The Long Engagement- Arthur Baxter and Harriet May Bell

In my last blog, I began the story of my Maternal Grandparents Arthur and Harriet May Baxter’s (nee Bell) romance leading up to their engagement. I also revealed that her parents were not keen on the match and in fact, her mother had refused to give consent or blessings to the marriage.

Perhaps I should give a little background of the Bell family which might account for the mother, Alice Bell’s (nee Sherwood) attitude.

John Bell, born 1856 was the fifth son and sixth child of George and Sarah Bell (nee Sargent) of Picton. At the time of John’s birth, his father was a labourer, mostly working on the roads around Picton.

However, he had purchased several blocks of land in Upper Picton and had built a home there. In 1860 he took up a government contract for building a portion of the Great South Road (from Sydney) which went through Picton.

In 1865 his wife Sarah Bell died leaving him with a young family. He remained at Upper Picton and apprenticed his sons to the blacksmith and wheelwright trades.

In the early 1870s, there was a severe economic slump in Picton and the Bell family split up. George Bell Sr, along with his son James, remained in Upper Picton and carried on the Blacksmith and Wheelwright business. George Jr had a wood-yard and carrying business at Newtown. Thomas, Henry, and John Bell went west to Burrowa where their mother’s brothers, Thomas and George Sargent had taken up land a few years before.

With the many gold rushes in the western districts, Burrowa was a thriving town.

It was there the now twenty-one-year-old John Bell, met and married Alice Sherwood.

Their eldest daughter was born at Burrowa in 1878. Soon afterward the family returned to Picton where John took over an established blacksmith shop in Argyle Street.

John and Alice built a new home in Wild Street, Upper Picton not far from the original Bell family home. Their new home was called ‘Wyuna’.

They had a further seven children, all born at Upper Picton.

Their daughter Harriet May was born in 1891. She grew up in Upper Picton and attended Miss Clarke’s Private School. She was a very popular girl as were her sisters and John Bell was said to be very protective of his six daughters.

Now we move to 1908. What had happened to make Alice Bell so adamant that Arthur and May should not marry.

Firstly, Alice Bell had lost two sisters and other members of her Sherwood family to the ‘chest complaint’ (Consumption).

She had lost her eldest daughter, Emma Frances, in 1899 a few short months before her 21st birthday, also to Consumption.

Her second daughter, Alice, had married Amos Kiss in 1904. They had three daughters. He was said to have a ‘weak chest’ and after suffering for several years died in 1912.

Arthur’s grandmother, Ann Kennedy, struggled to bring up her family when her husband was sent to Parramatta Asylum for the Insane in 1866. Everyone in the district knew of her ‘troubles’. Only two of her eight children made it to adulthood.

Alice and John Bell wanted so much more for their daughters.

Arthur and May just had to wait. Meanwhile, Alice Bell hoped a better match would come along for her daughter.

In 1909, Arthur and his friends went back to Chillingham clearing the Growcock block. They made the long trip home for Christmas again. Arthur still hadn’t earned enough to buy land.

Early in 1910 saw the boys back on the Tweed. William Growcock married in 1910 and built a small house and left Arthur and his friends in the makeshift Timber Cutters Camp.

Having lost their eldest daughter, John and Alice Bell were concerned about the health of their younger daughters. The family moved to Thirroul a small seaside village on the south coast in 1910. John Bell opened a Blacksmith shop there with his son Harry.

                                                    John  Bell’s Blacksmith Shop at Thirroul c 1914 [original held by Nola Mackey]

In 1911, Arthur and his friends returned to Chillingham and continued to clear scrub. He was saving his money and reckoned another few months and he would have the required amount to buy his own block. He made the trip south again for Christmas.

May Bell remained resolute about marrying Arthur Baxter, so after her 21st birthday in early 1912,  her mother gave in and helped her plan a Spring Wedding. The date was set. They were to be married on 27 September 1912 at St David’s Church of England at Thirroul with refreshments afterward at the Bell home, ‘Wyuna’ (Thirroul). One of May’s older sisters had married the year before.

                 St David’s Thirroul 1986, copyright by Nola Mackey

[The original church was built at the corner of Main Road and Raymond Road in 1909. It was later moved to its present site in 1938. When the new St David’s was built next door, it was used as a  church hall. ]

Some old photographs of the church on the original site can be found at

  https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/260935342

   https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/260935330

So it was back to the Tweed in 1912 for Arthur, and he and May continued to correspond.

