Mary is no longer invisible! Dishonoured, yes - probably sick and certainly ignored by her five surviving children, but due to the death from congenital syphillis of her last child, whose death certificate we obtained, we've been able to definitely place Mary in the rented home of one Edward Foley at 20 Exeter Place, off Elizabeth Street, in the part of Sydney towards Farm Cove known as the Municipal Ward of Bourke in 1882. All thanks to all of the help and advice we've been given by Root Chatters along the way. We are now hoping some kind person will look up Foley Family Trees and see if there is any mention of an Edward Foley who might conceivably be the person concerned. Mary would have been 32 or 33 in 1882, given that her Certificate of Marriage to Tom in 1867 shows her age as 18. We've tried BDM death searches (two Edward Foleys, one of whom would have been 50 in 1882; the other one seems to have been a Thomas Edward, whose birth date would make him19 in the same year). But it's always possible the Edward Foley we want moved to Sydney from elsewhere or had even migrated there. The problem is that we cannot find Mary's death Certificate. She most definitely died - probably, given the syphillis, within 5 or six years of the death of her last daughter, Maud Alice. But I've discovered the remarkable fact that NSW BDM records include 166 pages of buried individuals whose surname is unknown. Or, if we are fortunate, our Mary could be a Mary Murphy included on some Foley descendent's Family Tree, as a de facto relationship (although I doubt that, given the mores of the day). In any event, we do know where she was in 1882, and if any helpful person has any ideas about where else we should look, please respond.
