We were talking about rarely-used figures of speech and Greg recalled one of his mother’s expressions, ‘to throw one’s hat over the fence’.
Marjorie was a keen painter, but from time to time she’d lose interest and put her brushes aside. She found it difficult to get going again.
Her solution was to get a fresh canvas and squeeze a dob of paint onto it. This she called ‘throwing my hat over the fence’, meaning that she was forcing herself to continue. The hat had to be retrieved and the painting had to be finished. The trick was often enough to get her back painting.
Kennedy attributed the phrase to the Irish writer Frank O’Connor (1903-1966), who wrote in his autobiography “An Only Child“, ‘When as kids we came to an orchard wall that seemed too high to climb, we took off our caps and tossed them over the wall, and then we had no choice but to follow them. I had tossed my cap over the wall of life, and I knew I must follow it, wherever it had fallen’.
I think the phrase, or something like it, has probably been around for a long time.
In December 1933 there is a mention of Marjorie Sullivan winning a prize for “Pastel drawing (under 15), scene” in the combined show held by Malmsbury and North Drummond Y.F. clubs. Marjorie was a talented artist. She painted and sketched all her life.
My husband Greg’s great grandfather Ebenezer Henry Sullivan, known as Henry Sullivan, was born on 7 August 1863 at Gheringhap, a small settlement near Geelong, Victoria.
Henry’s birth was registered by Matilda Hughes, his maternal grandmother. According to the birth certificate, his father was a labourer named William Sullivan, about 24 years old, born in London. His mother was recorded as Matilda Sullivan, maiden surname Hughes (but actually born Darby), aged 18, born in New Zealand. William and Matilda had been married in 1862, the previous year. Matilda had another child, Eleazar Hughes, born in 1861 to a different father, unnamed.
Birth certificate of Ebenezer Henry Sullivan
The 1862 marriage of William Sullivan and Matilda Frances Hughes took place on 6 October 1862 in Herne Hill, a suburb of Geelong, at the residence of the Reverend Mr James Apperley. The marriage certificate records William as 23, labourer, a bachelor, born in London, living at Gheringhap. William’s parents were named as William Sullivan, painter and glazier, and his wife Mary Barry.
1862 marriage certificate of William Sullivan and Matilda Hughes
On 12 June 1865 at Ashby, Geelong, William and Matilda had a daughter, Margaret Maria Sullivan. The informant on the birth certificate was her maternal grandmother Matilda Hughes. The father was named as William Sullivan, farmer, deceased, aged about 25, born in London.
On 20 November 1865 Margaret Maria Sullivan died, five months old. A Coronial inquest was held, where it was revealed that six months after their marriage, a few months before Henry was born, Matilda was deserted by her new husband William. Matilda Sullivan maintained that the father of the baby Margaret Maria was William Sullivan, who had visited her twice since their separation. At the time of the baby’s death Matilda Sullivan worked at Geelong Hospital. Her two younger children were cared for by their grandmother.
The inquest heard medical opinion that the baby had starved to death. The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against the grandmother [Matilda Hughes], and the mother [Matilda Sullivan], as being an accessory to it.
In April 1866 Matilda Hughes and her daughter Matilda Sullivan were called upon to surrender to their bail, but they did not answer to their names.
On the 15th May 1866 the ‘Geelong Advertiser‘ reported on court proceedings relating to the abandonment of two year old Henry Sullivan. It was said of his mother, Matilda, that “her husband had left her, and was supposed to have gone to New Zealand, whence no tidings were heard of him, and she had recently left Geelong with some man with whom she had formed an intimacy, and had deserted her children”. The child, Henry Sullivan, was admitted to the orphanage.
I have found no subsequent trace of William and Matilda. Nor have I found any record in London of William Sullivan before he arrived in Australia. I have also not been able to trace his parents William Sullivan, painter and glazier, and his mother Mary Barry.
