Floating Branches

Posted on December 5, 2010 by snpdragon

As I continue my search there are some ‘floating branches’ – bits of information thatmight be people in my family tree – but the information to link them has not been located yet, or verified sufficiently to confirm that they are who I think they are.

So I’ll record them here until they find their spot in the tree – or are discarded.

1.  Mary Ann Pritchard – ? a family member of Frederick Greer Hanna

Abigail Pritchard – is the name of my great great grandmother – She was the mother of Frederick Greer Hanna (b. C1856 in Whitehouse Bedford Co. Antrim, Ireland).

I have recently discovered through family notices in old newspapers at the Australian National Library Historic Newspapers project, that Frederick Greer Hanna had a sister in Australia – Rachel Malcolmson Hanna b. C1854 Whitehouse Bedford Co. Antrim, Ireland m. George Suffern 1886 Victoria, Australia and died 1921 Blackwood, Victoria Australia who also listed Abigail and Langford as her parents (of course).  This was a significant discovery.  I had always believed/assumed that Frederick Greer came out to Australia on his own.  I don’t know why I have always believe/assumed this – except that later in his life he went out to Diorite King in Western Australia (in the goldfields), leaving his wife Rosina in Perth to raise the children (and later a grandchild), and I figured he was a bit of a loner.  The family remained ‘together’ in that family stories have the boys (Eric, the youngest of the Hanna children and Richard Frederick Kirwan, their grandson who was raised by Rosina after his mother died) going out to the hotel in their school holidays and collecting gold dust that fell from the miners’ clothes and pockets, from the floor of the pub.  Richard Frederick Kirwan later melted all this gold down to form a wedding ring and used it to apply to jewellers in London for an apprenticeship, which he eventually obtained and became a jeweller.

So I did a search and found the marriage of Langford Hanna and Abigail Pritchard and the christening of another sister – Mary baptised 13 June 1851, St Anne’s, Shankill Co Antrim.  I found a marriage listing (parish register) for Langford Hanna and Abigail Pritchard:

Date of Marriage 12 February 1846 Parish/District Newtownabbey Co. Antrim, Church:Carnmoney (Cammoney) Church of Ireland by Licence GC Smythe.  Husband:  Langford Hanna, Address: Whitehouse Denom: Church of Irelenad, Occ. Mason Age 24 Status Bachelor, Par: Thomas Hanna Labourer and Wife: Abigail Pritchard Address: Whitehouse, Denom: Church of Ireland Age 20 Status Spinster Par: Patrick Pritchard, Mason.

I found another listing on the IGI, submitted by a member of LDS (not transcribed from register):

Abagail Pritchard Birth 1823 Cammoney Carnmoney Antrim Ireland died 3 May 183 Coi(Church of Ireland) Cemetery Cammoney Carnmoney Antrim Ireland.

And then I realised something – on the marriage certificate of Frederick Hanna to Rosina Hammond (13 March 1886 at the house of Mrs Hammond, Bay Street North Brighton, Victoria Australia) one of the witnesses is Mary Ann Pritchard.  For this, I must thank Elizabeth Janson whose fabulous genealogy website prompted me to send her an email of thanks.  In her generous reply, she asked if I had recorded other marriages on an (unrelated to this post) parish register, as well as names of witnesses etc.  That reminded and prompted me to go back and look at the old certificates on my file, not just at the information I had recorded from them – and hence finding the Mary Ann Pritchard name.

Could she be a cousin of Frederick Hanna, also in Australia?

So I started a search of Pritchards to try to find a link between Frederick and Rachel Hanna and Pritchards.

I have not yet found arrival dates for the Hanna’s, Pritchards, or Hammonds, so it is difficult to know when they arrived.

The earliest dates I have for each are:

Frederick Greer Hanna m. Rosina Hammond in Brighton Victoria 13 March 1886 – 1886/1318.

Rachel Hanna m George Suffern in Brighton Victoria in 1886. Interestingly there are two 1886 registrations for this marriage – 1886/1588 and 1886/3480.

James Hammond (father of Rosina Hammond) was born in England C1812-1819.  He married Martha King (first marriage) on 7 September 1847 in St James Parish Melbourne.

and Edmund Pritchard and Mary Hughes (see below) had their first child born in Australia (Harriet Elizabeth) b. 1857 Victoria.

When I noticed the Mary Ann Pritchard witness on the marriage certificate of Frederick Greer Hanna and Rosina Hammond Marriage Certificate (which I’ve had in my possession since about 1990) I went searching.

Of course, it’s possible that Mary Ann Pritchard (IF she is related to F.G and Rachel Hanna) came out to Australia at the same time as them and was born in Ireland (probably).

