Cobram and the Man with Two Names Part Two

Me at the gates of Cobram cemetery - January 2016.

Cobram and the man with two names

While searching for the siblings of my gg grandmother Louisa Clarke, I finally lucked onto the burial of her brother JOHN in Cobram, Victoria in 1931. 

I have had some success in finding Louisa's brother Robert and his descendants who moved to Queensland from Victoria. As the eldest of five children, Robert must have been a father-figure for his younger siblings. I have found Robert mentioned as parent a few times, including on Louisa's marriage certificate.

The youngest of the five siblings, JOHN was born in Chewton, Victoria in 1875.  John's birth details list Elizabeth Armstrong as his mother. John was named after his maternal grandfather, who is the John Armstrong I wrote about in my recent blog; the black African man who came to Adelaide in the late 1840's. 

During their lifetimes, all of the siblings of this family changed their surnames to some form of either Armstrong or Salter (both being their mother Elizabeth's maiden names.  Armstrong is her birth name and Salter is her step-father's name. Elizabeth used the surname Salter primarily until the day she died.)

 

John's death details lists his mother as Elizabeth Salter (still correctly) and his father as Robert Armstrong (actually his brother who moved to Queensland.) John's age is listed as 54 but he would have been nearer 56. The Death Place was Cobram in 1931. The name as shown is JOHN ARMSTRONG.

Cobram Cemetery gates

JOHN's burial in 1931 at Cobram Cemetery was under two names, John Armstrong and George Saulter. Both names are listed under the same burial registration. Until we found this burial record we had no idea that John also used the name George Salter. 

Unfortunately there is no record of exactly where JOHN aka George is buried within the Cobram Cemetery. The plot is unknown, the section is unknown and there is no headstone.

This is all the information I have for John.  He was born in Chewton and died and was buried in Cobram.  What happened in between? 

Somewhere around here, John Armstrong aka George Salter is buried.

Cobram Cemetery.

What's in a name?

If you haven't already gathered by now, my genealogical passion centres around the puzzle of one particular branch of my mother's family tree.

My great great great grandmother was born Elizabeth Armstrong in Adelaide, South Australia in 1842.  When Elizabeth was about 8, her father John Armstrong (a black African man) died. A year later, her mother Janet (a Scotswoman) married James Salter (an Englishman) and so Elizabeth's new surname was SALTER.

The new blended family moved to Chewton, Victoria shortly after the wedding, in early response to the goldrush in the Forest Creek area.

Elizabeth Salter grew up and married a miner, named Sims CUMIS.  Sims' birthplace is listed as the Cape of Good Hope, Sth. Africa, so he is also potentially dark skinned.  The couple married in 1864 in Chewton and over a period of ten years had five children; Robert, Louisa, Ellen, James and John.

All five children were given the surname of their father, (spelled either COMES or CUMMIS as per their birth certificates). The last child was born in 1875 with that name. But as the children grew, they rejected the CUMIS name and adopted different surnames, either Armstrong or Salter, their mother's maiden surnames. And despite their marriage and five children, Elizabeth was primarily known as Salter, not her married name of Cumis until the day she died.

In fact, at her death inquest in 1896 it is noted by witness Henry Matthews that:

                      I have seen the body now lying dead and identify it as that of Elizabeth Cummis otherwise known as Elizabeth Salter.  I have known her between 5 and 6 years.

Chewton policeman Constable Luke swears:

                    That at 2.21 pm today Elizibeth Comas, otherwise known as Elizibeth Salter, aged 50 years died in her hut at Chewton.

Her death is also reported in the local newspaper, the Mount Alexander Mail:

                     An old identity of Chewton, named Elizabeth Cumas, but better known as Elizabeth Salter, died suddenly at her hut on Sunday afternoon at 2.30 o'clock.

I have written previously about Elizabeth's different surnames in the article "Elizabeth gives me a headache."

Their children all reject the CUMIS name they were born with too.

Robert Armstrong Comes dismissed the Comes and became Robert Armstrong.  He married in Chewton, moved to Charlton in Victoria, and eventually moved his family to Queensland.

Louisa used the name Louisa Salter when she married in Geelong and one of her descendants is me. Her nickname was Blossom because of her dark skin.  Her married name was Louisa Clarke.

