RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => Australia => Topic started by: Ferryman on Tuesday 12 January 10 10:49 GMT (UK)
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Thanks to Rootschat, Sue and Jen I have had great success in tracing the history of my great-greataunts Christina and Margaret, who left Scotland for Melbourne in 1848. Their story is at
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,364106.0.html
Christina McRitchie married a William Stephens (not his real name, which was Goetz) and Margaret married William Goddard, both marriages in Adelaide. We have Margaret's history and even a picture of her grave in Geelong courtesy the kind cemetery staff there.
Christina and her husband returned to Melbourne and had several children, the last being in 1864. Her husband then took off for the goldfields, turning up as a draper in Sydney around 1878 where he married someone else under his Goetz name.
Christina died alone in the Melbourne poorhouse in 1902 and was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. We would very much like to know where she was between 1864-1902. I have just learned that individual census returns were destroyed, so my only hope is family memories. The couple's eldest daughter was Caroline, who married R J Wild, who would found a big haulage/removal business in Manly; they had 14 children. Perhaps the Wild and/or Goetz families if they are still around would have some family history?