This series of posts focuses on an A-Z theme for April in 2025. I have chosen events that occurred On This Day in April of years in the past. These events are recorded in my genealogy database.
On this day - 19th April
Two weddings, both in Adelaide, seven years apart. Both first cousins of my father, one from his maternal side and the other from his paternal side.
Sometimes the only records to be found are a birth or death record. As new records become available online I am able to revisit any research questions I have not been previously able to answer. When I was a child we headed south on what was known as the Main North Road, now the Horrocks Highway in South Australia. As we passed a particular farm known as Shanahans, I was aware that my father was somehow related to these people. I never thought to ask questions as to how they were related..
Many years later on tracing the descendants of my father’s maternal Smyth line, I found the woman who had married into this family was indeed my father's first cousin. With the advent of digitization of newspapers. I queried Shanahan in South Australia.
1934 - Marriage: James SHANAHAN and Catherine “Kit” CALLERY, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Here's a newspaper photo of this couple leaving the cathedral in Adelaide
The caption under the photo reads:
SHANAHAN - CALLERY WEDDING
Mr and Mrs James Shanahan who were married in St. Francis Xavier’s Cathedral, Adelaide last week. The bride was formerly Miss Catherine Callery, of Riverton and the bridegroom’s home was at Freeling.
Photo shows happy couple leaving the church.
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| http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92357808 |
James died in 1987 and Kit died in 2002.
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1941 - Marriage: Dominic McINERNEY and Bertha HART, North Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Dom McInerney was my father's first cousin and this marriage announcement was published a week before his wedding.
McINERNEY—HART.—The marriage of Bertha (Birdie), youngest daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. M. P. Hart, Buxton Street, North Adelaide, to Dominic, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Mclnerney, Riverton, will be celebrated at St. Laurence's Church, North Adelaide, on Saturday, April 19, at 9 a.m.
As a child we visited “Olive Farm” not far from Riverton where Birdie and Dom lived with their family. Their children were similar ages to our ages and our parents were close friends. An abiding childhood memory is the surprise of finding their backyard long drop toilet was a double wooden seater, one for small bottoms and the other next to it, adult size. Amusing for young minds yet a very practical solution of the past.
Sometimes in airports or shopping malls I hear mothers struggling with their toddlers in single toilet cubicles and I think back to the practicality of that side by side solution.
