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Tom and Kate's Children
Mary Elizabeth Smith
The next or perhaps first child Amelia Ann was born in Brisbane Valley on 1st Jan 1871 . A primary document birth certificate exists for an unnamed child of John Thomas farmer 21 years of age and Catherine Murray 20 years of age who was born at Brisbane Valley Creek. Celia Murray is the witness which could hint at the fact she may also have been a midwife. The name added after the registration of birth is Amelia Ann. This would mean Kate was 5 months pregnant at the time of her marriage. Celia and Hamilton Murray had married at Brisbane Valley Creek so perhaps it was at their property that Tom and Kate were residing. Hamilton was not far off being sectioned to Roselle for senile dementia in 1874. Amelia Ann died before 1916 but we do not know when. Rockley Manner page 103 lists Amelia Ann and Mary Elizabeth being the first born in 1871.
To confuse it even further Catherine’s death certificate in 1910 lists all children. If we take this document to be the most accurate you will see that Mary Elizabeth is indeed the eldest being born in 1871 followed by William Henry born in 1874; Celia Ann 1876; Victoria Adelaide 1878; John Joseph 1880; Emma Amelia in 1882; Edwin in 1885; Thomas in 1887; Walter Barsden in 1890 and finally Bertha in 1894. We know Bertha died after Kate so there is 1 female deceased in 1910. Margaret Jane is missing off this list and we know she died in 1872 so this is the 1 female deceased. Where is Amelia Ann?
Until a birth certificate for Mary Elizabeth appears there are a number of options to consider:
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Amelia Ann’s name was changed to Mary Elizabeth
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Someone registered the wrong name on the Amelia Ann birth certificate given baby was unnamed at the point of registration.
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Amelia Ann and Mary Elizabeth were twins and one died prior to registration-names were then confused on the registration. However one might expect the death certificate to note 2 deceased females.
Until further proof comes to light I believe that Amelia Ann and Mary Elizabeth are the same person.
Mary Elizabeth married Richard Saxon Saunders [ on right with his mother Emma Elbourne] on 29th August 1897 at the Wesleyan Church in Bathurst. They had 4 children : Norman H Saunders 1898-1982; Daisy I Saunders 1901-1982; Richard H Saunders 1905-1905 and Pearl Saunders 1900-1996. [below]. Mary and Richard lived in Kelso and are buried at Holy Trinity Church Kelso. In the 1913 Electoral Roll Richard is listed as a farmer of Kelso.
The first child of Tom and Kate is Mary Elizabeth Smith. Mary Elizabeth’s birthdate is a slight mystery. Some family trees have it as 4th August 1870 , others as 1870 or 1871 and no birth certificate has been found to date. Her marriage certificate lists her age as 23 which would put a birth year at 1874. Her gravestone indicates she died in 1942 aged 72 years which puts her birth at 1870 if her birthday was between Jan and May or 1869 if it was between June and December.
Margaret Jane Smith
Young Margaret Jane came along next on 12th October her dad’s birthday in 1872 at Native Dog Creek Essington. Margaret Jane had obviously been named after the sister Tom had lost to typhoid. On her birth certificate Tom is listed as a miner aged 23 yrs . Interestingly the certificate says there is 1 female child living and none deceased which places another light onto Mary Elizabeth’s or Amelia Ann’s birth, strengthening the argument that these are the same person. The record also states that the information on the birth was received on 23rd Oct 1872 and the registrar should have registered the birth for that date! Mrs Murray ie Celia was again the witness so I suspect she delivered the children. Margaret Jane died aged 4 in 1876.
William Henry Smith
William Henry was next and Tom and Kate had an awful habit of naming their children directly after brothers and sisters! William Henry named after Tom’s eldest brother, was born in 1874 in the Bathurst district. He went on to marry a Murray, Bridget Cecile Murray in 1897 or did he?. Bridget was the eldest child of Daniel Murray, Kate’s older brother and Catherine Rourke. We have another naming mystery as Bridget Cecile or Cecilia may well have been known as Amelia Ann or Cecilia Ann. The latter most likely. There is a Bridget Cecilia Murray born to Daniel Murray and Catherine Rourke in 1873 or 74. The birth was registered in 1874. In the Rockley Manor page 103 the child of Daniel and Catherine born in 1874 is cited as Amelia Murray married to William Henry Smith. It recognises his wife as his first cousin. BUT I obtained the 1897 marriage certificate and it lists Amelia Ann Murray daughter of Daniel and Catherine so we know it is Bridget marrying William Smith son of John Smith deceased and Sussanah Graham NOT tom and Kate. We know Bridget Cecile and Amelia Ann are all the same person which I will call Bridget and Celia Ann is also probably Bridget. Bridget was indeed William's first cousin and they shared Hamilton Murray and Celia Ruffel as common grandparents. Tom and Kate went on to name their next child as Amelia Ann and another daughter Celia Ann to make things really confusing.
