V is for Veteran

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I decided to combine my letter V post for the A to Z challenge with Anzac Day and dedicate my V post to Veterans. I have a few in my tree, some who are direct ancestors and some who are collateral ancestors but this post is dedicated to those in my tree who were veterans.

  • Oscar Norman Thompson: served in WWI 1915-1919, enlisted at the age of 21 years and 2 months; completed training in the Middle East before serving in France on the Western Front. Survived after being shot in the neck and left for dead in the desert. Returned to Australia in 1919.
  • Arthur Oswald Thompson: served in WWI 1915-1919, enlisted at the age of 19 years with the permission of his father, brother to Oscar. Served in the same theatres fo war as Oscar; saved Oscar’s life when he came across him wounded in the desert (not knowing it was his brother Oscar).  Returned to Australia in 1919.
  • Edmund “Sonny” Hartley: enlisted in WWI 18 October 1918 at the age of exactly 18, after multiple previous attempts, with his father’s permission. Sonny dodged a bullet though as he never actually left Australia due to the cessation of the conflict.
  • Godfrey Victor Thompson: enlisted in WW1 in 1918 at the age of 18 years and 2 months but due to the cessation of the conflict never saw action. Also served in WWII on the Home Front.
  • Herbert Samuel Starr: served in WWII on the home front, heavily involved in the defence of the west coast of Australia and was based at the Perth barracks for the duration of the war.
  • Herbert Clive Starr: son of Herbert Samuel; served on the home front 1942-1948 in the defence of Sydney.
  • Joseph Roy Starr: son of Herbert Samuel; served in the RAAF 1945-1946 as a Leading Aircraftman.
  • Hilton Iles: served on the home front 1940-1941; was posted at the Cowra prison camp.
  • Kiffin Denis Iles: served on the home front 1940-1941. Discharged on medical grounds.
  • William Edward Thompson: Served in WWII in Papua New Guinea. Spent most of his time being absent without leave. Returned home to Australia, received a dishonourable discharge and deserted his wife and 2 year old child.
  • Neville Clyde Thompson: served on the home front 1941-1945 in depot supply. Discharged for being an essential worker.
  • Noel Jack Thompson: Served in unknown location overseas, WWII 1943-1946.  Returned to civilian life after the war.

Hilton Iles

Kiffin Iles

William Edward Thompson

Herbert Samuel Starr

 

 

Oscar Thompson

U is for Unice

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U is for Eunice Iles. Technically, this name doesn’t always start with U  but it definitely has the U sound and when I first came across the name in my research it was spelt as Unice but is also spelled Eunice. Both spellings are recognised as valid variations of the same name. It’s quite a nice sounding name and one I’m not familiar with the meaning of, so of course I had to google it. Eunice is actually a latinised version of the Greek name Eunike which translates to ‘good victory’. In English usage, the name really took off after the Protestant Reformation and became popular as it is a name found in the New Testament, with the bearer famed for being without hypocrisy. But what about my Eunice?

Eunice would have been my 2nd great-aunt, as she was my great grandfather’s sister. Eunice was born in 1915 to parents Matthew Iles and Alice Maud Coxon in East Maitland, near Newcastle. She was the third of four children born to the couple, and the only girl. Unfortunately for Eunice, she contracted measles at the age of 5. As this was in the days before immunisation, Eunice didn’t survive this illness. She died on 10 September 1920, after suffering from convulsions for 4 hours secondary to having the measles for five days.

 

T is for Thomas

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T is for Thomas William Thompson, who was my great, great grandfather. Thomas was born 5 December 1888 in Warwick, Queensland to parents William Henry Thompson and Sarah White (see my ‘S’ post for more on Sarah). The first few years of his life were lived in Queensland, where a younger sister was born and died. By 1894, Thomas was living with his family in Bingara, NSW. It was here that his father died in 1896, when Thomas was eight years old.

Thomas William Thompson and Hannah Mallet

The records don’t tell us how long the family stayed in Bingara or if Thomas stayed with them but by 1911, Thomas was living in Lismore NSW. It was here that Thomas met and married Hannah Maria Darch Mallet on 23 December 1911. Thomas and his wife settled down in the Lismore district and raised a family of nine children, all living to adulthood. Included in these nine children was his wife’s illegitimate child from before their marriage, whom Thomas raised as his own.

