Associate names and places

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.

A - Associate Names and Places

Many of my relatives lived and died in a small area within South Australia. When researching family history, one way to bring ancestors to life is by connecting their names to the places they lived. Streets, towns, and landmarks that may seem ordinary today were once the backdrop of their daily lives, shaping their experiences and stories. Here we have Minnie from Freeling, and Margaret who lived in Riverton and was buried in the local Catholic cemetery.

Lower mid-north, South Australia

On this day - April 1

Birth 1922 - Minnie Patricia MEANEY 2nd cousin once removed 

Minnie was the eleventh child born to Catherine Peters and Thomas John Meaney near Freeling in South Australia. Freeling in 1922 was still a small town with the surrounding farms growing mainly cereal crops, wheat, oats and barley.

On October 24, 1946 at age 24 she married Michael Collins. 

MEANEY—COLLINS.—The marriage of Minnie Patricia, youngest daughter of Mr. T. J. and the late Mrs. Meaney, of Freeling, to Michael Francis, youngest son of Mrs. E. and the late Mr. D. Collins, of Mallala, will be solemnised with Nuptial Mass at St. Peter and Paul's Church, North Adelaide on Thursday October 24, at 3 pm.

1946 'Family Notices', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), 24 October, p. 16   http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35762902 

Death 1992 - Death: Margaret Mary CALLERY 1st cousin once removed

Margaret Mary Callery was the second child of five born to Catherine Smyth and John Callery in Riverton in December 1901. Her mother died of acute meningitis before her ninth birthday leaving John with five young children. The youngest was only five months old. 

When Margaret’s eldest sister Ann became a nun in 1924 it would have been up to Margaret as the next eldest daughter to take responsibility for the household. Her brother Edward married in 1926 then her father died in 1928. By 1941 her two younger sisters had married Shanahan brothers. 

In 1950 when she was 48 she married Donald Bascombe. They were to have 34 years together.

CALLERY — BASCOMBE. — The marriage of Margaret Mary Callery, second daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Callery, of Riverton, to Donald Allan Bascombe, second son of Mrs. and the late Mr. James Bascombe, of Streaky Bay, will be solemnised at Sacred Heart Church, Hindmarsh, on April 17, at 9 a.m. Reception at Berkley Hotel.

1950 'Family Notices', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), 8 April, p. 24.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50201944

Donald died in 1984. After her death on 1 April 1992, she was buried alongside him in the Navan Cemetery near Riverton.

Tombstone in Navan Catholic Cemetery

The Callery Family

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

Theme reveal A-Z in April 2025

On This Day in April

Image generated by ChatGPT edited with SnagIt

This series of posts will focus on an A-Z of events that occurred On This Day in April of years in the past. These events which are recorded in my genealogy database, all refer to individuals no longer alive. 

Some posts will be a very short mention of birth, marriage or death events while others may cover a individual's life story. Some stories relate to my ancestors and relatives, others relate to those of my husband.

Every effort has been made to verify the facts presented, if you see an individual mentioned in whom you have a particular interest, please contact me.

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

Some other Australia Days

Flowering gum

January 26th, Australia Day, evokes much debate around the country but here I reflect on my personal memories of this date in times past, in other places.

In 1980 we were living in UN housing in Srinagar, Kashmir, in the middle of a very cold winter. We flew to New Delhi for a short break and went along with the 2 million people who on that day attended the parade celebrating Indian Republic Day. The twenty sixth of January is celebrated as the day the Constitution of India came into effect in 1950. It is one of India’s three nationwide public holidays.

The parade was spectacular displaying the wide variety of Indian ethnic groups, along with the colourful marching bands that accompanied the military units. My abiding memory is the size of the crowd pressing in around us. After the parade ended, we walked back to our accommodation with my husband in front, me behind him hanging on to his belt and another Australian male colleague behind me with his hands on my shoulders. That was the only way we could stay together in that huge moving mass of people.

Twenty years later, after many summer based Australia Days back home, we were living in Paris. The tradition in most embassies is a celebration of each country’s national day, so too did the Australian Embassy celebrate. A more casual function for staff on the following Friday night was held in the recreation room located on the ground floor of the residential building. That space was known as Matilda’s and was also a popular staff venue for children’s parties.

We enjoyed another memorable Australia Day about 2005. Our children had given us tickets to a lunchtime jazz cruise on Sydney Harbour. Out amongst all the boats on that magnificent harbour with the bridge and Opera House in the background, we enjoyed an afternoon of superb entertainment. The flotilla of boats of all sizes and shapes displaying a variety of flags, added to our appreciation of all that Australia offers to those of us who call it home.

My Irish ancestors chose it as their home in the 1840s and 1850s long after the original inhabitants had made it their home. Now we are 22 million from all corners of the world, Australians all.

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

A succession of wills

The full text search feature at Familysearch/en/labs has revealed a whole family of wills. The will and probate details of this Horgan family range from 1883 until 1956. Specifically, I now have access to details left behind by these people. Husband and wife John Horgan 1883 and Honora Horgan 1927, 

their children Thomas died 1941, John died 1942, Andrew Joseph died 1952 and Catherine Mary died 1956.

One page of John Horgan’s probate package 1883

In addition to those, the wills of John Horgan’s brothers Thomas of Mintaro and Daniel of Gulnare are also available. All these wills and the accompanying probate documents detail how well these three brothers had managed since their arrival in South Australia in1852 with their widowed mother Johanna.

Tracts of land are detailed along with instructions for sons and brothers in the administration and responsibility of estates. Forms that were completed at the time also detail assets and relationships. In the case of the unmarried descendants of John and Honora, donations to charities, nieces and nephews are listed.

All of these valuable documents have been added to my family archive at WeAre.xyz 

Next task for me, the Smyth family wills and probate documents.

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

Hands through the years

Image by Avelino Calvar Martinez from Pixabay

I started seeing my own hands mirror those of my mother when I was in my late fifties.

Her time worn hands showed signs of wear and reflected the care she had for her family.

When her hands were young they toiled in the yard gathering eggs and tending vegetables. As she grew her hands mixed the batter for cakes and shaped biscuits for baking.

Skills were added to those hands as they stretched across piano keys and held needles for the stitching and mending of clothes.

We will probably never know when she learned the rhythm of the knitting needles. Did her maiden aunts Hannah and Margaret O’Dea teach her, or was this a skill passed on through her mother Georgina?

Each crinkle could tell a story of babies nurtured, washing done in hot harsh conditions and lines flapping with heavy wet burdens in the depths of cold winters. Hot irons warmed on the log stove were held steady to press those wrinkled garments.

Rooms swept, floors washed and polished, waste carried outside; the tasks those hands undertook multiplied through the years.

Those arthritic swollen knuckles in mature years still managed to write letters and cards to families and friends. They were expert at manipulating Scrabble tiles and managing the wrappings on favourite sweet treats.

Those gentle hands nurtured me through my childhood, held me in hugs, dried my tears. Alongside her I learnt many of those skills and now my hands remind me of her.

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