Almost Forgotten in Colac, Victoria | Non-profit organisation

Almost Forgotten

Locality: Colac, Victoria

Phone: +61 3 5231 5736

Address: Cnr Rae & Gellibrand Streets 3250 Colac, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.colacfamilyhistory.org.au/

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25.01.2022 GOOD LIFE FROM CONVICT BEGINNINGS In 1817 when Joshua CLARK faced the magistrate for his exploits in The Elsenham Gang in England the judge granted Clark leniency due to his youthful age and hoped he would repent and atone for his wickedness. Clark was born in Elsenham, Essex, England in 1800, a son of Joseph CLARK and Elizabeth PERRY. Joshua Clark was transported on the ship Larkins to the colony to serve his sentence at Moreton Bay Convict Settlement. In 1837 Clark was... one of a group who accompanied Foster Fyans from Moreton Bay to take up his position as the first Police Magistrate of Geelong and Commissioner of Crown lands. Clark was later overseer of Fyan’s cattle property west of Lake Colac. Clark married Irish girl Catherine Gleeson in Geelong in 1842 and they settled in Colac. By 1857 Clark owned land at Irrewarra and ran cattle on it. In the 20 years following their marriage the couple had a large family of seven daughters and five sons. Clark died in 1875 age 75, having spent 33 years in the district and is buried in the Colac Cemetery. Family names connected to Clark Klein, O’Dowd, Nehill, Gately, Matthews, Clarke. If you would like to learn more about researching your convict ancestor the Colac Family History group is hosting a presentation by Janet McCalman, Australian historian and author, next Saturday, 26 October 2019. Please book as numbers are limited. See attached flyer for details.

21.01.2022 BURIED CHRISTMAS DAY Harriet Haasy, hawker of fancy work by occupation, died by her own hand and was buried in Colac Cemetery on Christmas day, 1887. On Tuesday, December 20th at 7 o’clock in the morning, Harriet who was wet and cold had called on Dr Walls, after she had been bathing in the lake and had fallen in. She asked to be admitted to the Colac Hospital as an in-patient until she was warm and her clothes were dry. Dr Walls told her that he could not admit her and advi...sed her to go to her minister and obtain a ticket for admission into the Benevolent Asylum in Geelong. Instead, Harriet went to the chemist and purchased some poison and ended her life. During the inquest and on the death certificate, it is clear that very little was known about Harriet, yet on an investigation, a sad and difficult life unfolded. Harriet was a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a mother. Her story will be told in our next issue of Coladjins magazine in March. See more

20.01.2022 DAVID ARCHER - NEVER FORGOTTEN With the Archer family reunion being held in Colac today, it seemed appropriate to chronicle the story of the patriarch of the family, David Archer. He has clearly not been forgotten, but he is a Pre-1900 burial in the Colac cemetery and therefore part of the "Almost Forgotten" project. David's wife died in 1884 and David died less than a year later. This is his obituary in the Colac Herald: We very much regret to have to record the death of Mr.... David Archer, senr., which took place at his residence, Thornbank, Colac, on Saturday evening last, after an illness of nine weeks. The deceased gentleman, who was 82 years of age, was a fine specimen of a man-tall and stout of build, active and energetic in all his movements, and possessed of a robust constitution. About 12 months ago "the partner of his joys and sorrows," Mrs. Archer, passed away, and since that time Mr. Archer had been fretful, although seldom complaining of illness, and until nine weeks ago when he took to his bed no serious results were apprehended. But his once strong constitution had through old age become completely broken down, and he and his friends knew perfectly well that his end was near. Up till death he retained consciousness, and calmly and peacefully died, surrounded by many of his children and grandchildren, all of whom are well known and deeply respected by the residents of this district. See more