Ellen -we are still investigating and have no definite clues as to her  (see my previous blog on this search.) At this stage we theorise that she married and changed her name. Louisa's daughter was called Ellen.

James became James Salter Armstrong, moved to Kerang and served at Gallipoli and the Western Front in World War 1.  His nickname was "Snowy" in that ironical Australian way because of his dark skin. One of Robert's sons, named James after his uncle, sadly died at the Western Front.

John used the name Armstrong but his burial details in Cobram state: also known as George Saulter. Trying to find more details in Cobram.

 No-one knows what happened to Sims after the birth of his last child in 1875. We do know he also used the name William instead of Sims. We have no death certificate for him. Nothing. The puzzle is this: WHY did the wife and children of Sims Cummis reject his name?

Historically Yours,
Valerius Copernicus

Citations:

Article identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199612211
Page identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page21955428
APA citation
ITEMS OF NEWS. (1896, June 2). Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917), p. 2. Retrieved October 10, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199612211
MLA citation
"ITEMS OF NEWS." Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917) 2 Jun 1896: 2. Web. 10 Oct 2015 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199612211>.
Harvard/Australian citation
1896 'ITEMS OF NEWS.', Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917), 2 June, p. 2, viewed 10 October, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199612211
Wikipedia citation
{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199612211 |title=ITEMS OF NEWS. |newspaper=[[Mount Alexander Mail |Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917)]] |location=Vic. |date=2 June 1896 |accessdate=10 October 2015 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Harriet Cadwallader nee Sloane 1839 - 1920

Welcome to Robert Armstrong's descendants!  

You are descendants of Elizabeth Salter's son Robert, and I am a descendant of Elizabeth Salter's daughter Louisa.

Today I thought I would write an overview of Elizabeth Salter's older half sister, Harriet. Harriet and Elizabeth shared the same mother JANET.

Harriet SLOANE was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1839, the same year her parents and (probably) her older brother John came to Australia from Scotland.  I have written about the ship, the Katherine Stewart Forbes which the family travelled out in.  It is possible that Janet was pregnant with Harriet on the voyage.  Harriet's father died and then her mother Janet married John ARMSTRONG, giving birth to Elizabeth in Adelaide in 1842.

In late 1851/early 1852, Janet moved her family to Chewton near Castlemaine in Victoria in response to the gold rush in the Forest Creek/Mount Alexander area.

In Chewton, Harriet married William CADWALLADER, the local Blacksmith in 1857.  William Cadwallader bought land in the first land sale in Chewton in April 1860. The Cadwalladers went on to have six children who were all born in Chewton.  Their names were Sarah, Janet, William Sloane, Emily, Harriet and William Robert Cadwallader.   Sadly, William Sloane Cadwallader died at the age of 11 months, and was buried in Chewton Cemetery on 13 January 1865. His Death Notice appeared in the Mount Alexander Mail:

 As the Cadwallader family grew more prosperous, William also bought land in Talbot/Amherst about 70km west of Chewton.  He eventually died and was buried there in 1885.

Harriet and Elizabeth's mother Janet died in 1887 and was buried with her 11 month old grandson in Chewton.  A decade later, Elizabeth would also be buried in this grave.

Harriet moved to Bendigo, and lived until she was 81 years old.  She died in 1920 and was buried in Bendigo Cemetery.


 Thanks to Trove for allowing the reproduction of the article on William Sloane Cadwallader's death, cited as below:
Article identifierhttp://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207002314

Page identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page21589842

APA citation

Family Notices. (1865, January 16). Mount Alexander Mail(Vic. : 1854 - 1917), p. 2. Retrieved October 4, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207002314

MLA citation

"Family Notices." Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917) 16 Jan 1865: 2. Web. 4 Oct 2015 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207002314>.

Harvard/Australian citation

1865 'Family Notices.', Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917), 16 January, p. 2, viewed 4 October, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207002314

Wikipedia citation

{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207002314 |title=Family Notices. |newspaper=[[Mount Alexander Mail |Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917)]] |location=Vic. |date=16 January 1865 |accessdate=4 October 2015 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Elizabeth gives me a headache

The Trouble with Elizabeth Cumis nee Armstrong

Elizabeth's stays at Castlemaine Hospital for the years 1891 to 1896
highlighted in pink. The circle on 31 May 1896 shows when she died.

