UK 2011: Road Trip No. 2:

This time it was Ben & Joanne who ventured north to Dungowan for a 2 night stay. We had a lovely time catching up with Linda and Mark and being able to have them share in our day at Barraba on the 8^th March 2010.

Our Monday started bright an early then with Joanne being over excited drove the group to Barraba to meet with Margaret Currell at the Barraba Historical society at 9am. On approach to Barraba the excitement couldn’t be held in any longer with squeals of delight and leg slapping on Mark by Joanne we knew it was going to be a great day.

We stopped for a homemade sandwich at the rest stop just south of Barraba and for Joanne to take a few deep breathes. Then the excitement reached fever point when we drove up to see “Herbertvale” for the first time. Herbertvale was the short lived family home of Cliff and Mary.

Punctual as always we parked out the front of the historical society right on 9am, dad would have been proud! Margaret was very helpful and even asked Tom Johnson to come talk to us about Edward & Mary. Tom could remember Mary holding Cliff’s hand walking into school for Cliffs first day. The highlight of the day was going to visit Leila Jackson, she was lovely and spoke so fondly of Mary, and we felt like we got to know Mary in some way that day.

Time was then spent walking around the Barraba Cemetery, a few tears were shed here realizing how much no one knows about our grandmother Maud, how insignificant her life was to others, very sad. A call back to Campsie was made for Matt to get on the web to trace the exact location of some of the grave sites.

Knowing that Maud met Edward while she was working at Barraba hospital, we headed there to see if there were records, but no. On their wedding certificate it reads that she was a nurse, but Tom was sure she was a cook. So just another mystery to add to our list.

We saw all the sights of Barraba and had a truly enjoyable day. Joanne and Ben dropped Linda and Mark back to Tamworth then headed on home to Sydney, it was one long day, but well worth it. One way to describe the day was an “episode of, Who do you think you are?”