The Death's in the Mail

It's Mother's Day today. And I got the usual question from my spouse, "What would you like?", which is better than happens to my sister. Her spouse likes to surprise her. She says some of the surprises are still in their boxes.

So what do I like for Mother's Day? Or birthday or Christmas for that matter?

Simple - death certificates.

My idea of an exciting gift. Yes. I know. I am weird.

Oh, sometimes I mix it up and get birth certificates, or marriage certificates. But this year it has been, yet again, death certificates.

Death certificates can be problematic. The person who fills them in doesn't always get it right, sometimes the person filling in the certificate doesn't really know the deceased. This is particularly the case with older certificates. In the past, death certificates had to be filled out by the head of the household in which the deceased died. This isn't too bad if the deceased was at home, or in the home of offspring or siblings, but what if they were visiting someone? What if that someone just thought they knew about the friend's parents, birthplace, etc? What if there was no one for the friend to ask?

If someone died in hospital it got even worse. Then it was up to the doctor to fill in the certificate, and he may or may not know and may or may not listen. If you want to see the mess that a doctor could make, have a look at my post about Laurence O'Toole.

Sometimes people deliberately lie on death certificates. They see it as an opportunity to rewrite history, for whatever reason. James Leake did this on Annie Leonard's death certificate, and I know that he knew the truth, because he knew Annie's previous husband, he knew all her children, but he chose instead to try to write Laurence O'Toole out of the family history. I'd love to know why he did this, but I guess I never will.

And then, as I have written before, there is the difference between the UK and Australia. Australia wanted a LOT more information than the UK. We don't realise how spoilt we are until we try to order a certificate from Great Britain. You can read more about this in my post on the death of George Valentine Leonard.

Even working out which is the correct person can be problematic. I was supposed to get two death certificates, but I am only getting one - for Emily O'Toole  ni Butler (it didn't arrive in time, c'est la vie). I wanted the certificate of Annie's mother, Ann Leonard ni Allen. All I get to help me choose is the name, age (if I'm lucky) and district. Nothing else. Look at NSW BMD and it is a different story. You get mother and father's names as well. That little bit extra is a huge help (providing it is filled in. Usually it is, but not always, and not always correctly, so you still have to be careful).

So I looked for Ann Leonard. There are three possibilities. But the women all have similar birth years (worked out from the ages) and they are all three in the right part of London. It will take a while to work out which one is my Ann Leonard. But when I do it will be Mother's Day all over again.

In the meantime, each to their own. I hope you had a great Mother's Day, or you helped someone else have a great Mother's Day. Me, I've got mine coming in the mail.

A Life Cut Short - Frederick O'Toole

Frederick George O'Toole was born in a small house in Cumberland Street, The Rocks, on 13 May, 1865, the fifth child to Laurence and Ann O'Toole. Mrs Strange was the midwife in attendance. Frederick was named for Anne's older brother, Frederick Allen Leonard, and her father, George Valentine Leonard. Frederick, Anne's brother, had died in 1858, leaving a wife and three children.

Some time between little Frederick's birth and May 1867, the O'Tooles had moved to 54 Chippen Street, Redfern. It was on the corner of Chippen and Cleveland Streets (there is a Dog Day Care and Paint Centre there now, in a modern building).

On 22 April, 1867, Frederick became ill with measles. There was an epidemic raging at the time. The Sydney Morning Herald would regularly print mortality rates in the paper, and they make for sombre reading. Infant mortality was high, and in 1867 it was higher still as children succumbed to the measles. As the SMH stated in The Quarter's Births and Deaths in Sydney on page 4 of the 21 May edition “the death-rate [was] above average. The mortality of the city was higher this summer than in any of the previous ten summers indeed than in any quarter, whether summer, winter, autumn, or spring, during the ten years”¹. Sydney itself was the worst, which would have encompassed The Rocks, with Redfern and Botany coming in second. Balmain was one of the best suburbs, with only one death from measles in the entire quarter. Each day, from March to May notices appeared about the deaths of children, from measles, from bronchitis following measles, from exhaustion following measles, of dysentery following measles, from diphtheria following measles. Measles was a killer. When Frederick became ill it must have been frightening for the family. I don't know if the other children contracted measles.

Surprisingly, there was a measles vaccine at the time, but it was expensive. The SMH, the Empire and other papers urged the government to make inocculation compulsory and readily available, but nothing was done.

There were community doctors, paid for by the people of an area, but the visits by such doctors were infrequent and were sometimes blamed for the deaths of patients. But if you don't have much money, a visit once every few days seems better than no visit at all. There was a doctor attended Frederick, Dr. Bell, but it is difficult to tell if he was a community doctor.

Frederick's death certificate tells the rest of the story.

Death Certificate of Frederick George O'Toole, 4 May 1867

Frederick became one of the statistics for Redfern, dying just days short of his second birthday.

With vaccinations we have become complacent about such childhood illnesses. We don't view them as life-threatening or even really harmful. But we don't have to look back very far to see the devestation wrought. We are very fortunate with our government-supplied inocculations. I'm sure my great great grandparents would have jumped at the chance to protect their children had it been available and affordable. Those who these days oppose vaccination need to take a quick look at history to see what are the real consequences for non-vaccination.

