The Story of the almost forgotten children of George Connors and Grace Brown

George Connors and Grace Brown were my paternal grandparents, both born in the early to mid 1880s ... George was born in 1880, while Grace was born in 1885.  I have told their individual stories here: The Story of George Thomas Connors  and here: The Story of Grace Olive Brown

My own personal memories of my grandfather George are very vague and sketchy.  I was aged 6 when he died and way back in my childhood years I lived a long train ride away from him, so I only met him a handful of times ... perhaps two handfuls!  My memories are all about his physical presence.

Grandad George

I remember him as a tallish, old man who stood up quite straight and had a quiet, reserved air about him.


My abiding memory is that of a gentle giant.  I suppose to a small girl that would make sense.


He was 86 when he passed.

Grandma Grace holding me as a baby

I have a few more memories of my grandmother Grace, but again, only as an old woman.

I remember her as a white-haired, softly spoken and gentle woman.

Towards the end of her life she would sit out on the top step of her house and quietly observe the world outside, appearing to be perfectly content just to be in the sunshine.  Grandma Grace survived her husband by eight years, passing in 1974 aged 89.

They married in mid-1906, and over the following 22 years went on to have 11 children.

Growing up, I only ever knew about 9 of those children
- my father Bede and his twin brother, my uncle Reggie;

- my other uncles, Colin, Tommy, and George Jnr.,

- and my aunts Beryl, Chris, Olga and Betty.

At some point in my teenage years I became aware that my grandmother had lost some of her children when they were babies, but it was not a topic of conversation during family get-togethers and it was certainly not something I ever wanted to bring up for discussion.  I don't remember quite how I became aware of this fact, but perhaps it was something I overheard.

Of course, over the last couple of years I've been deep in family research and questions started arising in my mind once again.

When I received a copy of my grandfather's death certificate, it was printed in black and white that 1 male and 1 female child of George's were deceased prior to his death.  Given that the list of living children contained the names of those 9 family members I knew, it was confirmation that there had been other children who had not survived childhood.

The information was similar on my grandmother's death certificate, although by that time one of my known uncles, Tommy, had died, so there were 2 males and 1 female listed as deceased when Grace died.

It's taken me a while, but I've now found out a little more about the two other children that my grandmother gave birth to, so I really wanted to leave a record of these two little ones to ensure they are not forgotten.

On July the 6th, 1921, Grace gave birth to a son named Leo.  At the time it appears George and Grace were living at Rosebank, near Lismore in north-eastern New South Wales.  Grace had however given birth at the Bonnie Doon Private Hospital in Lismore.  (Those of us who are Aussies would associate the name 'Bonnie Doon' with events in a wonderful 1997 movie called 'The Castle' ... definitely not the same place!)

Tragedy hit a mere 3 days after the birth of little Leo.  Information gleaned from his death certificate indicates that Leo died on the 9th of July 1921, and the cause of death was recorded as:

"cardiac failure through being accidentally overlain"

There are few other details, other than the notation that there was an inquiry - a coroner's inquest - conducted that day. I'm left with so many questions.  Was Grace still in hospital at this time?  If so, it's likely then that it would have been my grandmother who rolled over on top of her baby and caused his death.  If Grace had left the hospital, then I wonder who might have been the one who had "overlain" little Leo.  It's an absolute nightmarish situation to even think about and I can't imagine the emotional devastation that would result.  It would mark a mother's heart forever.  Of course, my grandfather George would have been completely devastated as well.

Within eight months Grace was pregnant once more.  She gave birth to a girl named Marguerite Josephine on December 28th 1922.  Sadly, this little one passed away a mere month later.

Marguerite died on the 29th of January in 1923.  The cause of death was listed as:

"multiple abscesses and septicaemia" which the baby had apparently been suffering with for about a fortnight.  I'm not entirely sure what "multiple abscesses" means, but I have visions of boils.  My father (Marguerite's brother) suffered with boils for many, many years as a grown man, so perhaps it was something similar.  For Marguerite though, it appears there was a severe infection and she did not recover from that battle.

Legume is marked with the red tag / Lismore with the red oval.

By this time George and Grace had moved from the Lismore area (the family moved around a lot as my Grandad found work wherever he could) and were now living at a place called Legume, in the Tenterfield Shire just inside the New South Wales border.  The nearest big town was Killarney, which was on the other side of the border, in Queensland.  That is where Marguerite was buried.

My grandmother went on to have another three children.  Amazingly, after losing two children in succession, Grace gave birth to her twin boys, my father Bede and uncle Reggie, in late 1924.  Then, five years later in 1929, my aunt Betty was born.

The remainder of her life was filled with love for her family and she was beloved by all her family.  She lived until her 89th year and I now wonder ... when she was sitting out on that top step in the sunshine, did she think about her two little angels taken from her too soon?