linswad on Family Tree Circles

In early 2019 I bit the bullet and had a DNA test done through Ancestry, and took advantage of a discounted 1-year subscription at the same time. A few weeks later I received my results, and began to look through my 30,000 connected trees (the number of close matches is only 300, so I started there). I found connections with the names I expected - Swadling, Barnett, Lane, Mudie - but there were several trees connected as 4th cousins which I could not make sense of. The owners of some of these trees are located in New Zealand, which was another surprise.

I spent a week going through these trees and was able to connect various names (Royal, Bills, Cook) back to common ancestors Thomas Cook and Ann Catherine Green in Majors Creek, NSW, in the mid 1800s. I can't find a marriage for Thomas and Ann, or baptisms for their four children, and Ann's death entry in 1861 has no parents listed. Despite all this, however, there is a definite connection to these trees - eleven of them and counting.

Now for the other side of the story: I have two convicts, Thomas Green and Catherine McLaughlin, who had six children in NSW between 1804 and 1816. They also didn't marry, and none of their six children were baptised - probably as Catherine was Irish Catholic and refused to be married by an Anglican priest. I have been able to trace what happened to only three of these six children - William (my gt-gt-grandfather), Mary Ann and Margaret - plus the two other children, Susannah and Martha, that Catherine had with Patrick Bambridge after Thomas died in 1815. This leaves Catherine, John and Thomas, and I have kept trying for 40 years to find these three with no success. Catherine married (as Caroline) in 1828 to Everitt Summons, and in 1840 ran away from her husband and their five children:

Sydney Herald Friday 21 August 1840 p.3
CAUTION-The Public are hereby Cautioned against giving credit to my wife, Caroline Summons, she having left her home and family in a clandestine manner, as I will not pay any debts she may contract.
EVERITT SIMMONS [sic]
Newcastle, 20th August, 1840

(this notice was repeated in April 1841)

I have looked for further traces of her (and her brothers) for years with no success, until now. It appears that my Catherine became Ann Catherine and took up with Thomas Cook, having another four children with him. One of the four died in 1888 in a mining accident, and the coroner's inquest gives his age as 46, and birthplace as Wollongong. Ann died unpleasantly in 1861, which was reported in the newspapers of the time:

Empire Sat 11 May 1861 p.3
DEATH BY BURNING. - The Braidwood Observer says:
An inquest was held at Major's Creek, on Friday, before Dr. Codrington, and a respectable jury, on view of the body of Ann Catherine Cook, of that place, who was found by their verdict to have met her death from having been accidentally burned by falling into the fire, on Thursday last. It transpired from the evidence of the husband and the daughter of the deceased and other witnesses that she lingered until Friday morning, last, from the injuries received, when she expired. On the morning of the previous day she had sent for her husband who was out at work to come in and take a glass of rum, she then being in good health. He lay down on the sofa up to one or two o'clock, when he went out, and upon his return found her sitting in the fire-place with her clothes smouldering on fire around her. He got a dish of water and threw it over her, she being insensible at the time, and subsequently got some oil to apply to the burns of the deceased, from a neighbour. No medical advice was called in, as he alleged he was not able to pay for it, and the deceased died as described. One of the witnesses deposed that the skirts of the clothes of the deceased were burnt to a cinder up to the waist. There cannot be a doubt, but that the unhappy woman was helplessly intoxicated at the time of the accident.

Of those eleven trees which connect to this Cook/Green family, four also connect to Catherine McLaughlin, my convict ancestor mentioned above, which makes it conclusive for me. The NZ connection comes about because a grand-daughter of Thomas Cook moved there and married in 1908. So for me the DNA test has been worthwhile in tracking down this one collateral ancestor, although I'm hoping her brothers may turn up one day as well. With their names being John and Thomas, I have had little success in all this time using traditional methods.

And then there's my mystery man, William Williams - he lived in Hobart in the 1850s and 1860s, but I have no place or date of birth or death for him. I really hope to find connections to him via DNA at some stage.

Carl John Ludvig (John Louis) KJELSBERG was one of six brothers born in Haugesund to Oluf Fredrik KJELSBERG and Henriette Jandine JANSEN. He arrived in South Australia in 1880 as a crewman on John Rennie, and in Sydney, NSW as a passenger on the Birksgate.

