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.
I identified the 4 x gt grandmother of my children by working backwards through births, marriages and across countries, from Australia to New Zealand and then back to the UK.
On this day April 10
1878 - Death: Barbara CLARKE, Auckland, New Zealand - 4 x gt. grandmother of my children
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| Marriage in Liverpool, England 1840 |
Shortly after their marriage this young couple sailed for New Zealand and by 1842 advertisements were placed in the Auckland Times advertising their services as draper, tailor, milliner and dressmaker.
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| https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AKTIM18421222.2.6.2 Auckland Times, Volume 1, Issue 27, 22 December 1842, Page 4 |
Barbara's husband died in a boating accident in 1860 when she was only 40, leaving her with six children, the youngest just 5 years old.
Did she return to her trade as a dressmaker and milliner to support the children? Perhaps some New Zealand descendants may have the answer. Barbara was just 58 when she died in April of 1878.
Line of descent to Galvin
David Crosbie m Barbara Clarke married 1840 in Liverpool, migrated to New Zealand
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Agnes Crosbie m William Stirling - Married 1864 in New Zealand
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Charles Edward Stirling m Maud Gothard - both born in New Zealand but married 1891 in Glebe, NSW
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Gordon Wallace Stirling m Louisa May Lawson - Married 1919 in Glebe, NSW
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Phyllis Yvonne Stirling m John Dominic Galvin (my children's paternal grandparents) - married 1940 in NSW
Agnes Crosbie m William Stirling - Married 1864 in New Zealand
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Charles Edward Stirling m Maud Gothard - both born in New Zealand but married 1891 in Glebe, NSW
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Gordon Wallace Stirling m Louisa May Lawson - Married 1919 in Glebe, NSW
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Phyllis Yvonne Stirling m John Dominic Galvin (my children's paternal grandparents) - married 1940 in NSW
Your post reminds us of how mobile our ancestors were. Were brave or desperate souls?
ReplyDeleteQuite amazing given the travelling conditions of the time. Imagine Barbara as a seamstress making those huge dresses of the 1840s and 50s, such hard work.
DeleteI have a couple in my tree of a tailor and a seamstress. They eventually gave that up and took their family of many children touring as a "midget band". Meaning little, they were young not actually midgets. This was in the southern USA.
ReplyDeleteThat was quite a change in careers!
DeleteIt does seem likely she may have had to return to working as a seamstress. I’d never thought about the implications of that in terms if those voluminous dresses and bustles. They were tough people weren’t they?
ReplyDeleteThey certainly were.
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