On the way back from Lismore, Julia and I visited Uncle Ken and Aunty Betty. They weren't home but arrived while we were still there with another visiting relative: Marie Rudinger. Here's the (relatively) simple version: Uncle Ken's father, William, married Marie Louise Bernasconi. Marie Louise had a number of sisters, one of who was Gertrude, and Gertrude was the mother of Marie, making Marie and Ken first cousins.
Because we missed Brendan's song this Christmas, I've included below his slightly more complicated but fascinating explanation of the family connection which appeared in the Roff Report on Marie's last visit. In your family photo album, you'll find a picture near the front of Tony, Jack, Marie, Neil, Mardi, Betty and Aunty Doll. It turns out this was taken at the docks in Sydney where Betty was being farewelled on a trip to Perth to show off her first son, Tony. Marie told us during our visit that she had a "crush" on Neil - which might explain why she doesn't seem to be complaining in the photo regarding the location of his right hand. Take it away, Brendan...
"Aunty Marie Rudginger visited recently from Albany W.A., and stayed with Betty and Ken before attending her granddaughter's wedding in Wagga Wagga. The significance of this lady in your lives should be brought to the attention of you younger Roffs. Firstly, she knows the Waifs, and has a story to tell, but that's another story.
Marie is Ken Seage's cousin, her mother and Dad's mother both being Bernasconi's, and the children of John Bernasconi who, in the 1880's sometime, along with his brother, married a pair of Newton sisters, the progeny of Adam Newton, Baker, 28 King Street Sydney. (There is a Newton Lane off King Street named in his honour - check it in the street directory, or have a night out at the Japanese restaurant that now occupies the site.) Adam Newton, baker, fathered 7 children with wife Elizabeth, but he died I guess quite young, and left Elizabeth a youngish widow. So she married William Roff of Glebe, and bore 2 more children with him, Fred and Jack, the latter of course the father of Neil and Betty. Elizabeth sounded quite a lady, running pubs, then the bakery when Adam died, and raising 9 children in her spare time. Alas she died when the Roff kids were very young, Jack barely 2 years old, and so they were put in care of the elder Newton siblings, notably an Aunty Eva. Another story.
Back to Marie, remember Marie? Story about Marie. She was orphaned at an early age too, and so she and her siblings were also farmed out to relatives here and there, one of whom was Catherine Bernasconi, the youngest of John Bernasconi's daughters, aunt to both Marie and Ken, and often referred to in our generation as Aunty Doll. Doll took over the errant operations of her father's newsagency, errnat because he was trade stock, his father a gilder, and he not very good with accounts and books. The remnants if the newsagency still stand today as a Chinese laundry diagonally opposite the new look Redfern Oval park, but with 'Sydney Morning Herald' painted on the street awning. Daniel and Alaine know the Redfern territory, and I have witnessed first-hand Daniel speaking Redfernian. Anyway, in taking over the newsagency, the story goes that Aunty Doll enlisted the help and support of a young Jack Roff of the Newton side of the family who was 'doing his articles' (a term Mum used) on his path to being an 'articled' lawyer. The Roff-Newton clan were close to the Bernaconi's, it seems, so Marie and Neil and Betty used to kick around a bit in their younger days. Marie recalled that she, being quite petite in height, would insist the lanky Neil Roff walk in the gutter as they strolled the promenade, to even things up height wise. Family friend, pillar of society, Jack Roff was asked to be MC at Marie's 21st birthday as her own parents were not around, and Jack was a natural at entertaining a crowd. As people entered the party, Aunty Doll on door duty, and perhaps adept at speaking Redfernian herself, announced to a shyish (?) Neil Roff 'Here is someone tall for you to dance with, Neil' and placed the vivacious Eileen Forrest on his arm for the evening. And so your dynasty started. Eileen worked with Marie and a bevvy of others at the tax department. So the story goes."
Stuart's part-time job as a trolly thief in Vietnam has largely gone unrecorded in the Roff archives but this picture is proof. Cursed with a birthday so close to Christmas, he's been forgotten by most but remembered by his fan club (members of which include none of his immediate family). Happy birthday, Uncle Tood - you were on the road on Jan 8 but we didn't forget.
Amanda's main band, the Ukeladies, have just completed two gigs at the Sydney festival, the main one being the support act for Emmylou Harris in front of a crowd of 70,000. Adam took these shots where Amanda apprears on the big screen. The second gig the following day (see daylight shot) was more relaxed and the Ukes would have sold a million CDs were one actually available (hint). I'm still in negotiation stages but I hope I've secured them for my 60th on January 29.
