Michael Howlett and Mary Ann McNamara

Michael and Mary in Wales

Michael and Mary were married on 31/8/1872 at the Ebbw Vale Roman Catholic Church, in the Bedwelty district of the county of Monmouth. The groom was a 29 year old bachelor and the bride a 26 year old widow. On the marriage certificate the bride's name was first written as Mary Ann McMahon, but then "Mahon" was crossed out and replaced by "namara". The name of the bride's father was similarly converted from Donald McMahon to Donald Mcnamara. At first I thought that perhaps there had been some confusion as to whether the bride should use her maiden name or the name of her deceased husband, and so I guessed that her first husband was a McMahon. But that guess was wrong, and now I believe that her first husband was named Patrick O'Donnell. The name McMahon on the certificate was just an error; apparently the priest was temporarily confused. The bride's name should really have been given as Mary Ann O'Donnell; why she chose to use her maiden name is unclear.

In the space on the marriage certificate for the groom's signature the words "the mark of Michael Howlett" are written, and his X appears alongside them. In the space for the bride's signature, however, it just says "Mary Ann Mcnamara", and there is no accompanying X, so that superficially it looks as though she actually signed it. However, it looks to me as though everything written on the certificate was written by the same hand.

The witnesses, Michael and Mary Connors, both "marked" the certificate in the same manner as the groom. The groom and his father (William Howlett) and the bride's father were all described as "General labourers". The name of the priest was E. J. Sheehy.

On the birth certificate of the couple's first child, Philip John Howlett, the family surname is given as "Hulet". The birth was registered on 20/5/1874, the informant being "Mary Hulet, Mother, Newtown Ebbw Vale", and she stated that her maiden name was Mary Ann Macnamara.

RootsIreland.ie have recently (October 2011) made County Waterford catholic baptismal records searchable online, with Wexford to come soon. A search turned up one Mary Ann McNamara baptized in 1855, which looked promising, but her father's name was Nicholas. Searching the whole of Ireland for baptisms of Mary Ann McNamaras with father named Donald or Donal produced no hits. So unless the father's forename on the marriage certificate is wrong, my Mary Ann McNamara is not in RootsIreland.ie's database. I also searched for marriages of Donald or Donal McNamaras without success (although County Waterford marriages are not available yet), but there was one Donal McNamara baptized in Limerick in 1809, and I guess it is possible that he was my ancestor. It is also possible, I suppose, that my ancestors went to the Church of Ireland for baptisms and marriages, even though I am sure that they were basically catholic.

I await the release of Wexford records.

An essay by Louise Maskell, 'Reassessing the anti-Irish riot: popular protest and the Irish in south Wales, c.1826-1882' (in Irish migrants in modern Wales, Paul O'Leary ed., Liverpool University Press, 2003), tells me that Ebbw Vale was the scene of an anti-Irish riot on Christmas Day in 1879. In particular, the Irish district of Newtown suffered. The essay quotes a policeman's evidence against the rioters, as follows:

Fortunately for Michael and Mary, they had left Ebbw Vale before these events took place. Perhaps anti-Irish sentiment in Wales was one of their reasons for emigrating to Australia.

On 28/7/1876, Michael and Mary Ann Howlett and three children sailed from Plymouth on the ship Lady Jocelyn, bound for South Australia. The children's names were Mary, Patrick and Philip. A record of the ship's arrival in South Australia on 11/10/1876 gives the ages of Michael and Mary Ann as 26 and 24 respectively – ages that are inconsistent with the marriage certificate and their death certificates – and the children's ages as 8 (Mary), 5 (Patrick) and 3 (Philip). It is evident that Mary and Patrick were children of their mother's first marriage. It is recorded that Patrick died on the voyage.

Henceforth on this page "Mary Howlett" will mean Michael's wife, and the other Mary will be referred to as "Mary O'Donnell" to avoid confusion. However, I think that actually it is likely that Mary O'Donnell was generally known as Mary Howlett prior to her marriage.

The Advertiser, 11/11/1899

The Register, 11/2/1897

Michael Howlett died on 24/3/1910 and Mary Howlett died on 29/10/1915; both are buried at Willaston. Their death certificates say that Michael was born in Wexford, Ireland, and Mary was born in Waterford, Ireland. Their ages at death are given as 67 and 72 respectively. The 67 is consistent with the marriage certificate, but the 72 is not. Perhaps Mary had understated her age in 1872, or perhaps the informant of the death did not actually know her age.

The death certificates also say that in 1910 Michael had 2 sons and 2 daughters living, none deceased, and in 1915 Mary had 2 sons and 3 daughters living, two sons deceased. One of these deceased sons was Patrick; the other, presumably an older brother of Patrick, must have died as an infant. Michael and Mary must have had one son and two daughters after arriving in South Australia, and Mary O'Donnell must have still been alive in 1915.

It seems that only two children of Michael Howlett and Mary Ann MacNamara appear in South Australian birth registration records: Ellen Howlett was born on 29/8/77, and Thomas Howlett was born on 11/8/80. Both births were registered in Lyndoch, District of Barossa. The remaining daughter appears in South Australian marriage records: Bridget Gertrude Howlett, daughter of Michael Howlett, was married in Gawler in 1906.

I conjecture that the photo above shows Michael and Mary Howlett and one of their daughters at their Willaston home. My brother thinks that the house looks right: he has a memory of our father pointing out the house (which was Dad's home to the age of about 9) one day when we drove through Willaston, perhaps on a trip to Adelaide from our home (in Booleroo Centre or Riverton, depending on when this happened). Although the photo was found amongst our mother's possessions, she did not recognise either the people or the house; so they are presumably not connected with her side of the family.

Electoral rolls from 1909 and 1913 give Mary Howlett's address as Bright Street, Willaston, but unfortunately the house number is not given. We walked up and down Bright Street but did not find a house that looked quite right (although there were two or three houses of a similar style). However, since the photo above is probably a rear view of the house, we can only guess what it looks like from the street.

If the photo does indeed show Michael and Mary Howlett and one of their daughters, then I conjecture that the daughter is Ellen, and that the photo was taken in about 1908. At that time Michael and Mary would have both been in their mid-sixties, and Ellen's sister and half-sister were both married.

Some supporting evidence for these conjectures has come to light, in the form of another photo – sent to me be a second cousin – showing what could well be the same house and garden. The writing on the back says "Aunt Amy, Willaston", and there is no doubt that the woman in the photo is Ambrosine Adelia Howlett. The date would have to be around 1920, by which time Michael and Mary had both died and their Willaston house had passed to their son Philip. The house seems to have acquired a verandah in the interim, but there is no reason why it should not have. The garden looks remarkably similar.

Aunt Amy, Willaston

We now discuss the children of Michael and Mary, and their families.

Philip

Philip John Howlett with sister Nell

Ellen

My mother told me that when she first met my father's family (about 1940) it included a woman known as "Aunt Nell", who was a sister of Philip John. Evidently this Aunt Nell was Ellen Howlett. My mother only met Aunt Nell once, and thought she seemed rather strange, possibly somewhat retarded. South Australian death records told me that she died on 16/2/1949 at Marino. And subsequently a photograph turned up in an old box showing (according to the writing on the back) Philip John Howlett with sister Nell.

Tom

The son Thomas may be the T. J. Howlett buried in the Kyancutta cemetery, with an inscription that reads "HOWLETT, T.J., erected to the memory of, by his fellow workers, died January 17, 1928, aged 47 years." The death of a Thomas Howlett is recorded in the Government Gazette of 1928. South Australian death records say that he died at Warramboo and was unmarried. Warramboo is on the Eyre Peninsula railway line, near Kyancutta, and it seems likely that Thomas was an employee of the railways.

According to a record submitted to the I.G.I. the Thomas Howlett who was born in Lyndoch on 11/8/1880 married one Elsie May Arthur. However, this is incorrect. In fact, Elsie Arthur married a different Thomas Howlett. Specifically, she married a 43 year old Thomas Herbert Howlett, son of Henry Howlett, on 28/8/1918.