Moreover, other than as descendants of Henry Sullivan, neither Greg nor any of his Sullivan cousins have any Sullivan relatives among their DNA matches.
When Greg first tested his DNA he had a strong match to Helen F. from New Zealand and also to her great uncle Alan W. Since 2016 I have been in correspondence with Helen who, with me, is attempting to discover how we are related. Helen has a comprehensive family tree. We have since narrowed the relationship to her McNamara Durham line.
Helen recently wrote to tell me that she had noticed some matches descended from a William Durham, son of a Patrick Durham. Patrick Durham, it seems, was the brother of Joanna NcNamara nee Durham, Helen’s 3rd great grandmother.
I have placed the matches in DNAPainter’s ‘What are the odds?’ tool. It appears likely that Greg and his Sullivan cousins are descended from Patrick Durham. We don’t yet have quite enough data to be sure whether they descend from William Durham or one of his cousins.
What are the Odds tree (tool by DNAPainter.com) with shared DNA matches of Greg with descendants of Joanna Durham; at the moment we do not have a great enough number of sufficiently large matches to form a definite conclusion. The cousin connections are a bit too distant.
William Durham was born about 1840 in Finsbury, Middlesex, England, to Patrick Durham and Mary Durham née Barry. When William Durham married Jemima Flower on 9 April 1860, he stated that his father was William Durham, a painter and glazier. (There are several other records where Patrick Durham is recorded as William Durham but is clearly the same man.)
1860 marriage of William Durham to Jemima Flowers
Comparing the signatures of William Durham on the 1860 marriage certificate to William Sullivan on the 1862 marriage certificate. They seem to be similar.
William and Jemima had two children together, one of whom appears to have died in infancy. The other, also called William Durham, left descendants, and some of these share DNA with Greg and his Sullivan cousins and also with Helen and her Durham cousins.
On 19 October 1861 William Durham, his wife and two children, were subject to a poor law removal. The record mentions his parents.
London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Poor Law Registers; Reference: BEBG/267/019 retrieved through ancestry.com
Jemima died about a week later and was buried 27 October 1861 at Victoria Park Cemetery, Hackney.
I have found no trace of William Durham after the Poor Law removal. Did he emigrate to Australia and change his name?
My husband Greg’s great grandfather was Ebenezer Henry Sullivan, born at Gheringhap near Geelong on 7 August 1863. Ebenezer’s father was William Sullivan, aged about 24 years, a Londoner. His mother was Matilda Sullivan nee Darby, age 18, born in New Zealand. The birth of Ebenezer was registered on 3 September 1863 by his grandmother Matilda Hughes of Gheringhap; there were no other children from the marriage at that time.
William Sullivan labourer and Matilda Frances Hughes (in fact Matilda Darby, for her stepfather was David Hughes) both of Gheringhap, had been married on 6 October 1862.
In 1861, two years previously, Matilda had given birth to a child, Eleazer surnamed Hughes, by a different father. The baby Eleazar was farmed out, cared for by a woman in the country—a ‘nurse’—for 5 shillings a week.
Six months after their marriage, a few months before Ebenezer Henry was born, Matilda was deserted by her new husband. About a year later, on 12 June 1865, Matilda gave birth to a third child, given the name Margaret Maria Sullivan. The father, she said, was William Sullivan, who had ‘visited’ her twice since their separation.
Matilda Sullivan worked at Geelong Hospital. Her two younger children were cared for by their grandmother.
On 20 November 1865 Margaret Maria Sullivan died, four months old. At the inquest, medical opinion was that the baby had starved to death, and the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against the grandmother [Matilda Hughes], and the mother [Matilda Sullivan], as being an accessory to it.
In April 1866 Matilda Hughes and her daughter Matilda Sullivan were called upon to surrender to their bail, but they did not answer to their names. I have found no further trace of Matilda Sullivan née Darby.