Sadly, Hannah died in 1929 at the age of 36 after 17 years of marriage. Thomas was left to finish raising his children alone. As was the customer, the eldest girl of the household was left to run the house and look after the children. This fell to his daughter Jean, who was aged only 12 years old at the time. Thomas was a kind man though, with Jean recalling him coming home one day to find her in tears and unable to cope with the situation. Thomas promptly hired a housekeeper. This housekeeper stayed on for some years, with Thomas later marrying her. Further evidence of his kindness can be seen in his raising of his grandson, whom his daughter Jean had given birth to at 15. Most children in this situation would have been adopted out, but Jean’s child was raised by his family.

Thomas remained in the Lismore area for the rest of his life, passing away in 1956  at the age of 68 years.

S is for Sarah

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Sarah White was my third great grandmother and I actually have a fair amount of information on her, despite the fact that it took me years of research to find anything beyond the bare basics.

Sarah was born around 1855, either in or around Sofala in Central West NSW. Today, Sofala is a tiny village that mainly caters to the tourist trade but in the 1850s it was a booming town thanks to the Gold Rush. According to her death certificate, Sarah’s parents were Thomas White and Bridget O’Neil. As I’ve never managed to find a birth certificate this is the best I’ve managed to find. I also don’t know how long Sarah and her parents remained in the Sofala area, but by 1868 Sarah had been admitted to the Newcastle Industrial School for Girls. Entrance records record that this was court ordered admission, with Sarah having been arrested by Coonabarabran Police, bit the crime that Sarah committed is not recorded.

The Newcastle Industrial School (in centre) c.1870. [Courtesy of the Cultural Collections University of Newcastle (Australia)]

At the time of her admission, Sarah was aged 13 years old. In the Entrance Book, Sarah’s mother is listed as Bridget White but her father’s name is not recorded with it simply stating him as ‘Dead’. Sarah is described as being a Roman Catholic and being able to read the second book and write on a slate. I can only assume based on other entries that a variety of book of different levels are provided to the girls to test their reading level on entry to the industrial school, and their ability to read up to a certain number book indicated their level of reading proficiency. Sarah was in the Newcastle Industrial School until May 1871, when she was transferred to the Biloela school which was located on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour. It was here that Sarah was deemed to be fit for domestic service but she was never assigned as she was released from the school on 9 January 1872 into the custody of her mother, Bridget, and her stepfather William Leather at Warialda, NSW. This release had been specifically requested by Sarah’s mother and stepfather.

Exterior view of the Biloela Industrial School

The dormitory at Biloela, where the girls often sleep without any bedding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, at the age of 17 Sarah was once more a part of the wider world. But she was not to remain with her parents for long, as she married William Henry Thompson in December 1872 at Inverell. Both parties list their residence as Yallaroi, which is located close to Warialda. It is interesting to note that no parent or age details appear on the marriage certificate, as Sarah would have legally required parental permission to marry as she was under the age of 21. We can assume that Sarah put her age up for the marriage, and was believed, because the marriage takes place. It’s also interesting that previous records confirm Sarah as being Roman Catholic yet she marries in the Presbyterian Church. Her husband was more than twice her age, being 36 at the time of their marriage.

Sarah and her husband went on to have at least nine children, but inconsistencies on her children’s birth records seem to indicate that there may have been more children who simply weren’t registered. Sarah and William moved around both NSW and Queensland, living variously in Yallaroi; Molong; Wattle Flat; Coonamble; Wallumbilla, Qld; Warwick, Qld; and Bingara NSW. It must have been hard for Sarah to move around so much, especially with children, but some descendants have indicated that quite a few of her children were left to other families to look after. This is based on oral histories that have been passed down within the families of other descendants. Bingara seems to be the place Sarah lived the longest during her married life, as she lived there for at least three years. Bingara was where her last two children were born and also where her husband William died at the age of 60 years old.