Arthur Baxter could, at last, inform John Bell, his future father-in-law his intention of soon selecting a block of land and erecting a home. The problem was there were few suitable blocks left in the Chillingham area so he would have to select further into the scrub and getting a suitable home built in the time was going to be a huge challenge.

May’s wedding dress was to be made by her Aunt Emma, her father’s younger sister, who worked as a tailoress in David Jones in Sydney. This was her gift to her niece.

Her wedding ring was a plain wide band, which was reportedly fashioned from a single nugget of gold. It is said to have been found by John Bell’s brother Harry, in the Tumbarumba Ranges in southern New South Wales. Thomas, Harry, and John Bell had been involved in gold mining in that area for many years. This nugget was said to have been a gift to the couple from her Uncle Harry, who had remained a bachelor.

At last, the long engagement of Arthur Baxter and Harriet May Bell was soon to be concluded with a Spring Wedding. That was until Murphy’s Law came into the picture.

.

More than a Certificate – Arthur Baxter and Harriet May Bell

Many family historians collect the birth, death, and marriage certificates of their ancestors thinking that they tell the story of their lives. However  I  believe, that one document does not tell the story of an event.

We are also advised when writing up our family histories to allow the facts to speak for themselves and let the reader draw their own conclusions. Fifty years of experience has taught me not to always believe this is so.

Let us take the marriage certificate of my maternal grandparents Arthur and Harriet May Baxter (nee Bell). According to their marriage certificate,(a full copy of which I purchased from the Registrar of Births, Death and Marriages (Sydney), they married at St David’s, Thirroul on 27 January 1913.

Church of England images of Sydney Diocese, retrieved from ancestry.com website 1 April 2020

That is all fine until you know that their eldest child was born at the end of July. The first conclusion one might jump to was that he married her because she was pregnant to save her reputation. A reasonable assumption perhaps in Edwardian Society before World War I.

However, the true story of this couple’s marriage is much more interesting.

Arthur Baxter, the fourth son and sixth child of James and Margaret Baxter (nee Kennedy) was born in 1888 at Picton, New South Wales. His parents and grandparents were pioneers of the district.

Harriet May Bell, the fifth daughter, and sixth child of John and Alice Bell (nee Sherwood) was born in 1891 also at Picton. Her parents and grandparents were also pioneers of the district.

Both Arthur and Harriet May were baptized at St Mark’s Church of England, Picton.

Arthur Baxter grew up on the family dairy farm at Clifton near Picton and worked at farm chores from an early age with his father and brothers. He attended Clifton Provisional School which was situated on the Baxter property.

The farm at Clifton was run by his father with the help of his seven sons. It was likely that the elder sons might inherit the farm or at least have some pecuniary interest while the younger sons were expected to work for their ‘keep’ until they reached their majority of 21 years when they might expect to have some kind of monetary allowance for their work.

Arthur Baxter met May Bell at St Mark’s Annual Sunday School picnic about 1906 and fell in love with her. At the time he was about eighteen years of age, but with no prospects, and she nearly sixteen but not allowed to go out unchaperoned and certainly not with a farmer’s son.

Arthur suffered from asthma and it was believed to have been aggravated by working near cattle. The cold Picton winters did not allow his health to improve as the years went by.

Arthur knew if he was to have any chance of winning Miss May Bell he had to leave the farm and find employment to earn the money to make his own way in life.

Early in the 20th Century, Crown land was offered to selectors on the upper reaches of the Tweed River, in northern New South Wales, particularly at Chillingham on the North Arm and Kunghur on the South Arm. These land opportunities were advertised in various newspapers including ‘The Farmer and Settler’. It is believed this is how the young men in the Camden and Picton area knew of the land being offered for selection at Chillingham. A number of young men left the family farms and struck out on their own. If they had the money they took up their own block. The Doust brothers of Camden were ones that took up a selection there. Another family from the area was the Todd family.  They were from Elderslie, Mt Hunter, and had grown up with the Baxter family. Those young men who didn’t have the money to select or buy went to find employment by assisting the selectors to clear these blocks for dairying, thereby gaining the money to buy their own farms. Arthur Baxter and his mate Lock Nicholson fell into this category.

Early in 1908 Arthur Baxter, Lock Nicholson, and several other young men from the Picton district went to the Tweed River. They caught the train to Sydney, where they boarded the coastal steamer, Orara. (Probably as steerage passengers to save money).The Orara left Sydney about 9 am on Saturday and arrived at Byron Bay early on the following Monday morning. They then caught the train to Murwillumbah.

