The Story of Ellen Hickey

This is the story of my paternal Great Great Grandmother, Ellen Hickey (1832-1912).

 

Ellen Hickey
date of photo unknown

The year of Ellen's birth, 1832, was also the birth year of authors Louisa May Alcott and Lewis Carroll, and the engineer Gustave Eiffel.  The place of Ellen's birth is still open to conjecture, although I will make an educated guess based on the records and information I've been able to collate.

Quite a lengthy period of time passed before my research finally led me to the baptism register for the Parish of Parteen and Meelick.





Reading the baptism register for the Parish in 1832 was very, very difficult, as you can tell from the record shown here; but I persisted and after many, many attempts, I finally found the entry on the first page next to the number 11 under the February section.

If you look very carefully, you can see 'Ellen Hickey', along with the names of her parents.  Her father was James Hickey, aged 34 at the time, and her mother was Margaret McNamara, aged 30. So I finally had confirmation of a year of birth and a baptism date.

Ellen was baptised on the 11th of February in 1832, in the townland of Parteen, County Clare.



Now, Parteen was (still is) in the Catholic Parish of 'Parteen-Meelick' in the Diocese of Limerick, but the Diocese of Limerick covered parts of both County Limerick and County Clare back then.

If the family actually lived on that side of the River Shannon, then they were natives of County Clare.







That information however didn't marry up with the place the family had recorded as their 'native place' on their immigration record a few years later.  That was listed as Limerick, so I got a little confused.  Did that mean the family identified themselves as being from Limerick city, the County of Limerick or the Diocese of Limerick?

At that time most of the Parish of Parteen/Meelick was indeed situated in County Clare, but ... the Coonagh part of the Parish was in the County of Limerick.  Did that mean the Hickey family were actually living in Coonagh and that's where Ellen was born?  Was the church in Parteen just the closest church?  I will need to look into this further.

At the time of her birth, it appears that there were already four children in the family.

Patrick had been born in 1824.
Twins, Thomas and John, came along in 1827.
Bridget was born in 1830.
The year after Ellen was born, James came along in 1833.

A mere six years later it appears that Ellen's mother and father decided to leave Ireland and emigrate, as many Irish did in the 19th century. 

Assisted Immigrant Record - 'Adam Lodge' - 1840

The record above shows that in late 1839 Ellen's parents decided to move to Australia. It's not an easy record to read, but the details indicate that Ellen's father James, mother Margaret, and siblings boarded the ship 'Adam Lodge' in Cork; along with her uncle Denis, aunt Winifred, and cousins Denis, Matthew and Michael.

The extended family was taking advantage of the 'bounty' immigration scheme that operated between 1834-1841.  'Bounties' were paid to individuals or companies who recruited immigrants with particular skills and bought them to the colonies for employers.  There were a couple of other Hickey families aboard the ship, but I'm unsure about their relationship to Ellen's family.  One of those families is recorded directly above the entry for Ellen's family.

The other form of the immigrant record shows that Ellen's father James was aged 41, her mother was 38, her brother Patrick was 16, the twins Thomas and John were aged 13, Bridget was 10, James was 7 and Ellen herself was aged 8  (despite being listed as 9 years of age).

Trying to comprehend exactly what Ellen's experience would have been during this trip at such a young age is difficult.

I imagine it could have been scary ordeal and a thrilling adventure all in one!





The family left from Cork on October 9th 1839 on the 'Adam Lodge' on a course to the Cape of Good Hope, then across the Southern Ocean, along the southern coast of Australia, through Bass Strait and up the eastern seaboard of Australia to Sydney.


The voyage took four months, arriving in Sydney on February 10th, 1840.

Once the family had disembarked in Sydney, they would have moved into the government barracks on Bent Street, along with all of the other immigrants.

This list of immigrants shown here, was published on the day of their arrival so that prospective employers were notified of the various skilled workers that were available for hire.


Ellen's father James and uncle Denis would have been included in the number of married farmers on board the ship.


I haven't yet found evidence of exactly whom might have employed Ellen's father, James Hickey.

