Your Ideas

Good morning everyone!

Thankyou to everyone who has checked out the blog, and thankyou especially to those who have commented (both here and on facebook) and/or have ideas! You are all much better detectives than I am :)

I thought I might consolidate your ideas and theories here for my own benefit, so I know where to go next.

"I'd guess Emma is somehow in the picture. If a family gave you a book for your confirmation you'd have to lack any courtesy to flog it off to a book store within 6 yrs i.e. Between '87 and '93. Do the church keep a record of who's been confirmed and such" 

This is a good idea (thanks Callum), although not having her last name may make it a bit tricky. I'm sure there would be some record that shows the Sarahs that were confirmed in 1987. Dammit why can't here name be something obscure, like Mildred?! 

"I reckon Strathie is definitely the all girls school and is Meg's old school - she is talking about if you mixed the all girls and the all boys schools together which I think makes perfect sense. Also I would be looking at the book as belonging to Meg - I wrote millions of letters that I never sent but any letter I did receive was stored in the envelope - just a personal perspective. One part of the letter confuses me - if Meg is writing from France to a friend at her old school, why would she ask if the school uniform is different? Just seems weird to me. Good luck!"

Gemma, after re-reading the letter I would have to agree with you about Strathie. Jacques also came to this same conclusion so well done to both of you! Thanks Harmony for the list of schools close to Camberwell and Scotch; Strathcona is one of these which supports this argument nicely :) Time to contact Strathcona and see if there is anyway of getting hold of a 1993 school annual. Maybe the uniform changed in this year? I too keep old letters in the envelope, and have heaps that I never sent off.

"From what I can see there was once a shop at 116 bridge road, richmond called 'the bookshelf' that specialised in aboriginal books but maybe they had other stuff. Owned by Lyn and Ken Fraser and Susan Boughton"

 

Woot! Thanks David. I will be checking this one out too. 

"I think Meg sent the letter, if not then it requires Meg to have taken the book from Melbourne to France and then return the book to Melbourne, this makes sense if she is on exchange (people always take one book when travelling) but not if she permanently moved, books are heavy. It would have to carry great sentimental value for her to take around the world in which case she probably wouldn't have given it away between 1993 and 1997, she would have kept it. It makes more sense perhaps that Sarah is Emma's sister and the book fell into her hands. Or it was given away between 97 and 93, 6 years is certainly long enough to break the attachment to a confirmation gift (I used to keep presents for at least 12 months before giving them away, but even that's too long now.)"

 

Ah Suzie, that's totally true! If I ever find this Meg (unlikely but whatever) then this is one of the first conundrums I will be asking her about! 

"I had a thought, maybe it could help searching to find any Braberg's - although having a look on white pages it doesn't seem that there are any Braberg's in Victoria - or they aren't listed, which doesn't really help much!"

This is a great idea Megan. You are right, there are no Braberg families in the Victorian White Pages. However, there are seventeen Brobergs in Victoria, seven of which are in the Melbourne region. Having another look at this inscription, the "a" in Braberg is a bit ambiguous and could in fact be an "o". I might try and scan in the inscription so you can see for yourselves. If nothing comes of the Strathcona search, I might have to start calling some of these Brobergs (a very daunting thought- argh!)

Thanks again everyone :) Love to you all xoxox