On 28 May 1866 the Geelong Advertiser reported on the case of Mary Sullivan, an unmarried mother of three, who was charged with stealing. Mary was sentenced to 14 days imprisonment. A “poor old woman” who lived in the house with Mary was left in charge of these children and another child who had been abandoned by another woman named Sullivan. I do not know if this Mary Sullivan is connected to William.
On the 15th May 1866 there had been another report in the Geelong Advertiser of a child and a young woman called Sullivan:
The attention of the Bench was again called, yesterday, to the case of the young child left in the care of a woman named Sullivan, who now seeks to shift the responsibility she undertook to Mr Hughes, the stepfather of the mother. Mr Hughes appeared in the Court and refused the charge of the child, who, he said, had been placed collusively by the mother with the woman, with a foregone intent to abandon it. He had undertaken the care and education of an elder child to save his stepdaughter from shame; but her subsequent career had been of a nature to preclude any further favourable consideration of her conduct. She had been twice married, and her husband had left her, and was supposed to have gone to New Zealand, whence no tidings were heard of him, and she had recently left Geelong with some man with whom she had formed an intimacy, and had deserted her children, leaving the one in question with the woman Sullivan, who had been pre paid for its keep for a fortnight, at the end of which time it was planned that the child should be left with the stepfather, a scheme that was defeated by Constable Collins, who saw the woman depositing the child at the stepfather’s premises, and warned her of the consequences of the act. The Bench refused the application of the woman Sullivan, who avows that she will not keep the child any longer. A warrant will be issued for the apprehension of the mother, who, it will be remembered, was the parent of the infant upon, whom an inquest was held at Ashby some time ago.
On 11 June 1866 Henry Sullivan, whose parents had deserted him, was committed as a state ward to Geelong Orphanage. His birthdate was given as 1862 but in fact he had been born in 1863, so he was a little less three years old. He was blind in one eye; family stories have this the result of a magpie attack.
On 23 June 1873 Henry Sullivan was recommitted for a further five years.
On 28 April 1876 Henry Sullivan was licensed out to Mr Jas M Jenkins, a market gardener in Moorabbin.
On 28 May 1878 Henry Sullivan was licensed out to Mr Wm George of 72 Brunswick St Fitzroy for one month at 4/- per week.
On 23 June 1878 Henry Sullivan was discharged as a state ward. He was just under 15 years old.
Henry continued to work as a gardener. He married Anne Morley on 17 February 1887 in Victoria. They had five children and 27 grandchildren. He died on 1 June 1943 in Victoria at the age of 79, and was buried in Cheltenham Cemetery.
Henry Sullivan about 1940 at his home “Navillus”, 7 Evelyn Street, East Bentleigh with his wife, a daughter-in-law, and a granddaughter, Elaine Sullivan, from the collection of a cousin and used with permission
In 1853 my husband’s great grandfather John Morley (1823-1888), with his wife Eliza née Sinden (1823-1908) and their two children, Elizabeth aged 3 and William aged 1, emigrated to Australia. They sailed on the ‘Ida‘, arriving in Melbourne on 12 July. John was an agricultural labourer; the family was from Sussex.
They first settled in Collingwood, an inner city suburb, where four more children were born. Three of their six children died there. In 1861, when their daughter Anne was born, the family moved to Brighton. The youngest child, John William George, was born there in 1864.
In 1862 the rate books for the City of Moorabbin show John Morley living in a weatherboard house owned by Edward Carroll on Tuckers Road. The annual value was 8 pounds, significantly lower than neighbouring properties; the rates were 8 shillings. (Using average weekly earnings to measure worth £8 would be the equivalent in 2022 of about $10,000.)
In 1884 John Morley, carpenter, was occupying 1 acre and a 4 room house on Centre Road. It was owned by Cain Thorne. It was valued at £12 10 shillings (about $11,000). Next door Elizabeth Morley, no occupation, was occupying 5 acres on Centre Road valued at £10 and owned by G. P. Burney.