My ancestor Elizabeth gives me a headache.

She has so many spellings to her names, I've had to write a list so I remember them all. 

Elizabeth was born in Adelaide in 1842 with the surname ARMSTRONG.  That's all fine. Not many people spell Armstrong wrong.

  

Then her mother remarried in 1851 so she adopted her step-father's surname SALTER. That's fine as well, but I have found the name spelled SAULTER.

Then in 1864 she got married to Sims CUMIS, an african man. They were both illiterate, so we find as many spellings of their surname as there are bureaucrats that filled out their paperwork.

Since joining the Genealogical Society of Victoria (GSV),  I had searched CUMIS and CUMMIS in their Library.  I had found a couple of entries of Elizabeth being hospitalised at Castlemaine Mt. Alexander Hospital in the early 1890's. 

Yesterday I searched the name "Elizabeth" in conjunction with the place "Chewton", and Bingo! Eight new hospital records popped up under another spelling, COMAS.  I took a punt at another spelling, COMMAS.  Bingo! again another five hospital records. It was great.

So now we know our poor Elizabeth was in hospital for a total of 18 times over a period of six years. The names she was registered under were Elizabeth, Lizzie, Lizzy and Eliza.  Her surnames were the ones I've mentioned plus one under the name Salter.  Not to mention the couple of entries where there has been a transcription error and she is CUMINS and CUMMINS.

These are the trials of every family historian.

Unclaimed letters in Adelaide, South Australia in 1853

Adelaide newspaper article in 1853

Janet Salter's name in a list for Unclaimed Letters
 in Adelaide in 1853.

Just for a change, I searched Trove for an ancestor, this time Janet Salter.

Janet was a Scottish woman who came to Adelaide with her husband, arriving in 1839. South Australia was a fledgling state at that point, and I've read stories of how people had to wade through swampland with their possessions on their backs once they reached Adelaide.  Colonial times sure were a hoot.  Anyway, Janet buried two husbands in Adelaide poor thing, and married a third, called James Salter, in August 1851.  Hope springs eternal.

Around this same time, gold was discovered in the Forest Creek area of Victoria (that is around Castlemaine).  James and Janet Salter must have decided to try their luck in that area, and were settled in Chewton by 1855.  They must have travelled overland as there are no records I can find of them sailing. The journey wouldn't have been much shorter anyway from any Victorian port out to the goldfields.  To sail would have been expensive and I seriously doubt whether they could have afforded to sail. I shudder to think what travelling from Adelaide to Chewton overland would have been like with children in tow. I imagine wooden wagons and bullocks, not many possessions and lots of walking, but I don't know for sure.

So the two definite dates we have for James and Janet are:  August 1851 in Adelaide when they married AND August 1855 in Chewton.  So they travelled some time during that four year period.

Trawling through Trove yesterday, I discovered an unclaimed letter for Mrs. Janet Salter, published in two different South Australian newspapers for a total of 5 times.  Although there are Salters in Adelaide at this time, there are no other Janet Salters, so I know it is her letter. The notices appeared in these newspapers:

• 7 May 1853 - Adelaide Observer
• same day - South Australian Register
• 14 January 1854 - Adelaide Observer
• 16 January 1854 - South Australian Register
• 20  February 1854 - South Australian Register

So, with these dates in mind, if Janet did not collect her letter in May 1853, she had likely already left Adelaide by that date.

We have narrowed the date of their leaving Adelaide down to less than 2 years now, between August 1851 when they married in Adelaide and May 1853. Of course, nothing is set in stone with genealogy.

The next question is, who wrote to her and how did they know she was by then Mrs. Salter?

Historically yours,
Valerius Copernicus

If anyone out there knows of a book or any further information as to how people travelled from Adelaide to Victoria in the early 1850s,  please let me know.

Trove Citation:

23 South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900) 3 1853 7 May 1853 Adelaide, SA http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38463379 22 August 2015

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Perches, metres and feet - James Salter's land in Chewton in 1860

I love TROVE so much!

