Hi Kathryn,
I really appreciated the information about William Emerson. I am descended from his daughter Margaret, and the information you provided backs up what we know of her difficult childhood. She went into service at an early age. Later she married Walter Patrick and had 5 children.
I would love to have further information about your Emerson family connection.
Thanks!
Lois
Hi Lois,
Glad this was of some help to you. My grandmother spoke of her "Aunty Mag Patrick" when I was a child. I have an old snapshot taken at the Sydney Easter Show which was of my great grandmother
(wife of Francis Emerson) with one of her sisters-in-law, either "Aunt Susie" or Aunty Mag Patrick" - I will check it and see if I have a note of the name.
My grandmother remembered them both very fondly. Someone else on this forum had the incorrect impression that the parents, William and Eliza, were uncaring and that their children were placed in a home because their parents were insolvent.
This was not the case. The children's mother died when they were very young, and the father, William, could not care for them and work also. People forget how much harder life was in those days. Washing by hand, clothes home-sewn and mended by hand, no convenience foods and a man's working hours from daylight to dark. How could a man do hard long hours of work and care properly for a young family in those times? A single working mother today has child-care, after school care, eight hour working days, washing machines and dryers, etc., and they find it difficult!
The fact that the children and their father remained in contact as adults and cared for each other into old age, despite the family being torn apart when their mother died, is an indication of the warmth and love they shared.
My grandmother was raised as the eldest of Francis Emerson's children, though in fact she was born to a single mother who later married Frank. There were seven younger children, and Frank and his wife also raised a grand-daughter as their own. Francis Emerson was a very good and hard-working father who made no distinction between his adopted daughter and his own children. He died before I was born, but I remember his children well. They were my great aunts and uncles, but because I was raised by my grandmother I was as close to them as if they were aunts and uncles. They were all kind and loving people with a love of the bush and great sense of humour.
If you are interested, I would be happy to send an invitation to my family tree on Ancestry - "Richardson Family Tree' - which has stories of each of them and photographs.
Regards
Kathryn
