Thanks for these comments and ideas.
This memorial notice only mentions wife and one daughter. Perhaps as expected.
That birth was for Charlotte and
William Clark. I wondered if that could have been them, but there are several births to William and I can't think John got changed to William by mistake several times over. So I don't think that's them.
Is it possible the 4 children named on the death cert were adopted?
It's a good thought. But my grandmother, Olive, who was adopted and was definitely alive in 1902, wasn't mentioned, so I think that is unlikely. And even if so, surely there'd be death documentation for them?
Australian states have there own birth, deaths and marriages records so they could have been born and died in a different state. You may need to check them all.
I suppose I should for completeness, though I don't think they moved around. And I have checked on
FamilySearch and not found them (though there are many plausible possibilities, but none with enough information to prove anything).
Here is one curiosity.
FamilySearch lists a Margaret Elizabeth Clark born 1883, buried 1884 in Melbourne, so she could be possible. But I can't find her on Victoria BDM so I can't ascertain parents.
If the above baby you were referring to was Henry Dwyer, he died 1903 from Congestion of the brain from having Tuberculosis. Nothing in the inquest to suggest neglect
I can't see the Inquest link, but I have the newspaper reports. Henry died in 1893, and it's true that the initial medical report suggested a natural death, but when the inquest was resumed, a new medical report indicated neglect. There was a jury (strange for an inquest I think) and the Coroner gave the jury the choice between wilful practice to secure death, which would be murder, wilful carelessness or neglect which would be manslaughter or neither carelessness or neglect, which would be accidental death. The jury chose the latter. You can read about it here -
https://jean4558.wordpress.com/family-stories/charlotte-and-the-baby-farm/.
I was only checking those records out as sometimes they have further information on the family and may make a mention of other children.
Good thought thanks.
When Henry Dwyer died his death index indicates his birth mother as mother.
If these other babies death's were registered under their birth mother's name it might be difficult to track them.
That is an interesting thought. I would guess that normally adopted children's births would be recorded under their birth mother's name, but subsequent documentation (death, marriage, whatever) would be under their adoptive name, as happened with my grandmother. But clearly it wasn't that way for Henry, though perhaps that was because of the circumstances of his death.
But if this is the case for Charlotte and John, then those four are not their birth children and of lesser interest to me, though I'd still like to know. (The whole thing isn't of direct interest to me because that isn't my biological family line, but I was trying to find out more about John and Charlotte. I think it is possible there was some connection between the Clark family and my grandmother's biological parents that led to John and Charllotte adopting her, so I'm working on this aspect.)
Thanks everyone for thoughts so far, there are a few matters I can work on there. And further ideas are very welcome.
