AN UNUSUAL BOND

FRANCES MARIA SVENSSON (1852-1919)

Mrs F. M. Svensson was one of the earliest tenants to live at Corio Bay, having lived there in the year 1900. With only her initials and married name to go by, she was certainly difficult to find. Fortunately, with such an unusual surname, she was eventually identified. The strangest thing about Frances' and her family however, was not their unusual name, but their remarkable bond.

Prior to the 1950s, nearly all immigrants to Australia where of British origin. There were very few Swedish people living in Melbourne in the late nineteenth century, which made it easier to track down Mrs Svensson.

Frances Maria was born Frances Maria Blezard in Australia around 1852. While her surname is unusual, Google assures me it is a Saxon name, first recorded in Oxfordshire where the Blezards held a family seat. In 1872, when she was around 20 years old, Frances married Andreas Svensson (1840-1917), a Swedish national who had naturalised in Australia the year before at the age of 31.[1]

Together they had ten children whilst living in Richmond, Victoria. They lost one in infancy and a few in their adulthood. At the time Frances Maria was living a Corio Bay Villa in 1900, her nine living children were:

Andreas Blezard (1873-1950), aged 27

Cecelia Frances Maria (1875-1966), aged 25

Eunice Elsie Marion (1876-1904), aged 24

Oscar Wilhelm-Johan (1877-1909), aged 23

Priel Herbert (1882-1918), aged 18

Yustus Spor (1884-1959), aged 16

Francis James (1886-?), aged 14

Malmo Octavia Cristabel (1887-1971), aged 13

Hilda Olive Vera (1890-1968), aged 10, known as Vera.

Whether the older children were living with Frances at Corio Bay Villa is unclear. While they may have been living elsewhere I have assumed that they all living together, based on later records. Thirteen years later, in 1913, the family is again in Richmond and there are still six adult children living with Frances; two having died and one (Francis) having immigrated overseas. The following year, Preil goes off to war where he is killed. So there remains five adult children, of which four (Andreas junior, Yustus, Malmo and Vera) are living with Frances and Andreas. If all but one of Frances' children are still living with her in 1914, it's probably safe to assume they were living with her in Corio Bay Villa in 1900.

Her husband, Andreas, is not listed at Corio Bay Villa, however he is later registered at the same address in Richmond with the rest of his family. He, like some of his sons, was a carpenter and skilled furniture maker who had a factory in LaTrobe Street.[2] It is not clear why he was not at Corio Bay Villa in 1910. Perhaps he was serving in the armed services, although no record has been be found.

While large families were not foreign to Corio Bay Villa, to see a family with so many adult children living together is unusual. It’s also unusual to see so many siblings stay together into adulthood. After the parents death, four of the five adult children go on living together in one form or another.

Frances and her husband died within 14 months of each other between 1917 and 1918. Andreas, Yustus, Malmo and Vera go on living together afterwards. It unknown where Cecelia is at this time. Yustus eventually gets married in 1922, at the age of 38, to Myrtle Jessie Thomas (1886-1977). Myrtle then moves in with Yustus and his siblings for a number of years. By 1927 Yustus and his Myrtle finally get some privacy when they move next door to Yustus' siblings, rather than sharing the same house. So they are still very close.

By 1936 Cecilia has moved back in with her siblings and maybe pregnant. Meanwhile Yustus and Myrtle have moved a couple of suburbs away and had a son called Thomas John Svensson (1931-2019) who goes by the name of John. The four remaining siblings, Andreas, Cecilia, Malmo and Vera go on living together until their deaths.

Apart from Yustus, I can find no record of any marriages for the other Svensson children living in Melbourne. It’s strange that only one of eight children got married, as marriage was the done thing in those days. Unless you entered the church, you were expected to get married in your twenties. Perhaps with their foreign-sounding names the Svennson siblings found it difficult to integrate into the very British society. Or perhaps Andreas and Frances were controlling parents, inhibiting their children's ability to socialise outside the family. Alternatively they may have shared a family trait, physical or otherwise, that made them unappealing to others. It is very curious indeed that only one of them got married and even he married late at 38 years old.