Today I got emailed by them telling me a certain article I was interested in was available.

The article appeared in the Mount Alexander Mail on Friday 3 August 1860. The heading is 'Title Deeds' and  tells a list of people for whom Title Deeds await at the Receipt and Pay Office at Castlemaine.

Included in the list is James Salter, my 4x great grandmother's third husband.  Beside his name is listed where he bought the land, Chewton, and numbers and letters.  In James' case it is 35p.  For half a second I thought it was the price, but then 35 pence was too cheap for land even in those days.  Besides I knew he paid 15 pounds for his land.

So what does 35p mean? Looking at other names on the list, I saw others had numbers with the letter 'r' or a combination of 'r' and 'p'.  Finally I realised it stood for rods and perches, old fashioned units of measurement.

So James' block of land in Chewton is 35 perches. Apparently that is the equivalent of 885 square metres or 9500 square feet. I hope that means something to you because it means nothing to me.  I was born without a measurement gene apparently; never have been able to judge distance or size of things. My husband tells me it's about twice the size of our house, but that won't help you.

https://www.facebook.com/AmazingmazyWhen we went to Chewton earlier this year, we visited James and Janet's block briefly driving past it.  It is close to the town centre, not far from the Post Office. I could easily see the back fence quite close to the road, so it is not a huge block.  They built a bark hut on the property and Janet lived in that hut from 1860 when they bought the land until 1887 when she died.

 I imagine that James promised Janet that she and her children would never have to move again, and they would all put down roots in Chewton.  And he did that for her.

 Janet Salter and the Ladies' Committee of Chewton

Yesterday I wrote of Mrs. Janet Salter who was a witness to two births in the gold-mining town of Chewton, Victoria, Australia in 1865.  She is my 4x great grandmother.

Today I went onto Trove and stumbled upon some interesting articles about her.

We know that Janet and her husband James moved to Chewton from Adelaide between 1851 and 1854.  In 1860, they bought a small property in the township, just behind the Post Office. valued at 15 pounds.  On it, they built a bark hut.

In 1868, James was admitted to the Castlemaine Benevolent Asylum, and stayed there (with a handful of brief visits home) until he died in May 1887, a period of nearly 20 years.  It was explained to me by the Castlemaine Historical Society that the Asylum meant in those days the traditional meaning of the word, as in shelter or a haven.  People were put in asylums for all sorts of reasons;  for example Alzheimers and Dementia, nervous breakdowns, physical incapacity or just because their loved ones couldn't take care of them for whatever reason.

I always wondered how Janet survived during those years, and today, Trove told me.

I found three articles printed in the Mount Alexander Mail, recording meetings of the Chewton Borough Council.

The first article dated 16 November 1877, notes that Janet applied to the Council to be recommended to the Ladies' Committee for financial relief.  She had been receiving some benefit from them, but it had been stopped.  The Town Clerk was to write to the Ladies' Committee to ask why.

The next article dated 30 November 1877, notes that the Ladies' Committee had answered.  In response to one of James' brief visits home, the ladies had withdrawn the relief. The Town Clerk was told to inform Janet. James was 67 at the time and obviously suffering some incapacity. He had been an inmate of the asylum for nearly ten years.

The next article is dated 26 July 1878, six months later, and again she is asking the Council to recommend her to the Ladies' Committee for weekly support. She was 75 years old.  Cr. O'Donohoe remarks he would like to know why these kinds of requests are being sent to Council instead of direct to the Ladies' Committee.  I bet we can guess why.

Janet herself died ten years later in March 1887, at the age of 85 and James died 8 weeks after her.

Article identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199007175

Page identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page21679187

APA citation

CHEWTON BOROUGH COUNCIL. (1877, November 30).Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917), p. 2. Retrieved August 17, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199007175

MLA citation

"CHEWTON BOROUGH COUNCIL." Mount Alexander Mail(Vic. : 1854 - 1917) 30 Nov 1877: 2. Web. 17 Aug 2015 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199007175>.

