"Aunty Annie": Anna Marie Cogger

"Aunty Annie" was the youngest child of Emilie (nee Diehl) and Charles Cogger.  She was my dad's great aunt, so my great-great aunt. As I recall, EVERYONE called her Aunty Annie.

Annie was born 7 June 1880, and died 21 February 1970, when I was 12.

I certainly have a memory of meeting Aunty Annie when I was little.

She married at age 64, in 1944, to a widower named Thomas Dunn. He died in 1962.

Mum recalls that Aunty Annie looked after her nieces, Nell (my grandmother) and Emilie, and nephews, Maurice and Eric after their mother Violet (Annie's sister-in-law) died. This was because their father Henry's new wife didn't want anything to do with the children. That probably helps explain why Aunty Annie was always spoken of fondly. Electoral rolls from 1949, 1954 and 1963 show that she lived in the old family home, The Laurels at Mt Macedon, where previously Henry and Violet had lived. Her brother, Henry Edward Cogger and his second wife were living in  Blackwood Rd, Macedon in 1942, and at Woodend (a nearby town) in 1949.

All this must have caused quite some family consternation and disruption. I remember hints of skeletons in closets, as the adults we visited had coded and whispered conversations out of earshot of the children!

Nevertheless, Alma, the wife of one of Annie's nephews, Eric, looked after and visited her husband's stepmother, Lillias, in Lillias's older age.

Eleanor Vivian Cogger - Grandmother

"Grandma Nell" was my father's mother. She was tall, slender, and pretty aloof. I can't remember ever being hugged by her, but used to enjoy going to visit her house because there was a copy of Enid Blyton's The Magic Far Away Tree there. It had belonged to her youngest daughter, Mary.

Grandma Nell loved her garden at Templestowe, and we would walk around it, before the adults would chat about whatever it was they chatted about, and I would read. A walk in the garden was more interaction than we had with our grandfather though. He was even more distant.

The other thing I like about her is that she had my favourite woman's name.

Nell was a beautiful knitter and sewer. She made beautiful clothes for Mary, and such was her knitting prowess that she knitted for Patons pattern books. My mum was a great knitter too, and Nell introduced Mum to knitting for Patons as well. They had many of their creations featured, probably including some front covers.

Eleanor Vivian Cogger was born 17 June 1905 in Macedon, Victoria, the daughter Of Violet nee Morris and Charles Cogger. She died 23 June 1964. She was only 59. I remember visiting her in hospital when she was very ill. Not only did she have diabetes, I think she died of ovarian cancer.

On 8 February 1926 she married Ernest Langham Edsall ('Ern'). She had five children: Elizabeth (1926), Ted - our dad (1928), twins Gwen and Wilfred [Bill] (1931) and Mary - actually Eleanor Mary (1944).

Nell in her garden at Templestowe

31 Dec 1955 - Mum and dad's wedding. Dad was about 5ft 6 ins tall, so his mother, Nell, was quite tall for a woman. This was common in the Cogger clan. Her twin brothers Maurice and Eric were around 6 foot. 

Violet Vivian Elliott Morris - great grandmother

This is our paternal great grandmother. We never met, neither did Dad meet her. She died 9 years before he was born. Violet Vivian Elliott Morris was born 12 May 1884 in Burketown, Qld. In 1903 she married Henry Cogger in Upper Macedon, Vic. They had four children, Eleanor (born 1905), Emilie (born 1907), Eric and Maurice (born 1908). Sadly, she died aged only 34 on 5 May 1919. She died of influenza during the 1919 pandemic. She was a stunner!

Emily Frederica Diehl - great-great grandmother

Emilie Frederica Diehl, later Cogger. A paternal great-great grandmother. She was born 8 Feb 1837 in a village called Stetten-in-Remstal, near Stuttgart, in Wurttemberg, Germany. 

Eighteen year old Emilie arrived in Hobart, Tasmania aboard 'America' on 23 July 1855, with her parents Karl and Johanna, and 8 siblings. They followed many emigrants from Wurtemberg as Bounty Immigrants. 

Five days after arriving, Emilie was employed by James Turnbull, a hop farmer of the Millbrook Estate, New Norfolk. She was a general servant, paid £15 for 6 months, plus rations.  Her father and brother, Karl were employed as gardeners and general servants for Captain Frederick Chalmers at Bagdad, 25 miles north of Hobart.

Emilie married Charles Cogger in St Kilda, Melbourne 29 Aug 1863. Emilie's father was employed as a botanist by the Geological Survey Company in Victoria in the 1860s. Cogger also worked for the company. They set up home at Mount Macedon. Emilie's parents and siblings then moved to South Island, New Zealand, where they established an orchard. 

Emilie bore 10 children, 4 boys and 6 girls and died aged 68 on 15 July 1905 at Upper Macedon. 

The ship "America', aboard which Emilie and her family arrived in Tasmania

All Saints Church, St Kilda, where Emilie and Charles Cogger married

Charles Cogger's tent - Geological Survey

The Laurels, Mt Macedon. Emilie and Charles on verandah, possibly with baby Anna Marie and other children outside.

Emilie and Charles on the verandah of The Laurels with other family members

Emilie, Charles and family at The Laurels.