Hello Keith,
I see you are descended from Eliza Emerson, daughter of Francis Emerson and Susan (Susannah?) Curry. I am descended from her brother William. My grandmother remembered her grandfather William had a sister Helen who lived in NSW.
William married Eliza Coulter in Sydney 1864 and they had 7 children. Three of the girls aged 7, 9, and 10 were placed in Randwick Children’s Asylum in 1880, not because the parents were insolvent, but because Eliza died in June 1880. A man would not be able to care for so many young children while working the long hours men worked in those days.. He paid 7/6 a week to their keep, which was probably a fair part of a man’s wage at that time. The eldest son Frank, from whom I descend, found work with a place to sleep in a loft and cared for himself from the age of 15, while the younger brothers stayed with their father. I don’t know what became of the youngest girl Sarah Ann who was only 4 when Eliza died. She may have gone to her aunt Helen
William lived with Frank and his wife in his old age, and the brothers and sisters stayed in contact into old age. My grandmother said William was a lay preacher in the Methodist Church and very strictly against drinking, gambling, and dancing!
I don’t have the records of Francis Emerson and Susannah Curry, but Williams’s marriage certificate shows their names, and also that William was a storekeeper from Patterson NSW and his father Francis a farmer in 1864. Eliza Coulter, born in Enniskillen Co.Fermanagh, arrived 3/3/1859 in Sydney alone at the age of 21. Records show her parents David and Jane were dead but she had a cousin in the colony in Kent Street Sydney.
Hope some of this may be helpful.
Regards
Kathryn