The rate book of 1886 describes John’s property as 1 acre and 2 room weatherboard house and Eliza’s property as 2½ acres. Ownership had not changed. John’s property was valued at £15 and Eliza’s property at £19.
On 9 November 1888, after an illness of 3 months, John Morley died at 7 Evelyn Street East Brighton of malignant disease of the stomach.
Tucker Road, Centre Road, and Evelyn Street are near each other. Perhaps the three addresses refer to the same property.
Satellite view from Google maps showing 7 Evelyn Street Bentleigh , and Centre and Tucker Roads. It is much more densely settled today than when the Morleys and Sullivans lived there.
It seems Eliza kept cows. These sometimes strayed, and in 1890 for this she was fined 7s 6d with 2s 6d costs in the Brighton Police Court.
In 1891 Eliza Morley was the owner and occupier of a house and land at East Brighton. Her address was Village Street, not on current maps. The value of the property was £18.
On 23 April 1908, Eliza, 85, died at 7 Evelyn Street Bentleigh after an illness of ten weeks. Her death was attributed to ‘asthenia’ (generalised weakness, probably the result of a cancer of the pharynx). There are no probate papers.
On 17 February 1887 Henry Sullivan married Anne Morley at the residence of the Reverend Samuel Bracewell, a minister of the Primitive Methodist Church, at Lygon Street, Carlton. At the time, both Henry and Anne were living at East Brighton (later known as Bentleigh). On the marriage certificate Henry gave his profession as gardener and his age as 24 (he was really 23). He did not know who his parents were.
Henry and Anne had five children, all born at 7 Evelyn Street:
Mabel 1887-1960
Rosina 1889-1969
Arthur 1891-1975
Henry 1894-1969
Francis William 1899-1956
Henry and Anne Sullivan lived at 7 Evelyn Street Bentleigh all their married life. They called their house “Navillus”, “Sullivan” spelled backwards.
Florence Sullivan (nee Hickson), the wife of Frank; Elaine Sullivan, their daughter; Anne Sullivan (nee Morley); and Henry Sullivan. Photograph taken about 1940 at “Navillus”, 7 Evelyn Street, East Bentleigh. Behind Ann and Henry is the house nameplate. From the collection of a cousin, used with permission.
Henry grew fruit and vegetables for sale at Navillus. He appears to have had an interest in flowers, too, for it is said that he bred a variety of violet naming it Navillus.
From the 1938 catalogue of Law, Somner Pty. Ltd. seed merchants and nurserymen: page 46 – “VIOLETS.—Navillus (New), semi-double, large rosette, sweet scented, long stems, free blooming, 6d. each, 5/- dozen” Retrieved from Deakin University Library repository
Henry died in 1943. When Anne Sullivan died three years later, there was a public sale of some of the household contents.
Advertisement for the sale of household furniture and effects from 7 Evelyn Street, Bentleigh. Included was a Wertheim sewing machine and garden tools. Advertising (1946, May 25). The Age (Melbourne, Vic.), p. 11. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206103947
The house was sold. In the 1990s it was bulldozed and the site redeveloped.
My mother-in-law Marjorie (Marjorie Winifred Young neé Sullivan, 1920 – 2007) liked to talk about her childhood, her later life, family stories, and the family tree. I enjoyed her reminiscences, and I took notes for my family history database.
Marjorie in Castlemaine in the 1940s. I do not have any photos of her as a child.
Marjorie’s family often moved when she was a child, for her father was badly affected by what in those days was called ‘shellshock’ from his time as a soldier in the trenches and he found it difficult to stay in the same job.
Marjorie was born in Oakleigh, a suburb of Melbourne, the fourth of six children.
When she was about three the family moved to Tatura, near Shepparton, about 160 km north of Melbourne. Marjorie’s brother Roy was born there in 1926. This was the year Marjorie started school. Her father, she said, would not allow any of his children to start school before they were six nor start work before they were sixteen. Marjorie went to school at Tatura for a short time and could not remember much about it.
