#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 30 "The Old Country"

#52 Ancestors Week 

"The Old Country"

Although there are ancestors in my tree from England and Scotland (and perhaps Wales) it is Ireland which is the “old country” for my family, and for my husband’s.  My links there are 3 generations old; Paul’s are much more recent.  His mother was born there and returned a few times to visit family.   On his paternal line, his 4x great grandparents were sent from Ireland as convicts.

We didn’t know much family history when we made our first trip to Europe in the 1970s, but we knew enough to  include visits to two important places which loom large in the family stories – Roscrea (the Whitten family - my mother) and Shannonbridge (the Kilroe family – Paul’s mother)

In 1977, there were still Whittens at Fancroft, the home near Roscrea in County Tipperary from which my great grandfather Anthony Whitten had emigrated in 1862.  Marjorie Whitten was the last of her generation, having inherited the farm through her grandfather, John (Anthony’s brother). Her nephew, Bill Williams, was working the land and the animals.

Fancroft in the 1850s

 At the time of our visit in 1977, she was 76 and quite frail, but she made us welcome.  We were travelling with my sister, and she had little gifts for both my sister and me – a recipe book compiled by women from Marjorie’s church for me, and (I think) a locally printed tea towel for Libby.  She was distressed to realise that there was no gift for Paul, so she took the farm bell off the mantelpiece and presented it to him, explaining that it was used to call the workers in to meals. 

(My mother so coveted this that we gave it to her, and it took pride of place in her kitchen until her death, when it came back to us). 

The Fancroft Bell

Marjorie was happy to show us around and to pore over old photographs with us – we found unknown uncles and cousins who looked like our brother – and to dispel some family myths.  We had naively believed that the famine had been the cause of 19^th century family emigrations to Australia and Canada – Marjorie thought it far more likely that family disputes and hot-headedness was the reason. 

The kitchen was an enormous room.  Another Whitten descendant wrote this description.

“The kitchen was a real eye-opener. The walls in this section of the house would be three feet thick and solid stone. There are huge rough hewn beams in the ceiling, and from one of them dangles an old branding iron "E.W." and from the others, rams horns and deer horns…. The kitchen must be forty feet square, with a stone floor, wearing in patches, but very smooth…There is a huge churn in the kitchen where Marjorie still churns twice a week. It is something of an antique and is about the size of a forty gallon keg, and the same shape, and sits on a stand to facilitate hinged action pouring.”

The walls were hung with copper saucepans – we were told that they had been made by family members hundreds of years ago.  (This is one of the reasons why there is a belief in Huguenot ancestors, which I have never been able to verify.)

Sadly, Marjorie died only a few months after our visit.  Bill Williams inherited the farm and welcomed a host of Whitten cousins from Australia and Canada over the next 30 years but when he died in 2016 there was no family left.  The property left the family after more than 300 years.  When I next saw it on a cold and rainy day in 2017, it was empty and looked neglected.  The new owner wanted the land, but apparently had no use for the house.

We also had a happy visit to Shannonbridge in 1977.  Paul had been instructed to go to Killeen’s pub and introduce himself – everyone there knew his mother’s family.  His aunt Katie Kilroe was the only one left and she was by this time in a nursing home, but the Killeen’s were hospitable and showed us Katie’s house and told us family stories.  Paul’s parents and siblings had been there in previous years, so it felt as if the family were still part of the community.

Paul at Katie's house in Shannonbridge 1977

In 2017 we knew much more family history than on our first visit and were better informed about both of these places.  This time around we were travelling with our son, so there was another generation to introduce to his heritage.  I found a cousin living not far from Fancroft who was able to give me more information about the Whittens, and in Shannonbridge the parish priest found the register with Paul’s great grandparent’s marriage.  We visited Katie’s grave at Clonmacnois, and then Paul’s grandfather’s grave in Dublin.

Paul and Brendan at Robert Keogh's grave, Dublin 2017

On this visit, I also tried to find some connections to my father’s family, the Gleesons.  My great grandfather James Patrick Gleeson came to Australia from County Clare in the 1860s, with some of his siblings.  We spent a week based in Ennis and some time in the Family History Research centre there but with little success.  The poor and illiterate leave few footprints.

Ennis is a delightful town renowned for its Irish music, so we enjoyed being there.  The highlight was being greeted by a local on our first morning as we stood on a street corner, puzzling over a map.

“I’m not the Mayor of Ennis,” he said, offering his hand.  “But you’re very welcome.”

Since 2017, I know even more about my Irish ancestors and was excited to be going back to Ireland in September 2020.  Now, unfortunately, that trip is on hold.  I wanted to go to Roscommon, where I now know my Power and Plunkett ancestors lived.  And Ballingarry, where the Mason family lived before they emigrated in the 1840s.  We were planning to spend some time with a Shannonbridge local who has lots of information about the Kilroes and we were going to visit the house that Paul’s mother Kathleen lived in as a child in Dublin.