Carl married Mary Ann GREEN in Canterbury, NSW in 1888, and they had eight children, four of whom died young.

Mary Ann died in 1941 at 46 Percival St, Leichhardt, and Carl in 1945 at the same address.

Catherine TIERNEY arrived in NSW with the rest of her family aboard the Queen Victoria on 26 July 1841. The ship's papers listed a large family:

* Michael TIERNEY, a 37 year old labourer, son of Roger TIERNEY and Catherine KILLEEN, of Dunmore, Galway
* his wife Judy (later referred to as Julia), a 34 year old dairywoman, daughter of Patrick CONNOLLY and Mary SIMES, also of Dunmore

and their children

1. Catherine, 16 years old (but an inquiry was held into her age to determine the bounty, because of her small stature)
2. Roger, 12
3. Mary, 10
4. Bridget, 8
5. Honor (Hannah), 6
6. Patrick, 4
7. Bernard, 2


A further three children were born in NSW:

8. William, b. 13 Dec 1842, Bathurst
9. Ann, b. 24 January 1845, Tongy
10. Ellen, b. 9 January 1847, Weetalabla

The family settled in the northern part of NSW. Michael died in 1873 at Wollombi, west of Newcastle, where his gravestone still stands. Judy died at Bendemeer, in the New England region, on 10 February 1881. Their daughter Catherine married James COLEMAN on 4 July 1849 in Sydney.

Cornelius O'NEAL seemed an unusual name, until I started researching the man who married my gt-gt-grandfather's sister. Sarah SWADLING came to NSW with her brother William and his wife and children via the James Pattison in Dec 1838. Six months later, she married this Irishman, Cornelius, at St Philip's CE in Sydney. He was a widower, she a spinster. Her brother William was one of the witnesses to the marriage. I assume my great-grandfather, William's son Cornelius, was named after his uncle, as his is the earliest occurrence of the name in the SWADLING family.

They lived at and ran the Darling Harbour Inn for some years, and had two sons:

1. Patrick Francis O'NEAL, b. ca. 1840
2. Stephen O'NEAL, b. 1846

Sarah died in October 1852, as detailed in the Sydney Morning Herald on 20th Oct 1852, page 3 column 6:

On the 19th instant at her residence, Darling Harbour Inn, Sussex St, after a short and painful illness, Sarah, the beloved wife of Mr Cornelius O'Neale [sic], aged 41 years, leaving a husband and two children and a large circle of friends to deplore their irreparable loss.

Sarah was buried at the Devonshire St cemetery on October 21, with a simple inscription:

Sarah wife of Cornelius O'Neal
died 19 October 1852 aged 41 years
leaving a husband and two children.

Cornelius remarried on July 2 1853, to Eliza HANLY. This couple had three daughters:

1. Mary O'NEAL, b.17 Aug 1854 Sydney
2. Eliza L O'NEAL, b. 1856 Sydney
3. Catherine O'NEAL, b. 1858 Sydney

Cornelius was the licencee of the Odd Fellows Arms in Dowling St Sydney in 1858. Eliza died in early 1859.

Cornelius remarried yet again to Amelia STACK, in Sydney in 1859. They must have moved soon after this to the Shoalhaven, where they ran the Royal Hotel. Cornelius is shown as the licencee there in April 1860. He died there in December 1863:

Sydney Morning Herald 30 December 1863 page 1
On the 17th instant at his residence, Royal Hotel, Greenwall Pt, Shoalhaven, Cornelius O'Neal, aged 55 years.

The details on his death certificate state that he was a native of Bantry Bay Ireland, and had been in NSW for 32 years. The only marriage mentioned is the last, to Amelia, who probably supplied these details. He was buried at the Nowra cemetery, but there is no stone on his grave. I haven't yet discovered when he arrived in NSW. There was a Cornelius O'NEAL, storekeeper on Norfolk Island, on a list of those in Government employ in 1810, appointed by Governor Macquarie. I have no evidence of a connection with "my" Cornelius as yet.

