The Family Detective

You get to a point on your tree where you have to decide that you've reached your limits. For the Kelly line it ends with John Kelly. He is a name on some certificates. But I could write a simple story about him. How much is true needs to be established. In my story those words in red are information found in sources such as death certificates and newspapers. John Kelly came from an Irish background. He spent some time around the Campbelltown area before settling near Yass . He married Mary Kerasen (Kerrison?) and lived on the Bendinine estate. Their daughter was Mary Ann . The family lived close to where the Cotter Family lived on the estate and this may be a factor in Mary Ann marrying Edward Cotter . He lived in the area during some interesting times. Banjo Paterson was a boy, and his father managed the Bendinine estate. During this time the bushranger Johnny Gilbert was killed in a shoot out close to the edge of town. As I get more ... If I can get more, I can...

As mentioned in my previous post I no longer believed that the rest of the family history world were right about Mary Ann Kelly's parents being John Kelly & Mary Madigan and Mary Ann being born in 1850. It just didn't add up. Luckily Daffyd Cotter and P Teale have listened too. Both ordered certificates for Mary Ann's death and wedding and some interesting facts have come to life. YES, I've admitted before that death certificates can be a bit hit and miss but here are some new leads from the 2 certificates: Mary Ann Kelly Born in Campbelltown Father's Name: John Kelly Mother's Name: Mary Kerasen Living at time of marriage: Bendinine The ages & birth dates are still a muddle. The death certificate states married age was 20 (making her married in 1881 but our records show the marriage was in 1876. The death details would have her born around 1861. So we have a discrepancy of dates around 5 years. If she was married at age 20 in 1876 this would put...

There's a lot we know about Mary Ann Kelly. She was the wife of Edward Cotter (Son of Michael) and had many children. Her many grandchildren and great grandchildren have created family trees with details surrounding her birth and dates for her christening. But it is her death that makes me question the validity of the details of the trees and I think we need to look closer to find more proof. What we know from the newspapers: Her husband was Edward Cotter. She lived in Burgooney. She died on 5 December 1926 in West Wyalong, N.S.W. Australia. We know her children consisted of 8 sons & 3 daughters. [At the time of Edward's death a year later the papers reported 6 sons & 3 daughters were still alive in 1927] She was Church of England by faith and buried in a local cemetery Both newspapers state her age at 65. This would put her date of birth around 1861. However many family historians have claimed immigration records and christening records pur ou...

One thing you find as you search your family tree is that the more you look the more you find. Now that may seem like I'm stating the bleeding obvious but a few years ago I thought I'd hit a dead end looking for information on the residences of the early Cotters in Australia. But as the internet opens up even more you realise that places like "Taylors Creek" have about 15 different names!! Names for the first settlers properties (eg Wallah) and then as those properties grow or are divided then a creek may be named after the families (eg Taylor) and then an area grows up with that name (Eg Taylors Creek) but as time wears on the area is divided again possibly due to political or clerical reasons and then you find Taylors Creek is now Reids Flat or Rugby. Even the creeks had more than one name. So finding a few old maps and comparing the changes has given me more scope to look for information on the dwelling places of Michael Cotter (convict). I've opened this p...

On the evening of 19th March 1857 a travelling hawker set up camp beside a creek near Michael Cotter's hut. Michael Cotter worked as a shepherd and caretaker of Mrs Gibson's Taylor Creek property near Wallah Wallah and was still away from the hut at the time. At home was his wife and children. While sitting on a log, the hawker, Mr Thomas Kerr was approached by three men with blackened faces one who drew a double barrelled shotgun and another who drew a double barrelled pistol on him. Kerr was forced into the hut with the family while his dray was emptied of it's money till and a number of expensive items of clothing and cutlery. He was told to stay in the hut for half an hour and not raise the alarm to give the bushrangers time to escape, but it was then that Michael Cotter and a companion arrived home where they too were forced into the hut with the threat that they would "blow (his) brains out" should he look at them closely. In the morning Cotter helped ...

Indent descriptions used to create a "Mugsheet" of Michael Cotter on his arrival to NSW. My Third Great Grandfather Michael Cotter was yet another convict in my family tree. He was transported to Australia in 1831 for stealing a sheep. He was assigned to Mr Gibson from “ Tirranna” Goulburn Plains where he worked as a servant. During his time there he met Catherine, the daughter of fellow convict Patrick Dodd. After receiving his Ticket of Leave in 1836 he was granted permission to marry Catherine which they did on the 11th October that year. In 1851 Michael and Catherine had been married 14 years and had seven children. They had left Goulburn and were living near Wheeo a farming hamlet where the “Ashfield Tavern” had had a history of bushranger guests including Frank Gardiner and his gang. The population of the area was small but made up mainly of Irish immigrants. On St Patrick’s Day Catherine, Michael and his friend   John Carroll went to the “Ashfield Taver...

