Lyndal on Family Tree Circles

(C)Katherine Louisa CLARK(e) married Thomas Terry KING in New Zealand in 1894. Although widowed in 1896, she registered the birth of my father (Phil(l)ip KING) in 1911, naming Thomas Terry KING as his father. I want to research her movements and life events up to 1918, by which time she was a property owner in Moss Vale NSW.
Main Research Question:
Where did Katherine live between 1896 and 1918?
When did she come to Australia?
How did she get the money to buy property?

Records and Resources I Have Used to Date
• Catherine Louisa CLARK Birth Certificate from the General Register Office, London (1). Parents are named as George Adams CLARK and Elizabeth COLLIER, Norfolk. This is accurate.
• 1881 census of England (2) showing that Katherine (with a ‘K’) Louisa CLARK lives at Roydon, Norfolk with her parents. Accurate record.
• New Zealand Marriage Index shows Katherine Louisa CLARK married Thomas Terry KING in 1894 – accurate record.
• New Zealand Death Index confirms Thomas Terry KING died in the first quarter of 1896 – accurate record
• New Zealand Herald 21 March 1896 (5): Letters of Administration issued for Thomas Terry KING – accurate record, to be followed up with search of New Zealand Archives for digitalised copy of Letters of Administration.
• New Zealand Herald 24 February 1897 (6) ‘In Memorium’ for Thomas Terry KING - more a curiosity than a reliable piece of evidence.
• Will (7) of George Adams CLARK 12th January 1906 naming Katherine Louisa KING of Wanganui and Florence Elizabeth KING amongst beneficiaries. Accurate copy of the Will.
• Death Certificate (8) of George Adams CLARK, lodged with the Probate Records - reliable and official document in agreement with other records
• New Zealand Electoral Roll for 1905-06 (9) listing Katherine CLARK as ‘wife’ and address in Wanganui, New Zealand. Substantially accurate.
• NSW Death Certificate (10) for Nancy Phyllis KING, Katherine’s daughter, stating she was born in Wanganui in 1906. Questionable accuracy as fact but given by the informant as his family knowledge. No Birth registration found. (New Zealand Birth Index records birth of Nancy CLARK to Catherine CLARK and John William KING in 1906, in Napier NZ. This could be a could be totally irrelevant but needs following up).
• NSW Birth Certificate (11) 29 March 1911 for Philip Moses KING. This document is based on substantially inaccurate information provided by Catherine Louisa CLARKE (sic). This document cannot be relied upon other than to confirm that Katherine was in Australia at this time.
• Postcard photograph dated 11 November 1913 (12) Phillip KING, age 22 months … showing names and three addresses in New South Wales, including one at Moss Vale. Information written on photographs is not generally reliable but can provide information for further follow-up.
• Evening News, Sydney, 9 December 1913 (13): news item naming “Nurse KING of Moss Vale). This could be reliable if about Katherine and is worth further follow-up.
• NSW Marriage Index (14) showing that Florence Elizabeth king was married at Moss Vale in 1917 to John PARNELL. This is reliable information.
• Letter from Phillip KING, May 1988, (15) reminiscing about life in Moss Vale in 1918. This establishes a year by which Katherine was probably living in Moss Vale but childhood memories can be inaccurate.


Repositories and Records that I Plan to Use
• Passenger lists: George Adams Clark and his family travelled from England to New Zealand, and Katherine Louisa King travelled from New Zealand to Australia accompanied by her daughters. I have not yet been successful in locating them on passenger lists in Ancestry.com.

• Bowral Library Local History Collection: Rate Books for Wingecarribee Shire Council would show dates for Katherine at Moss Vale.

