With the help of the wonderful people at the Gosford Library I found three more parts of the series of stories written by Ephraim Ward in 1922 under the pen name 'Boora Boora'. Unfortunately the archives of the local papers are far from a complete set, so some of the parts may be lost forever, but as I said last week, the parts we have are a wonderful resource.

For anyone interested, I have put together a single document with all I have found out about Ephraim and the text of all of his stories. It is now on my website wardkemp.com. Look on the Ward Page, in the resources section. You will have top scroll through the resources box and look for 1847-ward-ephraim-memories.docx. I have put the year of his birth at the start to avoid any confusion with the other Ephraim Wards – there are at least two more:

• Ephraim Mitchell Ward, son of William, born at Killcare in 1847 (this is 'Boora Boora'.
• Ephraim Mitchell Ward, son of the 1847 Ephraim, born at Balmain in 1884.
• Ephraim McGregor Ward, son of Manasseh, born at Gosford in 1888.

The same happens with Manasseh' name.

• Manasseh Ward, son of William, born at Kincumber on 1851.
• Manasseh Ward, son of the above Manasseh, born in 1885, (died in infancy).
• Manasseh ward, son of Ephraim Mitchell (the 1847 one) born at Balmain in 1886.

This is made to confuse family historians. I have found quite a few people who get the two Manasseh's mixed up, so if you see someone who has our Manasseh's death listed as 1959 - that was when Ephraim's son died.

But back to the Boora Boora stories. One nice little story that took my fancy:

On the western side of the water was old Booker's place. They call the locality Booker Bay still. Mr Booker was a straightforward man and one of the very few who would not knowingly tell a lie. He and my father were very good friends, and the latter used to tell a story illustrating old Booker’s liking for the truth and nothing but the truth in all things. My father had occasion to call at Booker’s place one day and found them at dinner. He was promptly invited to have a pot of tea; but declined and sat smoking and talking for some time. After a while he changed his mind about the tea but was met with 

“no you won't , Billy. I never allow a man to tell a lie in my house.”

Mr Booker told him to look over the door, which he did, and saw board on which the old man had written in chalk the names of men that had told him a lie. 

It makes me wonder if everyone called William Ward 'Bill' or 'Billy', or was it just old Mr Booker!

 I am nearing the end of the first draft of my chapter on William and Catherine Ward. I still have a few outstanding threads of research, but some of those will have to wait for Covid to subside. Hopefully by next week I can put the draft up on the website for comment.