In 1927, the family moved to Castlemaine. She remembered the Castlemaine school as very large. She wasn’t there for long. After only a year or so in Castlemaine, the family moved again, to Chewton, a small settlement about 5 km away.
North Castlemaine state school about 1925. Photograph from Flickr uploaded by user HistoryInPhotos. There are several schools in Castlemaine and I am not sure which one Marjorie attended.
Marjorie, then eight or nine, went to the Chewton village school. She began in the first grade but was quickly promoted to second grade. A visiting Inspector asked the children how to sound ‘again’. Most said “agane”. Marjorie, however, said “agenn”. This was considered to be the correct pronounciation, and she was allowed to go up to a grade. Although Marjorie’s brother Arthur was a year older, in Chewton she caught up to him at school and afterwards they were always in the same class.
Marjorie was pleased to recall the story of the Inspector’s visit. Her confidence, she said, was greatly boosted by her promotion.
Chewton State School 1054 established : present building opened 1911. Photograph from VIEWS IN AND AROUND CHEWTON (Vic.). (1921, May 21). The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 – 1946), p. 56. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article140259231
In 1931 the Sullivan family moved to Kyneton, about 40 km south of Castlemaine, where she became a teacher’s assistant in one of the junior classes. Every day she would spend some time in the junior school helping out.
About 1932 the family moved again, this time to Malmsbury, about 10 km from Kyneton. There, with two other girls, she again became a kindergarten teacher’s assistant. Without being required to sit an examination they were awarded the Merit Certificate and were entitled to leave school at fourteen. Marjorie enjoyed teaching and wanted to be a teacher but the nearest Teachers’ College was too far away to attend and the family was too poor to support her.
Malmsbury Primary School yard and children playing Ring A Rosie about 1930. Photograph in the collection of the Malmsbury Historical Society and used with their permission.
In Malmsbury on 6 January 1933 the Sullivans had their sixth child, Gwendolyn Phyllis, called ‘Gwenny’. When Marjorie left school she helped care for her. In 1935 Gwenny died of meningitis. Marjorie remembers that Gwenny was was sick with stomach cramps on Monday, and died on Wednesday.
The family moved from Malmsbury to Castlemaine about 1937 and Marjorie started work in the woollen mills there as a weaver.
The places the Sullivan family moved to in the 1920s and 30s
Marjorie Young, Violet Buckley, Roy Sullivan, Joyce Sullivan, Jack Buckley, Arthur Sullivan
Greg’s maternal grandparents Arthur Sullivan (1891 – 1975) and Stella Sullivan nee Dawson (1894 – 1975) had six children:
Stella Violet (Violet) Sullivan 1914–2005
She married John Buckley in 1938. He served in the Australian Army (AIF) from 1942 and was discharged 14 March 1946. On the 1946 electoral roll John and Stella Violet Buckley were living at Napier Street Bendigo.
Lillian Mavis Sullivan 1915–2009
She married Alan Wilson 1934. In the 1940s were farming at Tongala with a family of children. They are not in the pictures at Bendigo.
Arthur Stanley Sullivan 1919–2014
He married Joyce Robbins 1941. He served in the AIF from 1943 and was discharged 4 December 1945
Marjorie Winifred Sullivan 1920–2007
She married Peter Young 1944. He served in the AIF from 1943 and was discharged 25 February 1946
Royle Lawrence Sullivan 1926–2009
He enlisted in the RAAF in 1944 and was discharged in August 1946 He married Grace in 1956. She is not in the photos at Bendigo.
Gwendolyn Phyllis Sullivan 1933–1935
She died of meningitis aged 17 months.