Murwillumbah had been settled many years before and by 1907 was a bustling town with hotels, post office, courthouse, and numerous other shops, businesses, and houses. However on the 15 September tragedy struck the town, when it was virtually burned to the ground by a raging fire. By the time Arthur and his mates arrived early in 1908 the town was being rebuilt, and there was an air of optimism.

At Murwillumbah, the men hitched a ride with the mail-man who delivered to the district three days a week.  Chillingham or Bean Tree as it was known, was a creek crossing on the road to the Queensland Border, which was a few miles away.  Here the young men gained employment as planned by helping the selectors clear the heavy scrub so they could plant grasses for the grazing of dairy cattle. The surrounding farming district was known as Zara.

One of these selectors was William Growcock, an Irish immigrant who had arrived in Queensland in 1891. He was in the Chillingham area from about 1900, officially selecting in 1904 and adding to his block in 1907. He employed Arthur Baxter and his mate Lock Nicholson to clear fell the scrub on his second block.

[Spoiler alert- Forty years later Arthur Baxter’s daughter Margaret married William Growcock’s son, William. This couple were my parents].

Although hundreds of miles apart, Arthur Baxter and May Bell’s romance blossomed throughout 1908 as they corresponded regularly. In one of those letters, Arthur wrote to May and told her ‘the boys’ (Arthur and his friends) would be home for Christmas and asked her to meet the late train from Sydney at the Picton Railway Station, on a certain day, as it was very important. May asked her father to accompany her to the station, as it was late evening and she was only seventeen and wouldn’t be turning eighteen until the following month. Young ladies did not go out at night unchaperoned. When they met at the station, without a word Arthur grabbed May’s left hand and slipped a sapphire and diamond engagement ring on her finger. (She always maintained that Arthur may have asked her father for her hand in marriage, but he didn’t ask her). Arthur had just turned twenty-one years a couple of days before.

Picton Railway Station from State Rail Authority Archives Photographic Reference Print Collection, retrieved 1 April 2010

May Bell’s mother, Alice Bell, was not keen on the union because several of the Baxter boys had a ‘weakness in the chest’ (asthma) and she didn’t want another daughter saddled with an invalid husband as her second daughter, Alice had been with Amos Kiss.

However, her main objection was because of Arthur’s mother’s family- the Kennedy’s- ‘had madness in the family’. Arthur’s maternal grandfather, Gilbert Kennedy had been in Parramatta Asylum for the Insane for nearly thirty-six years when he died in 1903. His widow remained in the Picton area until her death in 1912, and everyone knew the family and their ‘troubles’.

May Bell’s mother refused to give her consent to the marriage, hoping she would find a ‘better match’. May’s father, John Bell, also had certain reservations as Arthur had not yet earned enough money to take up a selection of his own and build a home. The beautiful ring he had purchased in Sydney, had taken much of his hard-earned cash of the first year of scrub-clearing.

As May was still underage and needed her parent’s permission there way only one thing they could do. To wait until she was twenty-one. It was going to be a long engagement.

Family Heirloom – The Photograph

Perhaps you have heard ‘that a photograph is worth a thousand words’.

Then let me write for you, at least a thousand words, about this photograph. The who, when, where, how and why this photograph was taken. The story behind this ‘one second in time’.

Perhaps I should tell you I hold the original photograph, and shared it some forty years ago with my surviving paternal aunts, giving them all a copy of the only known photograph of their father, who had died, when most of them were only small children. This above photograph has been clipped from the original photograph I shared.

It was shared with love, but now I find it thrown about the Internet like a bit of flotsam on a boiling sea. Sometimes with the correct name, and sometimes not. Sometimes placed in the right family, and sometimes not.

Let us start with the who. This is my paternal grandfather, William Growcock, born 1867 in Ireland.

No ‘T’ as a second initial, or ‘James’ as a second name. Just plain ‘William’, nothing else. How do I know this? I have been researching this family for over forty years, and long ago I interviewed his wife, children and first cousins about the family, which I followed up with documentation. I know that this family in Ireland, for at least two hundred years and perhaps more, and on all family lines, called the eldest son ‘William’, without exception.

It pains me to see the added ‘T’ or ‘James’ with his name.

Where does this ‘T’ come from? It is found on the Internet at the NSW Marriage Index linked to several subscription sites, and has been for unknown reasons incorrectly added to his marriage entry. On his original marriage certificate held at the Registrar General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Sydney, there is no ‘T’, nor is there on the original index held there at that office. The ‘T’ only exists on the corrupted modern computer index, on the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages website, and on some linked subscription sites.

