my family hunt

Finding Margaret

2011-07-14T23:19:00.000+10:00

I have never had any luck with Irish Research even after all the years of studying my family history. My G G grandmother, Bridget Hagan (or O'Hagan) came to Australia with her older sister from Ireland on board the White Star in 1867. Three years later she married Alfred Woodhead who had been in Melbourne since he was a toddler. Her older sister May married Julius Vierth, a twice time widower with 3 surviving children ten years after.
I had the names of their parents but had no idea who else they may have left behind in Ireland. Then I found the headstone for the Vierth Family at Melbourne Cemetery. It is a large grave and has Julius' second wife and the baby born at the time of her mother's death. Then there is a mention of Julius himself and his sister-in-law Margaret O'Hagan.
It was this one that had me stumped. There was no mention of her being May's sister, so I wondered then if there was maybe a brother and his wife who may have come out. I looked for her death to find out who was listed as her parents, but these were recorded as unknown. So I sent for the death certificate and found she was single, she had only been in Australia 2 years and died in hospital from TB.
How sad she may have been missed because her parents were not listed on her death certificate. I wonder if the family thought the Australian climate would have helped her. If only there were some letters from Ireland around.
If it was not for the headstone, I would never have found her, which I find a bit sad and have to wonder how many family members came to Australia and never noticed because they have died and parents unknown and never married to have descendants to remember them.
I also have a photograph of a young lady, I cannot be sure but I get the feeling it is Margaret. Wish I had a way to find out for sure.

Finding the father of Emma's Daughters

2011-04-03T11:13:00.000+10:00

Emma pos on her 90th Birthday

Emma Royle born 29 May 1870 in Sale Victoria, the 7th child of 14 born to Roger Royle and Maria Nicol (or any variation to Nichols).
Described as 4 foot nothing and strong as an Ox, her granddaughter once said "you daren't offer to help carry a suitcase or push a wheelbarrow full of wood for her or you would get what for!"
When I first started my family history I was told that Emma had 3 daughters to her first husband and when he died she had 3 sons to my great grandfather. My mother was surprised as she had only met 2 daughters and then we were told that one separated herself from the family and never seen again. No one seemed to know where she went.
The girls were the daughters of Robert Conroy who was a merchant seaman who went back to England to gain an engineering certificate and died on the way. However after years of research I was never able to find this marriage, nor the birth of the girls. I also was not able to find the marriage of Emma to Peter Johnson (My great grandfather) but I did find the birth of her youngest son. When I purchased this certificate I found that he was registered to Peter Johnson and Emma Royle (Known as Johnson). Peter was the youngest of Emma's children and yet no other children were mentioned on this certificate.
I mentioned this to Uncle Jim (James Johnson and Emma's second son) and made the comment that I don't think they were ever married, to which he replied "I don't thing they were either." (now why didn't he tell me that years earlier, did he think I would just give up and never find out?)
This upset Jim's daughter at his funeral with her saying "well I have their marriage certificate!" She never did send it to me.
Later I was to find the birth certificate of my grandfather, he was registered John Royle, no father listed and no other siblings, but the son of Emma.
As for Lena (the daughter that disappeared) she was supposed to have married a musician, but they divorced when she failed to have children. Uncle Jim told me he had found her just before he died living at a nursing home near him and he attended her funeral. People there were surprised to learn she had siblings.
I later found a death for a Mabel Stella Kerridge, mother listed as Emma Royle. She had died in a nursing home and her death certificate mentioned 2 husbands. I could not work out how people got Lena from Mabel but then this was not uncommon. Everything except her age pointed at her being Lena, she died before Uncle Jim in a nursing home, had married twice and of course her mother was Emma.
I stopped looking for Lena.
Not long ago I had contact with two of the granddaughters of one of Lena's daughters. This was exciting as it was the first contact I had from any of Emma's other descendants that were interested in the family history. And Cassie had in fact used a lot of my material handed to her by one of her aunts, whom I had sent it to years earlier. I am always happy for family to pass this on to other members and this is one that had paid off.
She had Lena as the youngest child and had her name as Eileen, which would make sense given her name. One thing I had failed to do was look under Emma Royle in the New South Wales Register. I had done in Victoria hence finding my grandfather. But Cassie had and had found Doris and Eileen both registered, she could not find Sylvia.
One thing that stood out was that Doris Manay was in fact registered Doris McGeagh Royle. No father for either girls, so once again Emma had not married the father of her daughters. It was also noted that there was a Sylvia McGeagh registered the right year, to Robert McGeagh and Mary.
Robert McGeagh was a baker, and had married Mary Phoebe Collins. They had 2 daughters, one died as a baby, and after a gap had Sylvia all in NSW. I then went to the Victorian Registers and found that Robert and Mary had moved to Sale in Gippsland Victoria, where Emma lived, and Mary gave birth to a son Alfred. I sent for his birth certificate and found that the midwife was Maria Royle, Emma's mother. Also this was the year before Emma had given birth to Mabel. So now we had 4 daughters for Emma, and it seemed no one knew of Mabel before I found her.
I also found that Robert had done his baker's apprenticeship on a ship (Merchant Seaman). There were a number of puzzle pieces starting to fall into place. I then found that Alfred McGeagh served in the WW1 and he died a few years after returning to Melbourne. Looking at his war records I noticed his mother had written asking if he was entitled to a scroll for his grave. The War department had written back asking for the name and address of Alfred's father, I turned the page to find that she had written back, "I have not seen nor heard of his father in 32 years! " This took us back to the birth of Mabel.
Further search found that Lena had been born at Sydney Benevolent Asylum. Further when records were obtained, Emma named the father, Robert McGeagh.
We may have gone the long way about finding these facts, as they were on the Asylum Records anyway but we had all gone in the right direction and came up with the right details. It was a combined effort from Cassie and Julie and myself but we got there and found the illegitimate father. It appears he disappeared before Lena was born and we do not know where he went but at least now we know who we are looking for and have a name for the Conroy? Girls.
Emma died at Cockatoo in 1960 just after celebrating her 90th Birthday.