20.01.2022 A RESEARCHER'S DILEMMA On Wednesday morning,11th January 1873, barrister, Edward Hoare Sirr, was found dead in a back room in a house on the property of the Oddfellows Hotel. As the death had been unexpected, Coroner Dr Thomas Rae was called on to conduct an inquisition into the death, which was subsequently held at 2pm the following day. John Gibson, John Connor, James Inglis, William G Baseden?, Thomas Tulloch, James Astley, William Boulton, William O’Meara, Henry Silk, Eas...ton Johnston, James Woods and Edward Johnson, twelve Good and Lawful men of Colac were duly sworn and charged to inquire when, where, how and by what means" Edward had died. Even though he had a large gash on his head, after hearing from several witnesses, the verdict was that Edward had died on the 10th of June of serious apoplexy. On further investigation, Edward had a wife who was living in Melbourne. There were no children. Edward only recently had taken up residence in Colac and it seems that he had fallen on hard times, no longer enjoying the lucrative business of his earlier days in the colony. The dilemma for our researchers is that Edward is recorded as being buried in both the Colac and Geelong Eastern Cemeteries see image attached. Why wouldn't an almost penniless man be buried in Colac where he died - or if he was buried elsewhere, why not Melbourne where his wife was living. The information about Edward’s time in Colac is important, but as with the hundreds of other burials we are investigating for the Almost Forgotten project, proof of his actual burial place is necessary to ensure that the records are accurate - then we can research his story more thoroughly. That is why the group is investing between $5,000 and $10,000 on this project and regularly putting out a plea for copies of the information from death certificates containing Colac burials. Thanks to everyone who has helped so far, we look forward to the continued support. See more

19.01.2022 RISKED HIS CAREER FOR FAMILY Constable Albert Austin’s commitment to family was evident when he risked his career to save his nIece. Albert’s sister Henrietta had died in 1885, leaving three young children. Her husband remarried and came to an arrangement with a family in Melbourne to take the oldest child, twelve-year-old Eva. She was indentured to the family for seven years and was to be fed, clothed and sent to school, in exchange for performing certain household duties. A... young father of two boys, Albert heard that Eva was being mistreated and broke into the house and rescued his niece. He was caught and committed to trial for abduction. The case was later abandoned by the crown prosecutor and Albert continued his police career. Sadly Albert was just 35 years old when he died in 1899, leaving his wife Annie (Martin) to raise their three sons. Annie had been a widow for 47 years when she died in 1946 in Nth Fitzroy. See more

17.01.2022 MYSTERY SURROUNDS FATE OF DAUGHTERS Annie Luscombe of the Traveller’s Rest Hotel, Mt Gellibrand, died on February 2, 1886 and was buried in the Colac Cemetery two days later. The cause of death was epilepsy and duration was a "considerable time". Annie Callinan (spelt several different ways) a young Irish Catholic girl from Co Cork, had arrived in Victoria during the 1860s and in 1871 married Englishman John Edward Luscombe, in Melbourne. John converted to Catholicism and was... baptised on the same day as his first child, also named John, at St Mary's Geelong in 1873. The family moved to Birregurra / Mt Gellibrand where they had the Traveller's Rest Hotel and 100 acres of land. There were four children born to the couple, although the fate of the two girls has been impossible to find. The fourth child, Mary Jane, was born in Geelong in 1882 but mysteriously was not listed on her mother’s death certificate four years later. One theory is that she was raised by another family. Little Alice Luscombe was aged seven on her mother’s death certificate but no further records have been found. If anyone would like to spend this isolation time trying to solve a mystery... perhaps you could try to find what happened to Mary Jane and Alice Margaret Luscombe. We would be really interested to know! See more

12.01.2022 BORN AND DIED AT A TUMULTUOUS TIME Catherine Ellen KENDALL was the first child of six born to David John KENDALL from Hay, NSW and Bridget Ellen CARMODY from Elliminyt. Following their marriage in Hay in 1896, the couple settled in Colac where Catherine was born in 1898. Sadly she lived for just three months and is buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Colac Cemetery. Although the couple was only in Colac a short time, they were embroiled in several legal disputes. B...y 1900 David and Ellen had moved to Richmond where their second daughter was born. She also died in infancy. Four more daughters were born in St Kilda, Bendigo, Stawell, Ballarat. Only one of these girls would marry, yet she does not appear to have had any children. Of the other three, one became a nun, one died as an infant and the other sister lived until she was 78 years old, but never married. David took a job managing the Buninyong Hotel and before 1934 the family moved to Rokewood and took up that position in the Rokewood Hotel where they would stay for the remainder of their lives. See more