A woman named Margaret Amelia Magor, who was born on 13/7/1865 and married Meds Oeder Georg Valdemar Hansen on 31/12/1892, had two children by a Thomas Howlett: one in 1896 and one in 1898. I do not believe that this was "my" Thomas Howlett, as he would have been a bit young for her, and was presumably living in Willaston, whereas these children were born in Adelaide. A woman named Catherine Judge, who was born on 15/10/1866 and married William Trezise on 21/1/1885, had five children by a Thomas Howlett between 1900 and 1908. William Trezise had died in the 1890's, but I could not find a record of a marriage between Catherine Judge or Trezise and Thomas Howlett. But again my Thomas Howlett was probably too young to be this Thomas Howlett, and also living in the wrong place.

I am persuaded that my Thomas was the one that died at Warramboo. Presumably his fellow workers knew nothing about Thomas' relatives, and so it could well be that his siblings did not learn of his death until months after the event. His estate was administered by the public trustee.

The Advertiser, 15/1/1896

The Advertiser, 3/5/1928

Bridget

The federal electoral roll for 1905 lists six Howletts living at Willaston. These definitely are my relatives! They are Michael and Mary, Philip John and Ambrosine Adelia, Ellen, Thomas and Bridget Gertrude. Clearly Bridget Gertrude was the other daughter of Michael and Mary whose existence was reported on their death certificates.

Bridget Gertrude Howlett, daughter of Michael Howlett, married John Michael Leuwin Kempton, son of John Leuwin Kempton, on 16/4/1906. The groom was 26 and the bride 23. A John Leuwin M. Kempton appears in the 1905 federal electoral roll; he was a baker, and his address was Block Road Willaston. I found birth registration records for three children: Rita Mary Ellen, born 4/1/1907 at Urania, Gertrude May, born 21/6/1909 at Willaston, and William Lawrence, born 28/9/1910 at Willaston. There was also a Lewen M C Kempton who died in 1908, aged 2 months, buried at Willaston on 21/4/1908.

Frustrated by the fact that I could not find any more registration records relating to these Kemptons, I looked for them in the 1913 South Australian Electoral Rolls. Although I did not find Kemptons, by chance I noticed John Michael and Bridget Gertrude Kimpton living at Willaston, and then when I looked again in the births, deaths and marriages indices I found many records of Kimptons. There was a Leeuwin Michael Clive Kimpton, son of John Michael Leeuwin Kimpton and Bridget Gertrude Howlett, born on 21/1/1908 at Noarlunga; clearly he was the Lewen M C Kempton buried at Willaston in April of that year. There was also a Ronald Thomas Kimpton, son of John Michael Leuwin Kimpton and Bridget Gertrude Howlett, born on 29/10/1911, a Doreen Lily Kimpton, daughter of John Lewin Michael Kimpton and Bridget Gertrude Howlett, born on 1/2/1913, a Lionel Philip Kimpton or Philip Lionel Kimpton, son of John Michael Leuwin Kimpton and Bridget Gertrude Howlett, born on 26/3/1914, a Murray Malcolm Kimpton, son of John Michael Lewin Kimpton and Bridget Gertrude Howlett, born on 22/12/1915, and an Ila Muriel Joyce Kimpton, daughter of John Michael Lewin Kimpton and Bridget Gertrude Howlett, born on 3/4/1920. These births were all at Willaston. And John Michael Lewin Kimpton died at Willaston on 11/11/1964, aged 85 (buried 12/11/1964), and Bridget Gertrude Kimpton died at Willaston on 12/12/1968, aged 86.

Grave of Lew and Bridget

Note that the headstone on Bridget Kimpton's grave calls her the "wife of J. M. Lew"; so we can presumably deduce that John Michael Lewin Kimpton was generally known as Lew.

Genealogy SA has some information on the sons and daughters of Lew and Bridget. Lionel Philip died in 1994, Murray Malcolm in 1997, Ronald Thomas in 1990 and William Laurence in 1997. Ila Muriel Joyce Kimpton's married name was Causby, and she died in the year 2000.

I have not discovered anything further about Ronald Thomas Kimpton or William Laurence Kimpton.

— Gertrude May —

I found a marriage registration record for one of the children of Lew and Bridget: Gertrude May Kimpton, aged 28, married Wallis Raymond Bartel, aged 30, son of Charles Bartel, on 14/8/1937, at St Peter and Paul's Church, Gawler. Wallis Raymond Bartel died at age 41, and was buried on 27/05/1949 at Willaston. Remembrance notices in The Advertiser show that May and Wallis had children named Trevor, Pam and Pat.

The Advertiser, 27/5/1949 The Advertiser, 24/5/1952 The Advertiser, 27/5/1952

The Advertiser, 24/5/1950

"G. L. Kimpton", in the 24/5/1952 notice, must be a misprint for "J. L. Kimpton".

Headstone photos from Willaston cemetery are available online, courtesy of Beth Page. Wallis Bartel's headstone is shown below.

— Ila Muriel Joyce —

Joyce Kimpton and Claude Causby, both of Willaston, were engaged in December 1939. They married at St Peter and Paul's Church, Gawler, on 26/4/1941.

The Advertiser 5/12/1939

The Advertiser, 19/4/1941

The "T. Kimpton" in the marriage notice is clearly a misprint for "L. Kimpton". Not knowing that Ila Muriel Joyce was known as Joyce, or indeed that her father was known as Lew rather than John, I was initially unsure whether or not these newspaper notices referred to my relative. However, online burial information for Ila Muriel Joyce Causby shows that she died on 6/09/2000, aged 80, which is in agreement with the date of birth given above, and online burial information for Claude Thomas Causby shows that he died at age 62 and was buried in the Murray Bridge Cemetery on 28/03/1979. Claude Thomas Causby's last place of residence was 18 Alice Terrace, Murray Bridge.

A list of Murray Bridge Cemetery headstones includes that of Joyce and Claude Causby.

Joyce and Claude had a daughter named Bernadette Joyce, born in Gawler on 5/4/1943.

The Advertiser, 8/4/1943

— Lionel Philip —

Lionel Philip Kimpton married Greta Florence Pratt on 15/11/1941, at St Peter and Paul's Church, Gawler.

The Advertiser, 24/6/1940

The Advertiser, 8/11/1941

The Advertiser, 24/9/1942

Lionel Philip Kimpton died on 5/12/1994, and is buried at Willaston.

— Murray Malcolm —

Murray Malcolm Kimpton died on 5/9/1997, and his wife died 15 days later. Both are buried at Willaston. (I do not know Edna May's maiden name.)

— Lily Doreen —

Lily Doreen Kimpton married Alfred Michael Whitbread on 27/9/1941 at St Peter and Paul's Church, Gawler.

The Advertiser, 22/9/1941

Alfred Michael Whitbread died on 3/11/1979; Lily Doreen Whitbread died on 27/8/1992. They are buried at Willaston.

— Rita Mary Ellen —

Rita Mary Ellen Kimpton married John Joseph Simon, of Gumbowie, at St Francis Xavier's Cathedral, on 26/2/1838. This marriage made it into the social columns of The Advertiser, twice!

The Advertiser, 3/3/1938

The Advertiser, 1/4/1938

John Joseph Simon, from Gumbowie, died at age 66 and was buried at Willaston on 14/4/1965. Rita Mary Ellen Simon died on 22/2/1991, and is buried with her husband.

