Patrick Sylvester Smyth
Patrick Sylvester Smyth was the third child born to James Smyth and Catherine Mulvaney at Alma in South Australia in December 1880. Patrick joined his sister Mary and brother John who had been born in the previous two years.
Little is known of his childhood but as they were a farming family he would have been expected to help with the daily chores in the farmyard.
Four more boys were born after Patrick, but little brother James died at just nine months old and another baby also named James. died in infancy.
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| Blacksmith generated by AI |
His older brother John may have been destined to take over the farm and without enough land to support all the boys, Patrick took on work as a blacksmith. Jobs completed in the Alma smithy would have included farming equipment repairs, horseshoes, household pots and pans along with any task brought in from the neighbourhood farms and houses.
At age 29 he became the owner of the business as recorded in this transaction.
Account J. Pearce and Son, Alma— Blacksmith's business, with 2 cottages, in township of Alma, to P. Smyth, Alma.[1]
It appears that Patrick never married and he died a single man. He outlived all of his family and died in November 1963 just two weeks short of his 83rd birthday. He is buried in the Cheltenham Cemetery.
Patrick Sylvester Smyth - 1st cousin twice removed.
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1911 'LAND SALES.', Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), 1 July, p. 37. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/88689904
