Mini Profile

Today's challenge is to write a mini-profile (500 words or less - I scraped in at 499). I chose my great great great great grandmother, Mary Mayall.

Mary Mayall was born in Saddleworth, Yorkshire around 1776, possibly the daughter of Thomas Mayall and Mary Andrew. Her family were weavers and spinners, heavily impacted by the industrial revolution. During Mary's lifetime, spinning and weaving went from cottage industries to factory production. Mary married James Slater of Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire, on 26 September, 1797 in Manchester Cathedral (the priests had a fee scam going so it was cheaper to marry at the Cathedral). James was a weaver and engineer. Mary and James had ten children:

Sarah, born 1797, who died as a baby

Sarah, 1798-c1862

Mary, 1800-1882

Ann, 1801-?

Esther, 1803-1876

Miles, 1805-?

Daniel, 1807-1810

Moses 1809-1893

Miriam, 1810-1840

Maria, 1812-?

In 1812 James was arrested for stealing a weaver's sack and in 1814 was transported to Australia, leaving Mary with eight children to raise. Fortunately, James' father was quite well off, so Mary and the children had a house to live in, but it must have been tough at times. Moses later on lied about his age, shaving off six years on his Bounty papers. In the 1841 Census Mary was living with or next door to her children Sarah, Moses, and Maria, with their spouses and children, so she was far from alone.

Moses left for Australia shortly after the Census was taken, arriving in Australia aboard the Champion on 12 February, 1842, along with Mary's grandson John Hall and granddaughter Ann ni Hall with her husband, James Walker. Then in 1844, more of the Slater clan made for Australia's shores. Mary's daughter Mary, with her husband David Hall and eight remaining children made the journey on the Briton, arriving in Sydney on 26 June 1844. There is a Mary Slater on board the Briton as a paying passenger, but I have doubts about her being my Mary.

Mary's end is difficult to discern. Some other family members believe that she died in Australia in 1847. There is a death record for a Mary Slater of Balmain in that year, and the age is about right, but this Mary was exhumed from Sydney Burial Ground when Central Station was to be built and reinterred in Bunnerong by her daughter Sarah, along with Sarah's husband John Bradford, who also died in 1847. My problem with this is that Mary Mayall's daughter, Sarah married James Green and was still in Lancashire in 1861. Also I can find no record of her coming to Australia.

In 1854, Mary and James' daughter Esther immigrated to Australia with her children. Her husband, John Hilton, had died a few years earlier, so Esther understandably came to be with her family. On Esther's immigration records it states that her father, James is living in Balmain and that her mother, Mary is deceased. Did Esther leave because her mother had also died, or did she leave because of news that her mother had died? When did Mary die and where was she buried? Her story remains incomplete until these questions can be answered.

Words of Wisdom

Words of Wisdom from my mother or another female ancestor.

I can't think of anything specific. There are general sayings, like "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" and Nanna O'Toole used to say to me "a stitch in time saves nine", although as a small child I used to think "Nine what?"

Eda Elizabeth Elecia O'Toole ni Shoobridge (1904-1984)

Mum always taught us to respect others' beliefs and try not to be judgemental, and she always openly questioned Dad's attitude to female preachers, which annoyed him but spoke volumes to me about a woman's right to speak and be heard, not just in a religious context, but in any context.

Aunty Dymphna, my Uncle Jack O'Toole's wife, always said, "Don't let anything stop you", and she lived that edict, going to university for the first time when she was in her 70s and topping her subjects. She was also a waste-not-want-not person and could look very glamorous on a shoe-string, copying designer clothes and making her own hats.

Dymphna O'Toole ni Helmrich (1911-2006)

Words have to be backed by actions, and Mum, Nanna and Aunty Dymphna did that, living according to their words. I feel very lucky and very proud to be part of their family.

Ancestral Trading Cards

Something a bit different today - a trading card to honour a female ancestor, in this case my great grandmother, Mary Marcella Hall.

 The  photo was taken in 1925 when Mary Marcella was 58 years old. She is smiling so happily because she is holding a new granddaughter.

BFF

Mum's best friend was Joanne. They lived in the same suburb of Sydney, grew up together and were Beach Bunnies together. They have always kept in touch, no matter what, and we grew up knowing her as Aunty Joanne. My older sister is named after her.

My paternal grandmother's best friend was her sister, Connie. Uncle Reg says you could not have two sisters who were closer. I don't have any photos of Connie, unfortunately. They were brought up separately, but lived close to each other, and supported each other through thick and thin.

Rene Davis, the lady next door at Curl Curl, was my maternal grandmother's best friend. She minded Mum while Nanna had surgery after Mum's birth. Rene moved away, up to Toukley, some years later, and Mum and Nanna went to stay with her. After that they lost touch, but Mum has reconnected with Rene's daughter, Joan in the last couple of years.

Stranger in a Strange Land

Most of my ancestors, female and male, immigrated to Australia, quite a lot as convicts, but others as free settlers, and a fair number as bounty immigrants.

