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

Sunday's Obituary - Catherine Lee (nee McGregor) 1866-1945

 Catherine Lee (nee McGregor) was my great grandmother. She features in my last post on the Ladies of the McGregor Family.

The Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal (NSW: 1888-1954), Friday 24 August 1945, page 2

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119346644

CLYDE RIVER PIONEER PASSES ON

We regret to have to report the passing of yet another of the Bateman’s Bay district pioneers in the person of Mrs Catherine Lee of Nelligen, widow of the late George Lee, who predeceased her by nine years.  Mrs Lee, who was 79 years, maintained all her faculties to the end, and passed peacefully away in the early morning of Sunday last at the home of her daughter, Mrs Lionel Carriage, at Milton.

The deceased had lived 56 years on the Clyde River, and was ever keen to offer old-time hospitality to the infrequent stranger who would call at the farm on which she lived.  She leaves a family of five daughters and four sons to mourn their loss.  Of the sons, Clyde, Jim and Norman live in or near Sydney the two former being in the Police Force.  George lives on the Clyde River.  Of the daughters Florrie married Mr. A. Rixon, Jessie married Mr E. Rixon, Mona is Mrs F. Shepherd, Christina is Mrs L. Carriage and  Eunice is Mrs Sanders.

There was a large gathering at the funeral, and the ceremony was performed in the Methodist portion of the Milton cemetery, the many wreaths ands sprays of flowers being vivid testimony of the general high regard in which the deceased was held by all who knew her.  We extend our sympathy to the family in their irreparable loss – Milton Times.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17949827

  Sydney Morning Herald Monday 13 August, 1945, page 10

Death Notice:

Lee- August 12, 1945. Catherine dearly beloved wife of the late George Lee of Nelligen, mother of Clyde, James, Norman, George, Florry (Mrs A. Rixon), Jessie (Mrs E. Rixon), Mona (Mrs L. Shepherd), Christina (Mrs L. Carriage) and Eunice (Mrs F. Saunders) sons and daughters aged 79 years.**

Catherine Lee (nee McGregor) Mollymook Cemetery NSW

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* 1945 'CLYDE RIVER PIONEER PASSES ON.', The Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal (NSW : 1888 - 1954), 24 August, p. 2, viewed 29 December, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119346644

** 1945 'Family Notices.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 13 August, p. 10, viewed 29 December, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17949827

Matrilineal Monday - Mary Ann McPherson McGregor (1861-1941)

This is the first in a series of blogs about the daughters of James McGregor (1833-1917) and Margaret McPherson (1839-1860) - The McGregor Sisters. Interest in this project was sparked when I was recently given a photo of the McGregor Family by my Aunt. Then, as if to give the project a gentle push, two weeks later the Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG) contacted me advising that they had in their keeping James and Margaret's Family Bible. The Bible proved to be an invaluable find, as inside there was a hand written list of family events, including the birth dates and places of all the McGregor sisters. Writing and researching the story of each of the McGregor Sisters, will I believe, be a journey of discovery, and I hope it will lead to connections with others who are researching this family.

Mary Ann McGregor

Life on the Gold Fields

On the 27 August 1861,  James and Margaret's welcomed their daughter Mary Ann  McPherson McGregor. The family was living and working on the gold fields of the mining community of Araluen, in the Southern Highlands of NSW.  James and Margaret had lost their first child, a little girl at birth in 1860.  The gold mining in Araluen had started in 1851 and the district had become one of the most significant mining areas in New South Wales, with over 15,000 prospectors arriving to try their luck, and in excess of 11 million pounds of gold being extracted from the area.*

The winter of 1861 had been a harsh one with severe flooding devastating and causing havoc to vast areas of the mining community in the Araluen and Major's Creek fields. However, as winter passed life on the gold fields improved. Araluen was known as Happy Valley, one article written July 1861 (just prior to Mary Ann's) birth, states "Araluen - We were much pleased on Saturday last, in paying a visit to the Happy Vally to find that the greatest prosperity prevails throughout the entire diggings; all the claims are realizing satisfactory returns,......The diggings are now rapidly extending along the Plain towards the Farm and this part, it is anticipated, will turn out extremely rich when it comes to be thoroughly worked.  it is really refreshing to see the happy state of affairs in the valley compared with what was the case a few months ago, when devastation and ruin had laid wast nearly all the claims." Braidwood Dispatch**

Entry in Family Bible for Mary Ann McGregor - 25 August 1867

Mary Ann and her family continued to live in the mining town of Araluen until 1870.  The family bible shows the family then lived at Shoalhaven River until around 1877, when James and Margaret packed up their belongs and moved their family to Booth Street, Balmain Sydney.  Mary Ann would have been around 16 years of age at this time.  One has to wonder, how the McGregor sisters adapted to life in the city after spending most of their childhood in the country.

On August 14 1884 Mary Ann married Hugh James McGoogan, in Balmain.  Hugh and Mary Ann continued to live  and raise their family in Sydney.  Their children were: Margaret Mavis, John, James, Hugh and George.

At the age of 80 Mary Ann passed away peacefully while staying with her daughter. Her husband Hugh passed away the following year. 

Entry in McGregor Family Bible  for the death of Mary Ann McGoogan (nee McGregor)

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*Australian Heritage   http://www.heritageaustralia.com.au/search.php?state=NSW&region=103&view=729, viewed 22/11/13.
**1861 'GOLD FIELDS.', Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1932), 27 July, p. 3, viewed 25 November, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115763269.