Elizabeth LOGUE and her sister Emily arrived in NSW aboard the Sabrina, on July 10 1854. According to the ship's papers, they were both natives of Stillorgan, co. Dublin, Ireland, Protestants, and able to read and write. Their father was dead, and their mother was alive in Rathdown, co. Wicklow. Elizabeth, 18 years old, was a nursemaid, while her sister Emily, 19, was a housemaid. The Dublin City Directory lists a Mrs LOGUE at Hallstead Cottage, Galloping Green, Stillorgan in 1839, which may have been Eliza.

Three years later Elizabeth married John BARNETT at St James Anglican church, Morpeth, near Maitland. Her parents' names were given as John LOGUE, a land steward, and Eliza DIXON. Their first child Charles was born in Sydney the following year (where John was described as a seaman), while their next four were born back in Morpeth, the sixth in Newcastle, and the last two in Sydney again. Emily was also living in the Maitland area, as she married Robert CRAIG in 1855 at the Catholic church in Maitland. They had three children there until 1862, before disappearing from the NSW records (and into the QLD records).

Elizabeth and Emily might have written home to their mother about life in NSW, because she arrived via the Matoaka on 17 May 1855, less than a year after them, accompanied by her son John. She was present for her granddaughter Elizabeth CRAIG's birth in Morpeth on 13 July 1856 (where she was mentioned as mistress of the National School), and her grandson Charles BARNETT's birth in Sydney on 24 January 1858. Her visits to Maitland and Morpeth were probably where she met David BAXTER, a farmer from Stroud, whom she married in Sydney on 15 August 1859.

Elizabeth lost her husband John BARNETT in an accident aboard the S.S. Ranelagh, a ship which he was unloading, in 1882. She died 28 years later, in 1910, at the Newington Asylum near Parramatta.

Everitt SUMMONS arrived in NSW via the Brothers. The 1828 Census of NSW lists a SUMMONS family group of six:

* Everett - 35 yrs, came free Brothers in 1825, protestant, servant, working for Australian Agricultural Company at Port Stephens
* Caroline - 18 yrs, born in the colony, protestant
* John - 28 yrs, came free Brothers in 1825, protestant, servant, working for Australian Agricultural Company at Port Stephens
* Elizabeth - 20 yrs, came free Brothers in 1825, protestant
* E.R. - 18 mths, born in the colony, protestant
* infant - 1 mth, born in the colony, protestant

Birth, death and marriage records show this to be two families. Everitt had married Caroline (or Catherine) GREEN in Sydney on 28 Oct 1828, and they had five children:

1. Eliza b. 7 Jan 1829, bap. 14 Apr 1829 Newcastle
2. Everitt b. 17 May 1830, bap. 25 Jul 1830 Newcastle
3. John Australia b. 9 Sep 1831, bap. 30 Oct 1831 Newcastle
4. Edward b. Nov 1832, bap. Dec 1832 Stroud
5. Sarah Ann b. 22 Dec 1835, bap. 13 Apr 1836 Stroud

I have found several notices in the Sydney Herald around 1840-41 from Everitt, cautioning people not to give credit to his wife Caroline, who has run away from home (at the age of 25 she had been married for seven years and borne five children!). See this page for more on her.

Everitt died in Newcastle on 28 Jan 1870, and was buried at Christ Church CE Newcastle the following day. His death certificate records his parents' names as Everitt SUMMONS and Mary Ann LITTLEWOOD, his age as 77 years, and his place of birth as Bentley, Essex, England.

John and Elizabeth were married before arrival, and had two children recorded in the NSW records:

1. William bap. 1828 Newcastle
2. James bap. 1833 Sydney

John died in 1834 in Sydney, and Elizabeth remarried to Nicodemus DUNN the same year. It is not known whether John and Everitt were brothers, although this seems likely.

