G'day Smylie Clan

Hello all, This is Granny Smylie all the way from Adelaide, Australia, finally introducing myself to the unfamiliar world of blogging with the aid of my granddaughter Ellen.

( This photo is of me on the bonnet of Zaj's car up in Alice Springs at Christmas this year)

I am amazed at the extent of family that I haven't met and would dearly love to know about and also have them know about me. I don't where to start so I guess I'll go from the beginning.

First of all, my one wish would be to meet and hug everyone of you. Seeing all of your wee ones and knowing they're part of my family, I would dearly love to see their little faces in person and have a good yarn and I'm sure I would talk mostly about Ireland and the folk that I left behind in 1956.

I was born in 1927 in County Antrim in Belfast, Ireland to Andy and Elizabeth (Lizzy) McCracken, my father was a baker and my mother was a weaver of Irish Linen. I was the second child in a family of four, James (Jim), Margaret (Meg), Mary (Molly). I went back to Ireland for visits a couple of times but the family eventually diminished.

Ellen wants me to pick one of the very many memories from my childhood that I have and so I picked just one . I remember delivering magazines when my brother took a newspaper round to make pocket money. My pay for delivering magazines was that he would take me to the movies every Monday night. It cost him four pennies to get in and a penny for an icecream and I guess that icecream was the best ever. I was so delighted that I got to work with my big brother.

I'm sending you snaps that I have that go back a few years. One of my grandsons (Joe Dunbar)asked in what year was I born and when I said 1927, he said, after a wee bit of thought, "that was in the first half of the last century Granny." This gave me food for thought - I realised I personally knew and know people from 3 centuries. That is I knew my great grandfather, my grandmother, my Mother and I know my children, my grandchildren and my great grandchildren.
This photograph is a group from our very first church beginnings. My Christina, Dinah and Andy are at the front of the photo and my David is at the back of the photo. David and I attended a meeting to tease the missionaries whom we thought of as friends but weren't interested in joining. We wanted to shock them by showing up and entertain ourselves with their reaction. The elderly man at the front middle of the picture is Brother Heslop. He bore his testimony at that very first church meeting and the spirit that we felt from that truly convinced us of the truthfulness of the gospel.

This is the back of our house at Ardean Ave, Rathcool, Belfast. Andy and Dinah are in the middle , wearing their Burberry coats given to them by their grandmother McCracken every year.

This family snap was taken outside of the chapel in Belfast which was held in a house called 'The Mount'. The Kids are Christina, Andy, Dinah and Stephen.

This photo from left to right (front row): My mother Lizzy McCacken, My Grandmother Jeanie (Jane) Johnson, (I can't remember the little girl's name), Cathy Kane, My father Andy McCracken. (Back Row) Harry Kane, Mollie Kane (my mother's sister). This is the only photo that I have of my grandmother (such a tiny little thing about 5'2 with a husband who was 6'4).

So hopefully you will have had a small glimpse into the beginnings of what is an ever expanding clan in Australia and America. I love you all and promise to write on here again with more photos and more memories.

Always and ever, your loving Mum, Granny and Great Grandmother Smylie xoxo