Old Family Photograph

The Trove Tuesday blog post from Backtracking here prompted me to post this old family photograph from our collection which has caused family arguments concerning the identity and gender of the subject. Most of the family are convinced that it is my Grandmother Cluna Donnelly nee O'Connor, however one of my cousins is certain that it is our Grandfather Mervyn Donnelly as he claims that Nan told him that is who it is and said that Mervyn's mother Bridget Donnelly nee Lambert dressed him for the photograph this way as a joke. His story has been discounted by most of the family due to Mervyn having extremely dark hair from birth. It is worth mentioning that Bridget Lambert also had an illegitimate daughter Josephine Lambert who died as an infant (a fact not widely known within the family until recently), so the photograph may well be of Josephine and the story Bridget's way of keeping a photograph of her on display without questions being asked and judgements made.

Comments

The Kendall Children.

I started this post a while ago and was going to finally finish and post it yesterday however our four grandchildren came over and I got sidetracked. Our grandchildren range in age now from six down to one; they are so full of life (each of them lights up a room when they enter it) and we feel extremely blessed to have them in our lives. After spending the afternoon researching this post, their arrival made this tragedy even more poignant for me and so I appreciated their company even more than usual and hugged them a bit tighter too! This morning I woke up to a cold, wet and windy Wagga day and the thought of three little girls out in August weather like this, in light weight dresses with no shoes or jumpers impacted on me even more. Those poor babies! One of the girls was found still clasping her doll that she had carried with her over the whole tragic journey. When my husband and I were looking around the Wagga Wagga Monumental Cemetery some time ago we came a...

My First Fleet Connection - Mary Turner (aka Mary Wilkes/Wilks)

My 5th Great Grandmother Mary Turner (also known as Mary Wilks/Wilkes) is my earliest known and documented Australian relative. She was tried at Worcester on 5th March 1785 and sentenced to seven years. Mary arrived on the ship Lady Penrhyn in 1788. It seems the 5th of March was not an auspicious trial date for Mary in 1785 or later in 1789! On the 5th March 1789 she was tried for stealing six cabbages from the garden of William Parr, she was found guilty and sentenced to 50 lashes. Later in March 1789 she also was in trouble for her testimony in the trial of Royal Marines accused of stealing from the government stores (six of them were found guilty and executed) in which it was believed by some that she had perjured herself. Mary was sent to Norfolk Island in 1790 on board the ship Sirius . Apparently she stayed on Norfolk Island until 1793 when she returned to Port Jackson on board the ship Kitty . Her de fact...

Time for a happy dance! Well kind of .....poor Catherine!

Brickwall knocked down at last! Catherine Rhall was murdered by her partner James Baker Worldon on the 14th February 1855 at Beechworth. The Trove articles do involve my 4th Great Grandparents James Baker Worldon and Catherine Rhall! I guess the family tree book will need updating now ;) I looked up the following record from the Public Record of Victoria and bingo the details match my ancestors records. Catherine Rhall's fate is now known at last, she was murdered by her partner and he was only sentenced to two years imprisonment for it and by the look of it was released early in 1856! I also found out he used the alias Milbank, which will give me new avenues for future research. Public Record Office of Victoria Series title: Central Register of Male Prisoners Sub-Item title: Worldon, James; (Milbank); (Jas Baker Worldon): No. 2265 Sub-Item number: Page 199 Date range: 1854 Public access: Open Format: Digital Source: Public Record ...

Tracing Family Branches

Search This Blog