James COLEMAN arrived in Sydney via the Emerald Isle on 23 Dec 1841 from Louth, Ireland. The ship's papers describe him thus:

* a native of Ardee, county Louth
* his parents were Thomas and Judith (mother dead)
* a farm labourer
* 19 yrs old
* Roman Catholic
* able to read and write
* his sister Margaret was travelling on the ship, under his protection

James married Catherine TIERNEY at St Mary's Church, Sydney, on 4 July 1849. They had twelve children in the following 23 years:

1. James, b. 1853, d. 1854
2. Mary Catherine, b.5 July 1854, m.1896 James WADDELL
3. John, b.17 March 1856
4. Julia Catherine, b. 21 July 1857, m. Charles Edward BARNETT (12 August 1878 and 23 October 1879), d.17 September 1942
5. Thomas, b.1859, d.1861
6. William, b.1861, d.1862
7. Edward, b.1862, d.1911
8. Emily, b.1863, m.1884 David MARTIN
9. Edith, b.1865, d.1867
10. Albert Joseph, b.1867, m.1905 Ellen FAIRBURN
11. Henry Patrick, b.1869, m.1913 Jane WALLACE, m.1916 Elizabeth WALLACE
12. Elizabeth, b.1872, d.1906

At the time their fourth child, Julia, was born, they were living at West Maitland, running a shop there, but were mostly in Sydney.

Julia married twice to Charles Edward BARNETT, in 1878 and 1879. The first marriage was in a Baptist chapel in Sydney. Her father was a devout Catholic, and this was apparently not a good enough marriage for him, as they married again fourteen months later at St Mary's (Catholic) church in Sydney. When James' will was read, he left the sum of one shilling to each of John, Julia, Emily and Albert. My aunt June WHITE (nee SWADLING) remembers her grandmother Julia telling her about receiving the shilling, and throwing it back at the solicitor.

In his later life James lived at Balmain, where his wife Catherine died on 19 July 1898. Although she was also Irish and Catholic, she was buried in an unmarked grave in the Church of England section of Rookwood! James later died at 41 Curtis Road, Balmain on 15 April 1912, a wealthy man. Death and funeral notices were published in the Sydney Morning Herald at the time:

DEATHS April 16 1912 p.8 col.1
COLEMAN April 15 at his residence, 41 Curtis Rd Balmain, James Coleman (late city valuer) aged 88 years. R.I.P.

FUNERALS April 16 1912 p.7 col.1
COLEMAN The friends of the late Mr James Coleman and Family are kindly invited to attend his funeral; to move from St Augustine's Church Balmain East, this afternoon at 12:30 for Catholic Cemetery Rookwood. Mrs P. Kirby and Son Ltd.

His will states:

I, James Coleman, ... leave
To my daughter Mary Catherine, wife of James Waddell, the household furniture, bedding and other utensils now at 41 Curtis Rd. I also leave her the sum of £50 sterling to be taken from an account at one of the banks at Balmain.

To my son Henry Patrick I leave the 3 houses at the corner of Thames St and Curtis Rd, nos 39, 41 & 43 Curtis Rd, the sacred pictures in my bedroom, the chest of drawers in his bedroom, also a few pictures in the front room.

To my son John I leave the sum of 1 shilling. To my daughter Julia the wife of Charles Barnett I leave the sum of 1 shilling. To my daughter Emily the wife of David Martin I leave the sum of 1 shilling. To my son Albert Joseph Coleman I leave the sum of 1 shilling.

It is my sincere wish that my body be removed from St Augustine's church on the day of my burial and that a Requiem Mass be said at the month's end. I die a sincere member of the Holy Roman Catholic Church and a member of the Sodality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in St Augustine's church. I appoint Henry Patrick Coleman and my friend William McGrath to be my executors and trustees. Dated 2/11/1911.

Witnesses William Whitmarsh & W. Orr Stewart.

Probate granted 14/5/1912 to Henry Patrick Coleman of 41 Curtis Rd Balmain draper's assistant and William McGrath of Darling St Balmain bookseller. Died 15/4/1912
Estate sworn at £1118-18-0.

John arrived in Sydney via Hercules in 1832, aged 14. He had been convicted at the Old Bailey in London for stealing a handkerchief.

In 1842 he married Mary Ann BAKER, a convict via Henry Wellesley in 1836. She was also convicted at the Old Bailey, aged 15 in 1835, for stealing a pair of shoes. Both were sentenced to seven years transportation to NSW.

John and Mary Ann had seven children in Sydney: John, Thomas, James, Emma, Edward, Mary Ann, and Martha. John ran a successful blacksmithing business in Sydney until his death in 1858, aged about 40. Mary Ann lived until 1890.