Not only did the family live together in life, they were buried together in death. While the headstones no longer exist, records show that Frances and Andreas were buried with four sons, including the infant that died in 1881 and Yustus who is buried there instead of with his wife. They were also buried with their daughter Eunice who died in 1904, aged 28. Priel, who died in France during the war, is mentioned although his body is absent. Strangely there is no mention of the three daughters who were the last to die.

Image: Grave records from Kew, Boroondara, sourced from AncestryLibrary.

After the parents Frances and Andreas died, the next to pass was their oldest son Andreas Blezard. Andreas must have been close to his brother Yustus and his family, as Myrtle's three siblings are mentioned in Andreas death notice, which is unusual. As well as being a dearly loved brother of a brother-in-law, Andreas is described as a dear uncle to John, and someone named Lesley (shown below). When Yustus dies nine years later, John and Lesley are both mentioned again, in addition to a granddaughter called Julie (shown below).

Image left: Death notices for Andreas Belzard Svensson, the Age, 25 July 1950, page 7.

Image right: Death notices for Yutus Spor Svensson, the Age, 23 March 1959, page 14.

Lesley Margaret Svensson (1937-1964) was a niece to both Andreas and Yustus and therefore must have been a daughter to one of the sisters. I can find no record of her birth. In addition to being mentioned in her uncles death notices, she is recorded once in the voting registry in 1963, when she was living with the sisters Cecilia, Malmo and Vera. In 1964 she tragically died of a drug overdose, aged 27, after battling with depression.[3] This must have been a terrible scandal for the family, as suicide was considered a sin. Lesley (or Leslie) is buried separately to the rest of the family, in a cemetery across town. No mother or father is listed on her death certificate and no death notification is published in the newspaper. At the inquest of her death, Malmo states that Lesley was adopted and lived with her and her sisters.[3] However, there is no mention of her birth parents. In the end she belonged to no one. It was a sad end to a short life.

Without any males to support them financially, the sisters and Lesley sought employment. Lesley was a typist, whilst Malmo and Vera were school teachers. In 1943 Malmo taught at the Blackburn Open-Air School. The Open-Air School was set up in 1915 to provide sickly children who lived in the crowded inner suburbs the benefit of a healthy environment in which to recuperate.[4]

The three Svensson sisters went on living together until Cecilla's death in 1966, aged 91. Vera followed two years later, aged 78, leaving Malmo alone for another three years. When Vera died in 1968, Malmo placed a notice in the Age for both her sisters together. There is no mention of John, or even Lesley who died five years earlier. The notice was placed in The Age on Saturday 22 March 1969, page 49, and reads:

SVENSSON - In loving memory of my dear sister Cecilia, who passed away March 23rd, 1966. Also dear sister Vera, who passed away October 25th, 1968. Always loving, always kind. A wonderful memory to leave behind.

The three sisters names do not appear on the graveyard records with their parents in Kew, but there were more plots than names, so they probably ended up there in an unmarked grave. Perhaps Malmo couldn't afford the cost of a headstone. The sisters are not recorded as being buried in any other grave or cemetery, so it is likely that they are buried with their parents and siblings in Kew.

Thomas John Svensson (1931-2019) was the only surviving child of the Svensson siblings and he went on to have at least one child. From such a large family there were few descendants of Mrs Frances Maria Svensson, who had briefly lived at Corio Bay Villa back in 1900 with up to nine of her children.

In the notice of her sisters' death, Malmo's states that her sisters left a wonderful memory behind. But with Malmo's death, all those memories died too, and perhaps so did the knowledge Lesley’s parentage. Apart the poor Lesley, the Svensson family remained as close in death as they were in life. I also hope that poor Lesley found more peace in death than she had in life.

REFERENCES:

[1] A page from Andreas letter to Henry Thomas, Viscount Canterbury and Governor of Victoria, requesting naturalisation in March 1871. Source: National Archives of Australia, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1579170

[2] Skilled Workmen From Abroad, The Age, Saturday 6 February 1937, page 9.

[3] Lesley Svensson's death certificate and coroner's report, 1964. Sourced from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria and the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV).

[4] The “Open-air School, The Blackburn Creeklands, viewed 15 June 2022, https://blackburncreeklands.wordpress.com/history/the-open-air-school/