My Godmother Auntie Rene Hambridge Nee Stewart S Parents Hannah Gugger 1871 1942 and John Mawson Stewart 1872 1912

Auntie Rene HAMBRIDGE was born Irene Mabel STEWART (1906 - 1984) ; she married Uncle Roy in 1925, and he was born Cecil Roy HAMBRIDGE (1898 - 1968) ; this concerns Auntie Rene's family STEWART, her parents were John Mawson STEWART (1872 - 1912) and Hannah Marie GUGGER (1871 - 1942) and this Journal is about her mother's family.

Rene's mother, Anna (Hannah) Maria GUGGER (1871 - 1942) age 31, marries John MAWSON STEWART (1872 - 1912) in 1902, children :
1 Hannah STEWART (1903 - 1903) born, and dies age 1 at Sunbury
2 Irene Mabel STEWART (1906 - 1984) born at Sunbury, dies at Queenscliff
3 Gladys Mary STEWART (1909 - 1982) born at Rutherglen, marries Leonard George LANG 1942 in Victoria, dies at Traralgon, Victoria
4 Alice Marie STEWART born 1912 at Powlett River, Victoria marries John CAHILL 1941 in Victoria

Mother Hannah Marie GUGGER's father was Abraham GUGGER from Ins, Bern Canton, Switzerland, and he was one of a group of Swiss vignerons brought to Bald-Hill vineyard in Sunbury (north west of Melbourne, near the Tullamarine airport) ; vignerons from Bern Canton had been brought to Victoria under the encouragement of Victoria's first Governor, Charles LaTrobe, who wanted to help Victoria's growing wine industry in the 1850s and 1860s by inviting skilled immigration from his wife's home, Neuchatel, Bern Canton.

The wineries in the Geelong area and up to Sunbury drew international recognition, but tragically, the wineries in this region were comprehensively destroyed to control the spread of a root destroying aphid, phylloxera, in the 1870s and 1880s.

Abraham GUGGER (1838 - 1875) arrived in August 1860 on the ship "˜Saldanha' age 22 ; five years later in 1865 he married Mary Ellen MASTERSON (1848 - 1926) who at age 9 had migrated to Victoria with her family in 1857 from Ireland.

Abraham GUGGER's parents were Samuel Johannes GUGGER (1808 - 1882) and Anna Maria Katharina FEISSLI (also FITZLI and other variations) (1808 -1859) both of Ins, Bern Canton, Switzerland - Samuel's parents were Peter & Anna GUGGER. Abraham was on older brother of Samuel GUGGER married with Frances BELPERROUD, prominent figures in the wine industry around the Geelong region.

in 1875 a year after the birth of his son and fifth child, Abraham GUGGER came to a most unfortunate end, committing suicide first by attempting an overdose of laudunum in the small hours of a Sunday morning, whereupon his wife sought help from Mr Blake, the owner of the vineyard at Holden, who intervened and administered emetics ; Abraham recovered but a few hours later went on to inflict ultimately fatal knife wounds in a field, and although a doctor was called and arrived and was able to talk with him, Abraham died from his wounds soon after. The date was Sunday 3rd January, 1875 and Abraham was 38. The coroner's inquest found that he had been drinking of late, and judged that he was of unsound mind when he suicided.

With her husband's death, Mary Ellen GUGGER nee MASTERSON, age 28, was left to raise five children, aged one to nine years. However, ten years later widow Mary Ellen GUGGER age 38 had one further daughter, Daisy GUGGER, in 1886, no father named (and that daughter, Daisy GUGGER age 20, had a daughter, Margaret Ellen GUGGER, no father named, in 1906, the same year as Daisy's niece, Rene, was born). Mary Ellen GUGGER married again, in 1897 age 49 with Frederick HAWKINS from Dublin. Mary Ellen HAWKINS died at Malmsbury in 1926 age 82.

Mary Ellen MASTERSON had migrated to Australia at the age of 9 with her family in 1857 on the ship "˜Donald McKay' out of Liverpool on 8 July, arriving Port Phillip 29 September 1857 ; her family from the ship's passenger list were :

John MASTERSON age 45 (and John dies in 1888 age given as 69, at Northcote)
Ellen MASTERSON age 35
Jas [James] MASTERSON age 11
Mary MASTERSON age 9 - later marries Abraham GUGGER in 1865, marries Frederick HAWKINS in 1897, and dies 1926
Wm [William] MASTERSON age 7
John MASTERSON age 5
Bridget MASTERSON age 3
Patk [Patrick] MASTERSON age 1 - Patrick Mathison MASTERSON dies 1933 age 79 at Sunbury ""¦ at the residence of Mr GUGGER, Station Street, Sunbury "¦" that is, the house of his nephew John Samuel (Abraham) GUGGER (1874 - 1934) ; "˜Mathison' may suggest the name of a grandmother.

I found John MASTERSON married Ellen BRENNAN on 4 September, 1845 at Killaban (now Arles) Roman Catholic Parish, County Laois, Ireland.