11.01.2022 A SAD BEGINNING FOR A MARRIED COUPLE On Boxing Day in 1881 Ellen Allardice from Melbourne married John Fulton, son of early Colac pioneers. The couple settled in Colac and the following year Ellen became pregnant with their first child. Ellen’s 14 year old sister Susan, was staying with the family following the birth, but sadly on the 15th of November she died from tuberculosis. Susan’s burial is recorded as unknown location at Colac Cemetery, but her remains were in fact... taken to Melbourne General Cemetery where she was buried with her father and other family members. There were further tragedies for the young Fulton family. William, the child born in 1882, died the following year, aged just six months, and a second child, Mary who was born in 1885, sadly succumbed to tuberculosis in December1887. Mary is buried in the Colac Cemetery and it seems little William might also be buried there, yet he is not on the database. Until a copy of William's death certificate is acquired, that cannot be confirmed. Since the start of the Almost Forgotten project, more than 450 extra burials have been confirmed at the Colac Cemetery. Also, 70 burials that are on the cemetery database are now known to be buried elsewhere. See more

11.01.2022 Good news for those of us who still need certificates.

10.01.2022 BABY MARTHA IS "ONE OF" THE REMAINING LINKS TO COLAC. Martha Hazeldine of Portland was 27 years old in 1882 when she married James William Hill from Hamilton. Four years later the family, by now with two young sons and one daughter, settled in Colac where James took up the position of foreman of Peters Timber Merchants. In 1886 a second daughter was born, followed by another daughter 1891, who they named Martha, after her mother. The family were heavily involved in the lo...cal Methodist church and there would have been great sadness in that community when baby Martha took ill at just five months old and died three weeks later. Henry Cock, Wesleyan minister, conducted the funeral service and no doubt his wife Minnie, with other members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, a group Martha supported, would have comforted her. Two sons were born after baby Martha’s death and James' career progressed to manager of Peter’s, and in 1901 he joined the business. His first desire, however, was to preach and in 1908, James W Hill, by now living at The Parsonage, Chiltern, sold the timber business to his eldest son, Samuel.. Sadly Martha did not survive for very long in Chiltern. On June 19, 1910, aged just 55 years, she died of an affection of the head, more than 250 miles away from the little baby girl she left buried in Colac. James died at Yackandandah twenty years after Martha and they are buried together in the Chiltern Cemetery. Eventually all of the family moved away from Colac, settling in the Albury district and Melbourne. Other names associated with the family are McMeikan, Evans, Hadkinson, Todd. Photograph: Peter's Timber Yard in 1901 where James was an owner. He is possibly in the photograph. See more

09.01.2022 UNENVIABLE TASK On October 1, 1889, around the time that baby Alice Annette Brown became unwell, her father, Dr William Henry Brown, entered into a partnership with Dr William Waugh Hope. Alice, the fourth child of Dr Brown and his wife, Clara Treacher, was born in the family home, The Elms in Gellibrand Street in July 1899. In early October Alice became ill and was baptised on October 11 by the Rev. Henry S R Thornton at St John’s Church of England, just around the corne...r from where the Brown family lived. Ten days after her baptism, Alice died at the home where she was born and was buried the next day, October 22, in the Colac cemetery by the minister who had so recently baptised her. Dr Hope had the unenviable task of signing the death certificate and acting as the informant for Alice’s death to be registered. photos - Alice's parents William Henry Brown and Clara Treacher supplied by Jonathan Brown for 'Brown, William Henry (18611926)', Obituaries Australia, See more

09.01.2022 OLD MAN DIES, NO FURTHER INFORMATION The newspaper report read An old man named James Egan died in the Colac Hospital on Friday afternoon... he was a native of the County Limerick, Ireland and had been in the colony for 48 years. Matron May Wilkins was the informant who registered the death as that of James Edgar. Although he was in the hospital for almost three weeks, it appears the gentleman didn’t share any extra information about his personal life. His death registratio...n reads Parents Unknown. Marital Status Unknown. James Edgar is just one of several individuals buried in Colac before 1900, mainly men, whose true identity and history seems to have been buried with them. His remains were interred in the Roman Catholic portion of the cemetery, following a service conducted by fellow Irishman, Rev. Father William Cain. Undertaker Thomas Sharrow carried out the burial. James Edgar spent more than two-thirds of his life in Victoria. A life that was "Almost Forgotten". See more

08.01.2022 FOUR HUNDRED EXTRA NAMES AND GROWING When we started this project, we thought it would take three years to complete. We had no idea that before less than half of the pre 1900 recorded burials had been researched, there would be more than 400 extra names added to our list - which seems to be growing every week. So the timeline has blown out and we don't know quite when it will be finished, but it is hugely rewarding discovering all of these early Colac residents who, without this project, had been entirely forgotten. If you know, or suspect that you have an ancestor buried in the Colac Cemetery before 1900, we are keen to hear from you. Contact [email protected] for more details.