‘William James’ is my father. There is no other person of that name in the family, anywhere.

Now let us look at where this photograph was taken. It was taken on the family farm at Tygalgah on the Tweed River in northern New South Wales. In the original photograph, ‘William’, known to family and friends as ‘Bill’, was dressed in the obligatory ‘flannel’ and ‘kerchief’ of the Australian farmer of that time.( If he had still been in Ireland, he would have been wearing a long shirt with a kilt.) He was carrying out a daily morning chore of feeding the hens and rooster, outside their ‘chook-pen’.

When was the photo taken? We know it was taken in 1925, as other photos in my possession, taken at the same time, were notated on the back.

The photograph was taken by Bill’s daughter, not yet twelve years of age, with her new Brownie camera.

In 1900 the Eastman Kodak Company introduced a low-priced, point and shoot, hand-held camera. This camera was a simple black, rectangular box, covered in imitation leather with nickeled fittings. To take a ‘snap shot’ ,all one had to do was to hold the camera waist high, line up the subject and turn a switch. It was reasonably affordable and the company sold many thousands all over the world.

After World War I this camera was heavily marketed to children and advertisements were placed in popular magazines. Children under the age of sixteen were also urged to join the Brownie Camera Club. A camera owner could buy a six-exposure film cartridge that could be loaded in daylight. Kodak also promised for a small fee to develop the film for the camera owner rather than them having to invest in materials and a dark room. You could post the film to them, or leave it at an agent.

How did Bill Growcock’s daughter come to be the owner of this wonderful camera?

Bill Growcock was the eldest son of a family of eight in Ireland. Although he wasn’t the only one in the family, who had married, he was the only one, who had a family of his own,at that time, which he was very proud of.

He had arranged to have some professional photographs taken of his two older daughters, before the War, and sent them home to his mother in Ireland.

By the 1920’s, Bill Growcock and his family had moved to a dairy farm at Tygalgah, but life there was tough, as not only had the Tweed River flooded their farm every year, but the dreaded ‘cattle tick’ had virtually brought many of the farmers to near ruin.

The Growcocks with a family of five children by 1925, although not destitute were struggling to make ends meet on the farm, as were all their neighbours.

Bill Growcock was a very strict, but a just parent, and loved to ‘spoil’ his children from time to time, but when his daughter asked for a camera for her birthday, he couldn’t really justify that expense for her gift, but told her that if she could earn most of the needed £1 which was the price of the camera, he would see what he could do. His daughter, who desperately wanted the camera took up the challenge, but how could she earn the money.

Arthur Yates, opened his seed business in Sydney in 1887, and ‘Yates’ Reliable Seed’ became the saviour of many New South Wales farmers, including those in northern New South Wales. Bill Growcock and his neighbours having to replant their maize after the floods, bought Yates seed at their local seed merchants.

In 1893 Arthur Yates had launched his seed packet service for the home gardener. Two years later he wrote the first Yates Garden Guide, which became a valuable asset to every home gardener. In the country all families had a garden of some sort to grow their own food, and often used the catalogue services of Yates for their packeted seed.

It was these seed packets that were to earn Bill Growcock’s daughter, the money for her coveted camera. She bought by mail order from Yates, bundles of packets of the most popular garden seeds, at a small discount. She then sold these packets of seeds at Yates catalogue prices to the family and friends of the Growcock family. They were happy to pay her the full price of the packeted seeds as it saved them time and money in sending their own orders to Yates. Depending on the size of the packets and type of seed, Bill’s daughter, was able to make a profit of a farthing up to a halfpenny per packet of seed. To earn the money for the camera, she needed to sell well over five hundred packets of seed. She carried on this task diligently over several months throughout the Summer of 1924 and then well into the Spring of 1925. Her father added the occasional halfpenny he received in change, until in late 1925 the target had been reached, and her father helped her to get her new Brownie Box Camera.

One of the first photographs she took was her father feeding ‘the chooks’, which unfortunately was a little out of focus. She also took a photograph of her brother, Bill, who was standing close by her father, and another of the ‘chooks’ themselves. Then I believe the horse and cows came in for planned stardom. Later these photographs were developed by Kodak and the two family snap shots, those of Bill Growcock, and his young son,Bill, were sent home to Bill’s sisters in Ireland.