Harvard/Australian citation

1877 'CHEWTON BOROUGH COUNCIL.', Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917), 30 November, p. 2, viewed 17 August, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199007175

Wikipedia citation

{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199007175 |title=CHEWTON BOROUGH COUNCIL. |newspaper=[[Mount Alexander Mail |Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917)]] |location=Vic. |date=30 November 1877 |accessdate=17 August 2015 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

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An insight into the gold-mining town of Chewton, Victoria, Australia in 1865

Robert Armstrong Comes

Recently I obtained the birth certificate for Robert Armstrong Comes aka Robert CUMMIS, aka Robert ARMSTRONG.

As usual, Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria sent the whole page from the Chewton records at the time.  So I get five birth registrations for the price of one.

Robert was born on 3 July 1865 at Wattle Flat in Chewton, and was present at the time of his registration in September.  His father was listed as Simes Comes (who our family usually refer to as Sims Cummis) and he was a miner aged 28.  For some reason his birth place is listed as South America but our family knows he was from South Africa.  His birth in South Africa is confirmed as per his own statement on his wedding certificate, as being born at the Cape of Good Hope.

Robert's mother (and my 3x great grandmother) is listed as Elizabeth Comes, formerly Elizabeth Armstrong, born Adelaide, South Australia, aged 23.  Robert's birth registration also states that  Elizabeth and Sims married in 1864 in Chewton, and we can confirm this from their wedding certificate that they married on 10 October 1864.

The informant was Elizabeth herself, and she dutifully made her mark on the register (see the photo), as she had also done at her wedding.  It is interesting that Elizabeth and Sims were both illiterate, and yet one of their later sons became what amounted to an unofficial journalist, commenting in the newspapers about his experiences at Gallipoli and the Western Front during the First World War.

In the Witnesses column, it states there was 'No Medical attendant', however 'Other Witnesses' names Mrs. Salter.  

Now we know who that witness is.  Mrs. Salter is Elizabeth's mother and my 4x great grandmother, Janet Row who was born in Scotland.  She travelled to Adelaide, South Australia in 1839 with her Scottish husband, who died that same year.  Janet married again, this time to Elizabeth's father, an African man called John Armstrong.  After John Armstrong died, Janet married yet again in Adelaide, South Australia to an Englishman called James Salter.  James brought the whole family to Chewton in Victoria shortly after gold was discovered, a distance of 650 km (over 400 miles).

What is interesting on this birth registration page is that Mrs. Salter is named as witness to two births.

Janet also helped deliver another boy born four days after her grandson Robert. That boy's name was William John Archer, and his father was a 32 year old baker from Liverpool, England. His mother was 22 year old Agnes Longstaff, from Brooklyn, Long Island in America.

Four out of the five births listed on the page state 'no medical attendant'. Two of the other informants have definitely signed in their own hand.  The other two listed as informants seem to be consistent with the handwriting of Registrar Hardy. So Elizabeth was the only one who 'made her mark' on the page.

I like to think Elizabeth's mother Janet helped others as a midwife in their community. Janet lived in Chewton until she died in 1896. If I'd travelled from Scotland to Australia, from Adelaide to Chewton, I would refuse to move any more too.

.  

Ellen Cummis aka Ellen Armstrong

Hello everyone,

Today I have been researching Ellen Cummis, the sister of Louisa Cummis, my great great grandmother. As we all know, for some unknown reason, the entire Cummis family adopted either their mother's birth name, Armstrong, or their mother's stepfather's name, Salter.  My great great grandmother used the name Louisa Salter until she married.

Now about her sister Ellen.  We know Ellen was born on 24 August 1870 in Chewton, Victoria.  That is all I have ever known about Ellen since I started researching. Yet another puzzle with this mysterious family.

Today I searched the family trees on Ancestry for clues and found a tree that I believe is being researched by a distant family member.  In that tree they have the details Ellen Elizabeth Armstrong and a death certificate number, but that is all.

From the Births, Deaths and Marriages website, I got these details for that death certificate.

Ellen Elizabeth Armstrong
Parents names : unknown
No Spouse details filled in.
Age: 84
Birth Place: Victoria
Death Place: Sunbury
Registration Year: 1959

So ok, follow my logic here.

Ellen is the correct name.
Elizabeth was her mother's name.
Armstrong was her mother's maiden name.