Mary

Believing that Mary, the daughter of Mary Ann McNamara by her first husband, was probably known as Mary Howlett, I searched marriage lists for a Mary Howlett of the right age. This was unsuccessful, and since I did not know her original surname I was stuck. But a search for children born in South Australia between 1895 and 1905 to women with maiden name Mary Ann Howlett uncovered four such children. These were Ilean Bridget Daley (11/5/1895) and James Roy Daley (17/7/1897), and Frederick William Schutze (19/3/1900) and Florence Elizabeth Schutze (11/7/1905). The fathers were James Daley and Frederick Daniel Schutze. I found the record of the marriage of Mary Ann Howlett and Frederick Daniel Schutze, and it transpired that this Mary Ann's father was a Robert Howlett. So that was not "my" Mary Ann. But then I discovered a record of the marriage of a James Daley, son of William Daley, to Mary Ann Donnel, daughter of Patrick Donnel, at the Catholic Church in Gawler on 19/9/1886. The groom was 27 and the bride 19, consistent with her being 8 in July 1876. And then I found several more birth records:

• Mary Margaret Daley, daughter of James Daley and Mary Ann ODonell, born 5/8/1887 at Willaston;
• Ruby Muriel Beatrice Daly, daughter of James Daly and Mary Ann ODDonnell, born 31/7/1891 at William Creek;
• William Philip Daley, son of James Daley and Mary Ann ODonnel, born 1/10/1892 at Willaston;
• Ilean Bridget Daley, daughter of James Daley and Mary Ann Howlett, born 11/5/1895 at Willaston;
• James Roy Daley, son of James Daley and Mary Ann Agnes Howlett, born 17/7/1897 near Williamstown;
• Amy Kathleen Lilly Daley, daughter of James Joseph Daley and Mary Ann Agnes Howlett, born 31/8/1899 at Williamstown;
• Rose Daly, daughter of James Daly and Mary Ann ODonell, born 30/4/1902 at Williamstown.

My conjecture that these children were full siblings has been born out by subsequent discoveries. Whether the mother's maiden name was registered as O'Donnell or Howlett was apparently a fairly random choice, perhaps dependent on who provided the information. And whether the name was actually Donnell or O'Donnell, and how many ells and ens it should have had, is anybody's guess.

Note that William Creek, near Lake Eyre, is very different from Williamstown, Barossa Valley.

A Mary Ann Daly died in Croydon Park, South Australia, on 7/10/1953. Her death certificate, shown above, provides the following information:

• — the cause of her death was senility;
• — she is buried in Centennial Park Cemetery, Springbank;
• — her residence at the time of her death was 22 Harley Road Croydon Park;
• — she was the widow of James Joseph Daly, a laborer;
• — she was 93 and had lived in Australia for 90 years;
• — at the time of her death she had four living sons, seven living daughters, and one deceased daughter;
• — she was born in Wales.

The fact that she was born in Wales supports the hypothesis that this Mary Ann Daly was Mary Ann O'Donnell, since Mary Ann O'Donnell's younger half-brother Philip was definitely born in Wales. But much of the other information on the death certificate pulls in the opposite direction:

• — Mary Ann Daly was 93 on 7/10/1953, but the evidence detailed previously shows that Mary Ann O'Donnell
          would have only been 86 or 87 on that date;
• — Mary Ann Daly had two more sons and three more daughters than I was able to find for Mary Ann O'Donnell;
• — Mary Ann Daly came to Australia in about 1863, thirteen years before Mary Ann O'Donnell.

It really begins to look as though there were two South Australian couples named James Joseph and Mary Ann Daly! But if that were really the case, there ought to be a record of the marriage another James Joseph Daly to a Mary Ann, not to mention another large number of birth registration records for their children. I do not believe that any such records exist. The death certificate is wrong about Mary Ann Daly's age and length of residence in Australia, and the above list of her children is incomplete.

Mary Ann Daly Memorial, Centennial Park Cemetery

The death certificate information concerning Mary Ann Daly's children must reliable, since her "loving sons and daughters" would have supplied it. They could easily have been confused about the year of her immigration. But you would think that they would have known her age! Nevertheless, her age at immigration would certainly not have been given as 8 if she were actually 16, and her age at marriage would not have been given as 19 if she were actually 27. Whoever provided the death registration information got her age wrong.

Attempting to trace the children of James Joseph and Mary Ann Daley in my list above, I searched South Australian marriage records for them. I only found one possible match: on 12/4/1909 a 21 year old Mary Margaret Daly, daughter of James Daly, married James Mayland Docherty at St George Church, Gawler. The groom who was 22, was the son of one Thomas Docherty.

Searching the Family Notices columns of The Advertiser revealed some more information about Mary Margaret Docherty, in particular that she died on 11/2/1949. So she could be the one deceased daughter referred to on Mary Ann Daly's death certificate.

Newspaper notices relating to the death of Ellen Howlett provided me with reassuring confirmation of the names of Ellen's siblings, and one extremely valuable new piece of information about her half sister Mary.

The Advertiser, 17/2/1949

The Advertiser, 17/2/1949

The Advertiser, 22/2/1949

So the Dalys went to Broken Hill! Armed with this information, I searched New South Wales records in case any of the Daly children were married in Broken Hill. There were two convincing matches:

• John A. Reardon married Ruby M. B. Daly in Broken Hill in 1913;
• James Roy Daly married Gladys P. Malthouse in Broken Hill in 1917.

There were four other possibilities, much less convincing:

• William L. P. Daly married Caroline Goss in Broken Hill in 1915;
• Lawrence Galligan married Eileen Daly in Broken Hill in 1913;
• Wilfred C. Bail married Rose M. S. Daly in Broken Hill in 1925;
• Leslie M. Hooper married Amy Dally in Broken Hill in 1917.

It is actually possible that these marriages, together with Mary Margaret's, account for of all the children of James Joseph and Mary Ann appearing in my list.

Searching family notices in the Broken Hill newspaper The Barrier Miner unearthed several crucial pieces of information. In particular, in October 1954 two notices were placed in remembrance of Mary Ann Daly who died on 7/10/1953. So surely the Mary Ann Daly who died in Croydon Park on that date was the one who had lived in Broken Hill!

The Barrier Miner 9/10/1954

The Barrier Miner 7/10/1954

It would seem that two of the children whose birth registration records I am missing were named Nora and Jeff.

The Barrier Miner 11/5/1946

The single most valuable newspaper item I found is a report of the death of James Joseph Daly, which appeared on 11/5/1946. This report (referred to henceforth as [BM-JJD]) names James Joseph Daly's sons as Bill, Roy, Lou and Jeff Daly, and his daughters as Mesdames J. Dougherty, J. O'Toole, G. Bell, J. Reardon, E. Murray, L. Hooper, C. Bail and D. Mashford. We already knew that Mary Margaret Daly had become Mrs J. Docherty and Ruby Muriel Beatrice Daly had become Mrs J.  Reardon, and thought that perhaps Amy Kathleen Lilly Daly had become Mrs L. Hooper and Rose Daly had become Mrs Wilfred C. Bail. We now have confirmation of these last two. Moreover, we should be able to find marriages of men named O'Toole, Bell, Murray and Mashford to the other four Daly girls, namely Ilean Bridget, Nora, and the other two for whom birth records have not been found. It transpires that in fact these two were named Agnes and Dorothy:

• George N. Bell married Agnes M. Daly in Broken Hill in 1914;
• Reginald C. Mashford married Dorothy D. Daly in Broken Hill in 1922.

Moreover, South Australian records reveal that Norah Daly (23, daughter of James) married James O'Toole (23, son of James) on 21/8/1911, at St Peter and Paul Church, Gawler.

I have now been contacted by a descendant of James and Norah O'Toole, and also by a descendant of George and Agnes Bell. I have these relatives to thank for providing some pieces of information that I would otherwise never have discovered.

According to [BM-JJD], James Joseph Daly moved to Broken Hill in about 1913. This ties in with other dates. For example, Nora's marriage in 1911 occurred before the move to Broken Hill and took place in Gawler, whereas Ruby's marriage in 1913 occurred after the move, and took place in Broken Hill. However, the claim in [BM-JJD] that James Joseph Daly was 97 when he died in 1946 can be discounted. At his marriage in 1886 his age was given as 27, not 37, and this looks far more likely to be true. Would he really have moved to new employment in Broken Hill at age 64 and continued working until he was 90? I can perhaps believe that he moved at age 54 and continued working until he was 80.