Over the years, this camera was used to send further family snap shots back to Ireland, including photographs of some of Bill Growcock’s grandchildren in the early 1950’s.

What happened to this camera? It was lost in the 1954 Flood in Murwillumbah, when a sea-trunk, originally owned by Bill Growcock, and by which time held many of the family treasures, including the camera and many of its precious photographs, was destroyed by rising flood waters before the family could rescue them.

In 1974 I found and corresponded with “Bill’ Growcock’s only living relative in Ireland. She shared with me the photograph of ‘Bill feeding the chooks’, which had been sent home to Ireland in 1925. I copied and shared this photo with Bill’s surviving children, some of whom copied, cropped and enlarged a section of this photograph, which is the one floating around on the internet.

I believe the camera is perhaps the greatest of inventions, especially as far as family history goes anyway, in that it captures one second in life, that can be held ‘forever’, or at least many years, if care is taken. What I find even more fascinating is the story behind that ‘one second in time’.

Now a plea to all those friends and relatives at least when you see this photo, no matter where on the Internet, that you will pause and remember, not only the man behind that ‘one second in history’, but the wonderful efforts of his daughter, who earned that camera, which captured the many priceless family heirlooms.

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© Copyright 2012-2015 Nola Mackey at nolamackey.wordpress.com

Unlockthepast 5th Genealogy Cruise- British Isles, 2014-Day 7, Dublin, Ireland

I woke very early as I was excited to be coming back to Dublin. We had visited this city some ten years before, and since then I had done extensive research into it’s history.

On our last visit I had felt at home in this city, and we had walked many of its streets and visited a number of the sites, including the National Archives and Library, and had even viewed the National treasure, ‘The Book of Kells’.

The highlight of our previous visit had been to meet with ‘cousins’ on my paternal line. My paternal grandfather, William Growcock, emigrated from Ireland in 1891 and I had tracked down many of his relatives, including those who had remained in Ireland. We had corresponded for nearly thirty years before we were able to meet face-to-face ten years ago. These days e-mail, Facebook and Skype are a great ways to keep in touch.

When we decided to visit Britain and Europe this year, and found the cruise ship was visiting Dublin for the day, we made plans with these cousins again.

The Marco Polo docked at the quayside early. The weather was warm and sunny.

After breakfast we were able to go ashore and board the free ‘shuttle’ bus service made available to cruise passengers. The bus dropped us off in Kildare Street, near the National Library.

A number of Unlockthepast cruise participants went to the National Library to attend a presentation by Carmel McBride, the research manager of ‘Enclann’ a professional research company based in Ireland. This had been kindly organized by one of our cruise lecturers. Carmel’s talk was an introduction to the library and their records for those who wanted to do research while there.

I certainly would have booked on this tour, if I had not be meeting with my cousins.

We decided to use the same landmark as of our last meeting, the ‘Spire.’

The Spire, is a large stainless steel, pin-like monument of more than 120 metres tall located in O’Connell Street, opposite the General Post Office, the scene of the 1916 Easter Rising.

Until 1966, Nelson’s Pillar had stood here, but was destroyed following the bombing by former IRA members. It was replaced by the Anna Livia monument, which stood there for a number of years before it was moved and replaced by the Spire in 2002. It can been seen all over Dublin.

We had arrived there shortly before the appointed time, but it was not long before I saw the party of four, coming towards us. After we had exchanged greetings, we found a quiet little tea-room where we ordered morning tea, of freshly baked scones with blueberries and cream and a welcome pot of tea. Shortly afterwards we were joined by another cousin from a more distant branch of the family.

What a wonderful few hours we had, exchanging information, family documents and photos. Just one of those days you wish would never end, but of course it has to.We were reluctantly finally ‘dropped off’ back in Kildare Street, to catch the shuttle bus back to the ship.

There I went to join Helen Smith in the Research Help Zone. Helen has family from Kent and has much experience in research there. Although I have many years of experience there also, I have not been successful in locating some 17^th Century Wills , and thought she may have been able to suggest some avenues. We discussed several possibilities, but finally came to the conclusion, that for some reason, there may not have been any ‘Wills’ in the first place, however, I should not completely give up the quest, because there are sometimes those wonderful serendipitous miracles that ‘drop in your lap’ from ‘out of the blue’.