Sarah Thompson nee White

I’m not really sure what exactly happened to Sarah after the death of her husband, as there is no paper trail for this time. I can trace her children and the marriage and lives of those who survived into adulthood, but this doesn’t necessarily indicate Sarah’s location. For may years I could find no trace of Sarah after 1896, but in researching her children and their families I did eventually find a record of her on the 1930 Electoral Rolls for NSW which shows her living in Kankool with her daughter Lily’s family. However, on the 1936 Electoral Roll (which was the next one to follow the 1930 Roll) I could find no trace of her. I assumed that Sarah had probably died sometime in this time period so now that I had a time frame I could search for a death certificate.

The only problem was that I had no idea of Sarah’s parents names at this stage, and there was a total nine Sarah Thompson’s to die in NSW between 1930 and 1936. With no easy way to determine which record was for my Sarah, I had each entry checked and verified by a transcription agent to see if certain details matched those of my Sarah. Lucky for my patience, and my wallet, I found my Sarah was the fifth entry on the list. This confirmed Sarah had died 7 May 1934 at Glen Innes Hospital. It also confirmed Sarah’s birth place as Sofala, NSW and provided me with her parents names of Thomas White and Bridget O’Neil. The informant was her son-in-law, whose house she had previously been residing in, so obviously she had remained with the family.

 

 

 

R is for Robert

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R is for Robert George Nichols, my 2nd great grandfather. Unlike some other ancestors of mine, Robert had a life in quite a few different places, moving around from place to place throughout his life.

Robert was born 13 December 1871 in Towrang, near Goulburn, to parents Agenor Robert Nichols and Adeline Milne. Robert was the first child born to the couple, and was born just one month after they married. Robert spent his early years in the Towrang area where four of his siblings were born but by the time he was 11 years old the family had moved to Cootamundra in NSW. I’m not sure what prompted the move from Towrang to Cootamundra, but the family only lived there a few years before moving on to the Berrima area. Specifically, they relocated to the Joadja Creek shale oil mining site. Now a ghost town, Joadja Creek township was set up in 1870 and had a large population of Scottish miners.

It was in Joadja that Robert met and married his wife May Henderson and their first three children were born there. The Joadja facility officially closed in 1911, but Robert and his family had moved on before then. Robert’s fourth child and first son was born in 1901, at Jumbunna in Victoria. Jumbunna was yet another mining town and this trend was to continue, with Robert’s next move being to Charlestown.

Robert (centre) with some fellow miners

 

 

Robert (front row, second from right)

 

 

 

Charlestown is located near Lake Macquarie and like Joadja and Jumbunna, Charlestown was a mining town. Robert and his family lived in Charlestown for nearly a decade before moving to the Temi Mountain Mine Site, near Murrurundi in northern NSW. Robert’s final move was to New Lambton, which is a suburb of Newcastle. New Lambton was also where Robert died in 1929, and he was laid to rest at Sandgate Cemetery in Newcastle.

Overall, in his travels Robert saw a whole chunk of Australia along the way as he travelled some pretty large distances to get from place to place and covered hundreds if not thousands of kilometres throughout his life.

Q is for Queen City of the South

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My post for Q in the A to Z challenge has the theme of Queen City of the South. But where is that? It’s location is Goulburn, NSW. I first came across the term when doing some research lately on the history of Goulburn, as some ancestors of mine settled in the Goulburn area back in the 1800s. My google search turned up a lovely old publication entitled ‘Goulburn, Queen City of the South’ which was published in 1946. The publication is filled with some interesting photos and tidbits about the town of Goulburn, and it intrigued me as to where the Queen City of the South part came from.

 

One reason for this name could be the way in which Goulburn officially became a city. Goulburn was declared a city on 14 March 1863 by Royal Letters Patent issued by Queen Victoria, which gave Goulburn the distinction of being the first inland city. So I can see how having your city ‘officially’ proclaimed by the Queen could lead to your town being known as the Queen City of the South.