I do know however (from research done by Mark Connors, another descendant of James Hickey and Margaret McNamara) that the family moved north to the Hunter River district, not long after their arrival in Australia, where James tenanted a farm at Wallalong, outside Maitland.



The obituary for Ellen's father published many years later, mentioned that he had spent 39 years in the colony "always being located in the Hunter River district".

Australasian Chronicle (Sydney, NSW), 18 February 1840, p.3

I have been unable to find any evidence of what occurred in Ellen's life during her teenage years, between the age of 10 and 16, but I suppose she would have worked alongside her father and mother on whatever farm or farms her father had been employed at in the Hunter River district.  No doubt she would have acquired many skills either as a farm servant or a house servant perhaps.

Then in 1849, at the age of just 17, Ellen married William Connor (whose name was often recorded as Connors later on, and that became the surname of the family). He was aged 29 and had been in the colony for eight years.

It's a bit of a mystery as to why her Christian name was recorded as 'Eleanor'.  Her baptism record shows her name as simply 'Ellen', but as the name 'Eleanor' pops up in various grandchildren names later on, perhaps her actual name was exactly that.

It's also interesting to note that there were no Hickey family members as witnesses to the marriage.  Given that Ellen had many close family members living nearby, and her husband had only one, a sister who had emigrated with him, it seems odd that a Hickey did not act as a witness.

Ellen's family had settled in the East Maitland Parish, not West Maitland where Ellen and William were married.  This suggests there may have been some discord, as the marriage did not take place in the bride's family's parish.  Was her choice of husband not agreeable to her parents? 

At the time of their marriage, William was living in an area known at the time as 'Cooley Camp' (later known as Bolwarra Flat) where there were many small farms.  It was reputedly a very productive area, but as the whole area was no more than five square miles in size, there was not much chance for expansion for any farmer who had a small landholding in the area.

Ellen and William had their first child, my Great Grandfather Thomas, in 1850, when Ellen was 18 years of age.  He was born at Butterwick, which was within the Cooley Camp area, but the new family did not stay long in the area after that.

They moved south to the Kiama and Gerringong region on the New South Wales south coast, quite a distance away from the rest of the Hickey family.  It seems they travelled with a number of other Irish families, including the Mary McIntyre who had been one of the witnesses at their wedding.  The Gerringong region was opening up at the time for farmers, after the cedar cutting industry had come to a halt.

Ellen and William appear to have begun working their own dairy farm, and went on to have 12 more children over the next 25 years.  Their growing family included:

Margaret born in 1852.
Patrick came along the following year, 1853.
Mary Ann was born in 1855, and Ellen was now aged 23.
Bridget Ellen was born in 1857.
James in 1859.
Ellen Sabina was born in 1861.  Ellen was now 29 years old.
William was born in 1864.
Benjamin came along in 1866.
In 1868 son John was born.
Elizabeth (known as Lizzie) was born in 1870.
Michael John was born in 1873.

It was not long after the birth of Michael, that William and Ellen packed up their belongings, left the dairy farm and the Kiama district. It appeared that William was not happy with his lot, and had decided to relocate to Wagga Wagga in the west, in the hope that he would be able to acquire a larger plot of land.

At the time Ellen would have been 41 years old.  The eldest son, my Great Grandfather Thomas, would have been 23, had a wife and a small baby;  daughter Margaret was 21; son Patrick was almost 20; Mary Ann was 18; Bridget was 16; James was 14; Ellen Sabina was 12; William was 9; Benjamin was 7; John was 5; Elizabeth was 3; and Michael was just a new born baby.

The entire family all headed off to the west by ox and dray on a trip of around 300 miles.  

I imagine it would have been a slow, arduous trip!

Wagga Wagga, late 1870s

The family had definitely arrived by 1876 because sadly, that year Ellen lost three of her children in Wagga Wagga. 

Typhoid, known then as 'colonial fever', had broken out in several places in both New South Wales and Victoria in 1875 / 1876.

Unfortunately it was rampant in Wagga Wagga in 1876 and Patrick (aged 23), Ellen Sabina (aged 15) and John (aged 8), all died as a result of contracting that disease.

No doubt others in the family would have fallen ill as well, but no other family members were lost.