08.01.2022 RICHARD HERRING BURIED COLAC 1870... or was he? Richard Herring is one of the dilemmas of this Almost Forgotten project. He died in Steiglitz in November 1870 and his burial is listed as unknown location, Colac Cemetery. But he is also listed in the Steiglitz Cemetery burials. Richard was an interesting character, in trouble with the law in his native Buckinghamshire, he was first sentenced to death for larceny, converted to transportation for life. He spent 17 years in Tas...mania before coming to Victoria with his wife and two children soon after he was pardoned. One of his children was married in Geelong. On his death, Richard had an interesting write-up in the Geelong and Ballarat papers and if he is buried in the Colac cemetery, we would have a very interesting story to tell. So the dilemma is: 1. Why did someone add his name to the Colac Cemetery database - what was the evidence? 2. Should we invest the $20 to find out for sure where Richard Herring is buried? 3. Can we find out if anyone has already purchased his death certificate 10281/1870 and if they would share that information. We are investigating about 1500 burials pre 1900. Richard is just one of the names on our list.

06.01.2022 BIG THANK YOU While researching Thomas and Jane Gears, I decided to contact Rathfeigh & District Historical Society in Ireland to see if I could find out about Jane's brother, John Kelly who had been a priest there - and was mentioned in Jane's death notice. Hugh McNelis from that group went to a great deal of trouble to help with information. We really appreciate the support of groups and individuals as we work our way through researching almost 2000 people buried in the Colac Cemetery before 1900. #RathfeighHistoricalSociety

05.01.2022 HOPE FOR A NEW START ENDS TRAGICALLY In 1895 the country was in depression and Harry McCluskey had travelled to Colac looking for work to be able to support his pregnant wife and young family. Having found employment at the Commercial Hotel, he sent word for them to join him. Henry McCluskly, known as Harry, and his wife Susan Bell had been married for ten years and their four children had been born in the Murchison area. A few weeks after arriving in Colac Susan gave birt...h, but complications caused her to slip into a coma and within hours, she died. Two days later, after a service by Presbyterian Minister, Rev. Lucas, Susan’s grieving husband assisted in her burial at the Colac Cemetery. Susan was just 31 years old, the ninth of fourteen children and there were only two siblings alive at the time of her death, most having died in infancy. Apart from one of Susan's children, Isabell, the fate of the others, Gordon, Linda and Harry, has not been established and our researchers have speculated that they may have been raised by different families, possibly given different surnames. Harry remarried in 1900 to Amy Wareham and there were five more children born between 1900 and 1910. They were living at Purrumbete until 1903 when the family moved to Shepparton where they remained. . See more

04.01.2022 ACCIDENTAL CONNECTION TO COLAC James John Moore might never have been to Colac until, under difficult circumstances, he was brought to hospital here following a tree felling accident at Chappel Creek. James lay unconscious in his hospital bed for three days, suffering from broken bones and a fractured skull before he succumbed to his injuries and was buried in the Colac cemetery the following day. His brother Alex travelled from Geelong to attend to the funeral arrangements..., making James forever part of Colac’s history. The little we know about James is that he migrated to Australia from St John’s Newfoundland, Canada, arriving in Geelong in 1853 as a six year old with his parents and three siblings. Soon after arriving, his mother gave birth to twins and both babies died. His father, a painter by trade, struggled to make a living and about 10 years later deserted the family. James was already working away from home by the time he was 15 and it wasn't until1885, aged 49, he married Mary Starr. Sadly the marriage was not destined to last and in early 1886 his beloved wife Mary died. He would never remarry. James was working for Samuel Stuart Smith, a settler in the Otway Forest, when a tree limb fell and inflicted the fatal injuries. He is not forgotten. See more

