Time with grandchildren

Here, two snappily-dressed gents set out for a day on the town in the mid-1950s. The taller one is Sydney Thomas CRAMER, our great grandfather.

This photograph came to the front of my mind because the shorter gentleman in that photograph has spent the last few days with his own grandchildren. Apart from reflecting on the unseemly rush of time and wondering if I will ever be regarded with the same awe as I felt for S T Cramer, I could not help but recall my recent finding about his grandparents.

Caroline Louise KUHN (his grandmother and our 3xgreat grandmother) was in the Moreton Bay District before it became a separate colony in 1859. In 1903 when Sydney was just a year old, she was recorded on the Electoral Roll as living in King Street, Gympie in Queensland. Her sons Ernest William Henry CRAMER and Fredrick William CRAMER and their families lived in the same street.

It is uncertain with which family she was living in 1903, but in 1905 when Fredrick had moved to nearby Berrie Street, Caroline remained at King Street with Sydney's parents. There can be no doubt that during his first few years, Sydney's grandmother must have been a significant presence.

So two little Australians in 2012 have a direct connection through two grandfathers to a grandmother who grew up in Uckermark, Prussia before the country that we know as Germany even existed and travelled to Australia long before our nation was formed.

As family historians, we work with the abstract notion of a generation all the time. It acquires new meaning when you recognise that although seven distinct generations of our family have been born in the last 177 years, that entire period can be spanned by the lives of just three people.

And two of those three looked pretty good in suits!