Ellen herself might have succumbed and the family would have been very concerned as she was quite heavily pregnant at the time.

Thankfully she went on to give birth to her last son, Edward George, in August of 1876 when she was aged 44.

I can not imagine the grief that she would have felt at the loss of three of her children in such a short period of time.  I doubt that she was able to recover from that very quickly (if indeed she ever did!), despite the joy that a tiny new baby would bring.




Not long after this heart-breaking period of time, William and Ellen moved once more.  This time, their eldest son Thomas (my great grandfather) did not join them, but headed back to Kiama with his own family.  Their eldest daughter Margaret remained in Wagga and married, and it seems that their third eldest daughter, Bridget, also remained in Wagga.

So it was that Ellen and her husband moved to the Snowy Mountains district sometime towards the end of 1879, and eventually settled in the town of Gilmore, just outside Tumut, with six out of nine of their surviving children.

1879 was also the year that Ellen's father, James Hickey passed away.  Ellen's parents had stayed in the Hunter District, and James died near Morpeth.

Ellen was to experience more grief just a couple of years later.  In 1882, her husband William died, when Ellen was 50 years old. He passed away at Gilmore rather unexpectedly it seems, after suffering from inflammation of the lungs for two weeks prior to his death.  Given that the wheat crop grown the previous year at their farm had failed, times would have been quite hard for Ellen at that time.

Ellen would have taken over the farm, and indeed her death record lists her occupation at the time of her death (some 30 years later) as 'farmer'.  There is no doubt in my mind that Ellen had worked alongside her husband since the beginning of her marriage, and had played just as an essential role in the day-to-day workings of the farm as her husband.

It seems that Ellen's mother Margaret moved to Gilmore after the death of Ellen's husband William.  She was likely living with Ellen at the farm, but given she was now in her mid-80s she may not have been able to help out all that much.  Ellen's mother died in 1890 and is buried at the Tumut cemetary, and not beside her husband's plot in Morpeth.  

In 1893 son James married and moved off the farm into Tumut.
In 1896 Ellen's brother Patrick died.
Then in 1898, Ellen lost another of her children, her youngest son Edward George.

At this point in Ellen's story, I'm going to mention the prompt for this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge:  'Storms'.  Whilst others may think immediately of thunderstorms, I'm going to diverge a little and mention 'firestorm'.

In many parts of Australia, people are very familiar with firestorms. Bushfires are one of our most frequent natural hazards, and there have been some extreme bushfires throughout our history. When a bushfire starts exhibiting deep, widespread flaming with a smoke plume that can extend up to 10-15 kilometres into the atmosphere, sometimes these plumes actually develop into thunderstorms.  That's when the bushfire becomes known as a 'firestorm'.

In the last days of 1904 and first days of 1905, several massive bushfires covered a vast section of New South Wales, from Wagga Wagga in the west, to Yass in the East and down to Tumut in the south.  Despite there being several fires to begin with, after the traumatic event was over, it was spoken about as if there had been just one massive force of destruction that left a huge area of the state in ruins.  Though 'firestorm' would not have been a familiar term at the time, that was indeed what had occurred.

Ellen and her family were caught up in this tragedy, although thankfully none of the family lost their lives.










Newspaper reports at the time tell the story far better than I ever could.

" THE BUSH FIRES. 

(Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal (NSW), Saturday 7 January 1905, page 2)

So melancholy a catastrophe as the great fires which have swept over the State is, in many respects, unparalleled in the records of the country.

The concise telegrams coming from eye-witnesses in the various districts but briefly recount the fearful havoc, and cannot convey an adequate idea of the utter and complete devastation of the country as it now appears.

The picture is a grim one, with stumps still burning and blackened trunks alone standing where a little while since there was green grass and verdant bush growth. Charred trees and bare ground now plainly indicate the course of the fires as they sped their way relentlessly forward, increasing in fury as homesteads and station buildings were engulfed and reduced to ashes.

The amount of damage wrought is assuming immense proportions. Thousands of acres in different parts of the State have been devastated, homesteads, farms, and everything about them have been destroyed, and even larger holdings and stations have not escaped, hundreds of sheep and cattle having been roasted alive. There appears to have been no lack of assistance to try to save stock, which is at all times valuable, but no human effort could apparently rescue the doomed animals, which, in mortal panic, rushing from the great glare, were entirely unmanageable and soon overcome.………….(the report continued for a page)."

