1867 Flood

Over the years I have been searching for the death of Mary Ann Russell nee Gransden and her husband William Russell. To date I have not been able to find them. The records that I do have for them seem to end in the mid to late 1860’s for both parents, although I still have some records to get which may shed some light on how long William Russell at least lived.

In the death records of their children, that I have, William is named as father but often Mary Ann is not named or known. This may indicate that the person who was giving information simply did not know it or it may indicate a bunch of other possibilities including desertion of her husband by Mary Ann, an early death etc.

One of the possibilities was an early death for whatever reason. In particular 1867 is a possibility. In this year there was a large flood across the majority of NSW, plus an extremely cold winter. A lot of people lost their lives and not all of those would have been recorded.

One eye witness account of the loss of life in those floods is included below as it was in the Bathurst Newspaper of the day. Mary and William were known to live around the Bathurst area. The family in this story were closer to Dubbo than Bathurst but deaths and problems with the rising river were happening all over NSW at this time with some quite significant flood events happening at Bathurst and the immediate surrounds.

THE FLOODS.
DISASTROUS FLOOD AT BURRANDONG
Loss of Life
(The Bathurst Times)
Mr. W. H. Suttor has handed us the following letter,
written by his son Mr F.B. Suttor, from Burrandong,
dated 23rd June. The tale it tells adds another appalling
incident in the many gloomy disasters which have attended
the recent inundation and the appeal it makes to benevo-
lence, we are sure, it will not be addressed in vain. Mr
Suttor says: –
I am writing a few lines hoping that the river will be
low enough in the morning for the boats to work, so that
I may send this to the post. We had a most disastrous
flood, though we have not lost much-a hut and some fenc-
ing being all. The water was in some of the outbuild-
ings, but fortunately, did not reach the house. Three feet
more would have turned us out. We had everything ready
to move, and remained up all Friday night and a most
anxious night it was. The river, however began to fall
about daylight.
I have now to tell of a most heartrending calamity.
The hut of a shepherd of Mr Blunden, named Baker,
who lived near the junction of the Mudgee River got sur-
rounded before he and his family could move (the water
rising six feet in ten minutes, and out of eleven persons
all were drowned but three. Those saved are the oldest boy
and girl and father. Those drowned are the mother, five
boys, a baby (girl), and a married man named Smith, who
came to help them about dusk, just before the sudden rise
of water. At the first rush of the flood, they all got on to
the tables, then onto a loft, and then had to cut a hole in
the back and get on to the top of the roof . Here they re-
mained until the water reached their mouths, when the four
left alive swam to a tree. Smith not being able to swim,
sank as soon as he left the hut. The poor old father
(Baker) gives a most distressing account of the scene- how
he held his children in his arms, dropping them as they
died (of the cold he says) to take up others that were alive
until none were left. He says the dogs, cats, and fowls
kept swimming round them and jumping on them all the
time they were on the hut.
“The survivors were rescued about daylight by the brave
wife of the man Smith who pulled a boat about a mile to
the hut, and then took them to the shore. She heard
them cooeying for a long time, and started to try and save
them, which she had great trouble to effect, the current was
so strong”‘
The following particulars of the melancholy catastrophe
have been kindly furnished by Mr F. B. Suttor, who held
a magisterial inquiry into the matter –
Isaac Daniel Baker recognised the bodies as those of his
wife Mary Ann, aged about 43 years; of his seven children,
varying in age from 8 months to 13 years; and of Frede-
rick Smith. He deposed; “I am a shepherd in the employ
of Messrs Blunden, and live near the junction of the
Mudgee and Macquarie Rivers; on the 21st, when the
sheep came home, about 5 o’clock p.m., I went to the bank
of the Macquarie, to see how the river was, I saw it was
rising; there was some high ground at the back of the
sheepyard, where I had made a gateway to let the sheep
out in case of a flood, this was between my hut and the
river; we put in the sheep and I went in to supper with
all my family; I told my eldest son Moses we would have
to remain up all night to watch the flood, after we had
supper my two children who are now alive, went to see
the flood and returned and told me that the water was
coming very fast down the gully, and was within two or
three hundred yards from the hut; when I went out,
the deceased, Frederick Smith, was coming towards
the hut to render me assistance, he said the water
had risen six feet in the Mudgee River while he
was at supper, and asked me what I was going to do; I
said we shall get the children out; we went to the hut,
