth.   She went on a search for living descendants of Henry Lee-Thomas some years ago.   The family in Western Australia knew nothing of Henry's descendants except that he had married Ruby Thredgold.  She kept up her search until she found Steve and I in 1995.  She died a few years later and gave all of her genealogy information to Alan Lee. Margaret and Alan are both my second cousins.

The war memorial can be seen at the below link.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10071252/Henry%20Lee-Thomas%20Burial.pdf

Pause in Blog Posts

Two weeks ago I left for a very fun family vacation to Oceanside, California; Disneyland, Beach, and San Diego Zoo.  That meant a break from my Family History work including Blog work.  There will be pictures of that adventure posted on my Blog "MM's Memories and Miscellaneous" some time in the future.  Now I am back and ready to keep up this Blog and get information out there to all you family members.