03.01.2022 THE PERILS OF GOOSEBERRY WINE Jane Gears would have been terribly distressed that her seemingly one indiscretion was reported in the Melbourne Herald. It was 1873 and had been 27 years since a young Irish girl, Jane Kelly, had married a convict by the name of Thomas Gears and settled into the Colac community. Apart from some issues with debt over the years, the childless couple had led a fairly quiet life. Jane, a storekeeper, had been chosen as a sponsor to some baptisms in ...her local Catholic church. On the fateful day, Jane had gone to see a friend about some turkeys that were missing and was offered some gooseberry wine. Jane protested that after drinking the wine, she had no memory of anything else on that day, but accounts from others tell the story. Uncharacteristically, Jane began abusing Alexander Mackay’s mother and sister, calling them old cow and old sow and more, and there was a threat of murder and accusations of adultery with my Tom. The Mackay girl brought out a whip and a burst of violence followed. Jane was charged over the event and summonsed to appear in court. In the witness stand, Thomas Gears testified that Jane had come home very much bruised and Mrs Stanbury said that Jane was very much marked about her arms, legs and body". While in the witness box, Jane became very distressed and unmanageable and made several attempts to escape. When she finally broke free, she ran out of the court clutching the bible that she had sworn on. Jane died in 1889 at Larpent and Thomas died four years later in 1893, by that time moving to his property in Polwarth Street. A fine obituary appeared in the Colac Herald following his death. Neither Jane nor Thomas are forgotten. See more

02.01.2022 CONFIRMED! After purchasing the death certificate, we can now confirm that Edward Hoare Sirr was definitely buried in the Colac Cemetery - not Geelong Eastern. Unless there is evidence that his remains were exhumed and reburied in Geelong - which is most unlikely - it appears that his final resting place is in Colac, the town where his life so tragically ended.

01.01.2022 NO RECORD BUT NOT FORGOTTEN By Margaret Carp’s death certificate, she was born in England and her parents were James Murray and Ann Gorman. They had come to Australia when she was about 6 years old and first lived in Western Australia. That would have been around 1852. From there Margaret came to Victoria where she married William Carp at Skipton in 1870. William was about fifteen years older than Margaret and there would be no children from the marriage. After a few years, ...Margaret and William moved to Colac where they secured land at Barongarook. Life on the land was hard but there were few complaints, except the occasional letter to council requesting improvements to the Anchor Tree road that their corner allotment was situated on, just south of the six-mile dam. The Barongarook School provided a venue for social activities and Margaret was reported to have sung at one local gathering which included neighbours with the familiar surnames of Dare, Rhode, Benallack, Parkes and Higgins. A fire that started on New Year’s Day 1886 devastated many of the settlers in the Otway Forest and William and Margaret were among the recipients of funds from a generous community appeal to assist those affected. They were allocated twenty pounds. Margaret was just 41 years old when she died of heart disease in the Colac Hospital on October 11,1899. She was buried in the Colac cemetery, yet there was no record of that burial until we purchased a certificate recently. William died in 1918, shortly before the end of the First World War and was buried in the Methodist section of the Colac Cemetery perhaps the same location where Margaret had been buried almost thirty years before. We may not know exactly where Margaret is buried but now we do know who she was, who she married and where she lived. Margaret is not forgotten. See more

01.01.2022 TAKEN IN HER PRIME Catherine Carmody, known as Kate, was the middle child of the thirteen children of John Carmody and Bridget Donohue. John, from Co Galway, was 25 years old when he married Bridget aged 20 from Co Clare in Moriac in 1858 and the following year the first of their 13 children was born. From a young age, Kate and her two older sisters would have been expected to assist their mother to care for the large family. It is very likely that Kate would have also helpe...d to raise some of the younger children. In 1891, Kate was a few weeks shy of 21 years old when she lined up with her mother at Elliminyt to sign the Monster Petition in support of Women’s Suffrage. Sadly Kate was not destined to have the opportunity to witness women being granted the vote or to have her say in who should govern the country. A few months after signing the petition, Kate died in a Melbourne hospital of peritonitis following a brief illness. A large funeral cortege followed her flower laden coffin to the Colac Cemetery where Father Nelan, who had baptised Kate at St Marys when she was just 7 days old, had the sad duty of officiating at the grave. Did you have a female ancestor who signed the Women's Suffrage petition in Victoria in 1891. You can search for their name here: Don't forget to check maiden names as well as married names - and under their husband's name e.g. Mrs James Smith. https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au//womens-/womens-petition