1 "The Quarter's Births and Deaths in Sydney," The Sydney Morning Herald (New South Wales), 21 May 1867, p. 4, col. 4; digital images, Trove (www.trove.nla.gov.au : accessed 1 Nov 2012)

"A Real Trick" – Larry O'Toole

I don't know much about Laurence and Anne's third child, Laurence, but I'll put down what I have. Apologies in advance for this being largely raw details.

Laurence was known to the family as Larry, and to save confusion with his father and grandfather I'll refer to him as this.

Larry was born on 29 June 1860 in Kent Street. The address is not given, so I don't know if he was born in 2 Kent Street or in the house off 7 Kent Street.

I don't find another reference to him until 1882, when his name appeared in The Christadelphian, along with his parents and younger brother, Archer¹. Then, in 1883, his name appeared in the Sands Directory, living in Evans Street, Balmain, the home of his late father. No occupation was given. But the next year he had moved to Bartsup Terrace in Mansfield Street (which was then Balmain but is now Rozelle) and was working as a printer². This was also the year, 1884, that his brother Archer started running his print works in Darling Street, Balmain. I have a strong suspicion that Larry was working for Archer as he doesn't appear in the Trades section of the Sands. He stayed at Bartsup Terrace (now 110 Mansfield Street) until 1889 when the Sands showed him now living at 26 Lawson Street, Balmain. Again he stayed put for a few years, before moving to Percival Street, Leichhardt³. Sands doesn't give a house number, but he was always on the east side between Piper and Brennan and the 7^th house from the Brennan Street corner. That would make him around about 39 or 41 Percival Street (it is now in Lilyfield). And there he stayed for many years. His occupation is variously listed as a printer and as a compositor.

In 1882 Larry married Margaret Deuchars, daughter of James and Mary Deuchars of Balmain. She was the second of eleven children (three boys and eight girls) and was born in Glebe in 1861. her family moved to Balmain some time around 1870, when her brother Robert was born⁴. I should know more about Margaret's family, but at the moment I don't.

Larry and Margaret had five children:

Laurence (yes, another one) born and died in 1881

Archibald, born and died 1883

Walter Laurence, born 1885 and died in 1953 (married Alice Wellsted)

Ada Caroline, born 1892, died 1963 (married John Henry Chidgey)

Frederick Wallace, born 1898, died 1953 in Cairns (married Alma Marguerite Cleary)

From 1894 to 1901 Larry served as a councillor on Leichhardt Council. He was, according to the newspapers of the day, a very vocal councillor, often speaking strongly for or against a particular matter. Amongst other things, in 1901 he pushed for "Life Saving classes" in all the schools in Leichhardt, with a desire to see them in all schools in Sydney. These days our children have the opportunity to join Swimming Schemes in primary school. Was Larry the start of this movement? Put "Laurence O'Toole" into Trove, or the phrase “Leichhardt Council” and see what pops up. It makes for entertaining reading. He certainly worked for his constituents.

Leichhardt Town Hall. Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

After Archer left for Queensland (see his post when I get to it), there was still a printery running with the O'Toole name – O'Toole and Wise Federal Printing Works at 52 Beattie Street, Balmain. I assume Larry took over from Archer, as he continued to work as a printer and compositor and when he died, his home address was given as 52 Beattie Street. But I only found out this yesterday (good old Sands) so I have to look into it a bit more to confirm this.

Margaret died on 22 Feb 1935, at her daughter Ada's home in Kingston Street, Haberfield⁵. She was buried in Rookwood Necropolis on 23 February in the Anglican area, section 12, grave 1469⁶. Larry followed her a little over two years later, on 9 April, 1937 and was buried in the same plot on 10 April, 1937⁷.

I was lucky enough to meet and interview Robert O'Toole, grandson of Archer, at the beginning of this year. He remembered his father, Keith, talking about Uncle Larry:

He was a real trick, Dad used to say... he loved practical jokes and... Dad would sort of, well, not roll his eyes, but Dad would say, oh he was a real mischief sort. He'd get up to tricks and he loved playing practical jokes on people... people he knew, even. He wasn't backwards in playing a joke on them⁸

It is this type of information that really makes family history come alive for me – finding out what my ancestors and relations were actually like. I cannot express how grateful I am to Bob for this little nugget of genealogy gold.

From time to time pieces would turn up in the Balmain Leader that had a mischievous humour to them – the piece on William's trousers, the following about ice skating, and others. Now I wonder if Larry was behind them, having a laugh and relishing the faces of the readers.

"Skating" The Balmain Leader, reprinted in The Bowral Free Press, 26 June, 1889, page 4, column 6. From Trove (http://trove.nla.gov.au)

1(“The Christadelphian Doctrine of Fellowship” Stephen Genusa, Spring 2009 http://www.genusa.com: accessed 29 Oct 2011), citing The Christadelphian 1882

2 John Sands, The Sands Directory (Sydney, New South Wales: John Sands, 1859-1932), 1884: 690; microfiche.

3 John Sands, The Sands Directory (Sydney, New South Wales: John Sands, 1859-1932), 1893: 793; microfiche.

4 New South Wales Government, "BDM Index," database(http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au : accessed 26 Oct 2012), entry for birth of Robert Deuchars in 1870.

5 "Deaths," The Sydney Morning Herald (New South Wales), 23 Feb 1935, p. 14, col. 2; digital images, Trove (www.trove.nla.gov.au : accessed 26 Oct 2012), Digitised newspapers and more.

