Caroline Simpson Collection

Four of the Thorburn sisters and two of the Billis girls, Nowra, 7 January 1891 / photographer unknown

1891

1 photograph mounted on card : albumen print ; 22.5 x 27.5 cm.

family groups
sisters
Thorburn family.
Thorburn, Jessie Catherine (Kate), 1857-1945.
Thorburn, Annabella Jane (Belle), 1852-1930.
Thorburn, Kennina Fanny McKenzie (Tot), 1865-1956.
Thorburn, Georgina Isabella (Geo), 1854-1927.
Billis, Margaret Kitty (Katie), 1860-1965.
Billis, Lilian, 1866-1895.

June Wallace papers

Thorburn and Billis sisters: standing at the back, left to right: Georgina Thorburn, Katie Billis, Tot Thorburn; seated front, left to right: Kate Thorburn, Lil Billis, Belle Thorburn. The Billis sisters were family friends of the Thorburns, and possibly related in some way. Robert Taylor Thorburn, elder brother of the Thorburn women in this photograph, married Jessie Billis (1861-1888) in Melbourne in 1886. Tot Thorburn recorded the taking of the photograph in her diary for Wednesday 7 January 1891: "Grandfather, Uncle & I went to Nowra early in the morning, then Belle, Geo, Kate, Katie, Lil & I went to the photographer & had our group taken. Home to dinner & then came the goodbyes & last words, rather a damp good bye, we were all very very sorry to part, we waved each other quite out of sight".
At the time this photograph was taken Belle, Georgie and Kate Thorburn lived with their widowed mother at Meroogal in Nowra while Tot Thorburn kept house for her grandfather Thomas McKenzie and uncle Kenneth McKenzie in Cambewarra. The Billis sisters lived in Victoria.

Estate of June Wallace (1917-2010)

Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection ; June Wallace papers: JMW/36

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Picture

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