Memories ... July 17

In Remembrance

(For my 'Family Anniversaries' page) 

Today is the anniversary of the passing of my paternal Grandaunt Mary Ellen Bates nee Connors.

(I have previously written a far more detailed post about my Grandaunt, and for those who are interested in reading this, please click on this link:  The Story of Mary Ellen Connors)

• Mary Ellen Connors (my paternal grandfather George Connors' oldest sister)  was born on the 24th of July in 1874 at Gerringong, on the coast south of Kiama, in southern New South Wales.

• She was the first child born to Thomas Edgar Connors and Susannah (Susan) Fullagar Hukins.

• By the time Mary Ellen was 17 years old, the family were living in inland southern New South Wales, in the region that surrounds the town of Berry.  Mary Ellen's father, Thomas Edgar Connors, had bought land there and had established a dairy farm.

• There was a child named Margaret Adelaide born in 1897, raised by Thomas and Susan Connors as one of their own children, but actually Thomas and Susan were Margaret's grandparents, as Margaret was the daughter of Mary Ellen.

• At the age of 23, Mary Ellen gave birth to Margaret Adelaide in December of 1897.  The father of the baby girl was not recorded on the birth certificate, and it appears that the circumstances surrounding the birth of Margaret must have caused some consternation to the family, given that Thomas and Susan raised Margaret as one of their own children.  I think Mary Ellen's parents wanted to protect her from possible negative attitudes from the community and shield their granddaughter from the stigma of illegitimacy.

• Six years after the birth of her daughter, Mary Ellen married John George Bates in May of 1904, when she was 29 years old.  They married at St. Luke's Church in Berry, New South Wales.  

• Mary Ellen and John George remained married until Mary Ellen passed, and they had six children together - George Thomas, William Alfred, James Erice, Mary Elisabeth Susannah, Percy Frederick and Cyril Ernest.

• Sometime around 1912, Mary Ellen, her husband and her family moved to Queensland.

          

• Mary Ellen passed away at the age of 72 and is buried at the Nudgee Catholic Cemetery in Brisbane, Queensland.