Well here I go writing this post for the second time after accidentally deleting it when it was almost finished and not being able to retrieve it as auto save had saved the deleted version 🤦♀️
On Thursday I received two transcriptions I had ordered from NSW Family History Trancriptions. The first was the NSW BDM Marriage Registration for Daniel Sugrue and Ellen Pierce, alias Sullivan and the second was the NSW BDM Death Registration for Daniel Shoughron. Ellen is my 4th Great Grandmother and Daniel was her second husband, making him my step 4th Great Grandfather. Please note I have previously posted about them here and here.
While I do personally prefer to have certified copies of certificates it is just not economically viable for me to get all of the certificates on my genealogy wish list this way. Therefore I have decided that for all non direct line relatives in New South Wales that I will order transcriptions in future. I will also be ordering them for direct line New South Wales Marriage certificates, as I have found over the years that the information on these can be limited with lots of blank spaces. If it turns out the transcription for them is informative and worth having then I can always order the certified copy later, if it isn't then I haven’t wasted money with little to show for it. With such a large certificate wish list now it totally makes sense for me to get the information from as many certificates as possible for the lower possible cost. Of course it goes without saying that if I ever come into money that my orders for certified copies of certificates from said genealogy wish list will be epic!
I am extremely pleased with the service that NSW Family History Transcriptions provided. I ordered the transcriptions on the 11th March and received them via email on the 18th March; which impressed me greatly. I am used to ordering certified copies of certificates from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages which usually takes considerably longer to send them! Ordering them through NSW Family History Transcriptions website was straightforward and very easy and I love the fact they have PayPal as a payment option. I totally recommend their service and will be using them again in the very near future.
As it turns out, I am very happy that I had only ordered a transcription for the Marriage certificate of Daniel Sugrue and Ellen Pierce, alias Sullivan (see below). It was as I had expected very limited in the information contained on it. Daniel’s birthplace, age, Father, Mother and Fathers occupation were not listed and neither were Ellen’s, nor was her occupation. However not all was lost as I do now know that the marriage took place on the 20th February 1860 at St. Augustines Roman Catholic Church, Yass. That the officiating Minister was P. Bermingham and that the witnesses were J. G. Nichols and Rebecca Bush. I also know that Daniel was a widower and his occupation was Settler and that Ellen was a widow.
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| Source: Transcription of the NSW Marriage Certificate Index No. 2906/1860 for Daniel Sugrue & Ellen Pierce, alias Sullivan. Received from NSW Family History Transcriptions https://nswtranscriptions.com.au/ |
My first surprise was that Daniel and Ellen were actually married in Yass. With Daniel usually living at Bongongo and Ellen at Gundagai, a trip to Yass would have been quite a journey in 1860. I initially thought that perhaps being an older couple they preferred for their marriage to be conducted officially in a proper church, as Gundagai did not have a Roman Church at that time. As from what I have read the church was a drawcard for people from the surrounding areas who lacked official places of worship. The history of St. Augustines Roman Catholic Church at Yass is very interesting and it is still standing today, although it is now known as Lovat Chapel (I found this memorial booklet for it here to be very informative).
After doing more research on him I found that Daniel had strong connections with the Yass region dating back to the 1830s so the decision to marry there might be more personal than what I initially thought.
My next observation was that neither of Ellen’s children who were living in Gundagai district were witnesses for her marriage. As I believe that Daniel was a former convict, perhaps her family was not in favour of this marriage. Our view of convicts of this time period is so different from how they were viewed by their contemporaries and society of the day and with her son John's police background a former convict joining this family of free settlers may not have been welcomed at all. This might be the reason for their marriage taking place in Yass too! I note that Daniel records his occupation as Settler, the implied respectability that such a description brings with it was in all likelihood very important to a former convict. Speculation is easy, the truth is harder to come by and so I will probably never get answers to these queries.
I do know that Daniel and Ellen were married for over sixteen years and seem to have done quite well for themselves with Daniel leaving Ellen an estate valued at five hundred pounds after Probate in 1876. Ellen's son John, if he did have any reservations about the marriage, does not seem to have withdrawn from having a relationship with Daniel as he was the informant for Daniels Death Certificate and a witness for his will.
The second transcription for Daniel's death registration was much more informative (see below) and I will be following up with a separate post about him this week. I do know that he died on the 1st of October 1876 at Murphy's Swamp, Gundagai from disease of the kidneys and old age. He was a farmer and came from Kerry, Ireland and had been in New South Wales for over forty two years. Daniel was buried on the 3rd of October 1876 at Gundagai, although I am not currently sure whether this was at the North or South Gundagai Cemetery.
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| Source: Transcription of the Death Certificate Index No. |
6593/1876 for Daniel Shoughron. Received from NSW Family History Transcriptions https://nswtranscriptions.com.au/
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