The first of my family to return to Ireland were great uncles Albert and Alfred in 1913.  I imagine it was all very familiar to them – after all, their father and uncles would have spoken with Irish accents and the stories of their home would have been very fresh.  Two generations later, I don’t have this connection, but it’s certainly true that I feel very comfortable in Ireland.  Not really “at home”, but very welcome.

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 29 "Newsworthy"

#52 Ancestors 2020

Week 29 - Newsworthy

We are so fortunate in Australia to have “Trove”, the National Library of Australia’s online database aggregator which includes free access to digitised newspapers, gazettes, official documents and images from all over the country, starting in the earliest years of the colony.

“As of 10 May 2020, 23,498,368 newspaper pages and 2,026,782 government gazette pages were available to view.” (Wikipedia)

I am one of the 70,000 researchers who use this facility every day.  “The Northern Star” newspaper of Lismore has provided me with a huge amount of information about my father’s family and also my husband’s – unfortunately “The Quirindi Advocate”, the paper of my mother’s home community is not yet digitised.

Often, I am looking for one thing and another pops up – I can spend hours going down rabbit holes.  Such was the case when I found this headline in the Brisbane Sunday Mail of Sunday 5 July 1939:

“SEEKING HORSE OF GOLD”

Here is the story:

A Woman living at Pretty Gully, about 50 miles from the Queensland border, is looking for a golden horse she saw in a dream 10 years ago. She is Mrs. Agnes Graham, who, until a remarkable dream, lived an uneventful life, conducting a confectionery shop in Lismore. In the dream she saw a golden horse standing in a setting of virgin country. It impressed her so much that she went out driving shortly after, and at Pretty Gully claimed that she saw the exact scene —minus the golden horse. Mrs. Graham immediately gave up her Lismore shop, and persuaded her brother, Mr. Henry Samin, to erect a hut for her. She took out a mining lease, cleared an acre of ground, grew fruit trees, and had a shop built. She often comes across gold when she can spare time from her shop, and stlll persists in her search for the golden horse of her dreams.

TRAGEDY ENTERS Mr. Henry Samin, the brother who built the hut, died in Brisbane yesterday, after an illness contracted when a motor launch in which he was fishing at Burleigh Heads capsized four months ago. He was taken ashore by his son, Neville, and another lad. Mr. Samin was born in Victoria 70 years ago, and later lived in the Richmond River district and at Charters Towers. He was a keen axeman, as were his three brothers. Many years ago, they issued a challenge to any other four brothers in Australia to chop against them, but it was never accepted. His brother. George held the underhand woodchop championship at the Brisbane Exhibition for a number of years. Mr. Henry Samin. who had his home at Coolangatta, is survived by his widow and seven children. His mother, who is 89. is living at Ballina. The funeral will be held at Tweed Heads tomorrow morning.

Agnes and Henry Samin were two more grandchildren of Agnes McMillan, whose remarkable convict story I have told before, and so they are distant cousins of my husband (who is a 3 x grandchild of Agnes McMillan).

I was intrigued enough to try to find out more about Agnes and I wondered if she ever found the gold?

Agnes Samin was the fourth of nine children born to Agnes Roberts and Henry Samin.  The family lived in Victoria at the time of her birth but by the late 1870s were back in the Northern Rivers area of NSW, where her father died in 1886.  Agnes was only 13.

In 1895, she married Archibald Graham and they had three children in the next six years.  The marriage was not a happy one.  Archibald drank and failed to provide for Agnes and the children, despite her taking him to court for support.  She got a job in Lismore, working in a confectionery business owned by Henry de Montmorency, and in 1917, she obtained a divorce from Archibald.

Northern Star 22 Dec 1917

DECREES NISI.

In the Divorce Court on Tuesday Mr. Justice Gordon granted decrees nisi in the following cases on the findings of Judge Hamilton at the Lismore District Court : — Agnes Graham v. Archibald Graham

My Trove wanderings led me to read more about Henry de Montmorency*, who had a chequered life in Lismore, reinventing himself after a flamboyant start and a scandalous arrest.

In 1907, he first appeared in advertisements as “Professor de Montmorency”, giving lectures and demonstrations of Palmistry, Phrenogy and Astrology.  He claimed to be a graduate of the “Zancois School of Palmistry, Patronised by the Elite.”   Soon he was the proprietor of the Federal Herbal Institute, in Molesworth St, Lismore.  The testimonials credit him with being able to cure everything from constipation to consumption.

Testimonial from The Northern Star 20 Nov 1909

In 1910, there was a serious charge brought against him.  In a case held behind closed doors, he was charged with “using a certain instrument with a certain intent.”  Within a month, a “No Bill” was filed and he walked free.  He took out a half page advertisement in The Northern Star to declare his innocence.