6 Rookwood Cemetery - Anglican & General Cemetery Trusts, "Deceased Search," database, Rookwood Anglican & General Cemeteries (http://www.rookwoodcemetery.com.au/ : accessed 13 Nov 2012), database entry for Margaret O'Toole (1861-1935).

7 Rookwood Cemetery - Anglican & General Cemetery Trusts, "Deceased Search," database, Rookwood Anglican & General Cemeteries (http://www.rookwoodcemetery.com.au/ : accessed 13 Nov 2012), database entry for Laurence O'Toole (1860-1837)

8Interview with Robert O'Toole, 1 February, 2013

Which O'Toole is Which? - the children of Laurence and Ann O'Toole

Okay, I am slack, I know that. I was supposed to have profiles for these children written already, but I have only started a couple so far. There is nothing like writing these things to highlight the holes in the research, but it is a good way to update my to-do list.

So a quick exercise which will hopefully spur me on - a list of children of Laurence and Ann O'Toole. I know this list is given elsewhere in other posts, but look on it as an indication (fingers crossed) of things to come:

Matthew Joseph Anthony (child of Ann Groves Leonard and her first husband, Matthew Gambell Anthony), born 1849, Stepney, Middlesex, England; died 28 May 1880, Sydney, New South Wales.

Children of Laurence and Ann:

Isabella O'Toole, born 12 May 1855, The Rocks, New South Wales; died 31 March 1858, The Rocks, New South Wales

William O'Toole, born 1858, The Rocks, New South Wales; died late June 1919, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia

Laurence O'Toole, born 1860, The Rocks, New South Wales; died 9 April 1937, Balmain, New South Wales, Australia

Archer O'Toole, born 15 November 1862, The Rocks, New South Wales; died 16 November 1938, Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia

Frederick George O'Toole, born 1865, The Rocks, New South Wales; died 4 May 1867, Redfern, New South Wales

John O'Toole, born 22 June 1867, Redfern, New South Wales; died 24 June 1940, Balmain North, New South Wales, Australia

Thomas O'Toole, born about 1870, The Rocks, New South Wales; died 31 October 1925, Canterbury, New South Wales, Australia

Benjamin O'Toole, born 1872, The Rocks, New South Wales, died 2 Nov 1894, Balmain, New South Wales

James O'Toole, born 1875, The Rocks, New South Wales; died 30 July 1956, Balmain, New South Wales, Australia

We'll see how many I get to.

Which O'Toole is Which? - Celebrating Family History Month

October is Family History Month, so to celebrate I am going to put down what I know of the O'Toole family. It will take a while, so it is a good project for a whole month.

There were two main O'Toole families in Sydney in the last half of the nineteenth century, one was Protestant (my branch), descended from Laurence O'Toole, the other Catholic, descended from Tobias O'Toole. When you go looking on Ancestry family trees there seems to be a bit of confusion between the two, so I am going to put down the outlines of what I know of my O'Tooles in the hope of making things clearer.

My O'Tooles started in Australia in 1854 when Laurence O'Toole arrived in Sydney aboard the Syria with his wife, Ann Groves ni Leonard and her son from her first marriage, Matthew Joseph Anthony. Laurence is my most frustrating brick wall simply because he is my great great grandfather and I think therefore that I should know more about his origins. Here are the facts, sparse as they are:

Laurence O'Toole was born in WEXFORD in about 1820 and was most definitely a Protestant. Most O'Tooles seem to have been Catholics from Wicklow. This certainly seems to be the case with the other O'Toole family in Sydney. (O-oh, no it isn't. See Which O'Toole is Which? Addendum)

Counties of Ireland. Note Wexford and Wicklow on lower east coast. From Irish Genealogy Toolkit

(And yes, religion does have to be brought into it as it helps sort out which family is which. Both O'Toole families in Sydney had children with the same name, and which Church they were attending helps track the correct people.) 

Laurence's dad was also Laurence. On his son's marriage certificate he stated his occupation as "gentleman". I have looked about for what Gentleman meant in 1853, when young Laurence married Ann Groves Leonard. There are varying definitions. The Encyclopedia Britannica stated it was a man without title who bore a coat of arms, while the Oxford English Dictionary gives as one of its definitions of the term gentleman "a man of superior position in society, or having the habits of life indicative of this; often, one whose means enable him to live in easy circumstances without engaging in trade, a man of money and leisure"¹ Other sources state that it meant a man of independent means who did not work. Conversely, Laurence Jnr was a merchant seaman (amongst other things) who worked hard throughout his married life. I don't know if there were brothers and sisters and am not sure of his mother's name - it may have been Margaret, but I have no idea where this notion came from.

The name Laurence causes confusion. Laurence is probably the most common name to put with O'Toole, thanks to bishop Laurence O'Toole of the C12th. Practically every O'Toole family has at least one Laurence in it, usually more. I'm already up to four and I haven't looked that much into the family.