and I told my wife to get the] children ready, as the water
was coming round us fast but there was still dry ground;
in about ten minutes from that time when I went out again
I found that the water had entirely surrounded us, and
there was no possibility of escape; we then all went into
the hut, I fastened the door and about twenty minutes
afterwards the water began to come in; I then put my wife
and children on the loft over the bedroom, and
stood on the table; I was not afraid, as I had
hopes that the water would not rise much higher;
at this time Frederick Smith was sitting on one of the
beams of the loft; when the water reached the
table I got off and sat on another beam, in about three
quarters of an hour the water rose to the top of the wall
plate, I then got a tomahawk and cut a hole in the bark
of the roof, the deceased Frederick Smith got out first,
I handed the children out to him, and the rest followed,
when I got out the moon had just risen, and there was no
land to be seen; I then cooeyd for the first time, it being
then about 9p.m.; we were all cooeying, and in about
three quarters of an hour heard a voice in the distance and
thought it was from Mrs Smith, wife of the deceased F.
Smith, they lived on the Mudgee River, about a third of a
mile from my hut; the water at this time about ten feet
above the floor of the hut, a short time after this, I heard
Mrs Smith call out and ask if Fred (her husband) was
all right; I called loudly for help, and told her to go to Mr
Blunden’s for the boat; we thought she understood us, and
her husband told us not to shout any more as it might
bother her; some time after, as the water still rose fast, I
cooeyed again, and she anwered. I then felt sure she had
not gone to Blunden’s; when the water reached the
ridge pole on which we were sitting, seeing
no possibility of escape I told the children
to pray; we all joined in prayer; we were all
composed but one ltttle boy, who was crying; the water
continued to rise, and we had to stand on the ridge-pole,
about half-past 3 in the morning the first of the children
died-Fredenck, seven years old the water then being up
to my middle, he was not drowned but died of cold, just
after this my boy Daniel, aged 13 years, said “God
Almighty bless you all, I cannot stand it any
longer”‘ I held him till he was dead, the next to die
were John Isaac, aged 5, and Thomas Edwin, aged 3
years, they were in the arms of my son Moses, who said
“Father, these two children are dead-what shall I do
now?” I said, “Go to the tree while you have strength
so that someone may live to tell the tale”, he said,
“Father, I believe I shall be the only one saved”, he
then kissed me, and swam safely to the tree, which was
about twenty yards from the hut; I called to him that
his mother was still alive, and that I would hold her as long
as there was life in her; Some time after this my
wife died, and I let her go; I then went to take the baby
from my daughter Cecilia, but she said, ” No, father, you
cannot hold her better than me, and I cannot hold her
much longer;” I then kissed her telling her to hold the
baby as long as she could, and then to swim to where her
brother was; I swam to the tree and with the assistance
of my son Moses, got on the limbs; a very short time after
I heard a splash, and Cecilia calling for help, I heartened
her to strike out, and she came within arm’s length of us;
my son Moses leaned over, caught her, and pulled her up
the tree; the water was up to her chin when she was
washed off the hut, and she dropped the baby; Andrew
William, aged 9 years, died just before I left the hut, about
that time, also, the deceased F. Smith, who was holding
Henry Shadrach, aged 11 years, told me the boy was dead;
I said, “You have done all you can, you must try
to shift for yourself – can you swim?” he said,
“No, give me what directions you can-I may
have a chance;” I did so, and he started for the
tree, but sank at a short distance; about sunrise, Mrs.
Smith, wife of the deceased F. Smith, came in a boat by
herself, and released my son Moses (17 years), mydaughter
Cecilia (15), and myself-the only survivors of our family-.
and brought us to dry land.
Mary Anne Smith deposed to the difficulties she met in
bringing the station boat to the rescue, without assistance,
as soon as daylight permitted, and the exhausted state of the
unfortunate survivors.
It is to be hoped that charitable persons will forward
subscriptions to the aid of Mrs. Smith, now left a widow
with five young children. This brave woman has great
claims on her fellow-creatures, not only on account of her
destitution, but for the noble way in which she put off in
her log canoe into the roaring flood in the hopes of saving
the lives of others at the risk of her own, the water at the
time being fully fifty foot above its usual level.
The bodies of Mrs. Baker and her seven childron were all
found near the hut when the water subsided, and presented
a heartrending spectacle. They will be taken to Welling-
ton for interment.
1867 ”E FLOODS.’, The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), 2 July, p. 2. , viewed 08 Mar 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13149675