Over the next twenty years, Henry appeared frequently in The Northern Star.  He was President of the Rowing Club and the Cricket Club.  He was on the Show committee and the Chamber of Commerce.  His confectionary business became the North Coast Confectionary Company and won prizes.  He appeared to no longer work as a herbalist.

In 1943, Henry and Agnes married and he moved to live with her at Pretty Gully.  In the census of 1949, he gives his occupation as “miner” –Agnes still holds a mining lease so they are still looking for the elusive pot of gold.

It seems that it remained elusive. Soon afterwards he appeared in another news story as the “Assistant Post Master” of Pretty Gully and only five years later, in 1954, they were living in Brisbane.  By this time Agnes was in her 70s, so perhaps she was no longer able to do the physical work of mining for gold, or perhaps she was resigned to never finding it. 

Henry died in 1965 and Agnes the following year. 

Without the newspaper files we would know almost nothing about them.

*Henry de Montmorency.  I have never been able to find a birth certificate for him and I wonder if that was his real name.  (It is the name of a French noble of the 16^th century – perhaps he adopted it?)

There is a family story that while he owned the Confectionary Company they are said to have developed a sweet which were called “Monties” (after Henry).  After he sold the company, the name of the sweet was changed to “Minties”. (However, this story does not fit with the official history of Minties.)

The Northern Star reported the Company was liquidated in 1933.

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 28 Multiple

#52 Ancestors 2020

Week 28 - Multiple

All family historians are familiar with the perils of childbirth in the 19^th century.  We all have ancestors who died too young, and families where many children did not live past infancy. Multiple births were particularly fraught – for twins (and their mother) to survive birth was a rare achievement.

Twins are more likely to be born prematurely and to have birth complications which further imperilled the mother if she was living at a distance from medical care, as so many of our forebears did.

When my great grandmother Charlotte gave birth to twin boys in 1878, she was 36 and already mother to seven children.  The babies were born on the family property “Lowestoft”, several miles from the nearest town.  I understand from family stories that her daughter Jenny, who would have been only 10 at the time, was at the birth, and there may only have been one other woman to assist her.

The boys were born alive and named Richard and Joseph, but Richard died only three weeks later.  Joseph lived to celebrate his second birthday but died shortly afterwards.   According to family legend, they are buried in the orchard at Lowestoft.  

 

Charlotte recovered and went on to have four more children, the last one when she was 43.

Charlotte’s sister Phoebe also had twin boys who died.  Phoebe was the second wife to Stephenson Moore, who was more than 20 years her senior.  He and his first wife had married in Ireland and already had three children when they arrived in New South Wales as assisted immigrants in 1841. There were four more births between 1843 – 1851, but the last baby died, and so did the mother.

When Phoebe married Stephenson she was only 20, and she became an instant stepmother to six, the oldest two of whom were just a few years younger than she was. 

She and Stephenson went on to have 13 children, but four of them died in infancy.  When the twins were born in 1871, Phoebe was still recovering from the birth and death of a baby boy the previous year.  Born on 8 September 1871, David lived for two weeks, dying on September 22. His brother Robert died the following day.   

These are tragic stories, but in my search for multiple births in the family tree, this one, from my husband’s tree, is both tragic and shocking.

Ruby Vera Lee was another of the many grandchildren of convict Agnes McMillan of whom I have written before.  Born in Lismore in 1905, she was married at 17 to Henry Gill of Byron Bay.  By the age of 29, Ruby had 8 children and was pregnant again.

This birth made the National newspapers.  On 15 September 1935, Ruby gave birth to conjoined twins, also known as Siamese twins.  The babies, both girls, died.  Ruby died the following day.

In 1935, Lismore was a town of about 10,000.  It’s doubtful that any hospital in Australia could have coped with such a birth in 1935, but in a small country town it must have been a cause of panic.  There were no ultrasounds to predict such an occurrence, and I doubt if there was even a specialist obstetrician.  Ruby was young and had already delivered 8 children, so the birth was probably predicted to be routine.

Twins are much more common now than at any time in history.  One reason is that women are having their families when they are older, and older women are more likely to have twins.  Another is that Assisted Reproduction Technology has increased the likelihood of multiple births.  Technology has also given us the ultrasound for early detection of in utero problems. Even conjoined twins now have a chance at a normal life – in recent years there have been several successful attempts at separating twins.   

For hundreds of years, pregnancy and birth were both painful and dangerous.  Before reliable contraception, a woman who married in her early twenties could expect to give birth every two or three years until her mid-forties.  Every birth carried the risk of complications and possible death from excessive bleeding, prolonged labour or infection.  And even if the mother survived, the baby may not.  For a multiple birth, the odds were worse.

I look at the women in my past with admiration for their strength and fortitude in triumphing over these difficulties. 

Brisbane Courier Mail 16 September 1935