Eric Ernest Fredrickson or Frederickson
Born: 1893, Turku (Abo), Finland
Died: 1974, Cheltenham, Victoria, Australia
Muriel Bailey
Born: Bendigo, Victoria, 1898
Died: Patterson Lakes, Victoria, 1986
Children
Evelyn Frederickson
Cliff Ernest Frederickson
Eric Herbert Frederickson
June Frederickson
Alan John Frederickson
Betty Frederickson
Lorna Frederickson
Ronald Frederickson
Margaret Frederickson
Muriel Bailey
When I was a child, we used to visit my grandparents more or less every Saturday or Sunday. Their house had a huge kitchen with a large dining table. The whole clan seemed to gather here on the weekends and the kitchen always seemed full of activity - especially cooking. We had lunch around that table, though often the children were set up on a card table next to the big table. With nine brothers and sisters and their spouses and offspring to accomodate, room was often at a premium.
My gran used to make the most delicious cakes and puddings, Christmas was a special treat with a plum pudding full of sixpences and thrupences. She also used to make cakes decorated to look like fruit barrows - each cake had wheels and dowell handles and a load of fruit fashioned from marzapan. It was a fond wish of mine to have one of these cakes, but I never got one, they seemed to be for sale only.
After my grandfather died, my grandmother seemed to go through a sea-change. She sold the old house in Carrum and bought in Frankston - but she seemed restless. She was always out with one or other of my aunts or uncles or on a bus tour - even though the bus ride inevitably made her ill. All this caused some grief for my mum, often they would arrange to visit on a Sunday to find her gone or about to go, 'ditched for someone else', as mum used to put it.
Still, I loved my gran, she seemed like a decent woman who had worked hard all her life - she was always kind to me.
Eric Fredrickson or Frederickson
Born: 1893, Turku (Abo), Finland
Died: 1974, Cheltenham, Victoria
There's some doubt that this man was my grandfather at all - see the entry for my mother - but I certainly believed he was for the longest part of my life, so let's treat him that way.
He was born in Finland, but of Swedish ethnicity. Finland had been ruled by Sweden for many centuries and occupied by Swedish colonists, though in 1809 it became part of the Russian Empire. Swedish was the dominant language up until the late 19th century. Frederickson is a Swedish name and grandfather was definately part of the Swedish community in Finland - though how they had been there is a mystery. See here for more information on Finland. I was quiet pleased to discover having Swedish roots, I had long admired their social democracy and general way of living. Now I worry that there's no connection at all.
The family story, as I remember it, was that he was a sailor who'd arrived here as a consequence of being torpedoed in the Atlantic in the First World War having being picked up by an Australian ship on the way home.
From his naturalization papers I discovered that he'd served from October 1912 until January 1913 on an Italian ship, then on Finnish ships until January 1914 and then on Belgian ships until April 1917. He then served on English ships (one a troop ship that was sunk and for which he received a British mercantile marine medal) until 'I left the English ship in New york and came over to Australia on a Finnish ship.' He arrived here on 2 July 1917 on the Marlborough Hill, a merchant ship. Despite the English name, the ship was owned by a Finnish firm and captained by an ethnic Swede, Captain Nicholai Tornqvist. It had been captained by ethnic Swedes since being bought by the Finnish company in 1911.
The Marlborough Hill
I wonder if his memory was a little hazy here. The Marlborough Hill is recorded as sailing from New York in 1916, not 1917, with a cargo of 95,000 barrels of oil. In any case, he disembarked in Port Adelaide and was registered there.
By late 1920 he says that he had spent 18 months on Australian ships in Australian waters, four months in Bendigo and eight months in Geelong.
What happened after that is unclear. While mum and her brother Cliff (born 1920) were born in Bendigo, the next two children, Eric (b 1922) and Alan (b 1926) were born in Geelong. My grandfather said in the information he supplied to the Commonwealth in 1920 that he was living in Geelong and working not far away at the Portland Cement Company in Batesford.
At some point, according to my mother, her father got work on the railway being built in Gippsland. She told of living in a tent out in the bush and walking miles in the bush barefooted. Once, she found a snake under her bed. It seems she used to sleepwalk as she said her father used to put a trough of water next to her bed to wake her up if she went to sleepwalk.
The family must have been in the western suburbs of Melbourne as she pointed out a primary school in Braybrook as one she had attended.
In any case, the family is first recorded at what became their family home in Carrum in 1942. My grandfather is recorded as a seaman again, as he was again in 1949.
My strongest memory of my grandfather was a small old man who sat in the kitchen of my grandparent's home in Carrum. In winter he sat by a small, free standing heater that burnt coke - he spoke rarely and never seemed to go anywhere, just sat by his heater darning or knitting socks. I remember being astonished one Sunday visit when he wasn't there and appeared some time later in a car with one of my uncles.