Australia needed able-bodied men and women in order to increase the areas settled by Europeans and in order to build the society, so the British government came up with the Bounty scheme. From FamilySearch:

"Beginning in 1828, the Australian Government organized a program to encourage people to migrate to Australia, particularly to the State of New South Wales, which had been founded in 1788. “Assisted Immigrants” were immigrants whose passage was paid for or partially paid for by the Government as an incentive to settle in New South Wales. Another program which ran from 1835 to 1841 was the bounty reward system. “Bounty immigrants” were selected by colonists who then paid for their passage. When the immigrant arrived, the colonist would employ them and the colonist would then be reimbursed by the government for all or part of the cost of passage. The first immigrants to apply for this assisted immigration were the people from Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland. Later, people from other European countries began immigrating to Australia." 

There were age restrictions (no one deemed "too old" was accepted), health restrictions and initially a restriction on the number of children per family. Women aged between 15 and 30 were a priority but must be in the charge of a married couple, so one often finds single girls came over with families, whether they were related to the families or not. References were required for all applicants and there had to be a gaurantee of employment at the Australian end.

Lachlan McKay and his wife Anne Stewart, my great great great great grandparents, came out with their family under the Bounty Scheme. They came from the Isle of Coll. Many landholders in Scotland used the Bounty Scheme as a handy tool for clearances, but Coll was a different matter. Coll is a tiny place, just over 10 miles long, five miles across at its widest and half a mile across at its narrowest. It is fairly flat (there is only one notable hill), with sparse vegetation, and subject to wild weather. Its closest neighbour is the Isle of Mull.  In the 1830s its population was around 1500 plus animals, many of whom, people and livestock, were starving or close to starvation. The Duke of Argyll was petitioned to allow inhabitants to sign up for Bounty Immigration, and many took the opportunity. The first ship to sail was the Brilliant, leaving from Tobermory. On board were Anne, Lachlan and their children, Ann MacLean MacKay, John MacKay, George MacKay, Catherine MacKay, Isobel MacKay, Lachlan MacKay and Hugh MacKay. The Brilliant and its 313 passengers were tracked in the newspapers of the time and arrived in Sydney on 24 January 1838. The MacKay family went to Bathurst, NSW, then something of a wild outpost. Bathurst was a popular destination for the Scots, and quite a few Coll and Mull families ended up there.

extract from Bounty records held in NSW State Records. Anne is on the left, the children on the right. Lachlan appears on the preceding page.

Anne was a Gaelic speaker and couldn't read or write English (I don't know if she could read Gaelic). She never learnt to speak English, sticking to her own language until she died. After the family had been in Bathurst for a few years, Lachlan applied for a publican's license and proceeded to run the Green Man at Green Swamp outside Bathurst. Anne, a Scots Presbyterian, was furious about this. She must have wondered what they were all coming to.

I have one image of Anne, a poor quality scan (my fault), the photo was taken just before her husband's death in 1861. Immigration was not a happy process for her and I think it shows on her face.

Anne Stewart, c 1860, Bathurst NSW

Learning Curves

What schooling did my mother have? my grandmothers? my great grandmothers?

Mum went through Primary School and High School up to the Leaving Certificate, so at 15 she was out in the big wide world working.

Mum is at the far right, second row, with her hair in pigtails. She looks like my older sister in this photo

But later she went to Bible College, and since then Mum has always been learning. She learnt to speak and read Bengali when she was in Bangladesh and although she says she isn't much good at it, she can still read some and can still speak a little to the people at Nargi's, the local takeaway. Not bad for more than 40 years since she was there.

Then each time Mum took work she had to learn something new, go to training days. When Aid for the Children of Brazil started up Mum had to learn about not only the Australian legal requirements for overseas adoption and the correct forms and information from this end, but also about the Brazilian requirements and forms and information, how the Brazilian legal system works, and some Portuguese.

Now she is learning about computers - email, how to read this blog, online petitions, all sorts. And Mum always has something interesting to tell me that she has found out through all the things she does with her life - local government, street art in Sydney, the EDO (Environmental Defenders Office), the local museum. She has never stopped learning. Way to go, Mum.

I don't know much about my grandmothers' schooling. I know Nanna O'Toole went to the little school at Cox's River - one teacher, one room - and then was in school at Wentworth Falls for a while. It was unusual back then for girls to go beyond primary (it was unusual for boys in the area to go beyond primary), so I am not sure how far Nanna went. Nanna could read and write and was smart, she did the cryptic crossword every day, and I'm lucky to get one clue out, but I don't know that her schooling went far. I shall have to find out.

Tomorrow I go to see my Uncle Reg, so I can ask him about Nanna Ellem's schooling. She was no dunce either, but again, I just don't know. But I do know that Nanna was always able to turn her hand to a new trade when it was needed, just so long as you didn't ask her to sew or cook.