If she was 84 when she died in 1959, that means this Ellen was born in 1875 in Victoria.  We know our Ellen was born in 1870, so it doesn't seem a match.  And yet, in all our family's research, we find over and over again that the ages of the Cummis children are out by at least a couple of years, always saying they are younger than they actually are.   So I don't find this five year gap in birth years as much of a deal breaker as I normally would.  This fudging of their birth years is consistent for this family.  And so I continue researching, bearing this in mind.

I went to the Genealogical Society of Victoria website and searched Ellen Armstrong and came up with a match to the one born in 1875.

This record shows an Ellen Armstrong was admitted to the Ballarat Base Hospital in 1898 at 23 years of age. (Again if she is our Ellen, she was actually 28 years old.) She was a dress maker and lived in Victoria Street, Ballarat and was single. Ballarat is pretty close to Chewton where she was born and her mother lived. Not a deal breaker.

There is one more thought I have.  Her death in Sunbury.  I googled Sunbury with 1959 and up came Sunbury Lunatic Asylum on Wikipedia.  That tells me so helpfully that patients were transferred from the Ballarat Asylum to the Sunbury Asylum.  So no proof yet, just some massive leaping to conclusions.

 Next step, I need to go into the GSV on Monday and look up the microfische hospital records to see what else we can find out about this Ellen Armstrong.

And I'd love to know WHY  they all changed their names.

Historically yours,
Valerius Copernicus




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Searching for the Cumes line outside of Chewton Victoria

Hi everyone,
The Chewton side of the family tree are hard at work trying to find any link to CUMES ancestors.

My great great grandmother Louisa got married under the name SALTER to her husband Patrick CLARKE.

Now Louisa Salter was not her birth name.  Louisa CUMMIS was her birth name.  I have written in another blog about the many many ways their name has been spelt in various documents.

All of Louisa's brothers and sisters changed their birth names from Cummis to either Salter or Armstrong.  Louisa's mother's birth name was Elizabeth ARMSTRONG, but she used her stepfather's surname SALTER until the day she died, even after she married.

Today I searched Cummis again in Ancestry and found something different. I found a death record for one Laura Elizabeth Cumes who died in 1962 in Castlemaine, Casterton.  Chewton is practically a suburb of Castlemaine.  Laura's birth surname was Cahill.

To the marriage records I go.  I found Laura Elizabeth Cahill marrying one Albert Bede CUMES in Marrickville, NSW in 1944.

Off to find Albert's birth records.  Albert B Cumes was born in 1885 to Henry and Mary Ann in Moruya NSW.  Albert B is also listed as the father of Albert R Cumes born 1910 in Moruya NSW.  Mother for Albert R is listed as Helena W.

So back to marriage records for Albert B looking for wedding with Helena W. I find him marrying her in 1909 in Sydney. Her name is listed as Helena Latta, but close enough to keep working I figure.

So to see if I can get this potential ancestor sorted in my head and stop my eyes rolling around counter clockwise.

1. Henry Cumes and Mary Ann gave birth to Albert Bede Cumes in 1885 in Moruya NSW.
2. Albert Bede Cumes married Helena Latta aka Helena W in 1909 in Sydney NSW.
3. Helena gave birth to their son Albert R. Cumes in 1910 in Moruya NSW.
4. Did Helena die?
5. Albert Bede Cumes remarried to Laura Elizabeth Cahill in 1944 in Marrickville NSW.
6. Laura Elizabeth Cumes nee Cahill dies in Castlemaine, Casterton.

Ok so follow my logic.
a. Gotta find Helena's death certificate or a divorce.
b. Where and when did Albert Bede Cumes die?
c. Why did Laura Elizabeth Cumes nee Cahill move from NSW to Castlemaine, VIC?

All this work and we don't even know if the families are related.
Historically yours,
Valerius Copernicus

Cumis, Cummis, Cumes, Comes, Cumas, Cummas, Symns, Sims, Syans, Sinns

What's in a name?

A hell of a lot if your ancestors are illiterate.

When I first started doing research into my family history, I didn't completely understand that different spellings of the same name could in fact be the same people.

