Dear List I am writing to you hoping someone may be able to help me. I have in my possession a silver tray that was my grandmothers. The inscription on the tray reads : P.A.F.S No 7 Presented to Sister E Smith From the Officers & Sisters April 28 1915 I have just discovered that my grandmother was married in the Flemington & Kensington Pres Church I believe this church burnt down in 1970's. The tray may have been given as present as they were married two weeks later on the 15 May 1915 and after moved to NSW. Would there have been some sort of organisation that was part of the church that she may have belonged to, or could there have some other organisation, there may be no link to the church at all, I really have no idea. I hope you may be able to shed some light on this family mystery. Kind Regards Alison Brown Gold Coast Qld rodneyalison@optusnet.com.au

Hello Alison. P.A.F.S was a Lodge, ''Protestant Alliance Friendly Society" I think it also had some sort of rebate scheme re chemist bills for members. Go to Google and type: P.A.F.S + Lodge. Use ''Pages from Australia" Lots of hits there Cheers, Bob in Melbourne ----- Original Message ----- From: "alison" <rodneyalison@optusnet.com.au> To: <AUS-MELBOURNE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 9:48 PM Subject: [AUS-MELB] Silver Tray Mystery > Dear List > I am writing to you hoping someone may be able to help me. I have in my possession a silver tray that was my grandmothers. The inscription on the tray reads : > P.A.F.S No 7 > Presented to Sister E Smith > From the Officers & Sisters > April 28 1915 > I have just discovered that my grandmother was married in the Flemington & Kensington Pres Church I believe this church burnt down in 1970's. > The tray may have been given as present as they were married two weeks later on the 15 May 1915 and after moved to NSW. > Would there have been some sort of organisation that was part of the church that she may have belonged to, or could there have some other organisation, there may be no link to the church at all, I really have no idea. > I hope you may be able to shed some light on this family mystery. > Kind Regards > Alison Brown > Gold Coast Qld > rodneyalison@optusnet.com.au > >

On Wed, 15 Mar 2006 20:48:54 +1000, alison wrote: >Dear List >I am writing to you hoping someone may be able to help me. I have in my possession a silver tray that was my grandmothers. The inscription on the tray reads : > P.A.F.S No 7 > Presented to Sister E Smith > From the Officers & Sisters > April 28 1915 >I have just discovered that my grandmother was married in the Flemington & Kensington Pres Church I believe this church burnt down in 1970's. >The tray may have been given as present as they were married two weeks later on the 15 May 1915 and after moved to NSW. >Would there have been some sort of organisation that was part of the church that she may have belonged to, or could there have some other organisation, there may be no link to the church at all, I really have no idea. >I hope you may be able to shed some light on this family mystery. P.A.F.S. = Protestant and Alliance Friendly Society. They were a friendly society and also had lodges where they had monthly meetings, they had ranks and regalia - thinks of the Masonic order as an example of ranks and regalia, the main different is that it was open to both sexes, hence the reference to Sister, and indeed a Sister could be the head of the local lodge. I know a bit about it as many years ago in Victoria it was provided a private health insurance system too and as it was the best deal I ever saw, I joined the scheme, this ipso facto also made you a member of the other side so I used to get the monthly newsletter about the doings of the various lodges too At one time Friendly Societies were a big deal here in Australia, and for interest it think PAFS in NSW may still be operatiional Tom

On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 13:39:19 +1100 (AEDT), Tom Perrett wrote: >P.A.F.S. = Protestant and Alliance Friendly Society. Ooops, didn't mean to put "and" there, should be just Protestant Alliance Friendly Society. Tom Cheers, Tom <tomp@st.net.au> Tom Perrett Proud to be member of Melbourne DPS, first port of call re Victorian research - http://home.vicnet.net.au/~dpsoc