And as for my great grandmothers, Maud Elizabeth Parker (later Ellem) and Mary Ellen O'Dowd (later Davies), I'll ask Uncle Reg about them. I don't know about Mary Marcella Hall. Hannah Maria Amelia Pearce (later Shoobridge) went to school in Burragorang Valley, probably at the Cox's River School, but life was hard for her family and her mother, Elizabeth Pearce (ni Kerswell), had a child every two years or so and was not known for her devotion to housework, so Hannah left school early to look after her siblings, the house and her father, with help from her grandmother, Hannah Maria Kerswell (ni Rymes). My great grandmother often went out to work as well, to bring in extra cash for the family, and usually ended up keeping house for local women close to giving birth. Hannah often was present for the birth and acted as assistant to Mrs Longbottom, the local midwife. Hannah learnt a lot from Mrs Longbottom, the most respected midwife in the area, and when Hannah and her husband George William James Shoobridge and family moved up to Wentworth Falls about 1916, Hannah became a highly regarded midwife herself. So, like Mum, Hannah kept learning.

From what I know of the lives of my mother, grandmothers and great grandmothers, they all had to be resourceful and smart to keep their families together and fed and healthy and clothed. Although there may not be much formal schooling amongst them, they are and were smart women with formidable skills.

Parenting

I asked Mum what her mother was like as a parent. As a grandmother, Nanna was firm but loving, and we knew she didn't take nonsense.

As a parent, well, you judge if it's the same. Mum remembers being chased and flicked with a wet tea towel because she swore. Grandpop shut her out without tea because Mum wouldn't say thank you, so Nanna snuck her in and gave her dinner in her room.

I'd love Mum to expand this post or add a comment with more details. Mum?

Preview for aging

Do I share any physical or personality traits with my female ancestors?

I don't want to go into personalities, I don't think that's an easy thing to judge, and I know my siblings would probably disagree if I started, because they have a different view of me than I have of myself (not surprisingly).

So, physcial traits. Well, I know what I am going to look like as I age. My maternal grandmother, Eda Elizabeth Elecia Shoobridge, looked very much like her mother, Hannah Maria Amelia Pearce.

Hannah Maria Amelia Pearce and Eda Elizabeth Elecia Shoobridge

Mum looks now as I remember Nanna, except that Mum's hair is darker because she dyes it (sorry, Mum). When I was little Grandpop always said I looked like Mum when she was young, and photos of her back this up. And now my daughter looks like I did in old photos. I showed a couple to my parents-in-law and they thought the photos were of their granddaughter.

A Life in Time

So today the Fearless Female task is to create a timeline for a female ancestor. This turned out to be a bigger task than it should have been as I found that most of my chronologies were pretty incomplete. So I knuckled under and got one more or less done. There are still some dates missing, but they will take a fair bit of work to find.

 

This is the timeline for Hannah Maria (rhymes with fire) Rymes (my great great great grandmother). After her husband left in 1859, Maria did nothing but work to keep her family together, but I only have details of one job, the housekeeper position with Mr Folden. The dates I am missing are the exact dates for the family's arrival in Melbourne, and then in Camden and Burragorang, and finally the United States, and the date Maria was made a ward of the state.

On the Big Screen

If a famous director wanted to make a movie about one of your female ancestors who would it be? What actress would you cast in the role and why? (Fearless Females - Lisa Alzo)

I think this would have to be Anne Forbes who came to Australia on the First Fleet. She had three husbands and thirteen children and was one of the catalysts for the Norfolk Island Mutiny. Life for women in the early days of the colony was very difficult - the only way to have a hope of being safe was to attach yourself to a man. Not all Ann's choices worked out well, but it seems she ended up living happily with Thomas Huxley.

Who to play Anne? Probably Jessica Hynes. She'd need to darken her hair to brown, but I think she could play the emotional toughness needed. I've seen her in a few things (Learners, Spaced and Dr. Who Family of Blood) and always liked her, and for some reason she's the one who comes to mind.

2 April - Just found this image of Jessica Hynes from "Burke and Hare". Perfect.

Tender Moment

A tender moment with a female ancestor. Another hard one to choose.

Staying with Nanna, Mum's mother, in her flat in Dee Why. Nanna would make me the centre of her world, which had its other side - you had to walk down to the laundry room at the bottom of the flats when the washing had to go out, which isn't so bad, but feels a long way when you are four.

She always made crumbed lamb's brains for me for breakfast because she knew I liked them. They were soft and creamy inside, just perfect (and I can hear the yuks from you all, but I was four and "lamb's brains" just meant yummy at that age).

We would go out on the balcony and feed the budgie and clean its cage, and Nanna would tell about each of the pot plants. She would tell me how to best look after the African Violets inside the flat, and show me how to strike a plant from a leaf, in a glass with a piece of foil over the top.

And as I got older, she showed me how to knit and embroider, and tried to teach me to crochet (I ended up having to sort that out myself, because I just couldn't get it). And she showed me Mum's porcelain Dutch doll and told me about it. I wish I had written that down - I can't remember what was said now.

Nanna wasn't overly demonstrative, but she made me feel loved and important just by how she went through her day when I was with her.

