Tracing Family Branches

My son Matthew has recently come over to the dark side and is currently studying for his Diploma of Family History, which of course has made me very happy! While researching for a recent assignment he uncovered new information on my Grandfathers first wife Marie Rose Thomson who was known as Rose or Rosie to her loved ones. I have previously posted mentioning her  here ,  here ,  here  and  here . Matt wanted to find out what happened to Rose after her marriage to his Great Grandfather Mervyn James Donnelly and he has allowed me to share some of his findings.  He found that the information that I had been given on Rose's fate by her extended family members some years ago was incorrect.  I had been told she died in the 1940's, but her parents death certificates and Family Notices in the newspapers do not reflect this as being fact.  In fact she is not listed on either parents death certificate as being deceased prior to their deaths and they died i...

Today’s post involves my paternal grandparents Mervyn James Phillip Donnelly and his wife Cluna Irene nee O’Connor.  There was one big problem with this marriage in that my grandfather was not legally free to marry her, as he was still married to his first wife Marie Rose Thomson who he had married in Sydney in 1926.  More posts about this can be found here  and  here . Source:  WEDDING BELLS (1928, November 28).  The Labor Daily (Sydney, NSW : 1924 - 1938) , p. 7. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article237790171 Transcript The marriage of Cluna Irene, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. O’Connor, late of Cobar, with Mr. James Donnelly, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Donnelly, of Mullumbimby, was celebrated by Rev. Father Carlton at the Catholic Church Newcastle on Saturday last.  The wedding breakfast took place at the home of the bride’s parents Roxburgh Street Stockton.

In April 1938 my grandfather Mervyn James Phillip Donnelly was before the courts due to his committing bigamy and some of the articles reporting on this case are the subject of my Trove Tuesday posting this week. My grandfather Mervyn James Phillip Donnelly, commonly known as James or Jim was born in Bourke in 1905, the son of John Joseph (Jack) Donnelly and his wife Bridget Anastasia (nee Lambert). John Donnelly was a school teacher and the family, which included Mervyn's older half brother Frederick, moved around the state due to his employment.  In Sydney in November 1925 Mervyn joined the New South Wales Police as a Probationary Constable, but this was to be a short lived career as he resigned in April 1926.  Later in Sydney that same year he married Marie Rose Thomson (known as Rose or Rosie) who was born in 1906, the daughter of Thomas Thomson and his wife Mary Ethel (nee Smith).   Rose had been declared an uncontrollable child by the courts in June 1922 and admitte...

The only things that my father had belonging to his father was a couple of photographs, some official documents and some of his original poetry.  I have always wondered if he had any of it published but had never found a copy of any of his works anywhere, until today thanks to Trove ! Mervyn James Phillip Donnelly was born at Bourke in 1905 the son of John Joseph Donnelly and his wife Bridget Anastasia (nee Lambert).  John Joseph Donnelly (known as Jack) was a teacher at Yantabulla at the time.  John and his brother James (Jim) had been drovers together and had studied for their teaching qualifications by correspondence.  The Donnelly brothers grew up in the Mudgee, Cooyal area and had another brother Edward who was also a school teacher.  Bridget Lambert, Mervyn's mother had been a school teacher in the 1890's and was once romantically involved with Henry Lawson. Jack and Jim Donnelly were also acquainted with Henry Lawson.  Jim Donnelly married Mary Ann ...

My late Aunt told me in confidence many years ago that her oldest sister had confided in her that their father was a bigamist and that it had been a huge public scandal, hitting the front page of the local newspapers and causing the family trouble with the Catholic Church.  She said that this was part of the reason my Grandmother rarely spoke about him, Nan kept her family secrets well hidden (My father was in his fifties before he ever found out!).  So when I started researching my tree it was high on the list of stories I wanted to check out.  The certificates for the two marriages were easy to obtain but they added to the mystery rather than solved it.  I even managed to get in contact with relatives of his first wife, only to find that she was quite a mystery to them too and they didn't know about her marriage to my Grandfather.   Today the first of a series of articles about the case has been released on Trove and I can finally confirm that the story was tr...