Matrilineal Monday - Emily McGregor 1872-19

Emily McGregor's birth details from Family Bible

   

It has been a while since I put pen to paper (so to speak) and it is time I continued with the stories of the McGregor Sisters.

Emily McGregor 

Emily McGregor is the next McGregor sister  in line and she has a been quite  a stumbling block.  It has been very quiet difficult to find any bits and pieces of information on her life. 

Emily was born on the 30 October 1872, at Bombay on the Shoalhaven River, after the family moved from the Araluen Gold  in the late 1860's.  From reports in the newspapers at this time the gold fields at Araluen weren’t as productive, and so it is possible that James and Margaret McGregor decided to try their luck in the newer gold mining area on the banks of the Shoalhaven River. The family stayed in this district for about eight years before they packed their bags for the “big smoke” and moved the family to live in Booth Street, in the Sydney suburb of Balmain. 

Balmain Public School *

Emily would have been around 6 years old when they moved. It is very likely that Emily would have attend the “Girls Public School, which was on the other side of the “Pigeon Ground” Reserve for Public recreation, which was across from their home in Booth Street.  

The Campbell St,Presbyterian Church which was quite close to their home and Emily's parents were regular members of the Congregation.  I can just imagine, Emily along with her sisters and brothers walking with their parents through the park across from their home and down the Campbell Street Presbyterian Church in their Sunday best.  It must have been quite a change for them after their life on the Gold Fields.

Campbell St, Presbyterian Church**

As I researched the other Emily McGregor's sisters I was able to trace more of their life story by linking it with their husbands residences and employment, and then through their children.  However, Emily remained a spinster, so these avenues were not available. 

Looking through the Census Records, it is noted that around 1930  Emily lived in Shelbourne Street Burwood, Croydon. Later Census records show that Emily moved in with her sister Elizabeth and her husband Arthur Gurney in their home at 11 Looks Close, Balmain East.  Letters that my Nanna received from her Aunt Elizabeth Gurney, also include greetings and well wishes from her Aunt Emily.  

At the time of her death on the 14th December 1957, Emily was still living with her sister and her husband.  

Entry in Family Bible for Emily McGregor's death - 14 December 1957

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* Picture from: Balmain Association Inc., http://www.balmainassociation.org.au/on-the-pigeon-ground/, viewed 18/7/2014.
** Family Stories: Photographs and Memories,  http://familystoriesphotographsandmemories.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/sentimental-sunday-walking-in-steps-of.html, viewed 19/7/2014

Sentimental Sunday - Christina McGregor 1870-1901

Christia Sterland (nee McGregor) and Family

I have always wondered why my Grandmother Christina Sterland Lee (1901-1984) was called Christina Sterland and where her unusual middle name of Sterland came from.  

Then when I began to research the McGregor Sisters, I realised that she had been names after her Aunt Christina Sterland (nee McGregor).17th May 1901.

Sadly Christina Sterland (nee McGregor) passed away at the tender age of  30 on the 17th May 1901 and my grandmother was born only twelve days after her death (29 May) and her sister Catherine Lee, still in mourning,  named her new baby daughter Christina Sterland Lee.

McGregor Home - Balmain

Like her sisters Christina was born in the mining town of Araluen in the Braidwood district of southern New South Wales. Soon after her birth James and Margaret McGregor moved their family from the gold fields of Araluen to try their luck at a little further away at Bombay on the Shoalhaven River. 

During the 1870-1872 times in the gold fields of Araluen had become quite tough. Little gold was found and many families moved on to different areas.  This may have been the reason that the James McGregor decided to move his family to Bombay Creek. Christina would have been eight years old when the family finally moved to the Sydney suburb of Balmain. 

 In 1892, at the age of 22 Christina married a widower, Mr Thomas Arthur Sterland, who had lost his first wife of five years in the previous year.  Christina and Thomas lived in Thomas's greengrocer store on the corner of  Darling Street and Nelson St, Balmain and Christina became step mother to Thomas's small son Albert.   Christina and Thomas had three children of their own, Leslie, Stanley and Roy.  The photo above shows the children and their parents. 

Tragically, in the year after this picture was taken Christina passed away leaving Thomas with a young family of four children to look after. Christina's  funeral left their home in Balmain for the "Field of Mars Cemetery".  I recenly visited her grave which is next to the grave of her parents James and Margaret McGregor. It must have been a shock to Thomas and the McGregor family to lose a wife and sister as such a young age.  In the space of fifteen years Thomas has lost two wives and baby from his first marriage. Thomas remarried a couple of years later to Sarah Parks and they remained married until he passed away in 1954.

Christina's Grave - Field of Mars Cemetery

Mystery Monday - Isabella Allan McGregor (1863-1938)

Entry in Family Bible - Isabella Allan McGregor 26 May 1863, Araluen

Isabella Allan McGregor, I have found her story a little of a mystery hence, today's title Mystery Monday.  

Isabella was born just over two years after her sister Mary Ann, on the 24 May 1863, in the mining settlement of Araluen, near the town of Braidwood, NSW.  The McGregor and McPherson families it seems, were working very hard on thier mine and making a decent living.

In can only be assumed that near the end of the 1860's their mine in Araluen was not as productive and it was this that prompted the family to move to Bombay, on the Shoalhaven River (also close to Braidwood). 

McGregors - Bombay

 An excerpt from an Article in The Braidwood Review and District Advocate, July 1917, reflects on the Gold mines in the Bombay area and the McGregor family is mentioned as one of the more successful sluicing claims. The family remained in Bombay on the banks of the upper Shoalhaven River for about eight years and then when Isabella in her mid teens moved to 7 Booth Street, Balmain.

The Sands Directories show James McGregor and family living at this address throughout the 1880's, however, James's occupation is not listed, so the reason for the move is quite a mystery.It seemed the family  of eight children thrived and in the following years in Balmain their numbers increased to eleven. What a busy home, you would have to assume that Isabella and her older sister Mary Ann had an important role in supporting their mother with all their younger siblings.

In the late 1880's Isabella met George Frederick Wheeler (1862-1921), who had immigrated  to Australia from London.  They were married in the McGregor family home, in Balmain. 

A year later, Isabella and George welcomed their instant family of two, with the arrival of twins Lily and Walter. Florence (1891) and Emily (1894) arrived in the following five years to complete their family.

The following years are a mystery, there are a number of articles in TROVE from this period about the bankruptcy of a Butcher in Balmain called George Frederick Wheeler, however, I cannot find any proof to confirm if this is the George Frederick Wheeler that Isabella married.

George passed at the quite early age of 58, his funeral leaving from their home in Seymour Street Croydon for burial in the family plot in the Presbyterian section of the Field of Mars Cemetery.

Isabella felt this loss deeply, her thoughts reflected in a beautiful in memorium notice posted a few years after George's death.

 In Memorium 23 March 1925

Wheeler - A tribute of loving remembrance of my dear husband, our dear father and grandfather, George Frederick who was called home March 23, 1921.

"Our memory often wanders, at twilight shadow's fall

Back to days of happiness, days beyond recall;

And a vision come before us, so fond, so pure, so sweet

of him whose lips are silent, whose heart has ceased to beat

in turning another leaf.

Sadly missed by his wife and children and grandchildren."

Following George's death, Isabella moved to live in a modest home in Drummoyne, enjoying life with her family, children and grandchildren.  She passed away at the age of 75 years on the 16 October 1938.

Entry in Family Bible - Isabella Allan Wheeler - died 16 October 1938, aged 75