The Rooks Family – grave tales

I was recently contacted by Maureen Jones who has sent me two wonderful photographs to share with you. The photographs are from Eric Rooks Collection now belonging to his niece Valerie Grayden, who has given permission for these photos to be shared.

‘Modesty Cottage’ Kalgoorlie/Boulder his photograph by Photographer William Roy Millar shows a group of young men which includes some of the Rooks family.

Maureen says – “I have been researching the Rooks family here in Melbourne who took up land at Diamond Creek, a northeastern suburb of Melbourne,  in its gold mining heyday. In the 1890s recession, two of Arthur Allen and Charlotte Rooks’s sons, Arthur and Isaac, and one daughter, Lizzie, and her future husband, Charles Raystrick Prosser, travelled to Boulder chasing gold. Isaac John Rooks was recorded as a blacksmith’s striker and is buried in Boulder cemetery. He was aged 47yrs and died in July of 1922. While in Boulder he and his wife, Annie Alexandria nee Ferguson who married in Coolgardie in 1900, had three sons, Arthur Reuben born in 1900, Alfred Edward born in 1901 and Donald Allen born in 1914 all born in Boulder. His wife later returned to Diamond Creek.

Isaac Rooks Grave – Boulder Cemetery – Photo Danelle Warnock

Kalgoorlie Miner 18 July 1922, page 4

Eliza “Lizzie” Rooks and her husband Charles Raystrick Prosser are both buried in the Boulder Cemetery. Arthur Rooks (the younger) was there for a time but returned to Diamond Creek to run the family farm. Many young miners from Diamond Creek went to the W.A. goldfields at that time.

In 1898 the Evelyn Observer, the local newspaper at that time,  reported that:    The exodus of our young men to Western Australia is still on the increase. During the past few months many from all the surrounding townships have gone to try their luck there, and last Tuesday ten residents from Diamond Creek and one from Kinglake sailed for the Golden West.

This was not an unusual situation as the following verse tells:  https://www.outbackfamilyhistoryblog.com/our-boys-a-verse-2/

This photograph of “Lizzie” Prosser nee Rooks was taken in the Rembrandt Studio, Boulder City, W.A. (date unknown).

Lizzie ‘Eliza’ died in 1930 aged 58yrs in the Kalgoorlie Hospital from Chronic Nephritis, she had been in the hospital for 10 days prior to her death. She is buried in the Boulder Cemetery in the Anglican section in the same grave as her daughter Dulcie May Prosser who died earlier the same year from a burst appendices aged 19yrs, she was their oldest child. She was survived by her husband and two other children, Thelma Ina born 1912 and Charles Rooks born 1913. Her husband Charles Raystrick Prosser died in 1937 in Kalgoorlie and is buried with his wife and daughter in the Boulder Grave. There is no headstone on the grave.

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Moya Sharp

Owner at Outback Family History

My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

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