Bridget’s death certificate item in NSW BDM confirms she was Amelia Ann and Married to William Smith and she had 8 children.
On February 6th 1907 William married Annie Eliza Cash daughter of James Cash and Mary Kelly of Trunkey. Interesting it was called a quiet wedding but was publicly reported. They had 2 children we know of : John Smith born 1909 and Hazel Smith 1917.
Here is the convoluted relationship between Annie and William. Annie being the grand daughter of Thomas Cash and Margaret Cosgrove was the niece of Mary Ann Smith Cash who had married James’ brother Thomas Cash. Mary Ann was the eldest sister of John Thomas Smith. There would have been no blood familial links between them but Annie’s cousins via Mary Ann were also cousins to Tom and Kates children.
Annie Eliza Smith dies in 1951 .
William and Amelia/Bridget's children were:
1. Merley Phillis Smith; 1897-1898 born in Bathurst District
2. John Joseph Gregory Smith: 1899-1903
3. Alma Edna May Smith born abt 1901 Bathurst and never married, Died 1st August 1958.
4. William Henry Smith Jnr. born abt 1903 Bathurst
5. Frederick Arthur Michael Smith born 1905 Newtown NSW and died 11/2/1906 in Erskineville NSW
6. Doris Smith born 1906 Newtown
7. Phillis M.M Smith born 1909 NSW
8. Allen Daniel Smith born 1912 Croydon NSW and died in Enfield on 29th December 1912.
If William Henry married Eliza in 1907 he would have been still married to Bridget and was having children with him up to 1912! This does not make sense legally and did the Rockley Manner get it wrong? Bridget married another William Smith not her first cousin. I am leaving this here under William Henry as more information might sort this out but my hunch is our William Henry Married Eliza as his first marriage. Rockley Manner might have got it wrong indeed.
Celia Ann Smith
Celia Ann followed named after Kate’s mother. She was born in 1876 in Bathurst. Celia married Charles Martin in 1899 in Rockley and our family were in contact with their son Charlie Martin into the 1980’s. They had 5 children Phyllis May 1900-1950; Joseph 1902-1980; Roy 1909-1985; Lindsay born and died 1911 and Charlie or Charles Arthur born 1918. Charlie was a keen lapidarist and at Rooty Hill had a room full of polished gems. Phyllis was murdered. She married Norman Page in 1924 and he died in 1931. They had 2 children Jean and Norman. She disappeared in 1950 and was described as an industrious widow. An article on her “ murder” states that a Lionel Charles Thomas came into her life. She called him Fred Stephens and had no idea he was a violent criminal with multiple murder charges against him. They had met in 1946 when he was working at Hebblewhites bakery in Blacktown . He went to New Guinea in 1947-48 and returned in 1849 saying he owned a business in Rabaul. Phyllis told her children she planned to sell the house marry Fred and live in New Guinea. On 2nd Feb 1850 the house was sold and Phyllis and Fred ie Thomas went off in a Vanguard panel van bought with Phyllis’s money from the sale of the house. The house sold for 1800 pound and the van cost 800 pound! The children received one letter from Phyllis on Feb 19 and thereafter nothing. The Eden district of NSW is where she was heard of last. Her murderer eventually was tracked down and confessed he had shot her and dumped her body in the flood swollen Towomba River off the Kiah Bridge. Thomas was found guilty of Phyllis’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on Dec 1850. He was found hanged 10 months later in his cell. He was a serial killer. Phyllis has never been found. I wonder if Aunty Ett knew of her first cousins fate or whether they were in touch with each other. Celia Ann died in 1945 in Parramatta.