Peter Young, Violet Buckley, Roy Sullivan, Joyce Sullivan, Jack Buckley, Arthur Sullivan
Roy and Marjorie
Violet
Roy, Violet, Marjorie, Mum, Pop, Arthur
Roy, Jack Buckley, Arthur,Marjorie, Violet, Stella, Arthur senior, Joyce
I thought at first I might be able to date the photos from when the men were discharged after the War. But I think that some of them might have been on leave at the time, not yet demobbed. Peter and Marjorie had their first child in late 1946 and there is no sign of a baby in the pictures. He arrived back in Australia in late December 1945. Arthur and Joyce had their first child in early 1947.
In 1946 Violet and John Buckley’s house was on Napier Street (the Midland Highway), so I suppose the group might have met there before going on to the pool. Unfortunately the Electoral Roll gives no number for their house, and Napier Street runs for several miles.
At this time, Violet’s parents, Arthur and Stella Sullivan, were living in Castlemaine. On the 1946 Electoral Roll Arthur and Joyce Sullivan were living in 251 Auburn Road, Hawthorn, Melbourne. Marjorie was registered as living at 1 Yarra Street, Toorak, with the occupation of weaver. Roy, only twenty, was too young to be enrolled to
vote.
It seems likely that these photographs were taken when Violet’s parents and brothers joined Violet and Jack in Bendigo for a holiday in early 1946.
All of Arthur and Stella’s sons and their and son-in-law got back unhurt from the war. This was something to celebrate.
Marjorie and Peter Young. I think this was taken at a similar time but at Marjorie’s parents’ house in Castlemaine.
Three years ago my husband Greg and I sent off our DNA for analysis. There were three family history puzzles I thought DNA techniques might solve. One concerned the parents of Greg’s great grandfather Henry Sullivan. Who were they? I didn’t know. I thought DNA data might help.
We knew Henry was brought up in an orphanage in Geelong, but its records told us only that he had been abandoned by his parents, nothing more. We could not find a likely birth certificate for him.
I revisited the problem, reviewing digitised newspapers at Trove and widening my date search slightly. I wrote up the results at `Poor little chap‘.
Henry was committed as a State Ward on 11 June 1866. He was said to be four years old. Both his parents were living but he had been deserted. Looking at the newspapers for the month before Henry was committed I found a report that mentioned a ‘‘little one’ who had been abandoned by a woman named Sullivan.’ The newspaper stated that ‘The decrepit and indiscreet creature walked off with the child clinging to her.’. Perhaps this child was our Henry.
Following through various newspaper reports I came to the view that this Henry was the child of William Sullivan (born 1839) and Matilda Frances Sullivan formerly Hughes (born 1845). Matilda Sullivan was the daughter of Matilda Priscilla Hughes nee Moggridge formerly Derby (1825 – 1868) and the step-daughter of David Hughes (1822 – 1895). Matilda Sullivan had another son, Eleazer Hughes (1861 – 1949). Eleazer Hughes had left descendants. I hoped that by matching Greg’s DNA with the descendants of Eleazer Hughes I might be able to confirm the hypothesis of Henry Sullivan’s parents.
Greg and his brother Dennis, his first cousins BS and MS, and his second cousin LB all share DNA with various descendants of Eleazer Hughes.
The challenge with DNA matching is to be confident about which of your forebears you have inherited the shared DNA from.
For close relations where you knew the test-takers beforehand and when the amount of shared DNA corresponds to the amount expected to be shared given the relationship, a shared DNA match is taken to be evidence of the relationship. If you have access to the shared chromosome details then you can attribute the shared ancestry to the shared DNA.
When the relationship is more distant you need to be confident that the DNA is shared from a particular ancestor and not from some other shared ancestor. That other ancestor may be on a part of the tree you or your match have not yet documented, that is, you do not know about your shared relationship. A measure of this is tree completeness -how many of your forebears have you documented for the necessary generations. If you are looking at an expected third cousin relationship then you expect to share great great grandparents. The question then becomes whether you and your match have both documented all sixteen of your great great grandparents. Only then can you be completely confident there is no another possible explanation of why you share DNA.
