Tag Archives: unassisted immigration

Y is for Yankee

Posted on by

1

As I’m getting close to the end of the A to Z challenge, I’ve had to be creative with the letters X and Y. Yesterday, I had X for ‘X mark’ and today my topic os Y for Yankee. When I originally sat down and planned what to write about for each letter of the alphabet, I couldn’t for the life of me think of anything for the letter Y. So, I did something I haven’t done in a very long time. I pulled out the dictionary in an attempt to think outside the box. Now, I was at my day job as a library assistant at the time so I had a nice fat dictionary in which to hunt for inspiration.  Now, even in a nice fat dictionary Y isn’t exactly the largest section in the dictionary. Finally, I lit on the word Yankee and I suddenly had my inspiration.

Outside the USA, the Yankee nickname is often used to apply to any American but within America the term is generally used by Southerners to refer to people from the Northern states. Originally, the term was specifically used to refer to those from the New England states. My 3rd great grandfather William Henry Thompson was one such Yankee; born in Boston, Massachusetts, the heart of New England.

William Henry was born c.1836 to parents William Thompson and Elizabeth Laycock. As far as I’ve been able to work out, William was the first child born to the couple or at least the first to survive to adulthood. Census records have shown that William had a minimum of four younger siblings, all of whom lived to adulthood. There may have been more children who didn’t survive childhood, but as I’m not very familiar with US records I have yet to find any evidence of this. William Henry appears on the 1850 US Census living with his parents and siblings in Ward 8, Boston, Despite much googling, I have yet to find out exactly where in Boston Ward 8 would have been. I also haven’t found much general information on the whole ward system that was obviously in place.

By 1857 William Henry had left Boston and the US behind, arriving in Sydney, Australia on 3 April.  He arrived as an unassisted immigrant, having worked as sort of the ship’s crew on his passage over. William Henry then disappears from the records until December 1872, when he marries Sarah White in Inverell, NSW. Where William Henry was between the time he arrive din Australia and when he married, I don’t know. But it is likely that he became an itinerant worker, travelling from place to place before ending up in the Inverell area. This fits with his movements after his marriage, as the family travelled vast distances from place to place. This can be tracked through the births and deaths of his children, who were born quite close together with a number of them dying in early childhood. This adds up to a move every 12-24 months, and not just to the next town either. Sometimes the places were hundreds of kilometres apart. On all official documents, William Henry is described as a Labourer and whenever a signature was needed he signed with an ‘X’ mark, indicating his illiteracy.

It seems that the longest place William Henry lived after his marriage was in Bingara, NSW where he and his family lived for at least three years. Bingara was also to be William Henry’s final resting place, as he died there on 4 December 1896 at the age of 60. His cause of death was Heart Disease, which he had suffered from for the past 6 months. He was buried in the Bingara Cemetery just one day later. He left behind a wife and seven children, one of whom was born four days after William’s death.

 

 

J is for Jane

Posted on by

0

Jane Child was born 29 May 1841 in Southwark, London and was my 3rd great grandmother and despite some challenges in life, she managed to live to the ripe old age of 93. I am quite lucky in having found quite a bit of information about Jane, and I’d like to share it here with you.

Jane’s parents were Daniel Child (who was the subject of my D post) and Susannah Gandell. Jane was the seventh child to be born into family, who lived on Old Kent Road in the London borough of Southwark. Those who read my post about Jane’s father, Daniel Child, may remember that his professions was a pianoforte maker. Based on the UK Census records, Daniel remained in this profession for the erst of his life. Jane appears in the 1841, 1851, and 1861 UK censuses with her family, continuing to live in Old Kent Road in Southwark. No profession is mentioned for Jane on these records, not even Domestic Service which is often listed for women who keep the home.

In 1869, Jane’s life was to undergo a drastic change as she departed England for Australia. Jane arrived on 25 October 1869 aboard the “Landsborough” which docked in Sydney, NSW. Based on her arrival date, Jane probably departed England sometime in May or June of 1869 as the voyage from England to Australia took around four months depending on weather conditions. Interestingly, Jane arrived as an unassisted immigrant in the Steerage class of the few passengers aboard. Based on all I’ve seen and heard about travelling Steerage on board a ship, it can’t have been a pleasant journey. However, it seems there may have been a different highlight to the voyage for Jane: it was where she met the man who would be her husband.

Just three days after arriving in Australia, Jane was married to Henry Flear Trueman at the Scots Church in Sydney, NSW. It seems like they became very close on the voyage, as their first child was born six months later. This would explain the hasty marriage three days after docking in Sydney. The couple had a further three children together, moving around the state of NSW. However, the marriage was not to be a happy one.

The first indication that the marriage was a troubled on was the appearance of an article in the Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal newspaper on Saturday 30 April 1887. The article is brief, but accounts how Henry had attempted to commit suicide in his own home by taking poison. The doctor applied the necessary remedy, and Henry survived. At the time, suicide and attempted suicide was a criminal offence so a further article appeared in the same paper on Tuesday 3 May, recounting the case in the local Police Court. Apparently, Henry had taken an ounce bottle’s worth of laudanum to “ease his mind” as he was heavily in debt. Henry had then promptly laid down to sleep and when he was unable to be woken his wife had summoned the doctor. However, it appears this was not the full story. Henry’s wife, Jane, was the next to be deposed in court and she tells a bit more of a story to the incident. According to Jane Henry had frequently threatened to take his own life and on this occasion had drunk the bottle of laudanum before taking off his boots and laying down, proclaiming his wish to die.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, to tell your wife your wish to die, Henry later admits that he only wanted to “scare” his wife. I can’t imagine how that must feel, to hear your husband say such things, no matter how unhappy the marriage had been. Henry was not charged with anything in the end, as the laudanum was so diluted that it was apparent he didn’t actually wish to kill himself. But the marriage had obviously been unhappy even before this, as an article appeared in the same paper on the same day as the initial report of the suicide attempt charging Henry with desertion.

This second article details how Henry had left Jane and their three children without means of support since April 1st. Jane had been supporting the family since then by teaching music to local children, and the article reports how Henry had visited the house in search of money and when Jane refused to supply him with any he had beaten her. Despite these troubles, divorce was extremely uncommon in those days and it seems the couple reconciled as the family moved to Molong, NSW as a single family unit. The local newspaper is filled with accounts of Mrs. Trueman’s prowess on the pianoforte and the singing and dancing skills of her three daughters.

All three of Jane’s daughters were married in Molong to men local to the community, and it was in Molong in 1897 that Henry died at the age of 61. The death notice in the paper indicates that he was well known in the community, as a “goodly number” of residents attended the funeral and internment. So, Jane was now a widow but with all her children settle din their own homes she only had herself to support and at least she had a skill with which to support herself.

Jane continued to live in the Molong area after her husband’s death, perhaps as this was where her three daughters lived with their families. She appears on the electoral rolls for the Molong district in 1903-1904 and again in 1913 but not thereafter. It appears she continued to live in the area for some time after this, as in 1930 an article appeared in the Molong Express newspaper detailing Jane’s recovery in Molong Hospital following a broken leg. In the same year, Jane also suffered a broken hip following a sudden fall at home.

By 1935, Jane was living in the Sydney suburb of Belmore which was where she passed away at the age of 93 from senile decay. Jane’s remains were cremated and interred at Rookwood cemetery in Sydney. It just goes to show, that despite challenges thrown up people can overcome and live a long and full life like Jane.