NOTE: Since this story was originally posted, the family has been located and the original photos passed on. If anyone would like to contact them do let me know – moyasharp@outbackfamilyhistory.com.au

I would like to tell you about a collection of photographs and family information of which it is my ‘Mission’ to find a home for. Not so much a project but a promise to a dear friend.

The story of the collection started way back in 1979 when an antique dealer, who would buy deceased estates, asked if her friend, Judith Gernsch, would like some of the family photographs which were destined for the tip. Judith being a keen historian made it her ‘Mission’ to see if she could locate the family and return these amazing photographs to them.

The photographs concern the Lihou family from South Australia and Gurnsey in the Chanel Island. There are 14 cabinet photographs of members of the family taken in Gurnsey. It appears that Nicholas Lihou married Marie Rouget, their daughter, Alice Rachel Lihou married ‘Birt’ in Burra SA on the 16th April 1879 ,he died in Perth. Their daughter, Viardot Birt, married Marshall Broadbent in Southern Cross in 1916 (the marriage is however registered in Perth). The photograph below was taken on the day.

The wedding of Varidot BIRT and Marshall BROADBENT, Southern Cross 1916.

Judith, who was living in Brisbane, Qld at the time was put in touch with my dear late friend Shyama Peebles and they corresponded for some time each adding their own research to the file (all pre internet days mostly). Shyama tried to find a family to give the photos to, off and on for many years, and she always joked that when she died she would pass the ‘mission’ on to me.

A Lihou family member Gurnsey

A Lihou family member Gurnsey

Well now it is my turn to carry the baton and I promised my friend just a couple of days before she passed away that I would try my best to find the family.

Sapper Marshall Broadbent, Somewhere in France. 1917

I was able to add a small bit to the file in the shape of a photograph of Marshall Braodbent. He is a Southern Cross man, one of my miners on the Miners Memorial and he was someone who went to war and survived only to return to the Goldfields to die in a mining accident.

Canberra Times 28 March 1940

Kalgoorlie Miner 28.3.1940

He was killed in a horrific accident at the Golden Horseshoe Mine in Kalgoorlie-Boulder on the 27th March 1940. He was aged 45yrs and a Sluicing Plant Shift Boss. His decapitated body was found by his son James.

Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate NSW, Thursday 28 March 1940, page 7

Can anyone help by passing the word around, it would make me very happy to complete this search that has gone on for 38yrs. The photos were meant to find their way home?