When it comes to fourth cousin relationships you are one more generation back. Both you and your match need to have documented thirty-two third great grandparents but also you need to take into consideration other possible relationships that might account for the amount of DNA that you share.
The distance between two gene loci on a chromosome is measured in centiMorgans (cM), defined as ‘the distance between chromosome positions for which the expected average number of intervening chromosomal crossovers in a single generation is 0.01’, that is, how likely the segment is to recombine as it passes from parent to child.
If two sets of DNA are compared, a higher number of shared centiMorgans means greater confidence in the match, that is, greater confidence that the match represents a closer relationship.
Any given number of centiMorgans though can represent a variety of relationships. The Shared cM Project is a collaborative data collection and analysis project created as part of research into the ranges of shared centiMorgans associated with various known relationships. A tool called the ‘Shared cM Project 3.0 tool’ v4 allows users to compare the amount of DNA shared with a match with the accumulated results of the data collection of more than 25,000 relationships and their shared DNA. Using the tool is an aid to understanding what relationships are most likely to be represented by the amount of shared DNA.
If three people share one segment of DNA and they know how they are related, then we have more confidence that the shared DNA comes from particular ancestors.
Greg and L B are second cousins. They have tested their DNA at AncestryDNA and uploaded to MyHeritage and GedMatch. At AncestryDNA they share 242 centiMorgans across 9 segments and at MyHeritage they share 254.6 centiMorgans across 9 segments. (I have previously discussed my experience of variations in DNA matches between companies.)
Greg and L B are half third cousins to D J G. D J G’s great grandfather, Eleazer Hughes, was the half-brother of Greg and L B’s great grandfather Henry Sullivan. At MyHeritage Greg shares 89.2 centiMorgans across 4 segments with D J G. L B shares 64.1 centiMorgans with D J G. The amount of DNA shared between the cousins falls within the probabilities predicted using the shared cM tool.
Greg, L B and D J G share one triangulated segment on chromosome 10. The segment is 47.7 centiMorgans long.
I believe this DNA segment on chromosome 10 was inherited from Matilda by Greg, L B and D J G.
I checked that there was no other likely relationship to explain the DNA match by tracing the grandparents of DJG. Greg’s family tree and the tree of LB are both complete and documented up to their great great grandparents.
LB and Greg do have other matches with descendants of Eleazer Hughes but so far I have not been able to triangulate the DNA to a single segment. AncestryDNA, which has the most DNA matches, unfortunately lacks the tool, a chromosome browser, to demonstrate the triangulation.
Postscript: the poor little chap grew up, married and had a family. It seems he had a contended adult life. You can read about him at H is for Henry.
Florence Sullivan (nee Hickson), Elaine Sullivan, Anne Sullivan (nee Morley), and Henry Sullivan at “Navillus”, 7 Evelyn Street, East Bentleigh from the collection of a cousin and used with permission
One of my husband’s maternal great aunts was Rosina Doidge née Sullivan formerly Saunders (1889-1969).
She was the second child of Henry Sullivan (1863-1943) and Anne Sullivan née Morley (1861-1946). (Anne had two children before her marriage to Henry.)
Rosina was born at “Navillus”, the family home in Evelyn Street, East Bentleigh, Victoria.
In 1910 she married John Henry Saunders (1891-1948). They had four children.
John Saunders worked as a linesman, installing and maintaining electrical power, telephone, and telegraph lines. On Christmas Eve 1948 he was killed when he fell through the roof of the North Melbourne Locomotive Depot.
Alfred Doidge (1890-1964), one of John’s work-mates on the railways, went to Saunders’s house to pay his condolences to the widow. To his surprise he discovered that his mate’s wife Rosina was a girl he had “kept company with” for four years from 1905.
It hadn’t worked out, because Alfred and Rosina had quarreled.
