Finding James Hardy - Part 3

HINT: DOUBLE CHECK THE FACTS
Going back to my original saved document from 3 years ago, I have James Hardy dying in Deloraine? But where did I get this from? I can indeed find a James Hardy dying in Deloraine in May 1900 (would have been deceased at the time of John's wedding). Now I am not sure how I have made a connection to Deloraine? 2011 was very early in my family researching days so perhaps I had just got that wrong?

Searching the Death indexes in Ancestry.com I have James Hardy 1881 infact dying in Westbury, not Deloraine.

So one of my original facts is wrong. Is my James the James Hardy of 1881, dying in Westbury or perhaps the James Hardy death in May 1900 in Deloraine? If we assume that James is the James who had lived in Westbury (we know John and his siblings were born in Westbury) then the date has to be 1881 as we have the Trove article about the sale of his estate and possible caveats. I want to dismiss Deloraine information at this stage because I don't remember how I decided a Deloraine connection in the first place. But I'm not going to delete it completely as a possibility but I know I need more proof.

As I keep stumbling across James of Deloraine I'll add it here as it may turn out that I need him after all ... or someone else my need him! (Police Gazette 1900 gives James of Deloraine as being a farmer who accidentally drowned at the age of 83, 30 April 1900. From this he would have been born around 1817.)

There's my other James Hardy of Westbury as well ... Died 1869 at the age of 64 (so born around 1805), a native of Ireland, and buried at Westbury Roman Catholic Cemetery.


But we know another fact, Jane his wife was still living so can we find a clue about the spouses of any of these men?

HINT: FIND THE SPOUSE
At this stage I don't have a confirmed death date for Jane Hardy, because guess what? There's two of them as well living in the same place. The second Jane is James & Jane's daughter. Interestingly looking at two of Jane's children's names we find Ernest & Lilly (referencing back to the Cadman application for the Westbury property).

So what can we find in Trove and on Ancestry.com?

There is a convict named Jane Cadman, but since she was born about 1789 I think we can safely dismiss her a the mother of children born in 1851-1864. I can't find much more for Jane Cadman on Ancestry.com and searches for migrating Jane Hardy does my head in because I can find one migrating in 1850 but she's 12 and makes me realise there's another Jane Hardy to contend with.

So  what can we find in Trove for Jane Hardy of Westbury?

We find the story of an old pensioner farmer named JAMES HARDY!! living in Westbury in 1873 and his court case with a neighbour over some stray cows. [The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), Monday 18 August 1873, page 2, 3]. His wife who has a counter case against the plaintiff and her name is Jane!  This story gives us a couple with the right names, in the right place. It also helps us dismiss the information for James Hardy who at the time was already buried in the Westbury Cemetery.

James & Jane Hardy from Westbury had already been to court in 1869 after James' boots were stolen!

We find another story of Jane Hardy, almost 70, from Westbury who has fainted and broken her leg in May 1899. She was admitted to the Launceston General Hospital. This puts her birth year at about 1829. It also makes me more confident in dismissing the information about the Hardy's being from up the road (about 35km) in Deloraine.

And sadly, we discover in May 1901 Jane Hardy has died of exhaustion while being treated in hospital for cellulites of the leg (a bacterial infection of the skin).

With so many references I am confident in saying that these stories are definitely of my Great Great Grandparents and you have to be thankful for the newspaper reports for painting a little of their life and giving them something of a personality.

So we've found him. But what more can we discover? We still have no real idea when they married, when they came to Australia or even for that matter where and when they were born.