Thomas and Ellen Dawson (centre) outside their ‘Royal Palace’

But this was not Goulburn’s only link to royalty. Further internet digging turns up articles about a local Goulburn woman name Ellen Dawson who was a local to Goulburn in the mid-1800s. What is interesting about Ellen is that she was the self-proclaimed ‘Queen of the South’. Her husband Thomas Dawson was likewise known as the ‘King of the South’ and the couple lived in a hut which they had christened their ‘Royal Palace’ complete with a Union Jack flag. By all accounts, Ellen was an eccentric woman who took her self-proclaimed queenship seriously. Accounts describe her as being regal in her bearing and dress. Ellen and Thomas were even involved in a few ‘royal scandals’ just like real royalty!

Even though the Dawsons aren’t relatives of mine, they lived in Goulburn in the same period as my ancestors so it adds some local colour to the stories of my ancestors. Even though Goulburn was large enough to warrant it being declared a city, even in modern regional cities the unique individuals stand out and I can’t help but believe that my ancestors may have encountered Ellen and her husband or at least have known of them.

P is for Philadelphia

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P is for Philadelphia Starr was my 5th great grandmother. I’ve always loved the sound of her name as it’s so different from your regular names like Ann or Jane or Sarah. Not that they aren’t good names, but Philadelphia just seems such an interesting name to have. When I first found Philadelphia, I was surprised and it seemed such an uncommon name to me. After all, the only time I’d heard it before was in reference to the city in the USA. Upon digging further though, the name Philadelphia was apparently wildly popular across the entire East Sussex area starting in the mid 1500s right through to the mid 1800s. My relatives apparently enjoyed this popular name as there are many, many Philadelphia Starr’s in the region of East Sussex in which my Philadelphia lived.

St John the Baptist Parish Church, Westfield

My Philadelphia Starr was born sometime in late 1793 in Westfield, East Sussex to parents WilliamStarr and Ann Crisford. Philadelphia was then promptly baptised on 27 October of the same year at the local Church of England parish church, St. John the Baptist. Philadelphia was part of a fairly standard sized family, being one of nine children. Not much is known of Philadelphia’s early life, but she grew up in the Westfield and Maresfield areas of East Sussex. However, by 1807 Philadelphia was living in Sedlescombe which was where her first child William Starr was born. Philadelphia was just 14 years old at the time. Surprisingly, Philadelphia did not marry the father of her child though he was known to her.

It is recorded in parish documents that William’s father was a Richard Milham, a 20 year old bricklayer.  The baptism records at the time record William as being Baseborn, that is illegitimate, but further records reveal that Richard Milham acknowledged that he was the father and made continued payments for the support of his child. Despite the financial support, it must have been a hard time for Philadelphia as she was so young.

Philadelphia did eventually marry, but it wasn’t until 1821 that she married Edward Stevenson at St. Nicholas’ Church in Brighton, Sussex. After their marriage, Philadelphia settled with her husband in the Maresfield area of Sussex where the couple had three sons. Philadelphia’s three sons were still residing with her and her husband on the 1841 Census at Fletching, which is part of the Maresfield district. On the 1851 Census, Philadelphia and Edward are still living at the same address this time with only their eldest son at home along with a three year old granddaughter. I have bene working hard to figure which child of Philadelphia’s this granddaughter belonged to, but haven’t succeeded yet. As the child bears the Stevenson surname, she obviously was the child of one of Philadelphia’s sons.

Sadly, in 1854 Philadelphia’s husband Edward died at the age of 65 years old leaving Philadelphia a widow. Philadelphia may have continued to live in Fletching, or she may not have. That is something we really just don’t know. On the 1861 Census, Philadelphia appears at Staplehurst, Kent where she is listed as a visitor in the household. However, on the 1871 Census Philadelphia is found living in the same household in Staplehurst, Kent. This time she is not listed as just a visitor, but is indicated as a relative. The household was that of Philadelphia’s sister Harriet.

The workhouse at Uckfield, Sussex which has since been demolished

Unfortunately, when Philadelphia died in 1877 she was a resident of the Uckfield Workhouse in Sussex. The Workhouses were places reserved for paupers and those who were too old to look after themselves. Based on everything I have ever read about the living conditions in the Workhouses, I can just imaging how horrible it would have been to live in such a place. At the time of her death Philadelphia was aged 83 years old.

