An Unexpected Find

By the 1980s Myrtle Sharp was living in Mulgrave, an outer suburb of Melbourne.  I was her granddaughter,  and would visit her often. She seemed very old, so when she earnestly told me she would be dying soon, I believed her. I felt a sense of panic because after all she was 70, and that was “old” to me.

Photographer unknown, Myrtle, circa 1981, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia [b146]

With a sense of urgency, I began to help sort and label her pictures. Each time I visited we would work a little more on our pictures project.  

 We began by laying the photos out on the lounge room floor in a large around her in what I guessed were chronological rows. She would sit in her large recliner chair and oversee my efforts. Repeatedly I asked: who is this? where’s that? Did this happen before or after that? The photos were then moved around like tetra pieces, according to her responses. Labels were added and stories refined. Each visit built on the information of the last.

 One day when we were working together, she brought out a new tin that I had not seen before.  It contained more photos and some papers. We began the same process of sorting, examining one photo at a time, adding to the growing rows of those already sorted.

During another visit she suddenly she leapt out of her chair clutching a folded and very yellowed piece of paper to her chest and disappeared into the next room. I was flummoxed and had no idea what was going on. I followed her into the next room. Without explanation, she tucked the piece of paper into her pocket and came back out to begin working once again on her photos. I was intrigued by her actions but decided to respect her wish for privacy and focused on other things.

Photographer Sandra Williamson, Myrtle's Photo Tin, 2016, digital image.

 After several weeks I summoned up enough courage to ask her what was on the paper. She tilted her head sideways and peered at me and finally said that blood was thicker than water. The story about my family had begun, I had inadvertently uncovered my first family skeleton.

 Myrtle had grown up using the surname Bassett but it turned out that she could have quite justifiably used a number of possible surnames. William Bassett, whom she identified as her father, was listed as such when she was enrolled in Eaglehawk Primary School in 1913 at the age of six.[i]

When she married her first husband, she gave her name as “Myrtle May Crump Bassett”.[ii] Crump was her mother’s maiden name. When Myrtle became a widow and remarried, she listed her father as William Bassett as she did for her third marriage to Ivan Rupert Lance Sharp.[iii]

On Myrtle’s birth certificate her mother’s name was listed as “Lilian Manderson formerly Crump”.[iv] A search of the Victorian Birth Deaths & Marriages (BDM) reveals that Lilian Crump had a baby named Myrtle May, who is registered twice under the surnames of first Crump, and then Manderson (the year and registration number are identical for both names indicating that this is the same person).[v]

It wasn’t until 1967 that things came to a head for Myrtle when she applied for a passport to travel overseas. Myrtle found herself explaining to her youngest daughter, Diana, why her birth certificate did not bear the surname of her childhood.[vi] Later Myrtle would say that she had no doubt that William Bassett was her father as the family resemblance was strong.[vii]

Myrtle’s parents, William Bassett & Lillian Crump, became a couple, around 1905 but never married.  When Myrtle, their second eldest, was two years of age (in 1907) the family left Eaglehawk and relocated to Tasmania. William found employment in the mines and their only son, William, was born.[viii] [ix] They returned to Eaglehawk by 1912 for the birth of their fourth child Gladys Irene.[x] It was assumed the couple had married in Tasmania, but that was not the case.[xi]

Photographer unknown, Myrtle, William, & Doris Bassett , circa 1909, Tasmania, Australia [B437]

My Grandmother celebrated her 100th birthday on 2nd June 2007, with almost all of her descendants celebrating with her.  

Photographer Glen Watson, Myrtle at her 100th Birthday Party, 2007, digital image

She passed away on 19 June 2008. Her photos leave a wonderful legacy for future generations.

And that piece of paper that she was so earnest to protect was record of her mother’s only marriage. It was to a man who had left before Myrtle and her siblings were born.

For further information see the following:

You can find more about Myrtle here on WikiTree

Writing Prompt by Amy Johnson Crow: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 25 - "Unexpected." 

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[i]  Eaglehawk No. 210  150 Years of education 1854-2004 (Eaglehawk Primary School 2004.  Compiled by :Ruth Claridge.). 

[ii]  Marriage Certificate of Lincoln Todman & Myrtle May Crump Bassett, married 21 September 1929, Registry of Birth, Death and Marriages, Victoria, Australia. 9531/1929

[iii]  Original Certificate of Marriage for Stuart Rochford Taylor & Myrtle May Todman married 26 June 1943, Terang, Victoria, Australia; Original Certificate of Marriage for Ivan Rupert Lance Sharp & Myrtle May Taylor married 2 April 1960, Balaclava, Victoria, Australia

[iv]  Birth certificate of Myrtle May Crump born 2 June 1907 Registry of Birth, Death and Marriages, Victoria, Australia. 10223/1907.

[v]  Results of girth search using the criteria child’s first name “Myrtle May” & mother “Lilian Crump” or children born Myrtle with the Marriages, Family history search - Births, Deaths & Marriages Victoria. [online] Online.justice.vic.gov.au. Available at: https://online.justice.vic.gov.au/bdm/indexsearch.doj [Accessed 4 Feb. 2018]

[vi]  Diana Culley, in personal discussion with author, November 2017

[vii]  Myrtle Sharp, in personal discussion with author, c.2000

[viii]  NAA: B883, VX21203 Service Records for William BASSETT

[ix] "Australia, Tasmania, Civil Registration of Births, 1899-1912," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C95P-WW47-3?cc=2400177&wc=3L7N-LGH%3A1584076518%2C1584076203%2C1584076802 : accessed 26 May 2020); Birth record for William Manderson born 17 September 1908 in Dundas, Tasmania, Australia, Entry 1290, registration number 3758, Register for Birth in the district of Zeehan, Tasmania, Australia; Zeehan > Births > 1908 > image 26 of 31; citing The Tasmania Department of Justice, Hobart. [no father included in the record, mother listed as Lilliam Manderson formerly Crump, age 24 years, born Victoria residing in Dundas]

[x]  Birth Certificate of Gladys Irene Basset  born 15 September 1912, Registry of Birth, Death and Marriages, Victoria, Australia. 19781/1912.

[xi] Myrtle Sharp, in personal discussion with author, c.2000