The O'Toole descendant mentioned above has given me the the following information about James Joseph Daly. He was born on 16/11/1859 in Williamstown, South Australia, and baptized on 15/1/1860 at the (Catholic) Church of St Peter and St Paul in Gawler. The baptism record says that his parents were William Daley and Margaret McNamara, of Mount Crawford. Apparently William Daley's father was named Patrick. William and Margaret were both born in Ireland, and were passengers on the Trafalgar from London and Plymouth to South Australia in 1854. Besides James Joseph they had children named Michael Daly (born 1857), William Daly (born 1862, died 19/10/1901, buried at Willaston on 20/10/1901), and Patrick J. H. Daly, who married Kate Theresa Seymour in 1889. I notice that in each case Genealogy SA's online database of South Australian births has the surname as Daily, and has Patrick's year of birth as 1862. Moreover, there were also a Norah Daily, born in 1856, a John Daily, born in 1864, and a Helen Daily, born in 1855. In each case the names of the parents were William and Margaret. The maiden name of Helen's mother was not recorded, but the mother's maiden name was recorded – and was Macnamara – in the other cases.

William (the elder) was buried at Willaston on 3/3/1884, and his wife Margaret was buried at Willaston on 14/10/1901.

I am not aware of any evidence to suggest that Margaret Macnamara, mother of James Joseph Daly, and Mary Ann Macnamara, mother of James Joseph Daly's wife Mary Ann O'Donnell, were in any way related. Presumably it was just a coincidence that they had the same surname.

— Mary Margaret —

As mentioned above, Mary Margaret Daly (age 21) married James Mayland Docherty (age 22) on 12/4/1909 at St George Church, Gawler. The evidence is convincing that this Mary Margaret was the daughter of James Joseph and Mary Ann Daley born on 5/8/1887.

The Advertiser 15/6/1909

The newspaper announcement of the marriage of James Mayland Docherty and Mary Margaret Daly shows that in 1909 James J Daly, Mary Margaret's father, was living at Nairne. This was unexpected. However, I think it unlikely that there were two different James J Daly's with daughters named Mary Margaret. Moreover, the probability that there were two different James J Daly's with daughters named Mary Margaret who both lived in Williamstown is surely negligible, and a newspaper report of the "back to Williamstown" celebrations held in 1935 (see the Thomas and Ann Worden page) names one of the participants as "Mrs Docherty (Mary Daly)". So I am confident that James Mayland Docherty's wife was the daughter of Mary O'Donnell.

The Register 25/3/1865

James Mayland Docherty's parents were Thomas Docherty and Elizabeth Packenham Hewston, who were married at St George's Church, Gawler, on 1/3/1865. Thomas Docherty was buried at Willaston on 22/02/1919, and Elizabeth Packenham Docherty was buried at Willaston on 13/7/1909 (aged 69). Their only daughter, Florence Amy Pollard, is also buried there. The gravestone image, courtesy of www.australiancemeteries.com, enables us to see that Florence died on 3/6/1910, aged 37, and Thomas died on 5/2/1919, aged 83.

See www.australiancemeteries.com/sa/gawler/willaston.htm

The gravestone also tells us that Thomas Docherty arrived in South Australia in 1840, on the Dauntless. A partial passenger list for the Dauntless includes "Doherty, John and wife and three children".

James Mayland Docherty was buried in Centennial Park Cemetery on 25/5/1966. His last place of residence was in College Park.

The Advertiser 12/2/1949

The newspaper notice of Mary Margaret's death reveals that she had children named Dulcie (who married Jack Berriman), Murray, Jean (who married Jack Kain), Reg, Max and Betty (who married Clem Noble). Her age at death is given as 61, consistent with the birth date of 5/8/1887. I also found newspaper announcements of the engagements of Murray Mayland Docherty, eldest son of James Mayland Docherty, and Reginald C Docherty, second son of J. M. Docherty. Their fiancees were named Eileen Janet Coleman and Valda Fox (respectively).

The Advertiser, 17/9/1938

The Advertiser, 9/10/1940

The National Archives of Australia has the service records of Murray Mayland Docherty, who was born at Gawler on 15/3/1911, Reginald Charles Docherty, who was born at Gawler on 22/8/1915, and James Maxwell Lincoln Docherty, who was born at Gawler on 15/9/1918.

Murray Mayland Docherty died on 7/2/1986, aged 75, and is buried in Centennial Park Cemetery. His last place of residence was in Collingswood. Eileen Janet Docherty, who died on 3/3/1996, aged 87, is buried in the same location.

Reginald Charles Docherty died on 15/8/2003, aged 87, and is buried in the Enfield Memorial Park Cemetery. Valda Ruth Docherty, who died on 18/6/1994, is buried in the same location. However, her second name may have been Ruby, because that is what is in the Genealogy SA memorial transcription database. Reginald's last place of residence was in Walkerville, as was Valda's.

James Maxwell Lincoln Docherty died on 28/12/1998, and is buried at Centennial Park. His last place of residence was in Seacliff.

Isabell Betty Noble died on 21/7/2011, aged 87, and is buried in Centennial Park. Clement Harold Noble, who died aged 83 on 15/9/2000, is buried in the same location. His last place of residence was in Plympton Park, hers was in Hackham.

Dulcie margaret Elizabeth Berriman died on 8/1/1998, aged 88, and is buried in Enfield Memorial Park Cemetery. Her last place of residence was in Linden Park. Jack Geoffrey Berriman, who died aged 82 on 13/3/1990, is buried in the same location. His last place of residence was in Myrtle Bank.

— Eileen —

An L. E. Galligan, who died aged 34, was buried in the Broken Hill Cemetery on 4/4/1921. A newspaper notice concerning the funeral of Lawrence Edward Galligan reveals that he was the brother-in-law of J. Reardon, L. Hooper and J. O'Toole; so it must definitely be the case that the Ilean Bridget Daley who was born at Willaston in 1895 was the Eileen Daly who married Lawrence Galligan in Broken Hill in 1913. In view of [BM-JJD], and by a process of elimination, we can deduce that Eileen must have later become Mrs E. Murray, but I have not discovered any separate confirmation of this.

I am told that Eileen was known as "Peggy".

The Barrier Miner 2/4/1921

The "Mr and Mrs J. Daly" referred to in the funeral notice must be James Joseph and Mary Ann, because their son Jeff was not yet married and their son James Roy was the Mr R. Daly of the funeral notice. The word "uncle" in the funeral notice puzzled me, but Roy Daly and Leslie Hooper did have young children, to whom Lawrence Galligan was an uncle.

Another funeral notice, placed in the name of Mrs Galligan and family, referred to Lawrence as "husband and father"; so evidently Lawrence and Peggy had children. Note also that Lawrence's burial location is the same as that of an E. P. Galligan, who died at the age of 4 months and was buried on 16/9/1918.

I have been told that Lawrence and Peggy had children named Laurence, Reginald and Jeffery, and also that the parents of Lawrence (senior) were named Bernard and Kate.

— Jeff —

It seems that [BM-JJD] lists James Joseph Daly's sons in descending order of seniority. The youngest son, Jeff, got his name in the paper on a few occasions. In his youth he made three appearances in the magistrate's court, as a result of antisocial behaviour such as drunkenness and using indecent language. For me, the fortunate by-product of this is that the newspaper reports reveal that his full name was Jeffery Malcolm Lawrence Daly, and that he was born in about 1912.

Returning to the South Australian birth records, I found that Jeffery Malcolm Lawrence Daly was born at Yatta Creek on 16/2/1912. His father's name is correctly given as James Daly, but his mother's name is incorrectly given as Mary Macdonald. I guess that someone misheard what someone else said, and wrote Macdonald instead of O'Donnell.

The Barrier Miner 14/7/1930

The Barrier Miner 13/2/1931

The Barrier Miner 30/1/1933

In 1946 Jeffrey Malcolm Daly appeared in court on a much more serious charge of assault causing actual bodily harm. He was acquitted. The Barrier Miner carried detailed reports of the proceedings, and it appears that the jury took the view that the defendant acted in self-defence and in defence of his brother Lou (who, according to the evidence, had a crippled left hand). He defended himself with a mallee stick, four or five feet long, and his two adversaries both suffered broken arms. See the newspaper reports of June 13th, June 14th and December 3rd.

Jeffrey M. L. Daly married Marie Naisbit in Broken Hill in 1934. They were divorced in 1945. I am told that they had two children, who were partly raised by their aunt and uncle Ruby and Jack Reardon.

The Advertiser 19/10/1945

Jeff died on 29/1/1990, aged 76. He is buried in the Broken Hill Cemetery, in the company of one Edna Doreen Barnett, who died on 11/7/1991, aged 83.

