I've been away from Melbourne up country for a couple of days and I'm truly amazed at the work that has been going and have quite a lot to take in, many thanks to Sparrett, Judb, Essie, Merlin and Jorose.
1. I ruled out the Loraine Emily being Emily Harriett Norman after looking into her background and the parents names but the Loraine & Wise connection was unexpected.
2. I was sceptical to say the least about the witness being WISE but now having had a long look at the 1896 probate records I must agree with Sparrett that the witness in 1871 to William & Catherine's marriage was most likely Emily Harriet Wise, given that there are some 25 years between signatures there are some striking similarities, the "i" being dotted above the "s", the tail on the letter "e" and the ornamental letter "H". I'm certainly glad that I inserted the signature as I would be still "barking up the wrong tree" looking for Weirs. Thanks to Cando, Jennaya & Joyful for casting doubt on Weir and pointing to Wise.
3. Both Bethanga & Wangaratta are in close proximity to Beechworth in North Eastern Victoria so if Emily Harriet Wise was in either place in 1871 then she didn't have far to travel (by Aus standards), certainly she was of the right age being born in 1851 - 1852 (age at death 58 in 1910 according to Vic BDM) thanks Essie .
4. The link to Malta through Stephen Wise and possibly the same Haynes family as Eliza is remarkable but it all makes sense and that Emily Harriet Wise was no random witness if she was indeed the witness.
Eliza Norman's son William stated in the ledger entry for the death that the Eliza's father's name was JOHN and that his profession was a CARPENTER, Eliza's mother's name was not known. It was stated that Eliza was born in London although why she and William Norman were married in Derbyshire is still a mystery but the marriage in Derbyshire is stated in the death entry and there is a marriage in the LDS FamilySearch that matches this well.
Not knowing Eliza's mother's name makes it hard to link other possible siblings but the Maltese connection seems to point to Harriet Haynes being either Eliza's sister or a close relation. According to Eliza Haynes death entry she was aged 56 when she died on the 13/7/1878 making her DOB around 1821 - 1822. Harriet Haynes was born in 1847 so some 25 - 26 years after Eliza so not likely to be her sister but possibly a cousin.
Eliza Haynes was buried in a pauper's grave at Beechworth in 1878 and some 20 years later a former male patient from the May Day Hills asylum was buried on top of her.
Because the father and son both have the name William and no middle name I surmised that it was William Jnr who was definitely living around Beechworth in the 1870's that admitted his mother to the Beechworth asylum and whose stated occupation was "letter Poster" and "Bell Ringer" but it could well be the father William.
5. Back to the Emily Norman who seems to have been given the "run around" of Victoria's mental system circa early 1900's.
Thank you Jorose for this work and I hope you haven't blown your Internet download limit as these old files are big, not to mention difficult to read.
It certainly seems plausible that the Emily Norman who entered Kew asylum (presumably Willsmere, now up market private apartments) is the family Emily Harriett Norman, her estimated/stated age was 50 in 1905 at Kew which makes her 7 years younger than the family Emily and 52 in 1907 at Ballarat but the Ballarat record of her age would have been based upon the admission record at Kew. The case book at Beechworth states that she did not speak much and that there were no known relatives so her true age would be doubtful.
I will now go back to the Public Records Office in North Melbourne and look again to see if I can find the case book from Ballarat that holds Emily Norman's details before her death there in 1907, it may provide some final clue but given the death certificate stated all her details were unknown then I'm not holding my breath.
The Norman's may not have been all that close as a family as there are no mention of siblings in the few newspaper family notices (Trove) of William Jnr's death before his sister Jessie and no notices that I can find for Eliza or William Snr.
I also have copies of William Jnr's Will from 1915 and there is no mention of anyone other than his wife and children and there is no mention of Norman's in Catherine Norman's (nee McKinley, William Jnr's wife) Will either.
Incidentally as you will all know copies of the AGE newspaper are not available via Trove (they are available at the Vic State Library on microfilm) but many copies (some in better condition than the State Library Vic) can be found at
http://news.google.com/newspapers but have not been OCR converted.