In the evening there were two lectures offered, unfortunately both on at the same time, with ‘Genealogy on the go with the ipads and tablets by Lisa Cooke and ‘How to make your on-line searching more effective’, by Mike Murray. I went to listen to Lisa Cooke as I have both a mini-ipad and an android tablet, which I am beginning to use for organizing my research in the field.  I have to admit I am often ‘technology challenged’ with all these new gadgets, but I have grandchildren, who can help me when I’m stuck.

After dinner I spent the ‘free time’ going through photos the cousins had shared. I had not seen these family photos before, including photos of my grandfather’s younger brother and his wife, and one of three of their sisters.

It had been a long and busy day in Dublin, but it could not have been better

Across the Sea to Ireland-The Growcock Family of County Meath..

On my paternal line I’m only second generation in Australia. My paternal grandfather, William Growcock emigrated from County Meath, Ireland in 1891 on the ‘Jumna’

While many Irish went to USA and Canada, my grandfather emigrated half way round the world to Queensland. Although he was the only member of his family to emigrate, he already had three cousins, William, John and Michael Growcock, in Queensland.

William Growcock, spent some years in Queensland before he settled at Zara on the North Arm of the Tweed River. He can be found there on the Householders Returns of the 1901 Census among a number of settlers. He was still residing there when he married at All Saints, Church of England, in Murwillumbah, on 23 March 1910. His bride was Olive Pearl Vidler, the daughter of Thomas Nathaniel and Margaret Jane Vidler (nee Goodwin).

William and Olive Growcock, had a dairy farm at Zara, and three daughters, Myra, Doris and Merle were born while they lived there. In 1916 the farm was sold to George Angel James Vidler, a younger brother of Thomas Nathaniel Vidler.

The Growcock family then moved to another dairy farm at Tygalgah, on the river flats just out of Murwillumbah. Olive, William, Myrtle, Ailsa and Robert were born when the family lived there. Sadly their daughter Merle died of diptheria in 1920, and was buried in the Church of England section of the Murwillumbah Cemetery.

My father, William (always known as ‘Bill’) was only eight years of age when his father died suddenly,of a heart attack, on the 18 April 1929. Bill was present at the time and could recall the event in graphic detail, until his own death more than seventy years later. Although the informant on William’s death certificate, A C Pratt, was not a member of the family, he was able to give details of William’s parents, James and Elizabeth Growcock (nee Anderson). The place of birth was stated as ‘ County Meath, Ireland’ and his age as 54 years. His marriage certificate confirmed his parents as James and Elizabeth Growcock (nee Anderson), but gave no clues to where he was born in Ireland.

William Growcock’s immigration records in the Queensland State Archives only gave ‘Meath, Ireland’ as his place of origin.

The fact that we had no idea where in County Meath to look for the birth certificate of William, the son of James and Elizabeth Growcock was a stumbling block for our research for some time. Then in 1973 my brother, Allan, was sent to Dublin for work. He searched the whitepages phone book and was able to identify one person, living in the County of Meath with the surname,and set out to meet with him. George Growcock, knew little of his family heritage, but he was able to give Allan his sister’s name and address and Allan then went to see her. Sarah Buchanan (nee Growcock) was delighted and most interested to hear about the Australian connections. She was able to tell Allan, the Growcock family had been settled in the parishes of Rathcore and Rathmoylan since before the 19^th Century and the original parish registers had survived and were still held in the local church. Although the parish minister was not residing the parish, Allan was finally able to contact him and make arrangements for the extraction of details on the persons with the Growcock surname. Sarah Buchanan’s daughter, Mary who had children about the same age as our children started corresponding with me and we are still in touch today.

Then as often happens in the ‘family history’ research a chain of serendipitious events was set in motion. Within three weeks of Allan’s visit, George Growcock, had another visitor, Mary Turner (nee Growcock) who was also seeking her Growcock ancestors. Sarah Buchanan was able to give Mary my address and we have continued to correspond. Sarah and Mary had addresses of Canadian Cousins, William Bosworth, Robert James, and Margaret Growcock ,which they passed on. I corresponded with William’s daughter until her death.

I was also able to trace and make contact with the families of John and Michael Growcock, the Queensland cousins of my grandfather, William Growcock.

After Allan’s visit to Ireland we were able to apply to the Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths in Dublin and get our grandfather, William Growcock’s birth certificate. We found he was born on 12 January 1867 and he was some years older than he let be known in Australia.He was actually 62 years at the time of his death in 1929, not 54 as stated.

Over the years I have able to get birth, marriage and death certificates of many other Growcock family connections in Ireland.

So having collected family documents and photos from all over the world I am now putting together the family story.