Eda O'Toole 1904-1984

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.

Shining Star

A female ancestor with a particular talent.

My mother's mother and her mother were excellent seamstresses, embroiderers and cooks. Their work with a needle was particularly fine, they worked to a standard I am still aspiring to but haven't achieved. They were both clever and capable.

My father's mother was an artist. She could turn her hand to most visual arts (but she was a shocking cook and couldn't really sew, although she could knit). Nanna was a difficult person, very bitter and angry, and a racist with it, but the more I find out about her life, the more I understand why - I don't condone or excuse it, but I do begin to understand. One of the things that frustrated her in life is that she would have liked to have done something professionally with her life but wasn't able to. The needs of her husband and children had to come first, and when she worked to support them all, it had to be in something with a quick return. Grandpa always viewed her art as a hobby and never really took it seriously, and that annoyed Nanna.

Not an ancestor, but a relative, was Clarice Marelle Maxwell, related through the Ellem side. Marelle was a gifted musician whose father  couldn’t stand that she could play the piano by ear. He sent her to violin lessons and her sister to piano, but Marelle listened to her sister playing and simply repeated it when her father wasn’t around. She met Arthur Oliver Slade at a hotel where he was singing and she had gone with a friend. Someone dobbed her in as a pianist and next she knew, she was on stage playing while Arthur played the violin. They began working together, playing hotels in Circular Quay and then around Australia. The couple were married in 1966 and toured Europe before coming back to Australia to continue in the entertainment business.

Social Butterflies

What social groups or organisations did my mother or grandmother belong to?

Mum was always too busy to do stuff like that - raising all of us, running an adoption agency, working, too much. Now, however, we have to make an appointment because she is quite rightly making up for lost time - Community Environment Network, Habitat Publishing, documenting street art in Sydney, going to Margaret Towler's watercolour classes. It is great to see after all this time.

Mum's mum was also too busy looking after her family and her home. I don't even know who her friends were.

Dad's mum was in a painting group at Springwood, and went to a craft group too. I don't know what they were called, but I think they met at a community centre in Springwood. She took me along when I was six or seven years old. We made bark paintings of old farmhouses and she taught me the basics of oil painting.

Lunch

Which female ancestor would I have lunch with, what would I have and where?

Can I say "all of them"? One at a time I'd start with my grandmothers, then their mothers and mothers-in-law, and their sisters, and so on.

I would let each one choose their favourite dishes and where we would eat, because I think it would be really interesting to see their choices and share their favourites.

There are so many questions I have, things I didn't know to ask, or didn't know how to ask, when my grandmothers were alive, and so many questions that have arisen with them and all the others since I started seriously looking into the family. What a great opportunity that would be.

And above all, how wonderful it would be to know them all as people and to hear their words in their voices.

Six word Memoir

Today's challenge is to write a six-word memoir to a female ancestor

So here goes, a six-word memoir for Anne Forbes, my great great great great grandmother on my father's side:

Larceny, First Fleet, a new life

In the News

A female ancestor who made the news - Well, Sarah Peaulet didn't make the social pages, but she made the newspaper. The Police report of the Sydney Gazette, 23 January 1828, page 3.

Her husband, William Webb, had been mentioned in the paper two days before, claiming that William Dixon had stolen his wife and struck him.

Sarah, on the 23rd, counterclaimed in the court that her husband was "in the habit of beating her with his fist, with great violence". The paper went on to suggest that small pox could be helpful as it would mark pretty women, thereby protecting them from the attentions of other men. There was no comment from the writer about Webb's violence against her.

Webb had a history of violence, against his wife and others. He had arrived in the colony in 1816 aboard the Ocean, Sarah was born here as a free person of convict parents.

Sarah was successfully divorced from Webb and went on to live with William Dixon until her death in 1872. Sarah and William were married in 1871 following Webb's death

Emily

13 - Moment of Strength: Share a story where a female ancestor showed courage or strength in a difficult situation.

Not a female ancestor today, but still a member of our family. Family is not always made up of people who are strictly related to you, but sometimes of people who are still a member of your family.

Emily Chen came into our family when her mum had to place her, her brother and her sister into a children's home in Malaysia. My parents sponsored her and her brother and so we sort of grew up with her. Letters came regularly, with photos and school reports, and Mum wrote to Emily and we all remembered her in our prayers.

Emily grew and did well with her studies and always seemed to have a great attitude in life, no matter what hand she was dealt. She drew strength from her faith and was a loving and caring girl. Eventually she left the sponsorship program, but Mum kept in touch with her and loved hearing about how things were going for her.

We were all pleased when Emily wrote to say she had married a teacher named Roland, and he looked a fine young man in the photo she sent. And then there came a photo of a baby girl, although we had all been worried during the pregnancy as Emily had a congenital kidney condition which made pregnancy more dangerous than usual. Emily always put her trust in God and listened with her heart.