From the Tenterfield Intercolonial Courier and Fairfield and Wallangarra Advocate (NSW), Tuesday 10 January 1905, page 4
 
The headline:  'FEARFUL BUSH FIRES.'

Part of the beginning paragraph states:
"The details given in the Sydney Press, however, show that the fires, which were directly or indirectly caused by the heat wave, were appalling in their extent and fierceness, and the damage to property was exceedingly serious."

The lengthy article goes on to give particulars of the damage and loss in areas including - Moss Vale, Mittagong, Maitland, Gundagai, Candelo, Yass, Wagga, the Riverina and quite a few other districts.

There is mention of Tumut and the area around it, where Ellen and her family lived.

"DEVASTATION AT TUMUT
The bush fires in the Tumut district were unprecedented. Homesteads were burned, the occupants being compelled to leave with only the clothes in which they stood. Haystacks and sheds were levelled to the ground, and thousands of bushels of corn, wool-packed bales, fields of wheat crops, and hundreds of crops ready for the harvest, to say nothing of the tracts of grass were destroyed. Thousands of sheep, horses, cattle and poultry were roasted alive. After fighting the flames for two days and nights, men were lying around exhausted."

Tenterfield Intercolonial Courier and Fairfield and Wallangarra Advocate (NSW), Tuesday 10 January 1905, p.4

Escaping the Tumut fire in 1905

The photo above shows Ellen and her family (son William, his wife Elizabeth and children; as well as daughter Elizabeth and her two children) after they had evacuated the farm at Gilmore in an effort to escape the fire.  They had made it to the river near Blowering.  The whole thing must have been quite a harrowing experience.

Photo taken 1905, Ellen was aged 73.

Ellen is standing third from the right in front of the wagon.  She would have been 73 years old.  I think she can be forgiven for that lack of a smile and the rather sombre look on her face!

Front row L-R:  daughter-in-law Elizabeth (nee Duffy), granddaughter Ruby holding another of Ellen's grandchildren, Frederick, daughter Mary Anne, Ellen (the mother/mother-in-law/grandmother) granddaughter Phyllis, daughter Elizabeth (known as Lizzie).

In the buggy:  grandchildren Ivy Eleanor, Cecil, Frank and Harry.
Ellen's son William is driving the buggy.  Ellen's son-in-law Fred (Lizzie's husband) took the photo.

It does look as though they all escaped the fire relatively unscathed, but I don't know about the family property.  I have yet to discover what the family found when they returned to the farm; but return they did.  I have little detail to share about the years that followed.

In 1910 Ellen's eldest son Thomas Edgar, my great grandfather, passed away at his dairy farm 'Far Meadow' near Berry.  Ellen was 78 years old by then.

This photo was actually taken around the same time ... 1910 ... when Ellen was aged 78.  She is sitting with her  grandchildren Harry and Frank, children of her son William Connor.  The two boys in this photo are the same boys who were standing in the buggy being driven asway from the 1905 bushfires by their father.

The thing that grabs my attention and pulls at my heartstrings are Ellen's hands.  It looks like she suffered from quite sever arthritis of the hands, which must have been very painful!

Just two years after the photo was taken, a little over a month after her 80th birthday, Ellen died in 1912.

From her obituary you get a sense of the person she was, obviously a kind self-sacrificing person whose priority in life was her family.  The writer had most definitely made an error giving her age as "three score and ten"!

Some of the details on her death record are also a little out ... she definitely spent longer than 60 years of her life in New South Wales, given that she arrived when she had only just turned 8; and she had married before she turned 18.

Ellen was survived by her sons William, Benjamin, Michael and James; as well as her daughters Margaret, Mary Ann, Bridget and Elizabeth (known as Lizzie).



Special Note to any family members:  If you have memories to add, photos or information to share, can I graciously ask that you do so.  Please use the comments box below or email me.  It may prove to be invaluable to the story and provide future generations with something to truly treasure.