#52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week 34, Prompt - 'Non-Population'

Week 34: 'Non-Population'

This is a term used for other schedules that aren’t the usual census population schedules.  They can be things like Agricultural, Manufacturing, Social Statistics and Business.

Possibly not so common in Australia, apart from Immunisation schedules - which I have never researched.

What I will look at instead are different ways I have looked for family history information.

I searched through school records and Sunday School and Church records from the Drouin area of Gippsland trying to find a birth date for a great uncle, unfortunately to no avail. I contacted the school and church by email. I also visited the Victorian State Archives and checked through the school records there.  It was interesting reading all the correspondence dealing with whether to open another school nearby.  No luck in my quest though.

As my Great Uncle left home to become a sailor, I also looked for ships records to see if they had any birth information.  Claude Laidlaw Palmer always used the birthdate of 04 February 1880, once he left home.  

It is in all his documents in the USA from when he was naturalized there and it is even engraved clearly on his tombstone.

Gravestone for Claude Laidlaw Palmer and wife Theodora.

Claude was the youngest in the Palmer family and the next one up was my Grandmother Violet Palmer who was born on 16 October 1879 (verified).  This caused a dilemma for me - as 3-4 months does not allow for another pregnancy to occur !  Is the date wrong? Does he belong to this family? Was he adopted? 

I contacted his descendants in the USA and they only know of 04 Feb 1880.

So I still do not know the answer to this quandary.

#52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, Week 33 - Prompt: ‘Legend'

Week 33  - 'Legend'

I am cheating this week because I am using an American legend who I discovered is an ancestor of a family one of my ancestral family members married into.  That sounds a bit Irish and yes it is — as it was one of my Shanks girls from Poyntzpass in Co Down, N. Ireland who was the bride.

Margaret was the 8th child of 9, and sister to my Great-grandmother Eliza the 1st born in the Shanks family.

Margaret Shanks had married David Irwin in her hometown in Ireland in 1868.  They had a daughter who died at birth. 

David and Margaret moved to David’s hometown Hanover, Jo Daviess Co, Illinois in America. Then David died in 1870, after only 2 years of marriage.  

I feel sad for Margaret as she had now lost her husband and a daughter and was alone in a country a long way from family and her Irish homeland.

Five years later, in 1875, she married James Craig in Hanover and this is where we connect to legend.

James is a great-grandson of ‘Daniel Boone’ — frontiersman and trailblazer, the pioneer of Kentucky.

James was the 4th child of 16 born to Rev./Capt. James Craig and Delinda Boone. 

Delinda was the 2nd child of 14 born to Col. Nathan Boone and Olive Van Bibber.

Nathan was the youngest of 10 children born to Daniel Boone and Rebecca Bryan. 

Daniel Boone was the 8th of 16 children.

Copy of the only Portrait of Daniel Boone

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Margaret Shanks 1848-1929

David Irwin     C 1845-1870

James Craig  jr.         1841-1888

Delinda Boone         1802-1877

Rev. James Craig       1785-1847

Col. Nathan Boone   1781-1856

Olive van Bibber  1783-1858

Daniel Boone          1734-1820

Rebecca Bryan          1738-1813

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Reference:  

www.ccsnyder.com/clan/snyder/family/report/ps06/ps06_252.htm 

#52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week 32, Prompt: ‘Youngest'

Week 32 :   'Youngest'

This week I am concentrating on the ‘youngest’ child of James and Eliza Cottam.  I have written a few stories about James, including telling of his early accidental death 01 May 1873.   (I seem to be drawn to this family 😊)  
His wife Eliza was left with her young family of six children and pregnant, near term.  

She delivered her baby girl   

Agnes McLeod COTTAM

between May-Jul 1873,

in Chintin, Mernda, Victoria, a short time after her husband died.  I feel very sad for Agnes who never saw her father, and then to see a pattern continuing on, touches my heart.

Agnes joined the family of siblings: Mary Anne, Elizabeth, Martha, James, George, and Joseph (My maternal grandfather). 

On 08 October 1903, Agnes was 29, she married Alfred George HOLT,  35, and son of William HOLT and Ellen GIDDENS.  At the time Alf was a carpenter working out at Jindivick where Agnes lived. However once married they moved into Kew where Alf's family lived.

Alfred and Agnes had the following children, all born in Kew, Victoria:

 1. Gordon Ernest HOLT, born in 1905.  Died on 17 Mar 1964 in Parkville, Melbourne.

 2. Elizabeth Beryl HOLT, born in 1906.  Died in 1992.

 3. Harold Lindsay HOLT, born on 03 Sep 1908.  Died on 28 Oct  1996.

 4. George McLeod HOLT born in 1912.  Died on 07 Jul 1971 in Bendigo, Victoria.

43 Kent Street, Kew in 2018.

Agnes and Alf stayed in Kew for her short 9 years of married life.  She was only 39 years old when she died suddenly on 09 July 1912 in their home "Wahroonga", 43 Kent St, Kew.   
Her Death Certificate lists causes of death as Influenza, premature confinement, and heart failure.  

Death Certificate crop for Agnes Holt.

She left four young children - aged  7, 5, 3 and her newborn baby only 2 days old and not yet named.
What a shock this must have been for Alf, the excitement of a new baby and the grief of his wife's sudden death.

    Agnes was buried in Boroondara Cemetery, Victoria, (Baptist “B”  Grave 71/72. 

Agnes’ sister Mary Anne Cottam was 11 years older than her sister and single and I believe moved in to help Alf with his young family.  And similar to what happened in some families in those days, they became a couple and reared the children.  I imagine this would have been a challenging task for Mary Anne at her age with a brand new baby and 3 youngsters to mother.

Mary Anne and Alf then married one year or so later in 1913-14, Mary Anne was 51 years old and Alf by now, 45 years old. 

They had one child - Irene Holt born in 1914 also in Kew.

Mary Anne died 30 January 1935,  age 71. 

Alf died on 16 September 1945 in Kew, age 77 .

Alf and Mary Ann were buried with Agnes at Boorandoora cemetery, Kew.

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Kew.

Kew is an inner suburb of Melbourne,  5 km east from Melbourne's Central Business District.  In the 1850s, the area quickly became a sought-after suburb for the well-to-do in Melbourne and quite a few private schools were established there.   It was proclaimed a town on 08 December 1910, and a city on 10 March 1921. The population of the area tripled between 1910 and World War II.  It is still cited as one of the most prestigious suburbs in Melbourne today.