That little brown photo album I mentioned before turned up a personal treasure and gave me a real ‘OMG!’ moment when I first looked  through it.  There was my Mum dressed up as ‘Jill’‘ together with her friend Joe Shepherd dressed up as ‘Jack’.  I already knew about Mum’s fancy dress appearance from an article published in the Eastern Districts Chronicle on August  14, 1925 which I found while searching TROVE,  but I never thought I would see a photo of the event.

I probably would have suspected it was Mum given the costuming but thanks to my cousin, her annotation gave me confirmation.

Jack n Jill Fancy Dress

The article says:

‘An evening that will live among the pleasant memories of those present, was the occasion of the children’s fancy dress ball, held on August the 7th, in aid of the Church of England funds. The hall was very prettily decorated with innumerable coloured butter flies and greenery. The children who attended in fancy dress numbered well over fifty, and each one was a picture.’

The article goes on to name all the children and their costumes and includes:

‘a pair, ‘Jack and Jill’, Enid Dace and Joe Shepherd’

Sadly Mum died many years ago, well before I became obsessed with genealogy and digging up family stories.  I like to think she would enjoy these adventures and discoveries as much as Aunt-M and I do.

(The full text of the article is at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148805869)