So, back to Laurence O'Toole b.1820. I don't know how or when he ended up in England, but in July 1853 he was in Whitechapel, marrying my great great grandmother, Anne Groves Leonard. He was already a mariner (ticket no. A4.119, in 1855 he is also listed as ticket no.35). On 3 November 1853 Laurence, Ann and Joseph left London on the ship Syria, captained by Thomas Mesnard. Laurence was boatswain on the voyage. They sailed for Sydney via Rio de Janeiro. The voyage was slow "never having had a steady wind for three consective days"², and the ship beset by difficulties. It had sprung its foremast and lost the cross-jack yard in a gale a few days out from London, and then lost the cross-jack yard again later in the voyage (the cross jack yard is the lower yard on the mizzenmast). There were also problems with supplies on board, the biscuits that were the crew's main food were found to be of poor quality and mouldy. This later led to some of the sailors withdrawing their labour in Sydney³(Sydney Morning Herald 7 Apr 1854 p5). Despite everything, the Syria docked at Campbell's Wharf on 7 March 1854. Campbell's Wharf is the area between Circular Quay and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, just up from the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Custom House & part of Circular Wharf, Sydney N.S.W., 1845, George Edwards Peacock, Oil on board, DG 38, property of the State Library of NSW

The O'Tooles started out in The Rocks area of Sydney, in a small house in Cumberland Street. This was a two room affair – not two bedrooms, but two rooms, with a lean-to kitchen in the back. In September, Ann's older sister, Lucy arrived aboard the Hanover, with her husband, George Puzey and their infant son, also George. George Snr had signed up as steward on the Hanover. For a while all six people lived in the little house until Lucy and George were able to find a place to rent. A lot of the properties in the area were rentals and both families were often on the move as rents went up and down. But as George and Laurence were both mariners it made sense to stay near the docks.

Laurence and Ann were members of the Holy Trinity Church in Lower Fort Street, Millers Point. It has always been more popularly known as the Garrison Church, simply because the local Garrison used it as the place of worship. Isabella O'Toole was christened there, before her untimely death (see Vale Isabella O'Toole). Later they changed to St Phillips where Archer was a bellringer at the age of about 14 years⁴. At some point the O'Tooles became members of the Christadelphian Church, where they remained as active members of the congregation.

The City of Sydney Archives has kindly put its assessment books on line. I found Laurence and Ann's various addresses from the Sands Directory, and I was then able to look up their addresses in the assessment books and get basic descriptions of the houses they lived in and who their landlords were. The assessment books only cover the city, Redfern and Camperdown, but they are well worth looking at if you have ancestors in these areas or if you are interested in the history of inner Sydney.

For instance, in 1861 the O'Tooles were living in a house “off 7 Kent Street”. It was a house of stone with an iron roof, 1 story, 2 rooms and was owned by William Andrews⁵.

Sometime in the early 1860s Laurence and his brother-in-law, George Puzey began working at the AGL Gas Works at Millers Point. George was a gas purifier, a job that saw him dead by 1863. He died in the Tarban Creek Asylum (now Gladesville Hospital) from arsenic poisoning⁶.

Gas Works, Millers Point, c. 1873, Samuel Elyard, Watercolour, DG D5, property of the State Library of New South Wales

Laurence meanwhile worked as a fireman, which means that he tended the furnaces. He was still working at the gasworks in 1867 when his son John was born and the family had moved to Redfern⁷. They continued to live around the City, renting small houses, everyone crammed into four rooms, until 1880 when suddenly we find Laurence and family in 289 Clarence Street, the only occupants of a two-storey, 10 room, brick and shingle residence⁸. The big change here was that the probate had finally come through from the estate of Ann's first husband. It wasn't a fortune, less than £200, but that was enough to make a difference to the family. Shortly after this they moved to Balmain, a newer, healthier suburb.

Poor Laurence didn't have long to enjoy the delights of Balmain. About 20 September 1882 he was admitted to Callan Park Hospital in Leichhardt, suffering from severe diarrhoea. By 27 September he was dead. Unfortunately the law stated that the death certificate had to be filled in by the doctor who treated him, H. Blaxland, and he made a pig's breakfast of it. His son, John, is listed as his father and missing from the list of children. There is no mother's name at all.

Lawrence was buried in the Rookwood Necropolis in Section G, Grave 163 of the Anglican section. Unfortunately no headstone remains. 

Laurence O'Toole's grave site, no. 163, Anglican Section G, Rookwood Necropolis, between the Fusedale and Douglas plots. Photo in private collection of author

1 from "Horace and the Construction of the English Victorian Gentleman" Stephen Harrison From: Helios Volume 34, Number 2, Fall 2007 pp. 207-222 | 10.1353/hel.2008.000

2 “Shipping Intelligence”, Empire (Sydney), 7 March 1854, p2, col 1-2; digital images, Trove (http://trove.nla.gov.au : accessed 8 Oct 2013), Digitised newspapers and more.

3 “Water Police Court”, The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), 7 April 1854, p5, col 3-4; digital images, Trove (http://trove.nla.gov.au : accessed 8 Oct 2013), Digitised newspapers and more.

4Interview with Robert O'Toole, Hunters Hill, 1 Feb 2013

5 City of Sydney, "City Assessment Books 1845-1948," database, City of Sydney Archives (http://www3.photosau.com/CosRates/scripts/home.asp : accessed 26 Feb 2013), entry for Laurence O'Toole Rates assessment 1861; Citing City of Sydney Assessment book CSA 027328.