Mum went to visit Emily and her family in Malaysia and came home full of how good a mother Emily was, and told us all how well Emily was doing. Being Chinese in Malaysia is not an easy thing, and carrying your family's worries isn't easy either, but Roland and Emily faced things together.

The letters continued and Mum occasionally would say she was worried for Emily, because she wanted a brother or sister for Celine, but it was risky. But Emily managed it again, and little Ryan came along.

A few years ago, Emily, Celine and Ryan came out to Australia. That was such a great time. My daughter and Celine got on really well, Ryan was cute as a button, and Emily was such a lovely, gracious woman. It was wonderful to finally meet the little girl we had grown up with. We had a really good time with her, and Mum had great fun taking them to the beach and to meet Australian animals, and having them live with her.

Today I found out that Emily died suddenly on 17 February 2013 of a burst aorta. All I can think of is her children and husband and how they will manage without her. Emily had been through so much in her life, had faced trials from an early age that I can barely imagine, and had come through with such a positive and generous outlook, and a deep and abiding faith. I cannot think of anyone else in our family at the moment who has demonstrated her courage and strength in a life that had been difficult.

She will be greatly missed by her family in Australia and is greatly loved by us.

Needs Must...

No. 12 on Lisa Alzo's Fearless Females is Working Girls - Did your mother or grandmother work outside the home?

Mum left school at fifteen and got a job with a company that made bookkeeping machines. She did very well and speaks quite fondly of her time there. Once she was married life became very busy (see my post on religion "Believe what you will"), but throughout the years Mum got casual jobs to make up the family shortfall in income. When elections came round, Mum would work for the Electoral Commission as a booth worker. This involved marking off people's names as they came in, handing out ballot papers and reporting breaches to the booth supervisor. In Australia we have mandatory voting. Actually we don't - we have mandatory turn-up-and-get-your-name-marked-on-the-roll. But by the time you have done that you may as well take the ballot papers and fill them in. I am sure Mum did other jobs too, but the Election work is the thing I remember most. The work she did in the home, including running an International Adoption agency, is another matter.

Both my grandmothers worked at different times. During the Depression, my mother's mother was in a very difficult situation. My grandfather was away being treated for TB and my uncle was in hospital following an accident and subsequent infection, so Nanna had no income. She took in washing and worked as a cleaner to make ends meet. Not surprisingly, she and Grandpop never talked about this time, and I only know about it through Mum and my uncle.

My father's mother ran a series of shops. The one I remember is the toy shop up in Yamba. My uncle tells me Nanna stocked many other things too, but I remember the toys. Nanna was very crafty and made cards and a number of other things too, way back before paper crafts were popular. She did a good trade with them, too. Grandpa always had big ideas and no real idea how to realise them, so Nanna ran a shop to pay the bills and buy the groceries.

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.

From the West Indies to West of Sydney

9 — Take a family document (baptismal certificate, passenger list, naturalization petition, etc.) and write a brief narrative using the information.

The Bounty papers of Jessie Isabella McMullen

 Jessie Isabella McMullen, known as Isabella, was born in Trinidad in 1822, to Alexander McMullen (I don't yet know who her mother was - I'm working on it). Somehow she ended up in Scotland with her aunt Marcella May Mary McKinnon ni McMullen. When Marcella and her husband Ewen and nine of their children moved out to Australia under the Bounty Immigration Scheme, Isabella went with them. They travelled on the Boyne and arrived in Sydney on 3 January 1839. The family then went to Bathurst, an area in the early stages of white settlement. There were many Scots families there, but I doubt Isabella had many fellow Trinidadians for company.

Isabella married William Asprey in 1842 and had seven children with him. He died in 1859, aged 44 years, and then Isabella lost four children between 1860 and 1869. She remarried in 1876, to a local grocer, Richard Martin. I haven't found a death record for her yet.

Isabella came a long way to endure great sorrow and hardship. I hope her last years were happy ones.

Journals and letters

Step eight of Fearless Females:

 Did one of your female ancestors leave a diary, journal, or collection of letters? Share an entry or excerpt.

Probably, but not to me. If any of my relatives have any, I'd love to have copies.

Mum has a friend who has written journals since 1978, a day per page. They are in his study, on shelves around the walls, all the spines neatly marked with the year. Mum says they are amazing things - beautiful, clear, small handwriting, and not just writing, but snippets from newspapers, tickets, labels, photos, postcards, all sorts of things. He is leaving a fine legacy to his children.

So I got to thinking, how many stories from my life will go when I do? Things I know and my children don't, or won't remember so well. How much was lost from my ancestors? Off to Kikki.k for a really nice journal and some pen refills, and then every day now I sit and write something. I took it to the doctor's twice (an hour waiting is not unusual). The plan is to do some drawings in it as well, but I get caught up in the writing and forget to leave a space.

Already it is proving an interesting exercise. Mum wrote a little book about her time in Bangladesh, so I have something to refer to for my early years. It is amazing how many things I didn't have quite right in my head - grew up with the stories, but didn't actually remember many of the events and it gets a little scrambled. I may paste a copy of Mum's book into the front of the journal (it is only about 12 pages or so).