— William —

According to birth registration information, the eldest son of James Joseph and Mary Ann was named William Philip. However, newspaper information shows that he used the second name Leonard. He married Caroline Rebecca Goss on 9/6/1915. He died on 3/1/1963, aged 70, and was buried in the Broken Hill Cemetery on the following day. Death registration information confirms that William Leonard Daly's parents were named James and Mary, and the marriage notice confirms that he was their eldest son; so I believe that this is the right person. Caroline Rebecca Daly died on 31/8/1972 and is also buried in the Broken Hill Cemetery.

The Barrier Miner 19/6/1915

The Barrier Miner 1/3/1915

From [BM-JJD] we know that William Leonard Daly was sometimes known as Bill. Although there are many mentions of Bill Daly (or Daley) in The Barrier Miner, I believe that there were several different people of that name. My guess is that my relative Bill Daly was not the Billy Daly who was a prominent member of the Broken Hill Boxing Association, and the trainer of several fighters. In fact I think that Daly the boxer was from Sydney.

William Leonard Daly had a son named William Leonard Daly. On 30/4/1938 a notice appeared in The Barrier Miner announcing the engagement of William Leonard, only son of Mr and Mrs W. L. Daly of Nicholls Street, to Dorothy Mavis Winders. But apparently that marriage did not go ahead, because on 28/9/1940 an "approaching marriages" notice in The Barrier Miner announced that William Leonard, son of Mr and Mrs W. Daly of Broken Hill, was to marry Beryl Irene Matters in the Solomontown Methodist Church, Port Pirie, on 5/10/1940.

A list of headstones in the Broken Hill Cemetery shows that William Leonard the younger and Beryl both died in 1990, and are buried with his parents.

On 14/12/1940 a newspaper notice announced the engagement of Lily, only daughter of Mr and Mrs W. Daly of Nicholls Street, to Jim, eldest son of Mr and Mrs J. Murphy.

Daly grave, Broken Hill Cemetery

W. L. Daly's name appears several times in a report of a dog show held on 11/7/1942. He won an award for the best gun dog, and five awards for his Irish Setters: junior dog, novice dog, graduate dog, limit dog and open dog. On 8/5/1928, in the Small Debts Court, Mary Ann Rodda was awarded £10 damages from Alex Coombs because Coombs' dog had bitten her. William L. Daly testified that the dog had previously belonged to him; he had given it to Coombs two and a half years previously.

— Ruby —

Having discovered that Ruby married John A. Reardon, I purchased the marriage certificate, and was was pleased to find that it contains a lot of information: the full names, ages, occupations and birth places of both bride and groom, and the names of their parents, including each mother's maiden name. The Roman Catholic marriage took place on 27/12/1913 at the Cathedral, Broken Hill. The groom was John Augustus Reardon, a 23 year old miner, usual place of residence Broken Hill, born at Charters Towers (Queensland), parents William Reardon (deceased, a miner) and Alice Parker. The bride was Ruby Muriel Beatrice Daly, aged 21, occupation "domestic", usual place of residence Broken Hill, born at William Creek (South Australia), parents James Joseph Daly (a labourer) and Mary O'Donnell. Note that Ruby would actually have been 22 on 27/12/1913, but it is comforting to have confirmation of her unexpected birth place.

An Alice Coventry, formerly Reardon, died in Dulwich SA on 28/10/1933. The death notice in the Advertiser shows that she had a son named Jack Reardon living in Broken Hill.

The Advertiser 31/10/1933

I am told that a 1919 electoral role shows Jack and Ruby living in Cloncurry, Queensland. Their occupations were, respectively, "Miner" and "Home duties".

I am also told that Ruby and Jack did not have any children of their own, but fostered seven.

Jack and Ruby Reardon moved to Adelaide at some stage. Ruby Muriel Beatrice Reardon is buried in the Cheltenham Cemetery, and searching the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority database revels that Ruby Muriel Reardon died on 1/10/1976, aged 85. Her last place of residence was in Flinders Park. John Augustus Reardon died in 1966 at age 77; he is buried in the Centennial Park Cemetery, and his last place of residence was in Croydon Park.

I found an article in The Barrier Miner of 26/2/1923 reporting on some boxing contests for which the referee was Jack Reardon. One of these bouts featured a boxer trained by Billy Daly. I am guessing that Jack Reardon the referee was Ruby's husband, but I still doubt that Billy Daly was William Leonard Philip Daly.

— Roy —

The newspaper extract [BM-JJD] tells us that James Roy Daly, second son of Mary and James, was known as Roy. We also know that he married Gladys P. Malthouse.

Gladys was the daughter of Albert Malthouse and Sarah Jane Smith. According to a RootsWeb's WorldConnect web page Albert and Sarah were married in Adelaide on 4/9/1882 and had 10 children: Ethel Clara Rebecca (born 7/8/1883), Daisy Mabel Fanny (born 26/6/1885), Thomas Albert (born 13/7/1887), John (born 6/9/1889), Ruby Violet (born 5/12/1890), Hurtle Harry Arthur (born 23/4/1892), Edward (born 8/9/1895), Charles Ernest (born 31/12/1898), Gladys Pretoria (born 3/9/1900) and Florence Muriel Jane (born 4/6/1907). The first five of these were born in South Australia, and a search of NSW birth records shows that the last five were born in or near Broken Hill.

The Malthouses were amongst the earliest residents of Broken Hill. Albert Malthouse was a carrier. From the earliest days of mining in the Broken Hill area Albert Malthouse made his living by carting supplies in to the area and carting out the mined ore.

Article from The Barrier Miner 17/6/1942

Barrier Miner 2/11/1948

Barrier Miner 23/9/1943

At some stage James Roy and Gladys P. Daly moved to Adelaide. The Genealogy SA database of newspaper death notices includes both Gladys Pretoria Daly and Roy James Daly; apparently notices of their deaths appeared in The Advertiser in 1976 and 1980 respectively. Furthermore, they are buried in Centennial Park Cemetery; the cemetery record for Gladys Pretoria Daly gives her age at death as 75 and her last place of residence as South Plympton; Roy James Daly is buried in the same location as Gladys, and the cemetery record for Roy James Daly gives his last place of residence as South Plympton and his age at death as 83 (in agreement with James Roy Daly's birth year of 1897).

The Barrier Miner 18/3/1927

The Barrier Miner 4/4/1943

The Barrier Miner 10/6/1944

Roy and Gladys had two children, Roma and Harold. Newspaper extracts (above) show that the Roy who married Gladys Malthouse, and was the father of Roma and Harold, had lived in Chapple Street, North Broken Hill, before moving to Adelaide. Therefore, it must surely be the case that he was also the Mr R. Daly whose house in Chapple Street was destroyed by fire on 2/11/1931. This Mr Daly was, at the time, the secretary of the Town Employees' Union. This was certainly an important position, since the unions were very powerful in Broken Hill. In fact Roy Daly had previously been, for four years, the president of the Town Employees' Union. There are many articles in The Barrier Miner in which he is mentioned.

An article of Monday 6/2/1928 reported on a dispute that had arisen the previous week between the Broken Hill Hospital and the Town Employees' Union. The president of the union, Mr R. Daly, alleged that the hospital had breached an agreement with the union by hiring a casual employee who was not a member of the union. Apparently the matter was resolved to the satisfaction of both sides, with the secretary and administrator of the hospital, Mr Watson, agreeing that he had acted in error by not communicating with the secretary of the union before engaging the man, and promising in future to follow the procedure laid down in the agreement. All this took place on the Friday. The casual employee in question finished working at the hospital on the Saturday, and the incident ended.

However, subsequent newspaper reports show that another dispute arose almost immediately, when Mr Watson found it necessary to suspend from duty one of the hospital porters. This was on Saturday 4th February. The man in question was none other than Roy Daly, union president. He was accused of being under the influence of liquor while on duty, of being asleep on the back seat of his car when he should have been on duty, of speaking offensively to the sister in charge of Ward 2, and of not carrying out his duties as instructed by the sister. He had a different version of events, and in the end, after an inquiry by the Hospital Board of Management and an appeal, was found guilty of misconduct on one count only, namely that he did not leave Ward 2 when the sister told him to. He was suspended until March 12 but not dismissed.

