This week my post is all about my paternal Grandfather,
George Thomas Connors (1880-1966).
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George Thomas Connors
Photo taken around 1950 when George was 70. |
Unfortunately I only have two little black and white photos that include my Grandad. They were probably taken in 1950, when he would have been around 70. I don't remember Grandad George, as he passed when I was only 6 years old. I would have loved to have been able to sit down with him and have a long chat over a family dinner.
I would have thoroughly enjoyed listening to Grandad reminiscing about his life and the many twists and turns that happened on his journey. Sadly that opportunity never arose.
In the year of my Grandad's birth, 1880, Thomas Edison patented his electric incandescent lamp; the Salvation Army was formed in London; the bushranger Captain Moonlight was hanged in Sydney; and the Australian bushranger Ned Kelly was captured at Glenrowan and subsequently hanged.
George Thomas was born at Meroo, in the Shoalhaven District, New South Wales in 1880. The birth record has his name written as 'Thomas George'. I'm not sure if this was a mistake made by the official completing the record; or whether his first name was actually Thomas and he just went by his middle name throughout his life. The surname was recorded as 'Connor' as that was the surname of his father, but it changed over time and became 'Connors'.
When George was born, his father
Thomas Edgar Connors (Connor) was 29 years old and his mother
Susannah Hukins was aged 28. George was the fourth child of Thomas and Susan, and he would eventually have 9 siblings.
Actually, there's a little story to tell about the number of children supposedly born to Thomas and Susan, but I will come to that a little later on! Perhaps you might have an inkling of what I have to impart already.
Now back to the family story up to the birth of George. His older sister Mary Ellen had arrived in 1874; and his two older brothers arrived in quick succession after Mary Ellen. John Edgar was born in 1876 and William Adolphus was born in 1878. All three of these older siblings would go on to have rather a sad time of it in their adult years.
The rest of George's siblings included:
his sister Alice born in 1882, when George was 2 years old;
James Alfred was born in 1884 when George was 4;
Percy Jerome was born in 1886 when George was 6;
Cyril Ernest was born in 1888 when George was 8 years old;
Frederick Augustus was born in 1890 when George was 10;
Erice (Eric) Sylvester was born in 1892 when George was 12.
The children born before between the 1870s and mid 1880s appear to have been born and raised in the Shoalhaven area, around Kiama in northern New South Wales, whereas the younger Connors children were born in the region that surrounds the town of Berry, further south.
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| Example of an 1880s dairy farm ... I really don't think the Connors homestead would have been that grand! |
George's father Thomas was a dairy farmer. After he had moved his family down south, it appears he owned a farm named 'Broughton Vale' around the year 1888, and then 'Far Meadow' from around 1890 until 1910.
Now back to the number of George's siblings.
There was a child named Margaret Adelaide who was born in 1897 and was raised by Thomas and Susan Connors as one of their own. In fact, Thomas and Susan were her grandparents, as Margaret was actually the daughter of Mary Ellen, George's eldest sister.
Mary Ellen gave birth to Margaret Adelaide in 1897, when George was 16. The father of the baby girl was not recorded on the birth certificate, and it appears the circumstances of Margaret's birth must have caused considerable consternation to the family, given that Thomas and Susan raised her as one of their own children. Of course, that's not unusual for the time period.
It's highly likely that my Grandfather George and his older siblings would have known the circumstances, given their ages at the time; but it remained a family secret for many, many years. I think George's parents wanted to protect their daughter Mary Ellen from possible negative attitudes from the community and shield their granddaughter from the stigma of illegitimacy.
Around the early 1900s, it seems that a couple of the Connors brothers had left the family farm and had moved north once more, up around the Richmond River area, inland from Lismore.
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| Bangalow, New South Wales in the early 1900s. Source unknown. |
Electoral Roll records indicate that my Grandfather George had moved away from farm by the age of 23, as the 1903-1904 records show he was working as a labourer at a place named Bangalow in the Byron Bay shire of New South Wales. That was the year that around 100 allotments of land were being auctioned off, so there were likely to have been many opportunities in the building trade at the time. The photo above shows Bangalow around 1905-1907 and you can see all the new buildings that were dotting the landscape.
George Thomas married
Grace Olive Brown three years later on July 18th 1906. They were married at St. Mary's Church, known then as Pro-Cathedral, in Lismore. On the marriage certificate it was recorded that George was a farmer, living in Kyogle, New South Wales. He was aged 26 and his bride was 21.
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Grace Olive Brown and George Connors
(Photo contributed by Carmel Ryan) |
They were to remain married for 60 years, when sadly George passed.
George's personal family story after mid-1906 is seemingly characterised by periods of keenly felt loss and tragedy, in juxtaposition with events of new life and joy.