 

A Family Favourite

The Seventh Step of Lisa Alzo's Fearless Females in a favourite recipe from mother or grandmother. I thought long and hard about this.

Nanna was a great cook, her sponge cakes were perfect and melted in your mouth, and her roast dinners mouth-watering. Her crumbed lambs' brains were never rubbery and always delicious. But there was also the tripe poached in milk for my grandfather's breakfast (admittedly Nanna wouldn't eat and complained about the smell), and the sweet "curries" with pineapple and sultanas (flavoured with mild curry powder), which Nanna made because she knew we liked curries. I never had the heart to say I like REAL curries.

Mum had six kids and was always flat out and cooking was just a means of keeping us fed, although her pavlovas were beautiful, as was her apricot chicken. And like Nanna she was great with roast dinners.

So what to choose as a favourite?

In the end it came down to the dish we all wolfed down as kids and I now feed to my own children. It was taught to Mum by our cook in Bangladesh, a young man named Profullah. Just the other day I gave the recipe to Mum as she has got out of the way of it, and I had to really think what to write, as it has become something I just do, and when Mum taught me it wasn't an exact science, just something she did. Anyway, as best as I can, here it is

Dahl

red lentils

1 onion

garam masala

curry powder (I like Madras)

garlic

ginger

Finely chop the onion, a clove of garlic and about 1cm of ginger root. Heat a little oil or ghee in a saucepan and when hot add the onion, garlic and ginger. Stir fry until the onion is softening and translucent. Add about 1 teaspoon of garam masala and 1 teaspoon of curry powder and stir well. When fragrant, pour in the lentils and stir well until the spice mix is evenly distributed. Cover with water and turn off the heat. Leave to soak for about six hours or overnight, adding more water as needed. You want the water all absorbed and the lentils soft and swollen. Heat till bubbling slowly, stirring regularly. Serve with basmati rice.

The other way to make it is as if you were doing soup. Do the onions, garlic, ginger and spices the same way. Add the lentils and water, then bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Stir regularly, adding more water as necessary, until the lentils are soft and swollen and all the water absorbed. Serve with basmati rice.

I suppose this is a spiced version of porridge. It can be eaten on its own or as an accompaniment to another dish, such as a curry. Anyway, I make up a huge pot and freeze portion sizes so my kids can have it when they like.

There are lots of versions of dahl, with extras added, or different spices, or whatever. It really seems to be a regional thing. But this is a Bangladeshi version. When we went to England about twenty years ago I was so excited about the dahl in the restaurants because finally someone made it the way Mum did. The difference is most Indian Restaurants in England are run by Bangladeshis, whereas here in Australia, the Indian cuisine is more usually North Indian.

 

A Stitch from Time

My great grandmother, Hannah Maria Amelia Shoobridge ni Pearce was known as a great seamstress and embroiderer. Almost all women made clothes and stitched patterns upon them, these were basic skills, but Hannah was known for the quality of her work (Nanna inherited her abilities and did her best to pass them on to her granddaughters).

Most of Hannah's work was lost when she had her stroke (long story and one I don't want to go into here, let's just say Uncle George didn't think). Fortunately, Nanna had a few pieces, and one of them made it to me.

 The fabric is very fine, about 60 threads to the inch. I don't know if it is cotton or linen. The threads have remained vibrant, with no sign of bleeding or fading. Mum says Hannah did all sorts of embroidery, not just cross-stitch, but I am thrilled to have this. I don't know if the pattern was printed on the fabric (there is no sign of this, but it was made a long time ago), if there was a chart or a kit, or if Hannah made this up herself. What I do know, as a keen embroiderer, is that it is brilliantly executed.

the reverse

 And what is really inspiring is the reverse of the piece. Hannah took great care to make the back neat and to have all her stitching running toward the centre. There is a tiny double hem, about 4mm wide, with stitches that can barely be seen on the wrong side (you need a magnifying glass) and that are invisible on the right side.

I reproduced the pattern of this beautiful little cloth (it measures 32 x 27.5 cm) on a sewing kit I made for my craft book years ago (The Big Book of Crafts 2005, published by Derwent Howard). I opted for a cloth about half as fine, to make thread counting easier for those who are not as skilled as Hannah.

This cloth is used in our house. It is on a shelf, with an ornamental Japanese bowl on it. Every time I look at it I think of my grandmother and of her mother. If it was put away in the linen chest it would be hidden from view - out of sight, out of mind. What's the point of that?

The Tea Room and the Hotel

How did my grandparents, Leslie Keith Ashton O'Toole and Eda Elizabeth Elecia Shoobridge meet?

Nanna's parents, George William James Shoobridge and Hannah Maria Amelia Pearce, ran the Valley of the Waters Tea Room in Wentworth Falls. It was owned by someone else, but George and Hannah ran it and Nanna worked as a waitress there.