The Barrier Miner 9/2/1928

The Barrier Miner 10/2/1928

The Barrier Miner 1/3/1928

This was not the end of it, however. In protest against Wardsman Daly's reinstatement the Acting Matron and seven of the sisters handed in their resignations. They felt that the sisters' complaints concerning Daly's behaviour had not been properly addressed. Ultimately they were mollified by some changes to procedures for dealing with disciplinary matters, and withdrew their resignations.

A notice in The Barrier Miner on 15/10/1929 stated that "Mr R. Daly, president of the Town Employees' Union, who was appointed the union's organizer about two years' ago, is now devoting his whole time to the position". Presusumably Roy had continued working at the hospital up until this time. I think that the organizer's role was basically to get as many people as possible to join the union.

The fire that destroyed Roy's house in November 1931 also destroyed some of the union's books. Shortly after this, the union suspended him and then dispensed with his services. The newspaper reports do not make it clear why they took this action. I presume that it was shortly after these events that Roy and family moved to Adelaide.

The Barrier Miner 2/11/1931

The Barrier Miner 2/11/1931 The Barrier Miner 6/11/1931

The Barrier Miner 12/11/1931

— Rose Mavis —

The Advertiser 31/8/1950

The Barrier Miner 7/2/1925

According to South Australian birth registration records, Rose Daly was born at Williamstown on 30/4/1902, and according to New South Wales marriage records Rose M. S. Daly married Wilfred C. Bail in 1925. I have been told that Rose M. S. Daly was known as "Maisie", and that her third christian name was "Stella". A newspaper report says that Mr Clare Wilfred Bail married Miss Mavis Daly on 4/2/1925 at the Pro-Cathedral in Broken Hill. The officiating priest was Father Meagher.

The marriage report says that Clare Bail was a Glenelg footballer, and in The Advertiser I found several mentions of C. Bail as a Glenelg player, in the years from 1925 to 1932. On 1/3/1925 a list of Glenelg newcomers included "C. Bail, a rover from the Barrier". On 10/8/1928 a match report said "C. Bail gave a first class display, both when following and when placed".

Clare Bail

Wilfred Clare Bail's military service record has been digitized by the National Archives of Australia and can be viewed online. It reveals that he was born on 7/7/1902 at Clare S.A., which no doubt explains his name. He joined the Citizen Forces on 21/4/1929; according to the attestation form that he signed on that date, he had already served in the Citizen Forces for four years, and he signed up for another four. His residential address on 21/4/1929 was 12 Marion Street, Glenelg. He was a Motor Finisher, working for Holdens at Woodville. His complexion was dark, he was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 160 lb. He joined the 48th Battalion, and was assigned to the Band. There are successive re-engagement forms—"Citizen Forces" at first, then "Militia Forces"—covering the years from 1929 to mid 1940. On 13/11/1939 an examining medical officer had declared him unfit, owing to a problem with his right knee, but on 22/1/1940 he was examined by a private doctor who stated that his right knee was fit to stand ordinary military duty. His rank remained as Private until 10/2/1940, when he was promoted to Corporal and A/Drum Mjr, and then on 17/4/1940 he was promoted to Lance Sergeant and Drum Major.

In July 1940 Wilfred Clare Bail enlisted in the A.I.F.. At this time his occupation was Motor Body Engineer, his address was 7 Alfred Rd West Croydon, his religion was protestant, and his next of kin was Rose Mavis Bail, his wife. He served in Egypt and Palestine from February 1941 to January 1943. He was discharged from the army on 28/8/1945.

Wilfred Clare Bail died on 22/2/1964, aged 59; his last place of residence was Flinders Park. He was cremated at Centennial Park. I have been told that Maisie died in Byron Bay, New South Wales, in 2003.

:

:

The Advertiser 25/3/1948

After leaving the army Clare Bail achieved prominence as the conductor of the Henley and Grange Municipal Band, which won South Australian band competitions on more than one occasion.

The Advertiser 30/11/1948

The Advertiser 7/7/1947

The Advertiser 12/3/1953

The Advertiser 2/1/1952

The Advertiser 31/12/1952 The Advertiser 25/3/1954

Perhaps the highlight of Bandmaster Bail's career came with the royal visit of 1954. A Royal Music Festival was held at Wayville, with Clare Bail conducting the Festival Band. He was one of the five people the Queen and Duke met at the conclusion of the event.

Mavis and Clare had a son, Albert Clare, who was born at Glenelg on 26/5/1926. He enlisted in the A.I.F. on 2/6/1944 (aged 18). His occupation at that time was Clerk. He had completed secondary school to the intermediate year. His service record does not show any war service; so I guess that the war ended before his training was completed. Clare Bail, son of Clare Bail, married Peggy Limb, daughter of George Limb, at St Aidans Church, Payneham, on Tuesday 9/8/1949. Clare Bail the younger became a well-known jazz musician, and I believe that his wife Peggy was the sister of Bobby Limb.

The Advertiser 4/8/1949

The Advertiser 3/7/1935

— Nora —

As noted above, Nora married James O'Toole at Gawler in 1912. I have not purchased the marriage certificate as yet. However, it turns out that they went to live in Broken Hill, and searching for O'Tooles who died or were married in Broken Hill has provided some information.

Norah O'Toole died in Broken Hill in 1964. The names of her parents are given as James and Mary, which is as it should be.

A Ruby J. O'Toole, daughter of James and Nora, died in Broken Hill in 1919, and a Mavis R. O'Toole, daughter of James J. and Nora, died in Broken Hill in 1935. James Joseph O'Toole died in 1950. His parents were named James Edwin and Mary Ann.

A James E. O'Toole, whose parents were named Dennis and Mary, died in Broken Hill in 1915. An article in The Barrier Miner of 2/1/1915 reveals that this man's full name was James Edwin O'Toole, and that he had a son named James. So I am convinced that this was Nora's father-in-law. He died in tragic circumstances, foolishly re-entering a burning house to get something.

The Barrier Miner 5/1/1915

The Mavis R. O'Toole who died in 1935, aged 18 years and nine months, was known by her second name, Rita. I am told that her death resulted from an abscess in the ear. A funeral notice reveals that she lived with her parents at 191 Chloride Street. A newspaper report of the funeral says that the cortege was very large. Six young ladies, friends of the deceased, were the coffin bearers.

The Barrier Miner 13/6/1935 The Barrier Miner 14/6/1935

The Barrier Miner 13/6/1935

Interestingly, in 1937 there are newspaper items reporting that Mrs O'Toole – not Mr O'Toole – has been ordered by magistrates to vacate the Chloride Street premises, as demanded by one Ivan Franich, who must have been the owner. The premises must have been rented in Nora's name rather than James' name, for some reason. On 7/5/1938 a newspaper report has Mrs Nora O'Toole as the owner and occupier of a house at 250 Chapple Lane, where a fire destroyed a shed in which household furniture was stored.

The Barrier Miner 10/5/1937

The Barrier Miner 14/9/1937

The Barrier Miner 7/5/1938

James Joseph and Nora had two sons, Laurence James and Murray James. The former was known as Laurie and the latter as Jim. According to the Broken Hill Cemetery records, Murray James O'Toole died on 20/7/1981 and was 66 years old. Laurence, the elder brother, was presumably born in 1913, about a year after his parents' marriage. Both brothers are mentioned in a report of the Convent School sports in December 1926, and both were members of a Marist Brothers College junior football team on 23/6/1928. In a Marist Brothers boxing tournament held in August 1928, J. O'Toole competed in the 6st division and L. O'Toole in the 7st 7lb division. On this occasion they both lost their bouts, but the report of another Marist Brothers tourney, held on 5/12/1929, says "a feature of the night were the bouts provided by H. Thorpe v. L. O'Toole and W. M'Crae v. C. Reardon, former pupils of the Marist Brothers' College." In 1930 L. O'Toole and J. O'Toole were competitors in several cycling races.