6 “Death at the Gasworks” #1313 These Walls Have Ears: My Place, All The Best; fbi 94.5fm Archive (http://allthebestradio.com/shows/1213-these-walls-have-ears-this-place/ accessed 1 Oct 2013)

7 New South Wales Department of Attorney General and Justice NSW, birth certificate 3699 (1867), John O'Toole; NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Chippendale.

8 City of Sydney, "City Assessment Books 1845-1948," database, City of Sydney Archives (http://www3.photosau.com/CosRates/scripts/home.asp : accessed 26 Feb 2013), entry for L O'Toole Rates assessment 1880; Citing City of Sydney Assessment book CSA027194. 

 

Bankrupts and Smugglers - George Valentine Leonard

We've looked at George's death. What about a bit about his life? George Valentine Leonard was born in Little Hampton in Worcestershire in about 1798 to John Leonard and Elizabeth Groves. George was one of eight children (five boys and three girls). His father was a landholder and Tory voter¹.

George Valentine first substantially appears in the records in 1824 in court proceedings pertaining to his and his late relative's bankruptcy (Thomas Valentine Leonard – I don't yet know if he was a brother or uncle or cousin). At that time, only traders could declare bankruptcy. Everyone else had to be declared insolvent, a state that usually resulted in debtors’ prison (read "Little Dorritt" by Charles Dickens for an account of a debtor's prison. Actually, read it anyway. It's a great book). It was not uncommon to find farmers and others conducting trade in order to qualify for bankruptcy, should the need arise. However, this could be as simple as selling seeds or plants, not a big leap but enough to safeguard themselves.

George, however, was a genuine trader, and listed his occupation as Commercial traveller. He owed in excess of 600 pounds to a creditor, Joshua Payne, who had a warehouse in London. On committing his act of bankruptcy, all George's goods were assigned to a Mr Carlisle. Under law, the goods were now the possession of Mr Carlisle. In the meantime, Joshua Payne got a writ for the debt and had a local officer, William Parr, serve it on George and seize goods to the value of the debt (known as fieri facias or fi. fa.). Two letters were then received by the officer, one from George saying take goods rather than money and then one from Payne's agent, John Williams, saying the debt had been satisfied, so leave the goods alone. The agent and a bailiff, William Restarick, retired to the Three Cup's Inn in Lyme, to decide how to settle fees.

The Three Cups Inn, Lyme Regis. From Save the Three Cups Hotel

Williams paid Restarick all the fees for the Sherrif, minus five pound, which it was agreed would be recovered by seizing some of the parcels and selling them. Goods to the value of five pound were sent to Bridport for Mr Restarick, (Restarick received payment some two months later and sent the parcels on to Joshua Payne). A further thirteen parcels were seized on the day and were sent to Joshua Payne in London. The parcels were intercepted at Carpenter Smith's Wharf, London, by a wharfinger named Richard Wilson. As there was an act of bankruptcy in place, Wilson refused to release the goods to Payne until the matter of their ownership was settled. There they remained.

In June of 1825, Carlisle, the asignee in George Leonard's bankruptcy, was in Poole, where he ran into the Sherrif and his assistant. He demanded the return of the parcels, but this was refused. Carlisle then took the Sherrif to court to recover the value of the goods taken (an action known as trover). He was ultimately successful (the matter being settled in the middle of 1826) and the case became a precedent in law, appearing in full in a number of journals over the years². The interest had been caused by the matter of whether or not the Sherrif was criminal (found not so) or liable (deemed thus), as he had not known of the act of bankruptcy when directed to serve the writ for recovery of the debt.

A record of the discharge of Bankruptcy has yet to be uncovered by this researcher, but it must have occurred at some time prior to 1841 when George was working as a woollen draper.

The story of the bankruptcy and the events surrounding it do not, however, end there, as Lyme Regis was hardly an innocent little holiday town.

At the time of the bankruptcy, George was based in Lyme, with premises and a warehouse, and employing at least one other person, Farrant, “a shopman of [GVL]³”. Lyme was, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a centre for smuggling. The local council even passed statutes making the job of customs official almost impossible, such as a restriction on searching goods as they were unloaded onto The Cobb (the main dock for the town - go watch "The French Lieutenant's Woman" or read Jane Austen's "Persuasion"). Customs officials could not approach said goods until they were at least half a mile removed from the waterfront. As there were a number of large warehouses right on The Cobb, some of which still survive today, goods could come in and out of the dock without customs ever laying eyes on them.

The Cobb, Lyme Regis. The building on the left is an old warehouse, now the Marine Aquarium. Photo from Lyme Regis Marine Aquarium

Practically everyone in business in the town was involved in or receiving benefit from smuggling⁴. In the midst of this was George Valentine Leonard. I know he sold tea, one of the main contraband items.

Furthermore, Poole, where George's assignee, Mr Carlisle, met the Dorset Sherrif and his deputy, was a notorious town, feared for the brazen and ferocious behaviour of the smugglers operating from it. What was Carlisle doing there? And how were the Sherrif and deputy safe, when Poole was known for the murder of customs officers and other officials of the law?

During his time in Dorset, George met Ann Allen, from Taunton in Somerset . They were married on 12 Sept 1824 at St Mary Magdelen Church, Taunton. He inherited Thomas Leonard's bankruptcy in October of that year, which must have come as something of a shock to Ann.