Here's the timeline:
1906 George's second eldest brother William Adolphus died on the 30th of December, 1906 as a young man of 28 years of age. Sadly he had suffered tuberculosis for three years and passed away at 'Far Meadow' outside Berry, New South Wales. That was the family farm where his father kept dairy cows. William was buried two days later in 1907.
1907 George's first child Beryl Agnes was born on July of 1907, when George was 27.
Not long after this, George's brother James Alfred died, aged 23. The Coroner's Inquest records state that he died of the 'effects of burns accidentally received'. James had only just married the year before, and had become a Dad for the first time. He had married Lillian Brown, the sister of George's wife Grace Brown. George had lost his brother, who was also his brother-in-law!
1908 George became a Dad for the second time in 1908 with the birth of Colin Vincent. George was 28.
1910 Two years later George lost both his mother and father. Susannah (Susan) died in May 1910 at the age of 58, and Thomas passed away just a couple of months later in August 1910 at the age of 60.
1911 George's son Thomas Richard was born in 1911 when George was 31.
1914 Another son was born in 1914, George Thomas Jnr. George himself was now 34.
1915 The following year saw the birth of Christina Grace when George was aged 35.
Now by this time of course the world had been plunged into war, and Australia was sending off many young men to help out, including George's two brothers Erice and Cyril.
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| Cyril Ernest Connors |
George's brother Cyril had enlisted in 1914. With his background as a horse-breaker, he had become a member of the 6th Light Horse Regiment and was serving at Gallipoli in 1915. Thankfully Cyril returned home to Australia in 1918, fairly safe and sound.
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| Erice Sylvester Connors |
Erice was George's youngest brother, his baby brother, and he enlisted in October 1915. He was shipped off to North Africa and then on to France, where he served as a Gunner with the Field Artillery Brigade.
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| Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux |
1916 On December 30th, 1916 George's youngest brother was killed in action somewhere near Flers, Somme in France. George was aged 36 at the time. One can only imagine the devastating grief he must have felt upon the death of another of his brothers.
1919 A few years later, George's daughter Olga May was born in late 1919 when George was aged 39.
Some time in the early 1920s, George and his family had moved up to Queensland.
1921 On the 6th of July 1921 George and his wife Grace welcomed a son named Leo into the world but tragically, he died just three days later. The cause of death was listed on Leo's death certificate as " heart failure through being accidentally overlain". This would mean that someone had likely rolled over on top of Leo while sleeping or napping with Leo close by. Imagine how devastating this would be for my grandfather and grandmother.
1922 On December 28th 1922 George became the father of a little baby girl named Marguerite Josephine, but sadly Marguerite died just a month later.
1923 At the beginning of 1923, on the 10th of January, George's oldest brother John Edgar Connors committed suicide. John Edgar's life had been rather a sad tale from the time of brother James's death.
You may remember I mentioned that the fourth son of George's parents, James Alfred, had died of burns. Well it was John Edgar, the eldest son, who had been the first person to come to the aid of his brother James as he burned alive. John Edgar was the one who extinguished the flames and took his brother to hospital where he died during the night of third degree burns. That would have been an absolutely horrendous experience for John Edgar, compounded even further by the fact that he had lost another brother just the year before.
John Edgar, George's oldest brother, then had to endure a really nasty accident when he was breaking in a horse around 1909; suffered the lost of both parents in 1910 and then the loss the youngest brother Erice in WW1 at the end of 1916. By around 1920 George's brother John Edgar had been charged with theft, and charged with deserting his wife without means of support. He then spent time in Brisbane working as a bookmaker, by which time it seems, he had developed an addiction to alcohol.
John Edgar took his own life on the platform of the Yandina Railway Station, near Nambour in Queensland, by slashing his own throat with a razor, allegedly after a heavy bout of drinking. Whatever the reasons for his action, the family left behind would have been devastated. It was yet another tragic situation in the story of the Connors clan. My Grandfather would have been 43 at the time, and the news must have caused his heart to break just a little more.
1924 In late 1924 George became the father of twin boys. My Dad,
Bede William and his twin brother, Reginald Frederick were born in October, when George was 44 years old. Their birthplace was recorded as Maleny, Queensland.
1925 The Electoral Roll record for 1925 shows George living at Booroobin, just south-west of Maleny, and his occupation was recorded as 'farmer'.
1929 The baby of George's family, daughter Betty Patricia was born when George was 49. Her birthplace was recorded as Beaudesert, Queensland.
In the period between 1919 and the mid 1930s George was working on dairy farms.
