e-newsletter Issue 4 2024

From the president

The session – ‘Starting your Family Research’ was attended by a small group, Liz and Maree’s lovely family photo window display of the Ridgeway family is still on view, unfortunately the visit by the Cobden Historical group was postponed until later this year.

Volunteers from the Family History Group and the Historical Society attended training on managing the newly combined Family Files. The well attended session evolved into a pleasant afternoon of discussion, learning and sharing, followed by a cup of tea. Thank you all for your interest.            Diana McGarvie, President  

Pilkington, Eagle and Rae

It has been written about previously that people who are unknown to each other, but descendants of the same family, often contact or visit the history centre around the same time.
Whether it is fate or serendipity, two descendants of the Pilkington family, Ula Sheather and Karin Burgess, visited the centre recently, just a few days apart.

Their common ancestors, William Pilkington and his wife Mary Moore from Co Tyrone, Ireland, emigrated in 1841 and settled in Cobden after time in New South Wales and south west Victoria. Sadly, in 1867, William just 49 years old, died from a gunshot wound accidentally inflicted, leaving Mary and their eleven children to mourn him.

Ula was interested in the Eagle family, whose daughter Amy married Frederick Pilkington, one of William’s grandsons. She enjoyed sifting through the information in the family files and also learning about many of the on-line resources available. We found a photograph of her parents who both served in the Air Force in the Second World War.

Karin, who was on a visit to Colac with her husband, caught a performance of our play about Dr Rae. Her unplanned visit to the family history group resulted in the discovery a photograph of her ancestor, Jessie Rae from Camperdown, who also married into the Pilkington family.

Both Ula and Karin had signed up for the “Surname Connect” project and have been put in contact with each other with a view to sharing their knowledge of the Pilkington family history.

From our Collection

When you visit the Family History Group, you will discover that there is a range of information on early local families, from a large variety of resources. Over the years, several discrete collections  have been established. It has been decided to feature these collections in an occasional series in the newsletter. The first feature is “Funeral Booklets”. The collection, cataloguing and filing of the booklets is largely managed by our Volunteer Co-ordinator, Norma.

FUNERAL BOOKLETS

The following article appeared in No 110 newsletter, Spring 2019  - past editions of Coladjins can be found at https://www.colacfamilyhistory.org.au/about/newsletter/

Foundation members  of the group realised the value of the booklets and began collecting them and calling for donations. Over the years, when attending a funeral, our diligent members have ensured that a funeral booklet was kept for the collection, which now numbers almost eighteen hundred booklets. If you have funeral booklets or a copy of a eulogy or obituary, please consider donating a copy to be included in the collection. Either call in or contact Norma on
e:  volunteer-coordinator@colacfamilyhistory.org.au

AND MONDAY WAS WASH DAY by Doug Kirkman

Doug Kirkman has been gathering photographs, information and stories about local history for many years. He has also written several stories, including this delightful reminiscence from his childhood. Through the generations there have been many major developments in that once weekly chore… the laundry. For some of our readers this story will bring back memories (and we would love to hear from you) and for others, raised with modern appliances, it is a description of a time that is almost unimaginable.

Dr Rae’s final performance

Our first attempt at writing a play about a local historic figure, has had its final performance. The play, featuring Dr Thomas Rae, Colac doctor between 1859 and 1879, was developed in late 2022 to be showcased at the 2023 Annual General Meeting. Since that time Dr Rae, played by Brian Short, has been performed nine times before a live audience and also video recorded.

If you were unable to attend a performance, you can now view the play on YouTube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKPBhHOoJ6Q

Almost Forgotten

Vale Jill Judd nee Dalton

Photograph: Jill was the first recipient of the “Rabbit Award”, which is given to researchers who can’t resist following a lead down a “rabbit hole”. It is a fun award, but often that extra research uncovers the little gold nuggets that help to put “the meat on the bones”.

HORAN FAMILY - research by Jill Judd

In the 1880s much of the Warrion Hills area had been sub-divided for farms and many holdings were taken up by Irish-Catholic families.  Around 1892, Mary and James Horan and their ten children moved from Mailor’s Flat near Warrnambool to Warrion to take up a small farm. Two more children were born at Warrion, but unfortunately the family were soon to experience several sad events.

Their baby boy died of teething and pneumonia aged just nine months and tragedy struck when Mary’s three year old son died in her arms after choking on a dried pea caught in his throat. In 1899 Mary died after contracting tuberculosis and within weeks of Mary’s death, their fifteen year old daughter, Minnie also died of the disease. James had lost his wife and three children in six years.

The youngest child in the family, Alice, later became a nun and two of the sons moved to New Zealand. Locally most of the family did not marry and there are currently no known living descendants of James and Mary in the district.  Little was known of the sons who had travelled to New Zealand.

Recently Katrina, a descendant of the Horan family in New Zealand, contacted the family history group to find out if we had information on their Colac district ancestors. She wanted to put a family history together for her father’s 80th birthday. The family were thrilled with the volume of detailed information we were able to provide from Jill’s research.

Photograph James Horan, (Katrina’s father) and his siblings, Mary and Kath.

A brother of Mary Horan, James Patrick O’Brien, married to Johanna Quinn also moved to Cororooke and the family lived in a home named “Tara”. There were four children, Catherine, (Mrs Denis McInerney), Igantius, Anthony and Paul.

Dates to Remember and Upcoming Events