In 2009 Jessica Raine Swadling posted a comment on my
Facebook Swadling One Name Study page asking for help in finding out more about
her family. She said that she was one of four children of Mervyn Gray Swadling
who had passed away in 1999. She also said that he was one of seven children
born to Charles and Eileen Swadling and two of the seven children had also
died. At the time no-one responded to her request so as part of the 52
ancestors in 52 weeks project I have decided to see if I can offer any
assistance.
At the time Jessica didn’t say where her father was born
but from checking records on Ancestry I found out that the family was based in
Western Australia. The first thing I found out was that her grandfather Charles
was called Charles Frederick Swadling and her grandmother Eileen was really
called Aileen Gertrude Wansborough or Wansbrough. Aileen was the daughter of
Percival Wansbrough and Minnie Victoria Gray and was born in 1909. On the 1931 Electoral
Rolls register Aileen was working as a kitchen maid in the Premier Hotel on
Forrest Street Collie. Her parents were also living on Forrest Street. Her father
was a blacksmith and her mother was a housewife.
Charles Frederick’s early life on the other hand is a bit
of a mystery. There are several family trees on the Ancestry web site that say
that he was born in England in 1909 but as yet I can’t confirm this information.
Charles married Aileen in 1934 in Geraldton Western
Australia and he worked as a truck driver for most of his working life. Aileen
gave up working at the Premier Hotel and for the rest of her life she stayed at
home to care for her family. Charles and Aileen had seven sons, Kevan
Frederick, Ronald Charles, Douglas Bernard, Ivan Charles, Mervyn Gray, Graeme
Philip and Rodney Stewart. Kevan Frederick was a truck driver and died in the
1970’s. Ronald Charles had died as a small child in 1939.
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