Memories shared by my cousin John (based on things he had heard from my Aunts Chris and Olga, George's daughters, concerning the period of time between 1920 and 1930):
"The
family moved around a fair bit. They were around the Beaudesert area for
a good while as well. As Chrissy used to say they were milkers, and Pop
managed Dairy Farms for the influential Collins Family around
Rathdowney. I took Mum (Olga) for a drive around
there some years back and the old homestead they lived in is still
there, as was the one teacher school and the dam they all played in. When
they moved on George Jnr. and Colin stayed. They worked on Mundoolin
Station, with George Jnr. eventually marrying Joyce Boyle, and they worked
their dairy farm together. The farm house is still there to this day."
1930 Electoral records show that George and his family are living at Okeden in Queensland. His occupation is listed as 'share farmer'.
It was common practice in the 1930s for property owners to lease their farms to a number of share farmers to operate the property, in this case as a dairy farm.
By
1936 George, his wife Grace and the family members who were still living with their parents, had moved to Gympie. George worked as a
labourer. He was in his 50s now, and it seems his life had become more settled.
Then ... World War 11. No doubt George would have been a little apprehensive when the news came, given the past experiences of two of his brothers.
1940 George's son, Thomas Ricard, enlisted with the AIF, when George was aged 60. Thomas (known as Tommy) served in the Middle East from 1941-1943, and then in New Guinea from 1943-1946.
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| Thomas Richard Connors, third from the right, in the Middle East early 1941. |
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The photo above shows Tommy, third from the right, with members of the 2nd 15th Battalion soon after disembarkation in early 1941. His war time experiences left their effects, and it's certain that George would have felt this keenly.
1942 Cyril Ernest, one of George's younger brothers, died when George was aged 62. Cyril had served in WW1 and had re-enlisted with the Army for service in Australia during the second war. He died whilst on service during WW11. His name is located in the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial - panel 49.
For the remainder of the war years, George was living at O'Connell Street and Electoral Roll records show he was still working into his early 60s as a labourer. The electoral roll record for 1943 (shown above) lists George's occupation at 'labourer'. At this time he was working for Queensland Rail.
1947 George lost his oldest sister Mary Ellen in 1947, which meant all of his sisters had now passed.
1950s & 60s Sometime between 1954 and 1958, George and Grace moved from O'Connell Street to Gladstone Street.
That is the home that is associated with the memories of my grandfather by most of the generation of George's grandchildren. He would have been in his mid to late 70s by this time.
Memories from cousin Ann
"Pop was a keen gardener. He especially loved Dahlias. He would keep the bulbs under the house at Gladstone Street after lifting them, until it was time for planting once again.
He would often go into town to do the shopping from the house at Gladstone Street. He had a little port and would write down what Granny wanted, then set off down town with his port.
Pop and Granny would always go to the 6.00 am Mass on Sundays. He would be ready first and would be patiently waiting out the front in his suit and hat. They would always sit in the same pew and Pop would place his hat on the seat beside him and then scowl at anyone who sat too close to his hat.
Whenever it rained, Pop would get dressed in raincoat and gum boots and go out to do some jobs around the house and yard. Granny would bemoan the fact that it took the wet weather to get him out there."
Memories from cousin Karen
"I do remember that Pop Connors would get up in the morning when the rooster called. It was a bantam rooster named '5 o'clock'. It was always right on 5.00 am when it crowed. Pop had him under the house at Gladstone Street.
Pop loved his garden. There was a pink and grey galah called Joey, that had a chain around his foot, and he would follow Pop when he was out in the garden."
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, unfortunately neither my brother nor I have any memories of our Grandad George as he died when we were very young. It's strange, but true, that our Dad never really talked about his father, so we didn't hear any of these stories back then. Mark does recall a couple of things that our aunt Chris said about her Dad later on though.
"Chrissy said he had worked at lots of different jobs. He had worked in the railway at one point, on the gang. He had also worked as a butcher for a while and also at a forestry logging camp."
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| Percy Jerome Connors |
1962 George's brother Percy Jerome died in 1962.
1966 George Thomas Connors passed away early in 1966, aged 86; and the last of his siblings, Frederick Augustus, died the following year.
George was survived by his wife Grace, and his nine children.
George's death certificate listed myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) as the primary cause of death, along with viral influenza and senility.
Some details on the death certificate are not quite correct - his father's name was Thomas Edgar, not Thomas George and his birth place was Meroo, not Nowra, although Nowra was the closest large town and civic centre.
George was buried at the Gympie Cemetery on the 5th of March, 1966, as shown on the Gympie Cemetery Record.
I'm ending this post with a collection of collages. These are the aunts and uncles (some of George's daughters and sons) that I remember so well from my childhood, and on into my adult years.
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.
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