James Lysaght b 1822 Limerick

[sparrett]

Just noting that 35 was a late age for a woman to marry in those times.
Ellen would, if born in 1839 would have been an older bride marrying in 1874.  A very unusual situation in a colony where women were very much a minority.

What status/condition is given on her marriage cert to EVANS?

Adding also that Queenscliff Road, now known as Bellarine Highway,  ran from Geelong towards Queenscliff in early days. Depending exactly where on the road, a man lived he could be said to live in Geelong


The Bellarine Highway was declared a State Highway in the 1947/48 financial year,[4] from Geelong to Queenscliff (for a total of 20 miles); before this declaration, the road was referred to as Geelong-Queenscliffe Road.[5] It was named after the Bellarine peninsula

Wikki quote

Sue

ADDING when I look at  the Lady Kennaway list 1854, arriving Sydney NSW,  I can't see anything about parents in Geelong.
Aged 17, born in Cork 
 

[wivenhoe]

BDM VIC births

342/1865     EVANS  Abyss      parents  Ellen LYSAGHT / John    @ Ball

19206/1866  EVANS  Annie      parents Ellen LYSAGHT / John    @ Ballt

6404/1869   EVANS  John        parents  Ellen LYSAUGHT / John   @ Ballarat

469/1871     EVANS Thomas   parents  Ellen LYSAGHT / John       @ Ball

13773/1874  EVANS  Barbara   parents Ellen LYSIGHT / John    @ Ballarat

Ellen LYSAGHT is in Victoria and having children with John EVANS by 1865, nine years before they married.

6581/1877  EVANS  Mary Mildred  parents Ellen LYSAGHT / John   @ Ballt

VIC BDM
Marriage
LYSED, Ellen Emma   marr.   EVANS John   702/1874

* Ellen uses a second given name at marriage. 

* Barbara is a less common given name.

Children born Ballarat, and parents marrying in Geelong.

The marriage certificate, 1875, Geelong would be useful for your research.

Can you please list all the information on the certificate.

* If a couple is having children for several years before marrying, it usually means that one or both is still married to someone else.

[wivenhoe]

Ancestry   https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/1204/
New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896 New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896

Arrived 12 Dec 1854 Lady Kennaway

LYSAGHT Ellen    17y   nurse in service 

Native place and Country:  Ardagh Co. Limerick

Parents names and, if alive, their residence:   Michael and Mary living at Geelong Victoria

Relatives in the Colony:   A father and mother at Geelong Victoria.

Religion:   R C

Read and write:  Neither

[Kiltaglassan]

Native place and Country:  Ardagh Co. Limerick

https://www.townlands.ie/limerick/shanid/ardagh/ardagh/ardagh/
https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/6129201#map=13/52.4721/-9.0532

https://www.johngrenham.com/c_parish/c_parish_main.php?civilparishid=1512&civilparish=Ardagh&county=Limerick

[DavidJ3051]

Information from the marriage record of John Evans and Ellen Lysaght, 1874 in Geelong:
John Evans: bachelor, b. Billy Bong River, NSW. Speculator, 31 years
Ellen Emma Lysed (sic): Spinster, b. Limerick, Ireland, Servant, 32 years.

John's parents are given as: Edward T. Evans and Abby Canty.
Ellen's parents are given as: James Lysed and Mary McDonald (sic)

Both John and Ellen give their present and usual residence as: Tulibuck near Echuca.

The marriage took place at the manse of St. Andrews, Presbyterian Church in Geelong on 14 February , 1874. Surprising for a Catholic couple!

My hypothesis is that John and Ellen were not married when they started their family in Ballarat circa 1864 and married quietly 10 years later in Geelong in 1874 where Ellen’s older brother John Lysaght lived. It was a quiet marriage and took place in a church where they were unknown to avoid any scandal within the Catholic Church in Ballarat where in fact they were living (not Tooleybuc on the Murry River near Swan Hill). They were in effect ‘reinventing’ themselves to quietly establish the marital status they claimed to be in in Ballarat. The names of Ellen's parents on the marriage record may have been due to Ellen's strong Irish accent being misunderstood by the celebrating minister in Geelong.
DavidJ   

[wivenhoe]

What names do you see for witnesses?

Do John and Ellen and witnesses sign their names.....ie who is literate?

How have you identified them to be a Catholic couple?

[shanreagh]

So the query is why did they not marry before 1874?  My theory would be that this was a mixed religion marriage and one or other set of parents may have objected. As Ellen's parents were said to be in Australia they may have had an objection. Perhaps one of them died allowing the quiet marriage to take place. If the parents had been in Geelong the brother may have stood in so Ellen could get married in her parents town albeit not in a RC church.

[DavidJ3051]

The witnesses to the marriage of John Evans and Ellen Emma Lysaght in Geelong in 1874 are difficult to discern but do not appear to be members of the Lysaght family. John and Ellen both signed their names and appear to be literate.

Michael Lysaght's death certificate in Ballarat in 1875 (1875/5653) states that he was a shepherd and a miner suggesting that the Lysaght family were living in Ballarat when Ellen married John Evans in Geelong in 1874.   

Ellen Lysaght who arrived on the Echunga in 1857 is listed as a Roman Catholic. John Evans was also a Roman Catholic (the most probable birth / baptism record for John Evans was registered as a New South Wales, Roman Catholic Baptism in the County of Bourke (1843 /35717)). He is buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Ballarat New Cemetery (Roman Catholic C, Section 03, Row 2, Grave 17). 

This would appear to eliminate the 'mixed marriage' hypothesis.

Thanks for all your help to date.
DavidJ 

[sparrett]

 

Information from the marriage record of John Evans and Ellen Lysaght, 1874 in Geelong:
John Evans: bachelor, b. Billy Bong River, NSW. Speculator, 31 years
Ellen Emma Lysed (sic): Spinster, b. Limerick, Ireland, Servant, 32 years.

John's parents are given as: Edward T. Evans and Abby Canty.
Ellen's parents are given as: James Lysed and Mary McDonald (sic)

Both John and Ellen give their present and usual residence as: Tulibuck near Echuca.

The marriage took place at the manse of St. Andrews, Presbyterian Church in Geelong on 14 February , 1874. Surprising for a Catholic couple!

 
DavidJ   

So Ellen the daughter of Michael LYSAGHT and Mary nee MALONEY, is not the woman who married John EVANS.

Her parents are given as James Lysed and Mary McDonald (sic)

Sue