The Barrier Miner 13/6/1938

The Barrier Miner 24/12/1937

Laurence James O'Toole married Winifred Emily Walsh in 1939, and Murray James O'Toole married Dorothy Helen McElhinney in 1947. According to the newspaper announcement of the engagement of Laurie and Wynne, Mr and Mrs O'Toole were residents of Chloride Street in December 1937, although surely they must have quit 191 Chloride Street by this time.

The Barrier Miner 11/10/1937

The Barrier Miner 30/1/1939

Notice that, besides Laurie O'Toole and and Wynne Walsh, the Girls' Club Dance was attended by Bill Daly and Mavis Winders, who, as we saw above, were engaged a few months later.

Laurie's wife Win was prominent in Broken Hill women's cricket. She is mentioned in several match reports in The Barrier Miner. On 3/6/1939 a match report referred to "a fighting innings of 104 by Mrs O'Toole" which improved her team's chances of winning the final. Unfortunately the next day's play was cancelled owing to rain, and although the match was to be completed the following week I could find no report of the final result.

Tragedy pursued Laurie and Win O'Toole. In 1944, shortly after they had moved to Mildura, their third child, Murray John, aged 18 months, fell into a well and was drowned. Later in the same year, after the family had moved to Wentworth, their sons Robert Terrence (aged 5) and Brian Clifford (aged 4) drowned in a dam. On 25/7/1946, after they had moved back to Broken Hill, their 20 month old daughter Dulcie Jeannine died, choking on her food.

The Barrier Miner 25/7/1946

The Barrier Miner 27/7/1946

At the time of Dulcie's death, Laurie and Win also had a younger baby daughter. By 16/3/1949 they had three children.

The Barrier Miner 16/3/1949

In fact these last three children of Laurie and Win – a daughter and two sons – all survived into adulthood.

It seems that with the passage of years, the "u" in Laurie's name gradually changed into a "w". The 1938 newspaper "In Memoriam" notice for Rita and the NSW marriage index use the former spelling, but it seems that everything after this uses the latter spelling.

I am told that Lawrence James O'Toole died in Clovelly park, South Australia, on 21/11/1973, and Winifred Emily O'Toole died in Maldon, Victoria, on 2/1/1994. They are both buried in the Brighton Cemetery, South Australia (Catholic section).

The Barrier Miner 26/6/1950

A newspaper advertisement that appeared on 17/7/1945 gives Nora's address as 355 Wolfram Street, which was also the address of James Joseph O'Toole when he died on 26/6/1950.

In fact 355 Wolfram Street was a boarding house of which Nora was the proprietress. My guess is that she took over this establishment in 1945. However, newspaper items show that she was a boarding house proprietress as early as 1925.

The Barrier Miner 10/3/1925

The Barrier Miner 25/5/1929

The Barrier Miner 5/7/1949

The Barrier Miner 27/4/1949 The Barrier Miner 5/9/1950

It appears that Jim had a less eventful life than his brother. I found several mentions of J. O'Toole in sporting contexts; it is likely that these referred to him, but there could easily have been other J. O'Tooles. There were a couple of mentions of J. O'Toole as a pianist on social occasions. Jim and Dorothy had a daughter, Sharyn Mary, who died in 1955, and (I am told) four other children. Apparently Sharyn died as a result of falling from the verandah of her home: she leaned against a gate, which came open.

In 1961 Jim was the licensee of the Federal Hotel.

— Amy —

The Barrier Miner 4/12/1946

I am sure that the "Amy Dally" who married Leslie M. Hooper in 1917 was actually Amy Kathleen Lilly Daley, who was born at Williamstown in 1899. Her husband's full name was Leslie Miller Hooper. I found a few mentions of him in The Barrier Miner.

In 1916 an apprentice named Leslie Miller Hooper was granted exemption from military service because he was an only son.

On 7/11/1917 the Board of Examiners of the Enginedrivers (appointed under the Mines Inspection Act, 1901) reported on the the examinations of candidates for certificates of competency held at the various centres. The Broken Hill list of those who passed included L. M. Hooper, in the category "Electric motor (Direct Currents and Alternating Currents)".

In 1917 and 1918 a Broken Hill Technical College student named Leslie M. Hooper gained passes in various subjects, including geometry, algebra, chemistry, physics, geology and mineralogy.

On 8/2/1924 the friends of Miss Ella and Leslie Hooper were informed that their beloved mother (Ada Emily) passed away in Adelaide Hospital on 7/2/1924.

On 22/1/1929 Leslie M. Hooper, a shift metallurgist employed at the South Mine, gave evidence at a coroner's inquest into the death of a man at the mine.

On 1/7/1929 it was reported that Messrs. A. E. Ericksen, J. Dulfer, C. W. Thomas and L. M. Hooper, technical assistants at the South Mine, had been promoted to shift foremen to fill the vacancies caused by the retirement of three former shift foremen.

On 26/8/1929 Leslie Miller Hooper pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing an unlicensed pistol, and was fined £10. Detective-Sergeant Duckworth said that the defendant had an altercation with a man in a back yard. He returned later and fired two shots from a revolver. The pistol taken from the defendant contained five live cartridges and two dead shells. I am surprised that he was merely charged with possession of the pistol.

On 2/11/1943 Leslie Miller Hooper, mill foreman, was acquitted of a charge of negligent driving that arose from an accident on 26/8/1943. A car driven by Leslie Hooper collided with a horse-drawn cart.

The Barrier Miner 28/7/1931

On 4/12/1946, in the Matrimonial Causes Jurisdiction of the District Court, Leslie Miller Hooper petitioned for a divorce from his wife on the grounds of desertion. Curiously, his wife's name is given as Annie Kathleen Hooper, rather than Amy Kathleen Hooper. I do not know whether Amy had come to be known as Annie, or whether the name was accidentally misrecorded somehow. The information revealed in the hearing fits with my contention that she was the Amy Kathleen Daley born in Williamstown in 1899.

Leslie Hooper's wife did not appear at the court hearing. Hooper testified that they had married in August 1917, when he was 22 and she 19. (In fact, if I have her birth date right, she would have turned 18 on 31/8/1917.) His bride's parents consented to the marriage. They had one child, born on 23/3/1918, and lived together happily for 14 or 15 years before differences arose. When he returned from work on 22/8/1938 his wife had gone, taking some small items of furniture. He made enquiries but was unable to find her. He told his in-laws that the door was always open to her to return, but they did not know where she was.

The child referred to must be the R. D. Hooper who was one of the bearers at Dulcie O'Toole's funeral, and the Reece Hooper who was a pianist at Nora O'Toole's birthday party in 1950. Rhys Daly Hooper married Elizabeth Veronica Lowery in 1940. He died on 30/12/1991, and is buried in the Broken Hill Cemetery. (Note that the online cemetery records have his name as "Phys".) Rhys and Elizabeth had at least one child, a son named Leslie born in October 1940.

The Barrier Miner 8/10/1940

Amy Hooper (née Daly) married Leslie Edwin Fillery in Mayfield (a suburb of Newcastle) in 1947. I believe that Amy's sister Agnes Bell and her family were also living near Newcastle at this time.

— Lew —

The Barrier Miner of 19/10/1939 lists the names of 61 recruits for the 2nd A.I.F. who had enlisted in Broken Hill. John Lewin Daly was one of them. According to his service record, he was born at Williamstown S.A. on 27/8/1907, and the name of his next of kin was Mary Daly. The service record has not yet been digitized, and I have not requested a copy; so I have no further information from that source. But I think it is clear that this is the Lou Daly who has been mentioned above. Presumably he was given the name Lewin in honour of Lewin Kimpton, husband of his mother's half-sister Bridget.

I have not been able to find a South Australian birth record. According to Broken Hill Cemetery records he died on 14/1/1984, and they have his age at death as 78. If the birth date above is right then he was only 76.

John Lewin Daly was a married man at the time of his enlistment in the A.I.F., but he named his mother, not his wife, as his next of kin.

On 9/9/1926 John Lewin Daly, a wardsman at the Broken Hill Hospital, gave evidence at an inquest into the death of a hospital patient who had hanged himself.