• Lands Department Records will show information about the purchase or transfer of the property at Moss Vale – DP 833256 and DP 1189690 – I have to go to Sydney to see these. http://www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/land_titles/historical_research

• State Library of New South Wales provides a gateway to many resources including passenger lists, through the same Ancestry.com library edition as has been used during the course. I have joined this Library but will need to go to Sydney to fully access many resources. http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/

• NSW State Records includes hospital records, nurse registration records http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/. Also land records: https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/indexes-online/indexes-to-l

• Church Missionary Society Records: the KING and CLARK families were missionaries and lived at places associated with the missions. It is likely that Katherine lived and worked in missionary settings after 1896. The following website is a starting point for this research: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/cadbury/index.aspx

REFLECTIONS:
Until 1896, Katherine’s life can be located through records, but between then and 1911, I have only found one record for her, in Wanganui’s Electoral Roll, New Zealand for 1905-06 (8). She, with her daughter Florence Elizabeth KING are named in George Adams CLARK’s will of January 1906 (7) as living in Wanganui. At some time during or after 1906 she had (or acquired) a girl named Nancy, whose birth was apparently not registered.

Katherine’s father, who died in 1912, (7) had substantial property, part of which was willed to Katherine. By then, she was living in Australia and had / acquired another child, Phillip Moses KING, who she registered as her own in May 1911 using substantially false information (11).
Katherine Louisa had connections with a number of NSW towns: Lithgow, given as Phillip’s birthplace in late March 1911; and Wellington, where the birth was registered, on 25th May, 1911 (11). Phillip was photographed in November 1913 at Woollahra and there is an inked address on the photo for Mrs. K.L. KING at Cootamundra, and a pencilled address for Berrima Road, Moss Vale (12). These addresses may not have been written at the time the photograph was taken. Florence was married in Moss Vale in 1917 (14). Phillip recalled being at school in Moss Vale from 1918 (15).
It is certain that, by 1913, Katherine had connections with Moss Vale, for example a newspaper article mentions Nurse KING accompanying a woman to the hospital (13). The letter from Phillip KING gives a firmer date for the family being settled in Moss Vale as he states he went to school at Moss Vale from 1918 (15).

The question of how Katherine Louisa acquired funds to buy her property still needs research. She inherited “half my collection of silver plate, books, ornaments, coins, pictures and curios”, in 1912 from her father (7); the sale of these might have been enough to buy the Moss Vale house with four acres. I need to establish when the property in Moss Vale was bought, and how she gained her qualifications as a nurse/midwife, from which she earned income.

Katherine Louisa King was in Australia from 1911 onwards, but I still know little about where and how she lived in the years following her husband’s death in 1896. Unanswered questions include: Did she have a husband or a long term relationship in the years she lived at Wanganui? Why did she leave New Zealand, when did she arrive in Australia with Florence and Nancy, and where did she live and work prior to buying property in Moss Vale?




References
1. General Register Office, London, 1871/394: Birth Catherine Louisa Clark
2. 1881 census of England, Class:rG11; Piece: 1971; Folio: 113; Page: 16; GSU roll: 1341474
3. New Zealand Marriage Index 1840-1950 Folio No. 177 – microfiche- sourced through Ancestry.com
4. New Zealand Marriage Index 1848-1964 Folio No. 105 – sourced through Ancestry.com
5. New Zealand Herald, 21 March, 1896, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10085, Page 3- accessed through Papers Past
6. New Zealand Herald, 24 February, 1897, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10374, Page 1 – accessed through Papers Past
7. George Adams Clark: New Zealand Archives, NZL, Probate Records 1843-1998
8. New Zealand Electoral Rolls, 1864-1981, Matawatu-Wanganui: No. 3681.
9. New South Wales Death Certificae May 13 1985 No. 10079 Nancy Phyllis KING
10. Rawene cemetery headstone inscriptions: http://myrasplace.net/hstones/hstns.htm
11. New South Wales Birth Certificate, District of Wellington, 1911/709 Philip Moses KING
12. Photograph of “Phillip KING aged 22 months” in possession of Lyndal BREEN, 10 Anembo Street, Moss Vale
13. Evening News, Sydney, 9 December, 1913: ‘Moss Vale Woman’s Death Supposed Result of a Quarrel’.
14. Australia, Marriage Index, 1788-1950, Florence Elizabeth KING – accessed through Ancestry.com
15. Phillip KING, letter to grand-daughter, Michaelle BREEN, 5 May, 1988, in possession of Lyndal BREEN, 10 Anembo Street, Moss Vale.