While Carlisle was still fighting through the courts, George and Ann moved on. Children were born in Hoxton, Middlesex (Lucy, 1825), Islington East (Frederick, 1827 and Alfred, 1828), Pentonville, Middlesex (George, 1831), Kingsland, Middlesex (Ann, 1832), Bristol, Gloucestershire (Charles, 1836 and Emma, 1837) and finally back in Islington East (Joseph aka John, 1839). It is possible that Alfred and George were one and the same. Their birth details come only from the Census and they never appear on the same Census return together. More research is required.

The 1841 Census lists the household as still residing in Islington, with George’s occupation given as “Wollen draper” (sic)⁵. A woollen draper was a shopkeeper who sold wools and woollen fabrics. Interestingly, one of Joshua Payne's major import items was wool and woollen cloth from New South Wales, Australia. Was George still using his connection with Payne?

1 Worcestershire, England, UK, Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1893, 73, John Leonard; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations Ltd, "UK, Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1893 [database on-line]," Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 Dec 2012).

2Such as “Cases Argued and Determined in the Courts of the Common Pleas and Exchequer Chamber, and in the House of Lords: from Hilary Term, 1834 to Trinity Term 1834 both Inclusive”, John Bayly Moore Esq and John Scott Esq, of the Inner Temple, Barrister at Law, Vol IV, S Sweet, Chancery Lane Fleet Street, London and R Milliken & Son, Grafton Street, Dublin, 1834

3Ibid p.27

4 See "Smuggler's Britain" for details on smuggling in Lyme Regis and a history of smuggling in Britain.

5 1841 census of England, Middlesex, St Mary's Islington East parish; Ossulstone hundred Finsbury, folio 38, page 9, George Leonard household; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, AncestryInstitution.com (http://www.ancestryinstitution.com); citing PRO HO 107/664/2. 
 

Peering Through the Fog

Time fogs the view, with changed street names, changing cities, changing cultures. Looking at original documents can tell us a whole lot about our ancestors and the times they lived in, but sometimes it takes a bit of research to understand what the story really is.

Taking a leaf out of Geoff Rasmussen's book, from the Legacy Webinar series "Watch Geoff Live", I have decided to take you through what happened when I received a death certificate from England in the post a few months ago. It was for my third great grandfather, but when it arrived I wasn't quite sure about it. The dearth of information was a little disappointing, for starters. We are quite spoilt with death certificates in Australia. Once government registration got properly underway in the 1850s our certificates carried a lot of information (still do). Date and place of death, name, occupation, sex and age, cause of death, parents' names including mother's maiden name, informant, Registrar, date and place of registration, where buried, minister, undertaker, place of birth, how long in colony, spouse and when married, children (often listed with age at the person's death). Like I said, spoilt. England is rather less generous: date, name, sex, age, occupation, cause, informant details, registrar, date of registration. That's it.

So a little detective work was called for, just to make sure that this is the death certificate for my ancestor.

Death Certificate of George Leonard, 3 Feb 1874. From General Register Office, Southport

He had a distinctive name if you used the whole of it - George Valentine Leonard. His middle name was for his mother's father, Valentine Groves. Unfortunately, the death certificate just has "George Leonard". I know he was born about 1798-1799 in Little Hampton in Worcestershire, and his age tallies with that. I know he died between 1871 and 1881, thanks to the Census. George and his wife Ann had been living with one of their daughters, Emma Alderman Ruckes and her family. In 1871 the Ruckes and Leonards were at 28a Chapel Place, Southwark. In 1881 the Ruckes were in 3 Salterton Street, Islington. A check of freeBMD found no George Leonards in Islington or in Worcestershire, and a few in Southwark, only one of which was anywhere near the right age. That's how I managed to order the certificate in the first place.

According to the certificate, George's place of death was 5 Nelson Street, which doesn't match his last known Census location. And if you go looking for Chapel Place and Nelson Street on modern maps or GoogleEarth you won't find them. Old maps are just the ticket. Did you know there are lots of historical maps online? And quite a few of them can be accessed for free, such as Weller's 1868 map of London? Then there is the Charles Booth Archive. If you are interested in London's East End in the C19th this site is a must. Booth was a reformer working from 1886 to the early 1900s. He walked all over London, compiling a street-by-street analysis and colour-coding every street and area according to set criterior to create his "Poverty Maps". He made notes about the state of houses, the level of dress of children (such as whether or not they had shoes), the occupations of residents, levels of crime (he was usually accompanied by a local policeman), and so on. Although his journals are written after George's death, Booth refers to the East End as it had been as well as its condition at time of recording.

Lots of close scrutiny of old maps. Nelson Street was easy, thanks to Mr. Booth. In Book 364, page 45, Booth lists "Kipling St. (late Nelson St.)". Chapel Place was harder. I ended up getting an old map and a new map and comparing them. Turns out Chapel Place has been renamed Hankey Street. When you look at these on GoogleEarth, what do you know, they are a hare's breath (or is it a hair's breadth?) from each other. Below is an Ordinance Survey map from 1896 showing both streets with their original names. I don't know which house was 28a Chapel Place.