To be honest, I wasn't fond of him, he seemed a silent, grumpy old man. One of my cousins thinks his silence was due to his poor English, I don't remember that, but it's very possible. One of the few things I do remember him saying was that my mother should send me down to stay with him for a while as he would 'sharpen me up.' I didn't see why I needed 'sharpening up' and I guess I was a little scared of him. I think I stopped going to gran's on Sundays with my parents not long after that.
I remember him being very good at knots, obviously since he'd been a sailor and I do remember him showing me how to tie some knots. Sadly, I forgot all he showed me - there have been many, many occasions on which I'd wished I could recall those knots.
Cousin's memories here
He died in 1974 in an aged care facility in Kingston in Melbourne's south east. I vaguely remembering him lingering on for a while but being somewhat delirious. He reverted to speaking his native Swedish apparently, so no-one knew what he was saying. I remember taking my mum to visit him while he was dying and her teeth chattering so badly I had to stop the car to try and calm her down.
44 Westley Street, Carrum
My grandparents brown weatherboard house in Carrum looked like it had been built somewhere between 1900 and 1920. I gather the house was bought for the family by Uncle Cliff.
It had a creaking widish verandah at the front capped by a bullnose tin roof. There was a passionfruit vine growing over part of the verandah and I can remember sitting out there with the adults picking the fruit and eating it on the spot. I still love passionfruit.
The house had a picket fence with a front gate and path that led to the front door. Once through the then ubiquitous slamming screen door, you were in the front passageway with a large bedroom on either side. If we stayed over, we slept in the bedroom to the left, the other being my grandparents. I still remember waking up to the loud singing of birds - something we didn't have around our Yarraville home, at least not noisy ones anyway.
The passageway led to a large lounge, off this, to the right, was the even larger kitchen/dining room, the hub of the house. All but the kitchen/dining room seemed to be kept in shade and were quite gloomy.
If you went out the back door from the kitchen, you were led down some steps to a sort of storage/work area and, I think, the bathroom and laundry. These seem to have been added later. The back door of this area led to the backyard.
The house was set on a large block and had lots to see and do. My Uncle Cliff had a radio shack down the back that also housed my Uncle Ron's guns. My cousins and I sometimes played with the guns, no-one stopped us. I remember there being ammunition there too, luckily we nver thought to put two and two together! I jammed the bolt action of one of the rifles once, I just put it back in its place and hoped that no-one would notice. I lived in fear for some weeks that someone would notice. The radio shack had a very high metal tower that served as an aerial that we used to climb. Again no-one stopped us, indeed I can remember adults watching us do it.
A path from the back door led to the toilet located at the outer reaches of the block...a very scary trip for which you needed a torch at night. A cousin remembers that you had to pass over a little bridge to get to the toilet. Even in daylight it was somewhat scary for sooky me, the house wasn't sewered and the toilet had a pan - I was sure something was going to bite me when I sat on it!
The block was divided in two by a string of trees - it was possible to move from tree to tree without getting down to ground level - I spent many happy hours sitting in these trees or navigating my way across them, looking down at the world. It suited shy me to be up and away from everybody.
At one end of the tree line, making a right angle with it was a terrace of three 'sheds' made of cement block, I think with a set of steps leading to each one. I don't think they had been professionally built and had been sleeping quarters for those who couldn't be accomodated in the house. Since all my aunts and uncles had left home by the fifties, they had reverted to storage. I remember getting a fish hook stuck in my finger while on an unauthorised expedition searching the 'sheds.'
Carrum is now a suburb of Melbourne, then it was semi-rural - not far from gran's house you were out in the bush. I remember going rabbit hunting with my uncles and watching them put ferrets down rabbit burrows. We went fishing out on the Patterson River in a small boat - no life jackets and I couldn't swim! I also remember picking blackberries and mushrooms near Uncle Ron's place - just a street or two way from gran's.
I went to take some photos of the house recently, but it had been demolished...
I wonder if his memory was a little hazy here. The Marlborough Hill is recorded as sailing from New York in 1916, not 1917, with a cargo of 95,000 barrels of oil. In any case, he disembarked in Port Adelaide and was registered there.
By late 1920 he says that he had spent 18 months on Australian ships in Australian waters, four months in Bendigo and eight months in Geelong.
What happened after that is unclear. While mum and her brother Cliff (born 1920) were born in Bendigo, the next two children, Eric (b 1922) and Alan (b 1926) were born in Geelong. My grandfather said in the information he supplied to the Commonwealth in 1920 that he was living in Geelong and working not far away at the Portland Cement Company in Batesford.
At some point, according to my mother, her father got work on the railway being built in Gippsland. She told of living in a tent out in the bush and walking miles in the bush barefooted. Once, she found a snake under her bed. It seems she used to sleepwalk as she said her father used to put a trough of water next to her bed to wake her up if she went to sleepwalk.