Grandview Hotel, Wentworth Falls

Grandpop was an accountant. He was from Balmain, NSW, but seemed to be going to various towns to do the books. Les was in Wentworth Falls because he was doing the books for the Grandview Hotel. It isn't a long walk from the Hotel to the Tea Room, and the way Grandpop told it, he walked in for a cup of tea and a slice of cake and was served by the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. After that, Grandpop went back every afternoon in the hope of seeing the lovely waitress. Nanna was quiet when Grandpop told me this, kept her head in her crossword dictionary, but I think she was pleased. The Tea Room has been demolished since to make way for a Tourist Information Centre.

Mum says her parents would talk about going to dances at the School of the Arts in Wentworth Falls, which she assumes was while they were courting.

A Mountain Wedding

I have records for quite a few weddings, and need records for more - on the ever-growing to-do list. Today, however, I will share with you the marriage details for my grandparents, Leslie Keith Ashton O'Toole and Eda Elizabeth Elicia Shoobridge.

Les and Eda were married on 16 December 1925 at St. Andrews presbyterian Church, Wentworth Falls. I don't remember Nanna or Grandpop ever saying much about the day, but then I never asked them specifically about it, and Mum says they never talked about it to her either, not even round her wedding.

So it comes down to raw facts from the certificate and a couple of photos, one of which is hiding on my computer somewhere.

 

The witnesses were Eda's father, George William James Shoobridge, and Les's younger brother, William James O'Toole, and the Minister was Harold MacKie.

I don't know if there was a reception, or who the attendants were, besides suspecting that Will was the best man.

Here is the happy couple. There is another photo of them coming out of the Church, with Nanna's brother George and his children to one side and Les's sister Rene in the background, but as I said, it's hiding on my computer somewhere. When I find it, I'll put it up. I have just noticed Grandpop's hat in his hand. He always wore a hat going out, right up until the end.

What's in a Name?

Number three following Lisa Alzo's Fearless Females list. There are going to be thirty one of these and I have some catching up to do, so you have all been warned.

This post is about names. Lisa asks:

"Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree."

I do share my middle name with my mother, and she shares her middle name with her aunt, but as Mum and I are still alive, that's as much as I am willing to reveal.

My grandmother had an unusual name - Eda. Nanna was named after the midwife, an aboriginal lady named Eda (I don't know her surname - I thought it was Longbottom, but Mrs. Longbottom was not called Eda). The story that Nanna told me was that in the Burragorang Valley there was an aboriginal lady who was an excellent midwife. She delivered Nanna and her brother and sisters. The Valley was quite isolated, and there are more than enough tales of woe surrounding mothers and babies in our family in the Valley. My great grandmother named my grandmother, her youngest child, for the midwife. Great grandmother must have picked up a thing or two from Eda as she ended up a very competent midwife herself. When Nanna was around eight years old (I think), she and her family moved up to Wentworth Falls. From that time, many family members were born in Great Grandmother's house, mothers travelling up from the Valley when their time was near and staying for a few weeks afterward, till mother and baby were strong enough to travel back. It was only a little house, so this must have been an interesting juggling act with space. I wish Nanna was still here so I could ask her about it.

Maria Leonard, immortalised in paint

Okay, step 2 from Lisa Alzo's Fearless Females - a photo of a female ancestor. Only it isn't a photo, and Maria is in a collateral line. But I still love it.

Maria Harris ni Leonard

This is Maria Leonard, niece to my great great grandmother, Anne Groves Leonard (her father was Anne's brother, Charles Leonard). It was painted around 1905 by her husband, the artist and photographer, Albert Edward Harris. Albert and Maria married in Vaynor, Wales on 23 April 1890. They then moved to India and had one child, Leonard Harris. Albert nicknamed Maria "Queenie". Maria and Leonard came back to England a few times, sometimes with Albert along, sometimes not. I love this painting. Maria looks a little tired, but is still beautiful (she possibly already had the breast cancer that killed her in 1911). Albert's techinique is impeccable and I love the subtle background. I just wish I had a better photo of it (this one I think has been passed through a number of hands, and we all want to see the original painting and improve the photo quality).

There is another painting of Maria by Albert (there are probably others as well, but I have only seen images of two), painted around the time of their marriage. It is good, but this one has something very special about it, a warmth and familiarity. Paint is more expressive and more truthful than photography. I feel very priviledged to have this image and to have Maria in my family tree.

It all starts with a woman

I wasn't sure where to start, but then I read Lisa Alzo's blog on Fearless Females and I thought, "Why not?" We all start from our mothers (fathers too, but they are not as involved in our gestation and birth), so I'll start with the women in my family.

I'm going back a bit further than Mum for this first post - back to my great great grandmother, Anne Groves Leonard. She is a favourite female ancestor of mine because I am always struck by how much she endured in her life and how much her family loved her. But there are still questions unanswered.

Anne was born in Kingsland, Middlesex in 1832 (calculated from marriage certificates). I want to find a birth or baptismal date, so I need to find out what churches were in the area and where parish records might be held.