Unfortunately, many trees on ancestry show John as being part of the family of William Swadling and Elizabeth (nee Watson), which is incorrect. This is probably in part because the marriage of John and Mary Ann was omitted from the NSW marriage index for many years. It has now been reinstated.

Update, 2021: DNA testing has now linked me to other families descended from David STIBBLES and Elizabeth BARNET of Dundee, so they are definitely the parents of John. He is no longer a mystery!

John Edward BARNETT is still something of a mystery to me. At his marriage in Morpeth NSW on 22 January 1857 to Elizabeth LOGUE, he stated his birthplace as Brooklyn, America, and his occupation as mariner. His parents' names were given as David BARNET, horse dealer, and Elizabeth STIBBLES or STAPLES. On the birth registration of his son Charles, his birthplace is stated as Brookton, USA (the clerk also wrote his wife's maiden name as LOWE, so perhaps there was a problem with her Irish brogue). There is no record of a John BARNETT arriving in NSW, until we recall that the 1850s were the time of the Gold Rush in Australia, when people were doing almost anything to get here. Ships' Deserters 1852-1900 compiled by Jim Melton, p.31, led me to the NSW Government Gazette, 4 Mar 1853, p.434

Return of seamen who have deserted from their respective
vessels, as reported at the Water Police Office:-

Edward Barnett, [ship] Milbourne, seaman
W.C.Mayne, Inspector-General of Police
Sydney, 4th March, 1853.

This could explain a change of name from Edward to John (Edward), and would explain why he worked on the docks until the day he died. John's death occurred (as I found from his gravestone at Rookwood cemetery), when he

was accidentally
killed on the S.S. Ranelagh
1st May 1882
aged 47 years

As well as death and funeral notices, the Sydney Morning Herald of 2 May 1882 carried a brief news item about his death:

A fatal accident occurred at 10 o'clock yesterday morning to a wharf labourer, named John Barnett, whilst at work unloading near the fore-hatch, on board the Ranelagh, lying at the A.S.N. Company's wharf, Circular Quay. He was making the staging fast when the part on which he was leaning canted over, and he fell down the hold, a distance of 20 feet, striking his back on a crossbeam. He was immediately brought to the deck and examined by Dr. Ewen, who pronounced life to be extinct. The body was conveyed to the deadhouse, Circular Quay, where it awaits an inquest. The unfortunate man is about 56 years of age, married, and leaves a wife and nine children.

[Even then, newspapers got the facts wrong in their haste for a story].

The inquest mentioned above was held, and created a new puzzle:

Name of deceased - Barnett, John
Age - about 50 years
Where born - Dundee, Scotland
Locality where death occurred - On board the steamship Ranelagh, lying at the A.S.N. Company's Wharf, Sydney.
Verdict or cause of death - Effects of injuries accidentally received on board the steamship Ranelagh.

The difference in his age is reasonable, and errors could be explained by the details being given by his workmates, rather than family members, but 'Dundee, Scotland' is rather particular to be a mistake. Also, my research has turned up only eight children to John and Elizabeth, not nine:

1. Charles Edward John, b. 24 January 1858 Sydney
2. Emily Jane, b. 1861 Morpeth
3. Frances,b. 1864 Morpeth
4. Edith, b. 1866 Morpeth
5. Clara, b. 1869 Morpeth
6. Ernest, b. 1872 Newcastle
7. Arthur Henry, b. 1875 Sydney
8. Frederick William, b. 1878 Sydney

His widow Elizabeth died some years later at Newington Asylum, on 1 January 1910, and was buried at Rookwood with her husband.

I have now found a family in the Scottish Old Parish Registers, as follows, which appears to be relevant:

David STIBBLES married Elizabeth BARNET 24 Feb 1825, Dundee, Angus, Scotland. Their children were:

1. John bap. 21 Aug 1825 Dundee
2. Elizabeth bap.31 Jan 1830 Dundee
3. Agnes bap. 30 Dec 1832 Dundee
4. Elizabeth bap. 14 Feb 1836 Dundee
5. David Henry bap. 17 Dec 1837 Dundee
6. James bap. 12 Dec 1841 Dundee

So, my great-great-grandfather John BARNETT appears to be Edward BARNETT, shipjumper, a son of David STIBBLES and Elizabeth BARNET.