However (and here’s the floating branch) Mary Ann Pritchard b. 1863/887 Brighton Victoria par: Edmund Pritchard and Mary Hughes turned up in my first birth search.

If she is ‘my’ Mary Ann Pritchard, she would have been about 23 at the time of the marriage of Frederick Greer Hanna and Rosina Hammond.  Old enough to be a bridesmaid/witness at the wedding.

So here is what I have learned about her family:

Edmund Pritchard and Mary Hughes did not marry in Victoria.

Their children born in Victoria were:

Harriet Elizabeth b. 1857 Brighton Victoria (1857/12876)

Edmund Henry b. 1859 Brighton Victoria (1859/10291)

Mary Jane b. 1861 Brighton Victoria (1861/42)

Mary Ann b. 1863 Brighton Victoria (1863/887) Never Married d. 1950 Ormond Victoria (1950/2303)

Rhoda b. 1864 Brighton Victoria (1864/20200) d. 1893 Brighton Victoria (1893/762)

Arthur Charles b 1866 Brighton Victoria (1866/6841)

Emily b 1869 Brighton Victoria (1869/7105) d. 1869 Brighton Victoria (1869/3546)

There is a death registration for Edmund Pritchard d. 1895 (1895/8363) aged 72 Brighton Victoria Par: John Pritchard and Elizabeth Wheeler.  As such he is definitely not a brother of Abigail Pritchard.  But he could be the son of a brother, or a cousin.  I did a sketch of the possible family tree starting with Patrick Pritchard (Abigail’s father) to check the generations – dates do my head in a bit – I get them all mixed up in my head.

According to that sketch, Abigail and Edmund are on the same generational line – so they could be brother and sister, if they shared the same parents, or they could be cousins.  They could also, I must remember, be totally unrelated.

One of the reasons I suspect they are related is that they lived in Brighton Victoria for many years.  Rosina Hammond’s family also lived in Brighton Victoria for many years, and Rachel (Hanna) Suffern also lived in Brighton for many years.

Frederick Greer Hanna and Rosina lived in Brighton too and half of their children were born there.  Then they moved to Western Australia, where Frederick ran the Kurrajong Hotel in Diorite King, Mt Margaret Western Australia for many years, while Rosina kept a home in Perth Western Australia, presumably so the children could go to school there.

When Frederick Greer Hanna died in Menzies Western Australia 12 July  1919, his sister Rachel Suffern placed a death notice in the Argus, in Victoria, noting that although he died in Western Australia FG Hanna was ‘late of Brighton’.  This indicated to me that she was informing other Brighton residents of his death.  So there were likely to be other people in Brighton Victoria who would remember Frederick – possibly other family members?

And I had believed/assumed, as I said above that FG Hanna had come out to Australia on his own.  Discovering that he had a sister alerted me to the fact that there could have been a whole network of family I was previously unaware of.

There are other clues:

Arrived in Melbourne Februrary 7 1848 aboard ‘Shamrock’ from Sydney – Mr and Mrs Pritchard and four children (Melbourne Argus 8 Feb 1848 p.2)

Edmund Pritchard, architect, son of Mr Edward Pritchard, builder of Warwick Lane London, died of bronchitis aged 42 years 4 January 1861 Melbourne address 117 Spencer Street Melbourne (The Argus 5 January 1861 p. 4).

However, I have traced another generation of the family above:

Edmund Henry Pritchard (above) b. 1859 Brighton Victoria (1859/10291) married Isabella Stevens 1880 (1880/3167) at Brighton Victoria.

Their children are:

Edmund William b 1884 (1884/7461) Brighton Victoria

Henry John b 1888 (1888/17901) Brighton Victoria d. Camberwell 1922 (1922/4288) aged 33 years

Violet Lillian Ruth b. 1890 (1890/988) Brighton Victoria

Frank Oswald b. 1891 (1891/30443) Brighton Victoria d. 1979 (1979/5231) Caulfield Victoria aged 87 years

Dorothy b 1896 (1896/9257) Brighton Victoria.

There is a death listing in the Victorian register for Lillith Sophia (not born in Victoria, C1871) daughter of Edmund Henry and Isabella Stevens, died 1887/12737 Brighton Victoria – was she born somewhere else, before they married? was she adopted as a child after they married?  Something to follow up if this family turns out to be connected.

There are no entries in the assisted arrivals index that look remotely possible.

Unassisted Arrivals  NSW 1842-55 (Victoria was part of NSW until 1852) has:

Hanna Mr ‘Clarendon’ (P) arrived 8 April 1843 from Greenock Ref:  Sydney Morning Herald (Surgeon) (not Frederick Greer, he wasnt a surgeon)

Hanna Mr ‘Torrington” (P) arrived 25 December 1848 from Pt Phillip Ref: 1275 comment: ‘& Ceylon in SMH’

Rachel and Frederick Greer Hanna both married in Brighton in 1886.  Did they arrive together?