Aside

In Honour of Women’s History Month

As I wrote two blog posts yesterday and I haven’t put a new family story up for some time I decided to put up a new family story today. So instead of writing up a new blog post I have written Mary Ann Gransden nee Stones story and put it up under family stories.

Schoolmistress

For all the courageous women who make up our Families and our Family Trees.

Linda Bean nee Pratt

I have put up my Eulogy to Linda Bean a number of posts back. It was a post more about how I felt about her life and death than the actual details of her life and death. However, it is now Women’s History Month so I am going to put up the Eulogy that was said at her service. That Eulogy recognises the ups and downs of her life including the fact that Linda had a terribly debilitating mental health disorder. Despite this, Linda had an eventful life and unlike many of the women of her time she worked before she was married and then when her marriage started to fall apart she went back to work to support both herself and her children.

Linda Dorothy (nee Pratt) Bean 28-12-1918

Linda Dorothy (nee Pratt) Bean

Linda Bean nee Pratt

Linda was born on 28 December 1918 at Ariah Park in NSW. She was the third daughter of Emily and William Pratt.

Linda was educated at San Souci Primary School and later at Crown Street Girl’s School.

After leaving school, Linda worked in a variety of jobs including a position as a stock clerk with David Jones.

On 4th April 1942, Linda married Raymond Percy Bean. After the birth of her three children, Linda trained as a nursing sister at the Concord Repatriation General Hospital and also at the Rachel Forster Hospital at Redfern. In 1967, Linda took on post graduate training at the St George District Hospital at Kogarah, where she obtained her Geriatric Nursing Certificate, after which she spent six years in District Nursing.

When Linda divorced, she became involved in a series of staff nursing appointments, with the British Motor Company, David Jones production Unit and with Pye Industries where she looked after the health of some 1,000 workers.

In her more senior years, Linda displayed characteristics of paranoia which had the affect of alienating family members, friends and associates. This caused her to become increasingly isolated and withdrawn. She spent her last years in the Presbyterian Aged Care facilities at Paddington and Ashfield.

Linda’s family was not aware until recent years that she was suffering from mental illness including schizophrenia. They felt regret that if they had known earlier about her condition, they may have been prompted to find better health care for her. Lind’s experience shows that there needs to be a better understanding of mental illness in the wider community and how it can affect families and carers. Also there needs to be improved communication between health professionals and close family members when a loved one is suffering from mental illness.

Prior to her battle with mental illness, Linda was very caring towards her family and to those whom she nursed in the wider community. She was artistic and had a great love of art, music and politics. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her.

Linda Bean nee Pratt

Linda Bean nee Pratt

Women’s History Month.

March is National Women’s History Month. So here is a very good article to celebrate Women’s History Month.

It is important to realise that women are often not heard in history. They were there and they participated in history but history mainly focusses on men. This is because men were the ones who were allowed to participate and also because how women participated and what happens to them is often missed out entirely. Men write the history or have in the past, thus men are the ones who are focussed on in history. This is changing but we have centuries of women’s history to make up and we will never have more knowledge of Women in History than we do of men in History.

Women’s history if often called ‘Little history’ because it is the history of day to day life and not of great events. But that does not make it any less valuable. I hope you enjoy some of the many stories about women in history below.

