G is for . . .

G is for George. George Cole Milne was my 4th great grandfather and is one of the naughtiest ancestors I have come across.

George was born in 1814 in Kent, England and arrived in NSW as a free immigrant in 1839. During his time in Sydney, George worked as a clerk for the colonial government and got married. But the marriage certificate is the first and last record of the marriage in the archives. There have been no children found to be born to the marriage and the death of his wife has yet to be confirmed, although there is a big clue pointing to when it occurred.

Whatever the case with this marriage, by 1853 the marriage had obviously begun to break down as his first child to Margaret Blakeney was born in Sydney in that year. By 1857, George has relocated to the Goulburn area and was working as a school teacher along with Margaret (also a school teacher). In the years following, from 1857 to 1867, the couple had a further five children. It’s important to note here that these births all occurred out of wedlock. Legally, George was still married to his first wife and Margaret also was married to someone else at the time.

I have been unable to find a record of the death of either George or Margaret’s previous spouses but presumably both had died by 1869, when George and Margaret were at last married after having six children together. They were married in the manse of the Goulburn Presbyterian Church, which was about 20km away from their usual residence of Kippilaw. Following the marriage, there was a mass baptism of all the children, barring the eldest.

The Kippilaw Schoolhouse today (image courtesy of stayz.com.au)

What interest me is the level of secrecy they would have had to had about the fact that they weren’t married. Especially being employed as a school teacher, George would have been expected to be above reproach so it would have been essential that no one find out that he was not legally married to the woman he claimed to be his wife. In keeping with staying under the radar, none of the couple’s children born before their marriage were registered at any time with the NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriage. I presume that this was so the wouldn’t have to provide a marriage date for a non existent marriage and be caught out by the local community.

3 thoughts on “G is for . . .

  1. I love the “naughtiest ancestor” quote. Very interesting that the children weren’t registered, presumably even under Margaret’s name….and the collective baptism. The perils of uncovering secrets.

    • Yes, it’s interesting Pauleen. And no, they weren’t registered under any of Margaret’s surnames that we have found. I thought perhaps Adeline (the eldest) may have been registered under Margaret’s married name (from her first marriage) as she was still married to her first husband but neither I nor other family history researchers have found any evidence of the children being registered at all.

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