2.  Elijah Ealden / James Ealden

In my efforts to ascertain whether the convict James Ealden is the same person as Elijah Ealden who married Rosanna/Rosina Lynch in Melbourne Victoria in 1840 (see my previous ‘dead ends’ post)  I have uncovered quite alot of information about James Ealden, which until I prove the link, I cannot record in my family tree.

James Ealden arrived in NSW aboard “Lady Harewood” in 1831.  He received a ticket of leave (presumably on or soon after arrival), and a conditional pardon on 12 June 1848.

From the Ticket of Leave index entry, I know that the District in New South Wales he was assigned to was Windsor, and he was tried in the Kent Quarter Sessions.

He is the only Ealden who appears on a surname only search of the NSW convict indexes.  A search for Ealdin turns up two entries:

Ealdin James ‘Lady Harewood’ 1831 Ticket of Leave Passport 1 December 1840 (Ticket of leave on the recommendation of the the Parramatta Bench); and

Ealdin James ‘Lady Harewood’ 1831 District Paramatta, Born Kent, Trade Groom Tried Kent QS.

Unless there were two James Ealdens aboard Lady Harewood in 1831, tried at Kent QS, this is the same person with two surname spellings.

James Ealden shows up in the NSW 1841 Census – Ealden James Return Number 72 Residence Paramatta Item Identifier X948 Page 11 Reel 2222.

The ship Lady Harewood sailed from Sheerness, Kent, England on Sunday 17 October 1830 and arrived Sydney NSW on 4 March 1831.  The master was Richard W. Stonehouse and the Surgeon was James McTernan.  The Lady Harewood carried 216 male convicts and no female convicts.

I will post a full list of passengers aboard Lady Harewood when I have compiled it.

So I went to the English records to find out how James Ealden came to arrive in New South Wales as a convict.

He was held in a Prison Hulk – the ‘Retribution’ and appears on its registers and letter books:

James Ealden aged 40 Estimated birth year abt 1790 Ship (Hulk) Retribution Place Moored:  Woolwich.  Date convicted 15 July 1830 Place convicted Maidstone.  Comments:  Convicted before of felony; and

Received from Maidstone 27 July 1830 No 9006 James Ealden Age 40 Offence [was difficult to decipher – looks like stole Grt Coat] Where and when Convicted:  Maidstone QS 15 July 1830.  Sentence Life How and When disposed of: NSW 11 Oct 1830.

I did a strange thing when transcribing that register.  When I got to “how and when disposed of” and saw in the very elaborate handwriting NSW 11 Oct 1830 – I started coming up with all the possible things NSW could stand for – Not Sure Where?  It was only when I wrote it down in my note book and noted that everyone else on the register page had the same notation that I went duh!!! New South Wales.  🙂

I went to the Index of the 1830  Midsummer Quarter Sessions and found two entries one after the other:

James Ealden – Larceny – beforeconvicted of felony – Life

Mary Ann Ealden – Receiving Stolen Goods – Not guilty.

Was Mary Ann his wife or his sister?  If I am right in transcribing his offence as stealing a great-coat and Mary Ann was charged with receiving stolen goods, was he stealing a coat for his wife?  If so, perhaps they could not afford a coat and perhaps they had children, and he was convicted and transported to Australia forever, leaving a woman who could not afford a coat, with children to support. Very sad.  More research needed.

Edit 6 Dec 2010: It just occurred to me that if Mary Ann was his wife, perhaps this may explain James Ealden changing his name/using the name Elijah Ealden when marrying Rosanna/Rosina Lynch (if indeed he is the same person).  More research need on the marrying habits of previously married, but never going home, convicts.

There is an IGI listing on FamilySearch which is an old one, and simply says:

James Ealden b 1791 Saint Mary The V Dover Kent England m. Mary 1816 Saint Mary the V Dover Kent England.

I followed this up with another search on the IGI and found:

James Ealden Ch: 27 July 1817 Saint Mary the Virgin Dover Kent England par: James Ealden and Mary (? the same James and Mary above?) (Batch CO36562 Source: 0355633)

As a possibly related aside, I also found James Ealden b. 30 Nov 1804 Ch: 16 Jan 1805 Chapel on the Hill Independent, Cranbrook Kent England par: Joseph Ealden and Elisabeth (batch C068111).

I am very interested now to find out more about James Ealden – related or not to my family tree.

If James Ealden is Elijah Ealden/James Lynch (see my dead-ends post link above) and he and Rosanna/Rosina DID name their child Marion/Mary J could she have been named after his wife/sister in England or perhaps another child there?

There are still too many questions and not enough answers with this floating branch