Some interesting articles about women and their role in history can be found below;

 

The Thrill of the Hunt: Or going the round about route to find ancestors.

Today I found another branch of the family.

Every now and then every Genealogist hits a brick wall. Over the years I have hit many. One that has taken a very long time to break down is what happened to the siblings of Percy Bean. One married a Mtichell, one married a Brown and Horace of course kept the Bean surname and married Elsie Maude Payne. None of these surnames is exactly uncommon and try searching for Bean on most databases and see how many types of edible beans you have to exclude.

Many years ago through round about methods I found one child, Valerie, for Horace and Elsie. Unfortunately because of when births deaths and marriages get released I could find no details for this family other than the name of the daughter. I found that through a newspaper cutting of Elsie Bean nee Payne’s fathers death. It happened to mention his granddaughter Valerie, daughter of Horace and Elsie Bean.

I looked for Valerie and for a death for Elsie but without the relevant birth, deaths and marriages available I just wasn’t getting very far. So I left it. Last night I started looking again on Ancestry. I came across a family tree on Ancestry.com that had some limited details of Elsie and even a photo of her and her family from when she was young.

Family portrait of the Payne Family Front row in order: Florence , Hilda, Ada, Walter snr Back row: Walter jnr, Vera, Elsie and Violey. Shared by trishandjeff 16 Jun 2013 on Ancestry.com

Family portrait of the Payne Family Front row in order: Florence , Hilda, Ada, Walter snr Back row: Walter jnr, Vera, Elsie and Violey.
Shared by trishandjeff 16 Jun 2013 on Ancestry.com

On contacting the family that had shared the original photo they were able to get me a death date for Elsie Bean nee Payne. Interestingly enough it was right there easy to find on Ancestry but somehow I had managed to miss it repeatedly. However, for some reason that death was what I needed. It didn’t give me much information but it helped me search outside the box. I started looking for Valerie and her husband who had an unusual surname. I came across more and more and finally found Valerie’s death and that for her husband who died just last year in 2015. I even found a photo of him receiving an Honorary Doctorate.

 Honorary Doctorate UTS August 1988 newsroom Ronald Werner.


Honorary Doctorate UTS August 1988 newsroom Ronald Werner.

From there I was able to locate and contact a son of Ronald and Valerie and I have sent them lots of information about the Bean family in the hope that they will also have some information to share that will help me shed some light on this family.

After such a success with Horace’s family I went searching for Lily and Ethel’s family. My search has not been as successful but I do have additional information coming for both families and I did manage to build up my family tree further. It is amazing how sometime just going at things from a different angle can make so much of a difference to what we find.

Good luck finding your ancestors- remember sometimes searching for siblings or children can be more enlightening than searching for the person themselves.

Camouflage

As a child I remember my grandfather, Ray Bean, telling me about his time during the War. He was unable to join the armed services because he only had one eye, the other was glass, so instead he stayed in Sydney. However, he then made the choice to serve in a way that worked best for him.

Ray Bean was a professional photographer and he had an artists eye for detail, even if it was only one of them. So like many artists of the day he helped with Camouflage. Stories that he told me included being aware that in the air to camouflage something like an aerial is not what you expect. You don’t just camouflage the aerial because that is already very hard to see in the air, what you have to camouflage is the shadow as that is very distinctive. So he described making what would look like trees from the air but on the ground were just a jumble of wire with green material stuck in it. This would be placed around the base of the aerial in a circle large enough to disrupt and distort the shadow as it went around on the ground.

Grandpa also talked about hiding things like tanks and aircraft by building fake buildings around them. In once particular case he was engaged in hiding the shadow of an aerial and he and the men he was working with were thirsty. So grandpa decided to go down to a farm house they could see a couple of kilometres away. However, as he walked closer and closer he realised that there was something wrong with the farm house. It turned out that it was a fake and that it was there to hide an aeroplane.

