200 years of Fitzgerald
On the 13th January 1819, Thomas Edward Fitzgerald landed on the “Tyne” convict ship from England.
As a fifteen year old he had been convicted of stealing a trunk and was subsequently sent to the colonies in 1818. He was born in 1798 (exact date unknown) in Dublin, Ireland and died at Forbes NSW on 17.9.1878 at Camp Hill, Forbes. His gravesite was lost when bushfires burnt the wooden crosses.
Known only as Thomas at this time he was married by Reverend Samuel Marsden at St John’s Church of England, Parramatta to Mary Gormon on 18.11.1828 (and then later to Mary Grumbley???).
His children: Ann b 6.3.1830 d 7.5.1868 at Parkes married James Thompson c 1848 at Carcoar
Their children: Richard, James, Ann, Edward, Catherine, Phillip, Gertrude, Robert
Margaret b 11.9.1831 d c. 1925 at Parkes married Robert Davis (Drummond) at Parkes
Their children: Robert, Edwin, Frederick, Thomas, Elizabeth
m. Thomas Reed at Carcoar, no issue
Richard b 1.9.1833 not married, killed 12.11.1913 by a falling tree at Tichbourne
Edward b 13.2.1839 Sydney d 19.8.1839
Mark b 21.3.1841 (mother Mary Grumbley) d 2.1.1920 married Elizabeth Keeley in Church of England 27.12.1861. Elizabeth was born 1845 at Maitland and died 2.5.1863 Her father James Keeley, a stonemason. One child, deceased.
2nd marriage to Annabelle Thorpe 19.3.1866.
Mark (or “Marck”on his baptism certificate) was a boy at Bathurst and went subsequently to goldfields at Turon, then Kiandra, Adelong, Lambing Flat near Young, then to Forbes where he met Annabelle a school teacher. They opened a hotel in 1874 at Moonbi between Forbes and Condobolin which burnt down, believe to be uninsured. They then moved back to Forbes where Mark was appointed manager of the famous “Bluejacket Mine”. In 1890 they took up land at “Uplands”, 4 miles east of Wamboyne.
To mark 200 years of our first Australian landed ancestor arriving at Port Jackson we plan to meet in Sydney on 13th January 2019 near where this first family was raised. Please reply if you believe you may have a connection to these roots. Many thanks Ed Fitzgerald