Saving an Ancestral Grave

2010-07-03T22:25:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I recieved some photos of an Ancestral grave at Arthurs Creek. It is the grave of Thomas Murphy and his wife Mary (nee Nolan) and thier 22yo daughter Bridget.

Along with it I recieved a request from the Cemetery Trust asking if the family were interested in having all fixed up. The headstone is in good condition but it needs to be strengthened and the sides are caving in.

Now I need to contact as many descendants as possible to ask if they would be interested in putting toward the $3000.00 needed for repairs.

My thinking is to find at least 100 descendants to each contribute $30 and it can be done. My grandmother, the granddaughter of this couple, has well over 100 decendants on her own, of course many of those are too young to contribute but Nana was only one of about 12 Grandchildren.

I have posted an event on Facebook and getting responses but will also have to write a few letters I think.

Family Papers

2010-06-19T23:38:00.000+10:00

Today we moved Mum into a nursing home, she basically has no short term memory and is not able to live alone any more. We have moved some of her furniture in with her but her room is small so not a lot went.
Now we have a huge task ahead to clear out her unit.
Going through one of the boxes of papers I found a file of bits and pieces of interest. There was the certificate that came with her engagement ring back in 1955, the original marriage certificate, the burial, grave and headstone details for Dad, along with his international licence and a story he wrote about his holiday in Hong Kong. I will have to post this on Ancestry.
There is also the deeds to my grandparents graves and a paper mum signed to say she gave permission for her brother and sister-in-law to be buried in the same grave. So many Things, remeberances of Dad, which made me cry but proud to be his daughter, there were so many good wishes sent to him while he faded away.
Quite a little treasure trove for any genealogist.

2010-06-11T23:58:00.000+10:00

Some time ago a distant cousin from New Zealand sent me some photos. Based on my research he believed they were photos of Benjamin Woodhead (b 1820) and his wife Sarah (Nee Clarke). There were also pics of two children Amy and Walter whom he believed were the children of Benjamin's brother John.

I have photo's of Benjamin Woodhead and I can see a likeness but the ages, times of birth and the place where the photographs were taken were not consistant with the information I had.

The other thing that had me puzzled was, why were the letters JC written on the back of the photos?

and so the search started. Benjamin was born to John and Fanny in Netherthong, Yorkshire 4 January 1820 and christened 24 March that same year. I had the christening certificate so I knew that was correct. However on this new photograph the birth date was 1827. Also at the time these photos were taken Benjamin was well and truly living in Australia. This was the same for Amy and Walter, the births did not match the ages and dates the photos were takne and again they were photographed in Kendall and not in Australia. The likelyhood of them returning to England for these photos were slim and there were no records at the time showing any of them leaving the country. Cousin Norm was convinced the pics were taken in Australia, and these were definatley that of our ancestor Benjamin as this was what he was told.

An internet search of the photographer proved the photos were taken in England as there mention of J H Hogg at Stricklandgate Kendall so I knew I was heading in the right direction.

Benjamin had a couple of brothers and I knew one was a Joseph, so I began looking for a Joseph Charles Woodhead or at least a Joseph C Woodhead living in Kendall at the times these pics were taken. After days of trying any number of vaiables including Amy and Walter Woodhead along with the aproximate ages at the time but I was no closer in finding who these people were in the photographs. I was determined to find out who they were, they were in a family photograph album and they had to be related but how?

Going over my notes I looked at Benjamin's wife Sarah. She was born Sarah Clarke and had come from Kendall. A further search found that Sarah had a brother John, JC! Not only that John Clark had been born in 1827, the date written on the back of the photograph. More checks of the census found that John Clark had a number of children, two of them? Amy and Walter, whose ages matched those on the photograph.

Bingo! I had found them. I was also able to contact Norm and inform him that the photo's of his ancestor and his neice and nephew were a little out but he did have some lovely photos of his Great Grandmother's brother and his wife and two of their children. Another photo he had sent was one he believed was his Great Grandmother Sarah holding a child, the date and age of the child not matching any of the children known in the family. From the research I was able to establish that the photo was John's wife Mary Elizabeth Carter and she is nursing Walter.