The family must have been in the western suburbs of Melbourne as she pointed out a primary school in Braybrook as one she had attended.
In any case, the family is first recorded at what became their family home in Carrum in 1942. My grandfather is recorded as a seaman again, as he was again in 1949.
My strongest memory of my grandfather was a small old man who sat in the kitchen of my grandparent's home in Carrum. In winter he sat by a small, free standing heater that burnt coke - he spoke rarely and never seemed to go anywhere, just sat by his heater darning or knitting socks. I remember being astonished one Sunday visit when he wasn't there and appeared some time later in a car with one of my uncles.
To be honest, I wasn't fond of him, he seemed a silent, grumpy old man. One of my cousins thinks his silence was due to his poor English, I don't remember that, but it's very possible. One of the few things I do remember him saying was that my mother should send me down to stay with him for a while as he would 'sharpen me up.' I didn't see why I needed 'sharpening up' and I guess I was a little scared of him. I think I stopped going to gran's on Sundays with my parents not long after that.
I remember him being very good at knots, obviously since he'd been a sailor and I do remember him showing me how to tie some knots. Sadly, I forgot all he showed me - there have been many, many occasions on which I'd wished I could recall those knots.
Cousin's memories here
He died in 1974 in an aged care facility in Kingston in Melbourne's south east. I vaguely remembering him lingering on for a while but being somewhat delirious. He reverted to speaking his native Swedish apparently, so no-one knew what he was saying. I remember taking my mum to visit him while he was dying and her teeth chattering so badly I had to stop the car to try and calm her down.
44 Westley Street, Carrum
My grandparents brown weatherboard house in Carrum looked like it had been built somewhere between 1900 and 1920. I gather the house was bought for the family by Uncle Cliff.
It had a creaking widish verandah at the front capped by a bullnose tin roof. There was a passionfruit vine growing over part of the verandah and I can remember sitting out there with the adults picking the fruit and eating it on the spot. I still love passionfruit.
The house had a picket fence with a front gate and path that led to the front door. Once through the then ubiquitous slamming screen door, you were in the front passageway with a large bedroom on either side. If we stayed over, we slept in the bedroom to the left, the other being my grandparents. I still remember waking up to the loud singing of birds - something we didn't have around our Yarraville home, at least not noisy ones anyway.
The passageway led to a large lounge, off this, to the right, was the even larger kitchen/dining room, the hub of the house. All but the kitchen/dining room seemed to be kept in shade and were quite gloomy.
If you went out the back door from the kitchen, you were led down some steps to a sort of storage/work area and, I think, the bathroom and laundry. These seem to have been added later. The back door of this area led to the backyard.
The house was set on a large block and had lots to see and do. My Uncle Cliff had a radio shack down the back that also housed my Uncle Ron's guns. My cousins and I sometimes played with the guns, no-one stopped us. I remember there being ammunition there too, luckily we nver thought to put two and two together! I jammed the bolt action of one of the rifles once, I just put it back in its place and hoped that no-one would notice. I lived in fear for some weeks that someone would notice. The radio shack had a very high metal tower that served as an aerial that we used to climb. Again no-one stopped us, indeed I can remember adults watching us do it.
A path from the back door led to the toilet located at the outer reaches of the block...a very scary trip for which you needed a torch at night. A cousin remembers that you had to pass over a little bridge to get to the toilet. Even in daylight it was somewhat scary for sooky me, the house wasn't sewered and the toilet had a pan - I was sure something was going to bite me when I sat on it!
The block was divided in two by a string of trees - it was possible to move from tree to tree without getting down to ground level - I spent many happy hours sitting in these trees or navigating my way across them, looking down at the world. It suited shy me to be up and away from everybody.
At one end of the tree line, making a right angle with it was a terrace of three 'sheds' made of cement block, I think with a set of steps leading to each one. I don't think they had been professionally built and had been sleeping quarters for those who couldn't be accomodated in the house. Since all my aunts and uncles had left home by the fifties, they had reverted to storage. I remember getting a fish hook stuck in my finger while on an unauthorised expedition searching the 'sheds.'
Carrum is now a suburb of Melbourne, then it was semi-rural - not far from gran's house you were out in the bush. I remember going rabbit hunting with my uncles and watching them put ferrets down rabbit burrows. We went fishing out on the Patterson River in a small boat - no life jackets and I couldn't swim! I also remember picking blackberries and mushrooms near Uncle Ron's place - just a street or two way from gran's.
I went to take some photos of the house recently, but it had been demolished...
Hi i am Elisabeth Fredrickson. For a while now i was wondering on where i came from so i typed in my fathers name an out came this page. i know little about my family or where i came from i was given away at a young age. this helps so much thank you!
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