Recently there was a documentary on the ABC about camouflage in WW2. A group of Sydney artists got together and were lead by a person called Dupain who formed a Camouflage group to work with the Armed Forces to camouflage anything that the Armed Forces needed to Camouflage. This sounded very like what my grandfather may have done. However, on writing to Ann Elias from Sydney University who has published a book and a number of papers on this subject it appears unlikely that my Grandfather was part of that group. So back to the drawing board.

If you are interested in Ann Elias work there are some good articles;

Wednesday Wills- people who are disinherited

Two in one week. I have come across two Wills this week where a son has been disinherited in their parents Will.

Alfred Smith

The first was Alfred Smith. His father John Smith, aka Gentleman Smith was born James Sidebottom, probably in Manchester or the surrounds. He was convicted in 1809 and sentenced to Transportation in Australia. The court details for his conviction in 1809 do not detail what he was convicted for. However, within the family there is some thought that he may also be the James Sidebottom who was convicted, and sentenced and then reprieved in 1806 for stealing a waistcoat. There is also mention of being sent to Australia because of duelling. Based on his later activities and extremely good handwriting, it is certain that James Sidebottom was a very well educated man.

After arriving in Australia James Sidebottom escaped and managed to get back to England. Obviously this didn’t suit him as only a few years later James Sidebottom, then calling himself John Smith, was convicted again and sentenced again to Transportation. Once in Australia James Sidebottom, now calling himself John Smith, eventually became a pillar of Society, to some extent and amassed a fortune in land, hotels and other property.

So you would think that this man, who had the most chequered of chequered paths would be sympathetic to a son who was a bit of a hell-raiser. But no, instead John Smith writes his son Alfred Smith out of his Will. How can we tell then that Alfred Smith is John Smiths son? Because he writes him back in a codicil at the same time as he changes his will to limit another one of his sons inheritances. However, by writing Alfred back in, not all is forgiven, he writes him in only in the enjoyment of an allowance during his life and all of the property that provided his allowance is then Willed away from Alfred’s children when he dies. So, not only does John curtail his son but he then inflicts his sons punishment, not so much on his son, but on his descendants.

Codicil, last page of the Will of John Smith. This section re-instates Alfred Smith under certain conditions.

Codicil, last page of the Will of John Smith. This section re-instates Alfred Smith under certain conditions. Source- Norma Warnecke, photo copy and transcription of original Will.

 

Percy Bean

For years I have had my suspicions about the Bean family and Percy Bean. I don’t know what made me wonder but there seemed to be a conflict between Percy Bean and the rest of the Bean siblings and family. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. He seemed to be missing from a lot of the records of the family when they were together as a whole. This is odd because he is my direct ancestor so I would have expected to find more information with him specifically because he was the person I was looking for. But no. When Percy’s father died there was an immediate response in the paper from Leonard Beans wife and other three children. Percy’s response came three days later and was very muted. But maybe he was in another part of town or away etc?

Then I came across Annie Bean’s Will. Annie Bean was the wife of Leonard Bean and she died a considerable time after Leonard. In her Will Annie refers to her beloved children and she names her three younger children. Her eldest son Percy, his family and children are not mentioned at all. He was obviously at least present for his fathers burial but by the time his mother died he isn’t even in her Will.

Annie Bean must of at least known of the birth of her four Grandchildren by Percy as they lived just over 5km apart. Yet Annie does not mention Percy or his children in her Will. Although our branch of the family have one surviving photograph of one of Percy’s siblings we are not in contact with any of the others. I do not know if we will ever find out what caused the split and why Percy was written out of his mothers Will.

Annie Bean Will 1928.

Annie Bean Will 1928. NSW State Archives. Annie Bean – Date of Death 10/12/1928, Granted On 14/05/1929 Series 4-158736

 

Death Certificates

I love Death Certificates. Just like marriage certificates and birth certificates they can come up with all sorts of surprises. The most recent one I have found had those lovely words- inquest held and a date on the certificate.