On 4 June 1848, Anne married Matthew Gambell Anthony, a grocer who went to sea and didn't return (he died of Java Fever off Indonesia on 8 January 1852). Anne and Matthew had a son, Matthew Joseph, known as Joseph.

Anne and her parents and siblings lived bang opposite the London Docks, on Upper East Smithfield, so it was no surprise that her second husband was a mariner by trade. Anne married Laurence O'Toole, from Wexford, on 25 July 1853 at St Mary Parish Church, Whitechapel and in less than a year, Anne, Laurence and little Joseph walked down the gang plank onto Circular Quay in the colony of New South Wales. It was very different from England, not so cold in winter but perishingly hot in summer. The family lived in a little house in Kent Street, which they soon were sharing with Anne's sister Lucy, her husband George Puzey and their son. The houses in their area were tiny, two small rooms with a lean-to kitchen out the back. Things must have been cramped with four adults and two young children. Lucy and George moved into their own home after about six months. More can be read about them in Keeping Up With The MacNamaras

Anne, Laurence and their growing brood moved about every few years, a common pattern for struggling renters in the colony. After Joseph, their first child together was Isabella, who was tragically killed in an accident at the age of two, run over by a fully laden dray that was not being properly supervised.

Then there followed William, Laurence and Archer who lived into their sixties and seventies. Frederick came along, named for Anne's deceased brother. Sadly, young Frederick was struck down during a measles epidemic. He was one of the last children to die before the epidemic came to an end. He was two years old, and Anne was seven months pregnant with John. It must have been a very frightening time for Anne. She had just lost one child, would her unborn baby survive as well? John did survive and lived into his seventies. Then there was Thomas and Benjamin and lastly James.

Joseph died in April 1880, after a severe illness, leaving a wife and child (their first baby had died as an infant). It is clear from the funeral notices how much his family loved and missed him. How it must have hurt Anne to lose Matthew's child.

In 1880 the probate of the will of Anne's first husband, Matthew, was finally settled in her favour. I have to get the papers for that. I have the application, I just need to sort an International Bank Draft. Why did it take 28 years to get sorted out? I suspect the answer is linked to Why are Anne and Joseph not mentioned on Matthew's headstone in Norfolk? (yes, his family paid to have his body shipped back). The money had an immediate effect on the O'Toole family. They were able to move out of The Rocks and into Balmain. Did they own their first home there? I need to check with the Land Titles Office to find out.

Things were looking up, but there was more to come - within two years of the move Anne Groves Anthony Leonard O'Toole was a widow once more. Laurence had come down with a bad case of diarrhoea and been admitted to Callan Park Hospital (it was a general hospital at the time, with a psychiatric wing). He died six days later and was buried in Rookwood Cemetery. His headstone does not survive.

The family pulled together, Anne's sons supporting her through this time. It looks like she moved in with Laurence Jnr, although I need to do some more checking through Sands Directory to verify this. But in 1889 Anne married again, to a widowed neighbour named James Leake. They lived first in College Street, Balmain, and then moved to 5 Hampton Street. Just when it seemed that happiness was assured, Anne's family again struck rough times. Benjamin developed Laryngeal Tuberculosis, a terrible illness for which there was no cure. It kills you slowly in one of two ways - either you starve to death because you are unable to swallow, or you suffocate. Anne nursed Benjamin over four months, unable to do little more than make her son as comfortable as possible while he slowly died. Anne was the informant on the death certificate.

In 1897 John O'Toole and his new bride, Mary Marcella Hall, moved in next door to Anne and James Leake, into 7 Hampton Street. They shared a common wall, and hopefully the grandchildren who followed brought her some joy. Little John McKay O'Toole died aged two days and I know Anne would have been a help to her son and daughter-in-law at that time and in other years. When Anne herself finally died in 1905, John had a nervous breakdown. You don't react like that to someone who refused to help in time of need. My mother's cousin, who remembers John, says he was very close to his mother and loved her dearly.

Anne died on 18 April 1905 and was buried in Rookwood Cemetery, although not with Laurence. James Leake was the informant on her death certificate, and he made a right mess of it, and I can't help thinking it was deliberate. Anne's correct age is given for her marriage to Matthew, although he has O'Toole tacked on the end of his name. Laurence is not mentioned on the certificate at all (although Laurence and James attended the same church, so they would have known each other). James gives Anne's age at her marriage to him as her age when she married Laurence and claims all her children bar Isabella as his own. Isabella is attributed to Matthew. Had Anne's life with Laurence been so hard that James felt he had to do this? Was he jealous of the love Anne had for her dead husband that he wanted to wipe him out? Was he just confused, or addled by grief? I don't know if I can ever find the answer to this.

A long post, but Anne Groves Leonard had an eventful life. My goal is to one day find a photo of Anne. A number of her sons led lives of active public service and were very prominent in the Balmain Community particularly, so I am hoping that a photo will crop up sometime. I need to go to Leichhardt Library SOON to look at their photographic archive.

Well, that's a mouthful for a start, but we are underway. History is always in the making.