Alphonse Chargois (1860-1936) was a photographer apart. Working out of a photographic studio in the Tropics in the very far north of Queensland, Australia, he created for his subjects and future generations treasured views such as this one of  family life there in the 19th century.  His collections include beautifully framed homesteads and the bush environment that are their context, people who are will-o-wisp like in casual groups at distance and work-a-day tableaus. 

John Henry Edwards and his wife, Ellen Johns were childhood sweethearts. They grew up in Gulval in Cornwall together and when to start on their journey to Australia John Henry's parents gathered their five children together, for the last time bustled out the door of their then Cliff Lane home at Marazion where the sea at its wildest would have dashed their lovely home with seaspray, on still days filled with sunshine been picture perfect, it was on the understanding that as soon as the family made a home in Australia, John Henry's parents would with all parties entire  agreement and support (parents and friends and neighbours) send for Ellen because John Henry and Ellen were betrothed. 

That was just the way it was and happened  that John Henry and Ellen two years later in 1884 married in Australia at a place called Stone River near Ingham in North Queensland. John Henry, the groom was 19 and the bride, Ellen was 18. John Henry's younger sibling, sister Annie was 13, brothers William Francis and James Richard were 10 and 8, and little sister Mishall Rodda was 4.

The photo was taken in the Chargois travelling studio in Georgetown, Queensland in 1898. John Henry 33 and Ellen 32  are photographed with their first five surviving children, who are Francis (back L) 13, Harry (Back R with mother) 11, Ellen (front L) 8, William on Father's lap 4 and Martha 6. The family is grieving the death of Catherine 19 months from a disease of the mouth and her gums. 

John Henry and Ellen will have two more children Edith by the end of that same year and two years later George. They will also that year take into their home to raise the two middle children Annie 6 and Herbert "Bert" 4 of four children born to John Henry's sister,  Annie. Annie did not live long after the death at birth of her youngest child, Catherine Daisy in 1895 and Catherine Daisy's oldest sibling, Charlotte Mishall born in 1892 had not lived. Annie's husband Herbert eventually remarrying  had three more children with his wife Elizabeth Joanna, Arthur Edwin, Elizabeth Charlotte and baby Kathleen Daisy.

I met Ellen and remember, John Henry's once teen sweetheart, wife, life long companion in 1957 when she visited at our house when I was 7. To do the rounds of the family and say her goodbyes before her death, Ellen 92 travelled to North Queensland from Sydney where she lived her last years out with a daughter-in-law. She had outlived John Henry by 16 years. 

John Henry was my maternal grandfather's brother, he the boy William Francis age 10 at the celebratory occasion of John Henry and Ellen's marriage at Stone River, Ingham, Queensland in 1884.