VISIT THE PLACES YOUR ANCESTORS LIVED In 3 hours time I'll be boarding a plane headed toward Tasmania. While the trip is not one for the purpose of family research, it is no coincidence that our travels will take us via James Hardy country and the township of Westbury. I have been rereading my posts in preparation for the trip, and did some more searches in Trove. Of course the first thing I find is another advertisement for sale of land "originally owned by James Hardy". Well of course ... I hadn't been thinking at all last time. If the land given to James was of a substantial size, then the blocks I can see in Westbury are probably acre lots and have been subdivided over time. I shall spend the next few spare hours of our journey trying to pinpoint all the land allocated to James.  It seems that he may have started selling lots prior to his death (and roads had already been laid down) from some of the other ads I have read. Perhaps this should be part 6, but I...

A recent car trip took me through the gold areas around Beechworth. From my maternal Great Grandmother's wedding certificate I already knew that this was an area where family lived, but having researched very little of the details of their life, I didn't even feel there was a place I should visit and think about my relatives. I have a lot on my ancestry tree about Janet Scott (my maternal grandfather's grandmother) - but most of it was collected in my early days of family research and as I look at it I actually wonder what is true, and what is not. I also have connected to the record parents who I really don't know are her parents and siblings who I don't know are her siblings. I'm not even sure about her birth details (place or date). Janet and her family lived in different places around the Victorian and NSW borders so it means having to search in both state's records. A search of family trees in Ancestry.com.au also shows a lot of others have confus...

3 weeks shy of 3 years ago I knew a lot about my Great Great Grandfather James Hardy. I saved a file about him and then I got side tracked with some other branch of the tree. James was always hard work and so was his son John as they both lived in an area with someone of the same name and some other similar details that made it hard to determine which was my James and which was their James. This is what I saved for James Hardy: Born: Ireland 1828 Immigrated: 1851 on the "Cornwall" Married: Jane Cadman: Unknown details Lived: 89 Marriott Street, Westbury, Tasmania Occupation: Retired Military Soldier from the 66th or 77th Regiment Died Deloraine, Tasmania, 1881 Some other facts I remember but didn't save information for included James was given a retirement fund as a soldier that included some land, a pear tree and a well. James was not the convict James Hardy Vaux and there was another James Hardy in Westbury at the same time. His regiment was a foot regime...

HINT: ASSUME YOU'VE FOUND THEM! Of course I need more facts to prove this is James, but I start my search for facts by just assuming this IS James. From here I can start looking for other things using "details" I know about James. These are my new facts (assumed of course!) James & Jane Hardy live at Pensioner Row, Westbury Tasmania James died late 1880 or early 1881 So now, I'm sticking to Trove and I punch in Hardy Pensioner Row Westbury and can I say BINGO again? This is where I always get a flutter of excitement. I find this ad from 1954!!! Seems odd .. but can you see what I see? Yes, it's the same piece of land that had been owned by James Hardy but see the applicants?  ERNEST JOHN CADMAN and LILA MAY CADMAN. CADMAN!!! Can this simply be a coincidence? I myself prefer to imagine that Ernest is a little sentimental and has decided he's buying his Great Aunty Jane's farm!!! (Of course Jane may have previously been married and this i...

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 r...

HINT: NARROW YOUR GOOGLE SEARCHES I imagine my posts documenting my search for James Hardy could get very extensive before I'm actually able to write his story. I'm always glad I didn't come a family of John Smith Jnr Jnr .. I can imagine how hard it would be to find anything. James Hardy has been common enough for me to be confused a lot. But now I feel like I have some solid dates and facts I can start putting those into google to get better results. Just typing James Hardy into google brings up 81, 700, 000 results. If I smarten my search by using quotation marks around the name, I'm already down to 385, 000 results. Now this is my search term - "James Hardy" Westbury military and I'm down to 8, 400 possibilities and some of the names and information jumping out at me is starting to look promising with what I already know about a James and his family. The first link takes me to Rootsweb and I have rediscovered the information (but no proof for ...

After disembarking from the Planter at Sydney Cove, Sarah was transported to Parramatta by boat and then walked a short distance further along the river to the Female Factory. Sarah probably lived at the factory, although some of the females were housed nearby and went to the factory everyday for work. We know from the records that Sarah was a dressmaker and this was most likely done at the Factory. It was expected that she would have made 9 pieces of clothing a week that would be sold to the public. If Sarah made more than her quota she would be able to earn 9 pence for every extra article made. (from the book The Great Shame: A Story of the Irish in the Old World and the New ). Female Factory to the left with St John's Church in the centre of picture Women were divided into 3 classes at the factory. Class One, were females eligible for assignment, may have earned a wage if something was available and could also receive friends on visiting days. They also had the right to ...

Sarah spent  4 months at sea onboard the HMS Planter . Captain F B Manning's journal showed life on the ship to be almost idyllic. Unlike many other journeys, there were no deaths on board. There was also one birth.Throughout the voyage the prisoners were kept on deck when the weather permitted from 7 o'clock in the morning until sunset. On the voyage schools were strictly attended. According to the surgeon a great many learned to read and write that could not previously do coming on board. Sarah's records mostly indicate she is illiterate, and can only sign her name with a mark. However, her gaol entrance record for 1846 states she can read and write. Most of the convicts had been employed as housemaids, kitchen maids, cooks, dairymaids, children's maids, laundresses, dressmakers and needlewomen and like Sarah, their crimes were nearly all various forms of stealing.On board, needlework and dancing generally occupied most of the day. The women were in good heal...