Harriett Irvine

Harriett was born in Jamberoo, New South Wales in 1842. She was the second in her family to have been born in Australia after her parents had emigrated from Ireland in 1839.

She was twenty-seven when she married Richard Gibson in Kiama. He too was Irish arriving in 1867 to join his brother who had come about ten years earlier. His brother was married to Harriett’s eldest sister. Richard and Harriett farmed on the south coast and southern tablelands in Berrima, Burrawang, Kangaloon and Robertson and raised a family of seven.

By the 1913 they had moved to Dapto and later to Unanderra, now both suburbs of Wollongong. In 1926 Harriett was eighty-four and had been a widow for six years. All but one of her children were married, two lived in Sydney but the others were still close by, her unmarried daughter still living with her.

She had twenty-three grandchildren plus five who had died in infancy. Her eldest grandson had been killed in France during World War One. Harriett was also a great grandmother to eleven.

And there you have it – the twenty-four direct ancestors of my daughter who were alive in 1926 and a little it about each of them. Some were surprisingly thin on information so note to self: go research those people a bit more.

Sarah Ann Dickinson

Sarah was born near Lake George in New South Wales north of where Canberra is today. Her father was a plasterer employed at a large station there. He came to Australia as a convict – did her children and grandchildren ever know that?

By the 1860s the family had moved to Queanbeyan where her father worked in his own right. Sarah married Alexander McIntyre when she was sixteen. He was the son of Scottish immigrants. They had fifteen children, only one not surviving infancy. They lived in Queanbeyan and later at Corrimal.

In 1926 Sarah was living in Wollstonecraft on Sydney’s north shore in a Federation style villa named “Illawarra”. She was eighty and had been widowed for ten years; one of her sons lived with her. Although most of her children were spread far and wide throughout the state and even in New Zealand, her youngest daughter lived just around the corner in the next street. She had seventy-two grandchildren and already seventy great grandchildren.

Robert Hogg

Robert was born in Ashkirk, Roxburghshire, Scotland where his father was an agricultural labourer. This was an occupation that could have a seasonal element and involve the family moving to follow work availability. Evidence of this can be seen by following the birthplaces of Robert’s siblings.

Robert was the eldest in his family; he had ten younger siblings; three sisters and seven brothers. He married Helen Redpath in Traqhuair in the summer of 1872. Robert worked as a ploughman and shepherd. For a short time around 1891 he was an Assurance Agent but by the mid-1890s he and his wife had moved south and across the border into Northumberland, England with their sons and married daughter.

Robert became a plate layer in a colliery. He was still working in the colliery at the time of the 1921 census and likely later. In 1926 he was a widower, his wife had died in 1922. He was seventy-eight years old and had thirteen grandchildren eight of whom lived in Australia and one great grandchild.

Robert is the youngest of the three great-great-great-grandparents of my daughter who were alive in 1926.

Peter Joseph Becker

Peter was the ninth child of eleven; a twin although his sister only lived for a few weeks. He was the fourth child to be born in Australia to his German immigrant parents who had arrived ten years before his birth.

Peter grew up in Surry Hills, Sydney. His father was a stonemason and builder. By 1885 though, Peter had moved south to the Queanbeyan area, possibly with one of his brothers, where he had met and married his wife.

In 1926 their family was grown and most of their children were married. They had been dairy farmers in the Illawarra district and possibly earlier near Queanbeyan. Although they had voluntarily declared bankruptcy and surrendered their farm in 1910, they were once more dairy farmers at Dunoon in the Northern Rivers district. Several of their married children had also migrated north with their families, and their younger daughters married local boys.

Peter was sixty-four, still happily married, a father and a grandfather to twenty-nine grandchildren.

Out of sixteen great-great-grandparents, thirteen were alive in 1926 and Peter and Sarah from the previous post were the eldest living of those. The remaining three living ancestors of my daughter in 1926 are from the next generation back. They will be coming up next.

Sarah Hall

Sarah was born in Boagh a small townland in County Cavan near Cootehill. She was the seventh child and sixth daughter in a family of ten. She and eight of her siblings emigrated from Ireland to New Zealand with their parents when Sarah was fourteen.

She married Francis Davys in 1885, they lived in Dargaville and Papakura then Taupiri where Francis ran a sawmill in part with his brothers before moving to Tamahere and Hamilton. They raised seven children.

In 1926 Sarah was sixty-four and had been a widow for twelve years. She had eleven grandchildren including two born that year. She lived in Cook Street Hamilton East near Steele Park with her unmarried daughter and her youngest son along with his wife and their new baby boy.

Margery McIntyre

Margery (Marjorie) was sixty-two and living in Dunoon, New South Wales with her husband of forty-one years. She had been born at Guise’s Flat a small locality between Michelago and Queanbeyan on the road to Cooma. She was the second child of fifteen and had one older brother.

She had met and married her husband in Queanbeyan. Her first-born son died aged three weeks, but she and her husband went on to raise a family of seven. They were dairy farmers but following a rough patch shortly after their youngest children were born in the Illawarra district, they voluntarily sequestered their land in bankruptcy.

They were farming again in 1926 having joined the great migration north to the northern rivers district of New South Wales during the later years of World War One. Some of their older married children had also moved north with them. All of their children were married or at least in relationships. They already had twenty-nine grandchildren.

John William Fuller

John was the youngest of two in his family. His parents had emigrated to Christchurch New Zealand as newlyweds and he and his brother were born there. In 1926 John was sixty, he was still working for Railways at Middleton Station a short walk from his home.

He and his wife raised a family of five, the youngest were still attending school in 1926. Their eldest two sons had completed (or almost completed) apprenticeships as fitters with P.D.Duncan. Their eldest son had surprised them by leaving to live and work in Australia a few years earlier without any discussion. They were both a little anxious that history should not repeat with their younger son.

John enjoyed listening to radio short-wave broadcasts in his shed in the backyard. He enjoyed listening to music but I don’t know if he played an instrument. Most of his children had learned to play though. He also liked sketching, painting and photography and would spend time “colourising” photos to bring them to life from the sepia tones in which they were developed.