Chapel Place and Nelson Street, Bermondsey. Entrances off Long Lane are marked with blue crosses. The building marked in red is 5 Nelson Street. From Southwark Historical Mapping, Southwark Council

If you are interested in the history of this area, have a look at Bermondsey Yesterday and Today. As well as having photos of different parts of Bermondsey in the past and in more or less the present (give or take a couple of years), there are also discussions of areas, detailed memories and commentary. It is a good site, but can be a bit disheartening. During World War II, the East End was heavily bombed. The Docks and all the factories made for prime targets. What the Luftwaffe didn't destroy was finished off by planners and developers. Yes, there were appalling slums, and few people probably shed a tear when they were bulldozed, but there were also very beautiful buildings, along with ordinary but old buildings that spoke of the character of the area, and buildings that had community significance. It looks like few of these have survived, replaced instead by soul-less boxes and towering monstrosities, or empty lots, although there seems to be more parkland and more trees, so it's an ill wind...

According to Charles Booth, Chapel Place was rated "Fairly comfortable, good ordinary earnings". He described the street as having "a good many broken windows". There were prostitutes resident, but no brothels, and there were thieves about¹. However, the area was not poverty stricken and improvements had been made. Chapel Place was so named because it was next to the Wesley Chapel.

Chapel Place, about 1900? From Bermondsey Yesterday and Today page 89

Nelson Street, meanwhile, was "mixed, some comfortable, some poor". 5 Nelson Street was a house somehow attached to the Greenwich Charitable Organisation Society to which I can find no references beyond Booth's notebooks.

So George's death address shows this could well be my George Leonard. Next clue is the informant. E.A. Pember is not a relative in my tree. Initially when I saw the name it was one of the reasons I was in doubt about this being the certificate for my George Leonard, but a little investigation proved interesting. The Metropolitan Free Hospital, founded in 1836, was for the treatment of the destitute. It started out in Carey Street, Stepney but due to budgetry constraints could only treat out patients. It moved to Devonshire Square, Spitalfields and then into a warehouse in Commercial Street East. The move officially occurred in 1876, but negotiations had been underway for some time. As to York Street, this was the location of the St Margaret and St John Workhouse - the street is now Petty France. Attending George at his death was someone from a workhouse  and a hospital for the destitute². That and the fact that where he was living was attached to a Charitable Organisation doesn't speak well of his circumstances.

George died on 3 February 1874. At the time of his death, he had been working as a Commercial Agent. This means he was selling goods, services or insurance on commission. He had gone from a retired man living with his wife, daughter and family to a working man living on his own in need of charitable assistance. Something went wrong here and I don't yet know what it was.

George's cause of death was Chronic Bronchitis, which had lasted for about six weeks. London has long been noted for its fogs and smog, made worse by the Industrial Revolution. The East End, full of factories and situated in a bowl so the fog could not clear, was the worst area. The fog of 1873 began around 9 December. R. Russell in his book “London Fogs”, published 1880, described a London fog as:

“brown, reddish-yellow, or greenish, darkens more than a white fog, has a smoky, or sulphurous smell, is often somewhat dryer than a country fog, and produces, when thick, a choking sensation. Instead of diminishing while the sun rises higher, it often increases in density, and some of the most lowering London fogs occur about midday or late in the afternoon. Sometimes the brown masses rise and interpose a thick curtain at a considerable elevation between earth and sky. A white cloth spread out on the ground rapidly turns dirty, and particles of soot attach themselves to every exposed object.”⁴

Of the 1873 fog, Russell noted it “was one of the thickest and most persistent of this century... in London there was a dense black fog all day, and many accidents occurred on the river and in the streets... many of the fat cattle exhibited at the Great Show at Islington died of suffocation. It was not possible during a great part of the day to see across a narrow street, and in the evening a choking sensation was felt in breathing.” He reported that on 14 December there was a pitch blackness, beginning about 10.15am, “like that of night”. During the fog “deaths exceeded the weekly average by about 700”³. That's a 40% increase. The most common cause was bronchitis, although there was also a marked increase in drownings as people walked into the Thames in the gloom. George's bronchitis set in during the fog. It is fair to say he was one of its many casualties.

Basically, I am now pretty confident that I have George Valentine Leonard's death certificate. What looks on the surface like a simple document has unfolded into something much more, telling a tale, albeit an unhappy one, of the end of my third great grandfather's life. I'm glad I took the time to clear away some of the fog of time, I just wish I could have done something for George.

1 Booth Charles, B364, pp.38-39, http://booth.lse.ac.uk, London School of Economics
2 see "The Workhouse" by Peter Higganbotham, http://www.workhouses.org.uk/StMargaret/

3Russell, R. “London Fogs”, Edward Stanford, 55 Charing Cross, SW, London, 1880, p.21

4Ibid., p.22

Banging my head on a Brick Wall

There are so many brick walls when you get into genealogy. Sometimes you have to pound away till you break through and other times you have to chip away, or approach from a different angle. My husband is always saying I'll never finish because I am always chasing away down other lines. Well...

1. FAMILY HISTORY DOESN'T FINISH - there is always more to do, more people to find and then find out about;

2. Chasing down other lines, or collateral lines as they are known, can lead to another way around a problem or uncover another clue about a brick wall. It can also take you to the most interesting places.