O is for Oscar

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Oscar Norman Thompson was my great grandfather and is the subject of today’s A to Z post. Oscar was born 25 May 1895 at Regentville, near Penrith NSW to parents Charles John Thompson and Alice Skeen. Oscar’s mother had a mammoth 13 pregnancies, with a total of 15 children born including two sets of twins. Out of these 15 children, 9 lived into adulthood. Oscar was the seventh child born, so petty much smack dab in the middle of his family. Oscar grew up in various suburbs of Penrith, but by 1915 the family were settled in the suburb of Jamisontown.

The year 1915 was a significant one in Oscar’s life as well as in the wider community. The ANZACS landed at Gallipoli and there was a huge drive in recruiting for World War I. Like so many other young Australians, Oscar enlisted. His attestation papers show his date of enlistment as 24 July 1915 and he was assigned to 5th reinforcements of the 20th Infantry Battalion. Oscar was aged 21 years and 2 months at the time of his enlistment.

Oscar in army uniform

All individuals enlisting underwent a physical examination and Oscar was not exception. Oscar’spapers record his height as 5 feet 7.5 inches (or 171.45cm) which is quite tall even for men today and his weight as 126 lbs (0r 57.15 kgs). At this weight, he certainly wasn’t carrying around any extra weight!! This was a physique he carried for the rest of his life, as later photos show how lean he is. What is interesting to me is that nothing is mentioned about his feet, and rumour has it that he had flat feet. Whether he did or not, he passed all the requirements to enlist in the army. From Australia, Oscar was shipped out to Egypt where he arrived on 30 September 1915. Oscar undertook training with his battalion before being transferred across to the Western Front in France.

 

Oscar was wounded multiple times whilst on the Western Front, including being shot in the head and the neck and also suffered from illness causing him to be admitted to hospital. This may have been a blessing in disguise, as Oscar’s frequent illnesses caused him to be in and out of hospitals both on the Western Front and in England. This may well have helped with his survival, enabling him to return home to Australia in mid 1919. At the time, the Spanish Flu pandemic was still continuing in waves across Australia. However, Oscar returned to a rural area full of wide open spaces which would perhaps have helped with containing the disease. All of Oscar’s immediate family survived the pandemic and life went on as normal.

Oscar on his wedding day

In February 1920, Oscar was married to Edith Jane Hartley and the settled down and started a family. Oscar and Edith had five children together, with the first four being born in the Penrith area. However, as the Great Depression hit Australia the family was forced to move from the Penrith area to a cheaper area. As a result, they settled in Brighton-le-Sands before ending up in the inner city suburb of Ashfield.

Oscar’s health was obviously stable enough after the war for him to continue to work in his job at Sydney’s Schweppes factory, where he had been employed since the age of 15, and raise a family however as he aged his health deteriorated. As a result, Oscar died at the relatively young age of 49 years old in 1945. This may have been due to him being heavily gassed during his war service, which has since been proven to cause serious and ongoing health problems. At the time of his death, Oscar’s two youngest children were aged just 11 and 6 years old respectively.

 

N is for Nichols

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A bit of a departure from the first names with this post, but for the letter N I have chosen to write about the surname Nichols.

Nichols is my mother’s maiden name and it wasn’t a name that we knew much about as she grew up with an absent father and had no idea about his family. As it turns out, Nichols was his mother’s surname as he was born illegitimate. so here’s a bit about the surname of Nichols.

Apparently Nichols is a patronymic name, that is a name derived from that of a father. So that means that Nichols is from the medieval first name Nicholas. As a surname, it first appeared in the 110s in the British Iles. This is probably right about the time that surnames first started to become necessary. Originally, the surname was first recorded as Nichole and then Nicholas. Another early example of the surname is Nickolls before it eventually evolved into Nichols.

In terms of where it comes from geographically, it first appears in England but spread to cover other areas of the British Isles including Scotland before moving across the seas to the USA; Canada and of course Australia. According to Ancestry’s Surname data, the surname Nichols was most common in the counties of London and Norfolk but my Nichols ancestors came from  Buckinghamshire which apparently has the lowest concentration of the surname.

