Unexpected finds

So many stories of ancestors and relatives are mentioned in the newspapers of the past. During April 2020 for the A - Z blog challenge, I am listing the types of stories or information I have found in newspapers with examples for each letter of the alphabet. X is always a difficult letter but I did come across something uneXpected while searching my husband's family tree.

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Marriage

My parents-in-law, John Dominic Galvin and Phyllis Yvonne Stirling married at St Brigid's Church, Coogee, NSW on May 11 1940 after an engagement of seven months. I have just received a photo of their wedding with Phyll dressed in an eXquisite gown., but that is not the matter of this post.

Phyll had been brought up by her paternal grandmother Maud Stirling after her parents separated when she was quite young. Phyll's parents were Gordon Stirling and Louisa May Lawson. I did not know where to look for Louisa as there was no divorce notice in the archives and she had been noted as deceased on the 1940 marriage certificate. Perhaps that notation was just a reflection of lack of contact through the years.

The unexpected

When Gordon Stirling died in 1955, I found Louisa via this notice as administratrix of his estate.

1957 'IN the Supreme Court of New South Wales.—Probate Jurisdiction.—
In the estate of GORDON WALLACE STIRLING,',
Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 2001), 15 November, p. 3679. ,  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220359306

There had been no divorce and Louisa had remarried her long term partner in January 1956 less than a month after her former husband's death. She died in 1973 on the mid north coast of NSW.

One never knows until one searches!


This post first appeared on earlieryears.blogspot.com by CRGalvin