Ideally I would love to break all my brick walls, but the main ones that nag me at the moment are Anne Allen, mother of Anne Groves Leonard, and Elizabeth Groves, paternal grandmother of same. I have some clues for Anne Allen. She and her husband, George Valentine Leonard, had a penchant for using family names for their children's middle names. Their first daughter was Lucy Pearsall Leonard, and I suspect that Pearsall is Anne Allen's mother's maiden name, so I have to get the Taunton St. Mary Magdalen Parish Records. Their first son was Frederick Allen Leonard - well, that's Anne's maiden name, which I know from her marriage record. Alfred's middle name was George, for his father. I don't know the middle names, if any, of the other sons, George, Charles and John. Anne Groves Leonard gave me her paternal grandmother's maiden name, and then the next daughter is Emma Alderman Leonard, so maybe that is another clue for Anne Allen, or it could be a clue for Elizabeth Groves. Records, records, I need to see records.

All I know about Elizabeth Groves is that her father was Valentine Groves, a seedsman and gardner in Evesham, Worcestershire. But who was her mother?

I need to get serious about ordering films from the Family History Library.

Surprise!

A surprising fact about a female ancestor.

This was quite hard. But I suppose it comes down to finding that Anne Groves Leonard had married for a third time. When I found her son, Benjamin's funeral notice in the Sydney Morning Herald that finally cracked what had happened to Anne, as I had been unable to find a death notice (well, der, check marriages at NSW BDM).

I hadn't expected Anne to remarry at the age of 57 and I was quite excited to be continuing on her trail. I wanted to find out about her husband, James Leake, and his family as well, and I have taken that a little way - looking up his first wife and children on NSW BDM and checking the newspapers on Trove. But the mess he made of Anne's death certificate has made me a bit cranky with him at the moment. I'll get over it and get back to it at some time.

Vale Isabella O'Toole

Fearless Females no.11 — Did you have any female ancestors who died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances? Describe and how did this affect the family.

Unfortunately there are a few - the women who died in childbirth, the one struck down by Spanish flu within a week of her son returning from WWI, the one murdered by her husband who then killed himself. But the one who I think of most often is Isabella O'Toole.

Isabella was the only daughter of Laurence O'Toole and his wife Anne Groves O'Toole ni Leonard. The family were living at 102 Kent Street, The Rocks. The house was small, two rooms in total, and the door opened straight onto the street. Isabella ran out of the house and into the path of a fully loaded dray was about six weeks short of her third birthday. She was run over by the front wheel of the dray, the driver being at the back checking the load and letting the horse move foreward, something against regulations. He came back to the front, saw Isabella and picked her up. The inquest report doesn't say if she was killed instantly or not. She was interred in the Old Sydney Burial Ground in Devonshire street.

Isabella was the first child of Laurence and Anne (Anne had an older son by her first husband). All the other boys came after, but they all seem to have grown up knowing of her. She was not forgotten, nor was her death buried with her little body. Her brothers John and James both named daughters after her.

Report on Inquest for Isabella O'Toole, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 April 1858, page 8

Believe as you will

Religion has always been important in our family, and my family history, particularly on Dad's side, is an exercise in the difficult relations between Catholic and Protestant in Australian history. Dad's mum was raised Protestant by her father's sisters, but her mother and the rest of her family were Catholic, and it caused no end of friction and ill-feeling. Mum's family is a different mix. There were a number of Catholic-Protestant marriages (although George Pearce, who remained firmly Protestant throughout his life, was baptised and confirmed in the Catholic faith in the last month of his life, when the fight had gone out of him, so it must have bothered his wife, Catherine Keefe. She also got him to marry her the same day, after about 40 years together). The Kerswells were all members of the Latter Day Saints, both in England and then out here (they arrived in South Australia in 1849). William Kerswell disappeared while moving the family to New South Wales and sent them a letter 35 years later, urging them all to join him in the US, where he had been living with his new wife and family. After the struggle to survive in the intervening years, quite a lot of the family were understandably angry and expressed that anger by leaving the Church, although William's first wife, Hannah Maria ni Rhymes, kept her faith and eventually joined her husband in Utah. The marriage struggled, however, and Hannah died alone in a different town to William Kerswell and his American family.

Anne Groves Leonard and her husband Laurence O'Toole, although both brought up Anglican, became Christadelphians when they moved to Sydney, as did her sister Lucy and her husband George Puzey. Anne's and Lucy's headstones are testaments to their faith.

Women in the family active in religion - the obvious choice is my mother. Mum's beliefs have always been important to her, but she has always taught us the importance of thinking for ourselves and of being flexible. She has tried had to not be judgemental or didactic.

Mum was a missionary in Bangladesh with Dad in the late 1960s and when they came home (because of the Independence war) Dad went into the Baptist ministry, so Mum had to be a pastor's wife. In those days churches could pay what they liked and they pretty much insisted on a two-for-one offer - the minister AND his wife. So Mum took Bible studies and taught Sunday School and ran morning teas. I remember her telling us Bible stories and doing drawings while she spoke to illustrate the action. The funniest thing Mum did was arrange a talk with slides for the local Church women about her time as a missionery. She happily showed them slides of a Hindu temple and only realised part way through that the stone carvings were rather earthy and explicit (she hadn't noticed when she had taken the photos).

Mum never liked being an unpaid worker for Dad's church, and eventually said enough was enough (well, she did have six kids to care for, too), but that is different to having a belief system and living according to a creed. Mum has always done that. She has always been ready to help others, has always been kind and compassionate and has always been willing to share her faith with others, but has never done this where it was not sought or in a way that judges or belittles. She keeps an open mind and takes an interest in the beliefs of others and of other religions.