Perhaps my Nichols ancestors did come from one of those counties originally, but what I do know is that from as early as 1788 my Nichols family lived in the area of Loughton, Buckinghamshire. 1788 is the approximate year of birth of the earliest Nichols ancestor I have been able to trace. As far as I have been able to trace forwards, the Nichols family remained living in this same area of Buckinghamshire until at least the 1900s. My own branch of the family left Buckinghamshire in 1849 to emigrate to Australia. However, they left parents and siblings behind who continued the Nichols surname in Buckinghamshire through the generations.

M is for Mary

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Mary Martin was my fifth great grandmother, and was the earliest of all my ancestors to arrive in Australia.

Mary was born around 1773, somewhere in England. As is typical with such early ancestors, not much is known about her early life but an event happened when Mary was 16 that would change her life forever. The year was 1789 and Mary had been caught stealing from a haberdasher’s shop in Tottenham Court Road, London. As the crime took place in London, Mary was tried at the Old Bailey.

The Old Bailey records state that Mary was tried on September 9, 1789 by Mr. Justice Grose and a Middlesex jury. Mary stood accused of stealing three muslin half shawls and one muslin shawl, amounting to the value of 5 shillings, from Samuel Francis who had a Hosier and Haberdasher shop on Tottenham Court Road. Samuel’s wife gave evidence at the trial, stating that she had been alone  in the shop with her baby when Mary and two other women entered the shop asking to see shawls. The women started pulling around the shawls in the shop but left without buying anything. Mrs. Francis states that she immediately missed a buff coloured shawl and ran into the street after the three women. Apparently, another woman then took up the chase crying “Stop Thief!”. The trial transcript goes on to account how Mary ran down a side street to evade her pursuer. She encountered a man and spoke to him, saying “I have robbed nobody” before dashing off again. The man gave chase and caught up with her, seeing her drop a buff coloured shawl. In her defence, Mary asserted that the other two women should have been taken up instead of her and that she was only 16 with her only friends being in the country.

As far as I have been able to find, the other two unnamed women were not apprehended at this time. Mary, however, was convicted of stealing and received a sentence of seven years transportation. On 17 January 1790, Mary set sail for Australia aboard the Neptune which was part of the Second Fleet to depart England. Mary was one of 78 women onboard, with an additional 421 male convicts. The female convicts on board the Neptune fared much better than the male convicts, as they were kept unchained and housed in a section of the upper deck.

After months on board ship, Mary and the other convicts aboard the Neptune arrived in Sydney on 26 June 1790. Mary was lucky to have survived the voyage, as the conditions on board the ships of the Second Fleet were so bad that it earned the nickname the Death Fleet and the Neptune was the worst of the three convict transports in the fleet. Overall, 150 men and 11 women died on board the Neptune. This was the highest death toll out of the three convict transports in the Second Fleet and those who did not die were either seriously ill or malnourished.

By 1792, Mary had married for the first time to fellow convict Thomas Smith. With Smith being such a common name there has been much debate as to exactly which Thomas Smith Mary was married to, as there were seven Thomas Smiths in the colony of New South Wales. Mary had two children with Thomas but it’s not known what happened to Thomas Smith as by 1802 at the latest, Mary was living on the property of James Wilbow at Mulgrave Place with her two children according to the Settlers Book form 1800-02. Mary appears again in 1806 as housekeeper to James Wilbow, and simultaneously appears on a list compiled by the Reverend John Marsden as a concubine.

By 1807, Thomas Smith was presumably out of the picture permanently as Mary married James Wilbow. Mary and James appear as a couple on the 1811, 1814, 1816, 1822 and 1828 musters. In the time that they were married, Mary had a further three children and her two elder children by Thomas Smith adopted the Wilbow surname and continued to use it through the generations. Amazingly, only one of her five children died in infancy with the remaining four living to adulthood and starting their own families.

At the time of her death in 1847, Mary was a resident of the Pitt Town area in the Hawkesbury region of New South Wales. Mary was 74 years old when she died, and undoubtedly had a better quality of life in the new colony of New South Wales than she would have if she had remained in London. Mary is buried somewhere in the St. Matthew’s Anglican churchyard in Windosr, NSW in an unknown grave.