One Saturday evening in 1909, Rosina dyed a white dress black, and spoilt it. ‘Look what’s she done,’ Rosina’s mother said to Alfred. ‘What a shame,’ said Alfred. ‘You didn’t have to pay for the dress,’ said Rosina. There was quite a row, and Alfred and Rosina stopped keeping company …
Alfred married a different girl and had three children, but his wife, Helen, died in 1930 and he had been a widower for 18 years.
Widower and widow, both of them now 60, the former sweethearts Alfred and Rosina married on 8 June 1949. Their wedding and the story behind it was reported in newspapers around Australia.
Rosina Saunders marrying Alfred Doidge 8 June 1949 at St Silas Church, Albert Park, Victoria
The graves of my husband’s family are quite often just bare earth. Rosina, however, erected a substantial gravestone at her parents’ grave in Cheltenham cemetery.
The headstone on the grave of Rosina’s parents at Cheltenham cemetery
In 1876, at the age of 12, Henry was licensed out from the orphanage to work for a market gardener at Moorabbin, 15 kilometers south-east of Melbourne. He was a gardener for the rest of his life.
On 17 February 1887 Henry Sullivan married Anne Morley at the residence of the Reverend Samuel Bracewell at Lygon Street, Carlton, a suburb of Melbourne. The Rev. Samuel Bracewell was a minister of the Primitive Methodist Church. At the time both Henry and Anne were living at East Brighton (later known as Bentleigh). Henry stated he was a gardener. On the marriage certificate he gave his age as 24 although he was in fact 23. Henry did not know who his parents were.
Henry and Anne had five children:
Mabel 1887-1960
Rosina 1889-1969
Arthur 1891-1975
Henry 1894-1969
Francis William 1899-1956
Henry and Anne Sullivan lived at 7 Evelyn Street, Bentleigh, all their married life. They called their house “Navillus”, “Sullivan” spelled backwards.
Florence Sullivan (nee Hickson), Elaine Sullivan, Anne Sullivan (nee Morley), and Henry Sullivan at “Navillus”, 7 Evelyn Street, East Bentleigh from the collection of a cousin and used with permission
Henry died in 1943 and Anne in 1946. They were buried in the Methodist section of Cheltenham Memorial Park. Their daughter Rosina gave them a fine grave.
The grave of Henry and Anne Sullivan in the Methodist section of Cheltenham Memorial Park – grave location 30*51*N
My husband Greg’s maternal grandfather Arthur Sullivan (1891-1975) enlisted in the Australian Army on 22 July 1915. He had married in 1913 and had two small daughters.
Photograph of Arthur and his wife Stella and their two eldest daughters Lil and Vi. From the collection of one of Greg’s cousins.
Arthur served on the Western Front as a sapper with the Fifth Pioneers. He returned to Australia from France in February 1918, invalided out with ‘debility’. His daughter Marjorie (1920-2007), Greg’s mother, told me that her father suffered from shell shock after the war. As a little girl she was given the task of sitting with him when he got the horrors.
I viewed Arthur’s repatriation files in the National Archives at Melbourne. In 1931 Arthur was reported as suffering from a problem with his hands. The letters and reports of examination are extensive. His physical problems were deemed to be unrelated to his war experiences, however, and so he was granted only a minimal pension. Arthur is described in the files as a very thin grey-haired man. He was only 40.
The Great Depression, of course, came next, but Arthur and his family saw it out, and he lived in modest comfort with his wife Stella, mostly in Castlemaine, Victoria. They died in 1975: Arthur died on 11 September, 23 days after the death of Stella.
One of the pages from NAA: B73, SULLIVAN, Arthur – Service Number – 4272
References
National Archives of Australia (NAA): B2455, SULLIVAN Arthur : Service Number – 4272 : Place of Birth – Bentleigh VIC : Place of Enlistment – Melbourne VIC : Next of Kin – (Wife) SULLIVAN Stella E G
NAA: B73, SULLIVAN, Arthur – Service Number – 4272
As an example of the reporting of the Gallipoli landings see (1915, May 3). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page379950