Notice that at the marriage of Clare Bail and Mavis Daly the groomsman was Mr L. Daly and one of the bridesmaids was Miss L. Bail. John Lewin Daly married Laurel Elspie Bail in 1929. They were divorced in 1945. He admitted adultery with Sylvia Jones.

The Barrier Miner 26/9/1945

I do not know the name of the daughter of Lew and Laurel.

John Lewin Daly married Sylvia Beatrice Jones in Broken in 1946, and Laurel Elspie Daly married Francis James Owens in Broken Hill in 1947.

Due to a transcription error, the NSW marriage index has Laurel's second husband's surname as Queens, rather than Owens. Fancis James Owens died in Broken Hill in 1952.

John Lewin Daly and Sylvia Beatrice Daly were involved in a car accident on 19/5/1951. They were two of five passengers in a car driven by Sylvia's brother John Thomas Jones, the other passengers being Jones' wife and the Jones' twin daughters Margaret and Joan, aged 4 years and 9 months. Margaret Rose Jones died as a result of the injuries she received. Her mother suffered a fractured pelvis and internal injuries, while John Lewin Daly suffered fractures to both legs. The other occupants of the car escaped with minor injuries. The coroner found that noone was to blame for the accident, which was apparently caused by loose gravel on the surface of the road.

Sylvia Beatrice Daly died on 5/6/1961. The Broken Hill online cemetery records have her name as Syliva Daley.

— Dorothy Doreen —

Dorothy D. Daly married Reginald C. Mashford in Broken Hill in 1922. A search of the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority database reveals that Dorothy Doreen Mashford died on 24/2/1982 aged 76, and is buried in the Enfield Memorial Park Cemetery. Buried with her are Ronald James Mashford, who died on 4/8/1979, aged 49, and Rex Maxwell Mashford, who died on 11/9/1995, aged 71. No doubt these men were sons of Dorothy Doreen Mashford.

I am told that Dorothy Doreen was known as "Dolly".

Reginald C. Mashford was born in Broken Hill in 1899. His father was Alfred John Mashford and his mother was Mary Jane Mashford, née Veale. On 30/11/1926 The Barrier Miner reported as follows on A. J. Mashford's death:

Reginald Carlyle Mashford died at age 56. He is buried in the Centennial Park cemetery.

I found a small number of mentions of Reginald Mashford in newspapers. An advertisement placed in The Barrier Miner on 20/6/1921 by R. C. Mashford (Assistant Secretary) advertised a dance at Charles's Hall on the following day, and Reg. Mashford (asst. sec.) placed a similar notice on 15/8/1921.

On 1/3/1926 Reginald Carlyle Mashford pleaded guilty to a charge of using indecent language in Argent Street Broken Hill on 27/2/1926, and was fined £2. It is something of a pity that (of course) the paper was unable to report exactly what he said, because it would be interesting to know what expletives were favoured by Broken Hill men in 1926, and what was considered indecent according to the mores of the day.

By 1942 Reginald Mashford had moved to Adelaide. On two occasions he was robbed by thieves in hotel bars. On the first occasion his kitbag, containing a steel rule and a bottom set of false teeth, was taken. On the second occasion a pickpocket took 10/6 in silver from his coat pocket. I do not know if in those days the Adelaide police had a high clear-up rate for such crimes, or whether Reginald was just lucky. Or maybe he was robbed on a half a dozen other occasions and the culprits escaped.

The Advertiser 13/5/1942

The Advertiser 20/8/1947

Note that Reginald's address in 1942 was Halifax Street. Presumably it was 40 Halifax Street, because that was his mother's address when she died in 1940.

The Advertiser 16/12/1940

On 20/7/1952 it was reported in The Advertiser that Reginald Mashford of Newmarket Street Adelaide was struck by a car in Wakefield Street. He was admitted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital suffering from concussion and a fractured thigh.

According to a geni page created by Phillip John Christie, Dorothy Doreen Daly was born on 16/10/1905. This source also says that Reginald and Dorothy had a son named Arthur Ronald Keith Mashford.

— Agnes —

Agnes Maude Daly married George Nicholas Bell in Broken Hill on 12/12/1914. According to the marriage certificate (shown below), George was a 34 year old miner, son of a deceased miner named James Bell and his wife Jane, née Barnfather, who was also deceased. George was born in Durham, England. The certificate confirms that Agnes Maude was the daughter of James Daly and Mary O'Donnell, and tells us that she was 22 years old, born in Willaston.

I think the ages of the groom and bride are not to be trusted, although the rest of the information is surely reliable. The marriage of James Bell and Jane Barnfather was registered in the Houghton Le Spring district, Co. Durham, in the first quarter of 1870, and the birth of a George Nicholas Bell was registered in the Easington district, Co. Durham, in the last quarter of 1876. So George was probably 38 in December 1914, and apparently understated his age when he married.

If Agnes was 22 on her marriage day then she would have been born sometime between 13/12/1891 and 12/12/1892. But her sister Ruby was born on 31/7/1891 and her brother William was born on 1/10/1892. Perhaps she was William's twin, but if so then it is strange that the South Australian birth registration book includes William and not Agnes. The alternative is that the age on the marriage certificate is wrong. Marrying an older man, she had no particular reason to understate her age, but she may have wished to overstate it, especially if she had not actually attained "full age". My guess is that her birth occurred about halfway between the birth of William (1/10/1892) and the birth of Eileen (11/5/1895), in February 1894 or thereabouts. If so then she would have been a few weeks shy of her 21st birthday when she married.

James Bell (aged 32) with his wife Jane (28) and sons Thomas B (8) and George N. (2) arrived in New South Wales on 14/4/1879, on the ship Ellora. Images of the passenger list for this ship are available online, courtesy of the NSW State Archives: see, in particular, State Records NSW, NRS 5316, [4/4803], Ellora 14 Apr 1879, passenger list, page 2 (which includes the Bell family). After their arrival three more children were born, the births being births registered in the Wallsend district: James Herbert Fenwick Barnfather Bell (born 1880), Elizabeth Martha Bell (born 1884) and John Lancelot Barnfather Bell (born 1887, died 1888). Jane died in 1888, and James married again: his second wife was named Bessy Jeffrey; they had children named Anthony (born 1890) and Walter (born 1892, died 1893).

This leaves us with a mystery: who was the I. M. Bell who witnessed the marriage of George Nicholas Bell and Agnes Maude Daly? The first witness, N. O'Toole, was of course the bride's elder sister Nora. For the sake of symmetry, one would expect the second witness to be one of the groom's relatives, quite probably one of his siblings, but we have not yet encountered a Bell with the correct initials. My guess is that the witness was actually E. M. Bell – Elizabeth Martha – rather than I. M. Bell. Note that all the writing on the marriage certificate is in the same hand; so we are not seeing the original witness signatures, but transcriptions of them. Elizabeth's signature may have been hard to read.

I am told that George and Agnes went to Western Australia, where their children were born, and where George died. Their children were Kathleen Agnes May Bell (born 1916 in the Perth district), James Daly Bell (born 1918 in the North Coolgardie district), John Nicholas Daly Bell (born 1921 in the East Coolgardie district), and one other whose name I do not know. It seems after George died (in 1927, in the Wellington district of W.A.) the family moved to the Hunter region of New South Wales. The marriage of Kathleen Agnes May Bell and John Edmond Mullen was registered in the Mayfield district in 1941; the marriage of James Daly Bell and Thelma Mary James was registered in the Hamilton district in 1941; the marriage of John Nicholas Daly Bell and Joan Philomena Seery was registered in the Casino district in 1947.

I am told that the birth record for John Nicholas Daly Bell gives his mother's age on 1/4/1921 as 28 years, putting her date of birth between 2/4/1892 and 1/4/1892. This is consistent with her age as specified on the marriage certificate, and can only be correct if she was William Leonard Philip Daly's twin. So perhaps this was, after all, the truth of it.

Agnes Bell died on 9/6/1972 in Dalby, Queensland. Her daughter Kathleen Agnes May (known as Molly) died in Dalby on 22/9/1996. Her son John died in Casino on 25/12/1983, and her son James died in Canberra in 1994.