Living in 1926: Scattered Lives

Our children's Galvin and Stirling ancestors

Each August, National Family History Month in Australia and New Zealand invites us to pause and look back So who was alive one hundred years ago, 1926, how old were they, what were their circumstances? 

These are my children's Paternal ancestors who lived in that year. The relationship given before the name is the relationship to my son and daughter. I wrote about their maternal ancestors living in 1926 in the post Mundane to Magnificent.

All of these paternal ancestors were living in Australia in 1926, one born in Ireland, one in England and two in New Zealand.

4x gt grandmother Bridget Crotty (Galvin)

Bridget was 86 in 1926. Bridget had migrated from County Clare in Ireland.  She married in Sydney but her husband Michael Galvin had died in 1894. From 1901 after her son also named Michael, and his wife died, she had cared for three young granddaughters. A photo of Bridget at her 100th birthday in 1940 was supplied by a Galvin cousin. Bridget died in 1940 at the Little Sisters of the Poor home in Randwick, perhaps she was living there in 1926.

Bridget Galvin - 100th birthday party

3x gt grandfather John Patrick Galvin

John Patrick was 59 and in 1925, two years after his wife Catherine died, he married a widow, Margaret O'Loughlin. In January of 1926 he would have celebrated the engagement of his second son Frank to Clarice Tonkin followed by the arrival of a fourth grandchild to John Michael and Grace in February.  He was very committed to his charitable works with the Catholic Hibernian Society being mentioned in the newspapers of the day more than twenty times during 1926.  A Hibernian Grand president

2x gt grandfather John Michael Galvin

John Michael was 30 living in Randolph Street, Henley Park in Adelaide with his wife Grace Payne. By 1926 they had four children. John was already advocating for increased wages as a member of the union. In 1926 the Commonwealth basic wage was £4/6s/6d per week.(1)  Railway Worker to Union Secretary to Public Service Administrator

Gt grandfather John Dominic Galvin

John Dominic was just 8 years old and attending primary school. He had two younger brothers, Des and Kevin for playmates and the new baby girl, Kathleen had just joined the family. 

2x gt grandmother Grace Walmsley Payne (Galvin)

Grace was 32 when she had child number four in February of 1926 so her life in Adelaide was busy with household duties. A Courtship of the times

3x gt grandfather Edward John William (Paynter) Payne

Edward, born in Victoria was now 67 and and by 1926 was back in England with his second family having lived and worked across several countries. A Life of reinvention and restlessness

3x gt grandmother Mary Agnes Walmsley (Payne)

Mary was 64 and living in Adelaide. She had been born in Lancashire and migrated with her parents and family when she was 12.  After marriage to Edward Payne and a child born in New Zealand, she followed him around Australia bearing children in four Australian states before he left for South Africa. 

From Bolton to the Antipodes

Gt grandmother Phyllis Yvonne Stirling (Galvin)

Phyllis was just 6 years old and had started school at Maroubra Bay Primary in 1925. She had her younger sister, just a toddler to entertain.  It would be another 14 years before she married John Dominic Galvin.

Phyllis Stirling - third from the left in the front row
Maroubra Bay Primary School 1925

2x gt grandfather Gordon Wallace Stirling

Gordon age 32, married  to Louisa was working as a gardener at Randwick racecourse in Sydney. By 1926 they had two children and life on a laborer's wage, limited their options. A gardener at Randwick Racecourse 

2x gt grandmother Louisa May Lawson

Louisa was 28. She and Gordon had married in 1919 with two girls borne, Phyllis Yvonne in 1920 and Gwenda Norma in January 1925. With a young baby and her elder sister, Louisa's days would have been taken up with household chores.

3x gt grandfather Charles Edward Stirling

Charles was 61. He was born in New Zealand the eldest of three sons born to William Stirling and Agnes Crosbie. He had moved to Australia sometime before his marriage to Maud in 1891. They had lived in Glebe for many years where Charles worked as a foreman in a timber yard. We can assume he continued to work there during 1926 as that is his listed occupation on the electoral role of 1930.(2)

3x gt grandmother Maud Gothard

Maud was 55. She was born in Hokitika, New Zealand to Cornelius Gothard and Lucy Eliza James. Charles and she married in Glebe in Sydney in 1891. By 1926 all three of their children were married. Maud does not appear on electoral roles with Charles around this time but by 1930 her son Gordon and his children had moved in with her. Phyllis Stirling and her sister Gwenda Norma were brought up by their grandmother Maud, as Louisa had left Gordon sometime after 1929.

1.1926 'FEDERAL ARBITRATION COURT', Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931), 2 January, p. 46. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16632937

2. 1930 Australian Electoral Commission. [Electoral roll] Leichhardt, Dalley, New South Wales, Australia

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