The Tree of Me

Edward Patrick (Neddy) Agnew (1906 - 1922) Neddy is the next in a series of posts I have been writing about childhood deaths in my family. Neddy Agnew was the 6th child of Adam John Agnew and his wife Bridget Josephine Murphy of Warren's Corner, Numeralla, east of Cooma, NSW. Living on a farm there were probably many dangers, none more so than riding a horse. FATAL ACCIDENT AT NUMERALLA (From our Correspondent) "We are very sorry to report the death of Edward P. Agnew, aged 13 years and 9 months. Deceased was riding home when, it is surmised his horse slipped on the wet road, throwing the lad on his head. The deceased lad, who was the youngest son of Mr and Mrs A.J. Agnew, of Warren's Corner, Numeralla, was well liked by everyone. He took great interest in all clean and manly sport and was a good horseman. He was a most trustworthy lad and of a very obliging nature and no matter what he promised to do he never broke his work." Cooma Express, 6 January 1922,...

Elizabeth Flynn (1855 - 1861) I found this story several weeks ago by trawling Trove as I often do searching for random surnames in my database. Elizabeth Flynn was the daughter of Jeremiah Flynn who lived at Count-a-Guinea, near Cooma, NSW.  My great great grandfather John Mylan was sent to live at Count-a-Guinea (now Countageny) to live with his godfather Jeremiah Flynn after the death of his father Thomas Mylan some time after 1838 when he was 5 years old. John Mylan grew up with Jeremiah Flynn's son Jeremiah. Elizabeth, the 7th child of Jeremiah Flynn and his wife Margaret Roche, was born on 20th July 1855 at Count-a-Guinea. She had always been one of the people who I could not trace after birth. When I came across this story I realised that Elizabeth was the child lost in the bush. LOST IN THE BUSH A little girl about five years old, a daughter of Mr Jeremiah Flynn, of Count-a-Guinea, has been lost in the bush about three weeks, and although thirty horsemen have been ...

Following the success of the Australia Day Blog Challenge and the Waitangi Day Challenge , a new blogging challenge has been set. This is a joint challenge for Aussies and New Zealanders. Do you have an Australian or New Zealander in your family tree who was killed in military operations? If so, we'd like to hear about not only their sacrifice, but the way their loss shaped their family history. This challenge is quite difficult for me because I'm not sure who to choose. In my close family no one went to war. Fortunately, my father and grandfathers were the wrong age, so we were spared the anguish of war. However, there are several young men in our extended family who were killed and now I have the task of choosing one. This information is taken from my book Crossing the Seas to Build a Future with further information I have discovered since writing. Research is never completed is it? Allan Seabrook Mitchell (1917 - 1943) Alan, the second of three sons of William Ch...

William Henry Allsop (1873 - 1875) William Henry Allsop is another child in my family who drowned unnecessarily. This time in a bucket of water. William was the second child of my great great grandparents, William Henry Allsop and Mary Ellen McInerney of Alberton, Victoria. The inquest into his death was held the day after he died. It must have been so difficult for family members to give evidence so soon after his death. His mother and grandmother tried in vain to save his life. Mary Alsop on her oath. I am the wife of William Henry Alsop and reside at Alberton. The deceased William Henry Alsop was my child. He was two years and nine months old. About 12 o'clock yesterday I was at my mother's house with the child. I last saw him alive about 12 o'clock yesterday, when he was sitting at the table in my mother's house. A few minutes afterwards I missed him and went to look for him, and in about ten minutes I found him in a water cask, which was sunk level with the ...

Rupert Dawson (1887 - 1898) Rupert Charles Dawson was the second son of William Henry Dawson and his wife Bridget Mylan. He was born at Callan Park Hospital in 1887. His father was an attendant at the hospital and the family lived in one of the houses in the Hospital grounds. In September 1898 a lot of construction work was going on at the hospital. Rupert and his friends were playing a game and jumping over an open sewer in the course of construction. He missed jumping over the gap and fell in the sewer.  An inquest was held on 5th September, 1898 at Callan Park. THE FATAL ACCIDENT AT CALLAN PARK HOSPITAL Yesterday an inquest was held at the Callan Park Hospital by the Acting City Coroner (Mr Bowden) touching the death of Rupert Charles Dawson, aged 12 years, a son of one of the attendants of the hospital. Dr. Flashman, who saw the deceased shortly after he fell down the sewer shaft at the rear of the institution, said deceased had his skull fractured, but the immediate cau...

Where are you Marion? or Why haven't I checked message boards for years? At the moment I am kicking myself. Years ago (and I mean many years ago) I would often post on or search message boards. I now wish I hadn't stopped the habit. Last week I came across this message from Marion dated 2004. I am searching for my great grandfather James Agnew born derry ireland. abt 1827 died in Australia 1907. He married Elizabeth Jane Bone in 1888 in Melbourne Australia. He also married Bridget Cahill in 1854, Ann McCartney in 1858, and Harriett Meadows in 1859. I have this James Agnew as a possible but highly probable member of my family. Ellen (Alice) Agnew arrived in Australia from Castledawson, Londonderry aboard the Waverley in 1847 with her four children to join her husband James in Cooma, NSW. Much research which can be found on the internet, only mentions 3 Agnew children, John, Rosanna and Matilda. James, the eldest seems to have moved from Cooma very early on. Research my au...

I was fortunate last weekend to spend several hours at Dixson Library at the University of New England. Although I love using Trove, it only covers major newspapers up until 1954. Dixson Library has an almost perfect collection of newspapers from the north of NSW. While searching for family information I continually came across the deaths of small children. This has got me thinking this morning about children who have died unnecessarily in my family. This week my posts will be in their memory. Tommy Scheikowski (c1946 - 1955) BOY FOUND DROWNED AFTER NIGHT SEARCH A nine years old boy was found drowned in a shallow waterhole beside a causeway in Rouse-Street North on Tuesday morning, after police had made a search for the boy throughout Monday night. The boy, Tommy Scheikowski, of George-street, had been missing from his home since Monday afternoon. Mrs Scheikowski told police that she first noticed her son was missing at about 3 p.m., but did not take any notice, as the boy usual...

The holidays have arrived for me and I have set myself a mammoth task. I've finally decided to put my genealogy data and family information on the net. Following the lead of Geniaus and Twigs of Yore who both use The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (TNG ) written by Darren Lythgoe , I decided to bite the bullet and get myself organised. My new website can be found at The Tree of Me . Now for some advice please. Am I being silly? I have not uploaded a Gedcom file as I started using PAF back in the 1980s. I later switched to Reunion for Macintosh . My reason is that I want clean data, with well organised sources. Should I upload a file? However, it could only be for one section of my family as I have three files for my side and one for my husband. I think I will reduce this to a tree for me and a tree for him. My next task for today it to try and get the map feature working as this is one of the features that I really like.