Inquests could be held for a whole heap of reasons including; sudden or unnatural deaths, deaths in police custody, homicides, suicide or acts of violence and a number of other situations. If you want to find out more about inquests you can go here https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/guides-and-finding-aids/archives-in-brief/archives-in-brief-4

So the other day I received a couple of death certificate transcriptions and on one, under reason for death was this startling piece of information;-

HAEMORRHAGE FROM A CUT THROAT, WILFULLY SELF ADMINISTERED FINDING AT AN INQUEST HELD AT SYDNEY ON 27 JUL 1953 – E J FORREST SM, CITY CORONER

This of course lead to the next question- what happened at the Inquest? Normally I would answer this question by sitting at my computer and hunting on Trove- http://trove.nla.gov.au/ but in this case there was nothing. Not all inquests were reported so this is not surprising. So my next step was to go to the NSW State Archives website. There to my joy was an index to the inquest I was after and the contents of the whole document were kept at the Archives. So off to the Archives for me.

At the Archives I ordered a copy of the inquest. This was a slender document that held only a couple of pages but all of them were very relevant. They included the depositions of witnesses including the wife of the deceased.

Inquests can have photos so if you go looking for them be prepared. Frequently they do not have photos and they just have descriptions but you never know what you are going to find. In this case there were no photos, but there were some graphic descriptions.

The person who had killed himself had done so by cutting his own throat with a cut throat razor. Although there were no photos there were references to the ‘bloody razor’ that had obviously been presented in Court as part of the evidence. There were accounts of the police man who had first arrived at the scene, the apprentice who had tried to help the deceaseds wife and the wife who the deceased had tried to smother before she climbed out the window to safety.

As a document this inquest was full of very useful information, as  a piece of family history as recent as 1953, this is a document that should be viewed and commented on here with respect and without impact on the family members it concerns most deeply. So, no names on this one and no tags to the relevant family.

Enjoy looking at your death certificates, they can hold all sorts of surprises.

Marriage Certificates

When you first hear about marriage certificates when learning about genealogy you just sort of think Oh yes I know about them. They give a bit of information but are they really useful for anything aside of figuring out the next step in my research? The answer is of course both a yes and a no. The answer also ranges depending upon when and where your marriage certificate comes from.

For example, some of the early marriage certificates I have give just a line saying the name of the two people, not much more than what is on an index in later years. More recently still I get a little bit more information like this one between John and Sarah Gransden.

John Gransden and Sarah Wood marriage registration.

John Gransden and Sarah Wood marriage registration.

Even this registration gives some details. The fact that both are from the Parish of Strood in Kent, the date, of course and two people who were important to the couple in some way. This can always lead to extra places to research.

So what about a more modern marriage certificate. In the UK these give useful information like the parents of the couple about to get married and their birth dates. In Australia we get even more details. We get things like a place of abode, parents and a bunch of different bits and pieces. All of which can be used to take your research just that little bit further. For example, you now have the parents of both parties, you can go and look them up. You also have a place of abode, that is a whole area of research all together that can be totally fascinating. In Australia try putting some of the address details into Trove trove.nla.gov.au and you never know what you will come up with.

Elizabeth Carter and Edward Weston marriage 1866

Elizabeth Carter and Edward Weston marriage 1866

Then there are the odd little bits and pieces that you only get every now and then. That marriage certificate that comes back with the word divorce scrawled across the top of it. When you have that one you know you have a marriage certificate that is going to reveal more to you about the people that you have been researching than you expected.

On the rare occasions that you get the word divorce on a marriage certificate, don’t let it go. Divorce records are held in all different locations. In Australia they are usually held by the Archives for that State. It is worth following up on this information and going and checking out your State Archives because it is rare that a divorce goes through, particularly the further back we go, without some information about the family going to the Courts. You may find names of children, you may find good things, you may find bad things. What you will find is more things.

Always remember with a divorce, prior to 1975 there was no ‘No Fault Divorce’ so often you will get only one side and you will get a negative experience. After all one or more people are trying to get out of a marriage and that was not easy. So you may only hear one side of a story. Don’t forget that is always a second side to that story and it is worth keeping an open mind.