Victoria Adelaide Smith
Victoria Adelaide was the next child born in 1878 and again named after a sister of Tom. She married William Henry Bayliss in 1902 in Rockley. He was the second son of Mr W Bayliss of Russell St Bathurst. Tom is described as the overseer at Charlton. The newspaper account of the wedding shows us that they had their reception at the Charlton residence of Tom and Kate. They went on to have 3 children Aubrey William Thomas Bayliss 1903-1980; Muriel Bayliss 1905-1966 and Horace Bayliss 1905-1906. The Bayliss and McPhillamy family were connected via Raymond, Victor and Sid Bayliss. Vicki died on 6th Nov 1917 in Balmain South and her husband remarried Mabel Drew in 1921. They went on to have another 4 children. Victoria and William are buried in Rockley cemetery together. There is a In Memoriam for Kate they placed in the newspaper separate to the family one.
Victoria’s death was recorded in an article to the right.
Bogan Gate is up near Forbes so Victoria and William were separated from the NDC Essington family. They were there in 1911 but by 1917 were in Kogarah Sydney.
John Joseph Smith- refer his seperate page
Emma Amelia Smith
Emma Amelia was next born in 1881 and yes after her aunt Emma Amelia, Tom’s sister. Emma married William D. Borthwick in 1920 in Bathurst. They had 2 children Joan Isobel 1922-1989 and Jack who died in 2009 in WA I believe. Dad used to talk about his Borthwick cousin Joan but I don’t remember ever meeting them. Emma died on 24/5/1957 at 111a Botany St Randwick.
Edwin Smith
Edwin Smith was born in 1884 and named after his uncle Edwin Spencer. My father was also Edwin, Henry Edwin Smith known as Ed as was so often the case in the family-people used their second names! There is no known marriage for Edwin and electoral rolls in 1936 have him in Kelso as a farmer. Noticeably his uncle Edwin Spencer is also listed as a grazier of Rose St South Bathurst. The 1930 rolls just have Edwin in Kelso as a farmer. Edwin died in 1943 in Bathurst.
Thomas William Smith
Thomas William or Tom was born in 1887. I remember Uncle Tom, who we used to visit at his little white cottage in Kelso. As an old man he still had that upright steel in the backbone stance of the Smith’s just like my dad and I remember as a child when we arrived to see him and Aunty Vera and he was cutting wood outside with a strength which belied his age. He and Vera were a lovely couple. Vera Mable Ashley married Uncle Tom in Ashfield on 8th Sept 1923. Their wedding was described in the National Advocate Bathurst 12th Sept
Uncle Tom gave Vera and her bouquet and a gold wrist watch which she wore on her wedding day. He also gave the bridal party their bouquets and gold bangles.
Emma Amelia’s husband was the best man indicating a level of connection and relationship there.
At the time of their marriage they lived in Westmead Sydney.
Vera was blind and I remember the clear solid blue of her eyes so well.
They only had one son Douglas or Doug. Nothing is known about Doug except he lived in Perthville.
Walter Barsden Smith
Walter Barsden Smith named for his great grandmother Mary’s family was born at Rockley in 1891. Like his brothers and father his obituary tells us he was a farmer at Charlton and then Lidsdale. He married Maud M Byce in Lithgow and they did not have any children. Walter died aged 60 in 1951 in Orange. He is interred at Holy Trinity Church Kelso which is appropriate.
Notice on his funeral notice Tom is described as one of the pioneers of Rockley. William Richard and Mary Ann seem to have faded into history.
The last child was Bertha Isobel Smith born 1894 in Blayney. Bertha and Walter had been driving a sulky into Rockley township on 19th January 1916 when Bertha was 22 years of age. As you can read the back band of the sulky broke and the horse bolted despite Walter’s efforts. He jumped from the sulky but Bertha was thrown out of the sulky. Bertha died several hours later of cerebral concussion and shock. Her death was mourned by the whole town and Harold McPhillamy ordered all work to cease on Charlton until the Monday after the funeral and all businesses were closed in Rockley. The newspapers paint a bright and happy young woman who was about to be married and had in fact been coming to town for a wedding dress fitting. We do not know the name of her betrothed. If we look at the pallbearers one of these men may well have been her fiancé. Only the Sewell could have been related. Clearly the McNabs and Warby families were close and the notices paint the family of Tom and Kate as highly respected in the district. We hold in care Bertha’s whip from the sulky accident.
Bertha Isobel Smith
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