The first time I encountered this genealogical fact was when I started researching my Clarke ancestors.  I found documents varied from CLARKE to CLARK and I was uncomfortable thinking that there was such a "big" discrepancy in the spelling. Whoa, was I wrong!

Spelling variations happen a lot, especially in the days when not everyone was literate.  I often imagine myself as them standing before a petty authority, unable to spell, telling them your name, perhaps being asked to spell it, and being unable to do so.  Imagine the frustration, embarrassment, the shame perhaps in your lack of education. Perhaps in some cases even being ridiculed. Resentment then, and anger.  How valuable would it be to be able to write your own name?

Imagine my ancestor Elizabeth Armstrong (spinster) who was illiterate, marrying a bachelor African man who was English illiterate, a man we call Sims Cummis.

Imagine. Here it is, your wedding day in 1864, and the Reverend is filling out your wedding certificate.  He asks you, "what is your name?"  Elizabeth Armstrong is easy enough a name to spell.  Most people would get a close approximation.

Sims on the other hand, is a different matter.  The Reverend was forced to rely solely on his phonetic translation of the syllables he heard.  What if Sims had a heavy African accent?  What if the Reverend had some hearing loss?  What if someone had a cold? What if the wedding was in a noisy place?  There are lots of reasons for different spellings. It's not as if Elizabeth or Sims could check.

In fact, the Reverend put down the name as SYMNS CUMIS.  I think he must have listened very hard and tried diligently to translate what he heard onto the page. That 'N' in the name is a subtlety overlooked by other petty officials.

We are reassured all these generations down the line that the spelling is a close approximation to the correct sound of his name, because the signed witness on the marriage certificate was William Cadwallader, Elizabeth's brother-in-law and the local Chewton Blacksmith.

If you look at my heading above, all those names I've listed are all the different ways Sims' name has been spelled on various documents filled out by various different officials.  That's not even including a couple of transcription errors I've caught.

Is it any wonder he started using the name William?

Historically yours,
Valerius Copernicus

Sweet success - John Armstrong

Hi everyone,
Today I started using the member's section of the Genealogical Society of Victoria's website.  And Bingo!

We have been looking for my great great grandmother's brother John for a long time, and had only found his birth and death records.

The trouble with researching this family all along has been their multiple use of surnames.  They were born with the surname CUMMIS, but for some reason unknown to us, all the children adopted the use of their mother's birth name, ARMSTRONG or her step-father's surname, SALTER.  She used her step-father's surname of Salter until the day she died.  Even in the newspaper upon her death she is referred to Elizabeth CUMMIS better known as Elizabeth SALTER.

My great great grandmother Louisa was born CUMMIS but married as Louisa SALTER.  Her brother was born James CUMMIS but was known later as James Salter ARMSTRONG.  Another brother Robert was born Robert Armstrong COMES, but later in life dropped the Comes and became Robert Armstrong.  His descendants are all ARMSTRONG.

In looking for brother JOHN, I presumed he would adopt the name Armstrong as his two elder brothers did, and that was correct.  His death records do show up as John Armstrong.  However, it hadn't occurred to me to search under the name SALTER for John, and when I did, there he was.

John SALTER was admitted to Castlemaine Mt. Alexander Hospital on 4 Jan 1886 when he was 10 years old.  He was there for about 10 days and was discharged cured.  We will have to research more to find his diagnosis.  He was recommended to the hospital by a Mr. Carbarns, who, five years later, also recommended John's mother Elizabeth be admitted to the same hospital for Rheumatic fever.  We will have to research who Mr. Carbarns is.

I know it is just a hospital record.  I know it is not a huge event in John's life.  But the thrill of discovery and that electric realization that you've found a piece of that puzzle is one that all family historians live for.

Historically yours,
Valerius Copernicus.

Chewton, Victoria, Australia. gold-mining town

Recently I went to Chewton in Victoria to visit the town where a branch of my family lived in the mid 1800's.

Chewton is a gorgeous little gold-mining town located close to the outskirts of Castlemaine. It doesn't take too much imagination to see how it was for my great, great, great, great grandmother Janet in raising her children there.  The tiny white-washed law court. A 20 foot square hot box that is optimistically called a "gaol" which sports narrow louvres near the roof line in lieu of windows. It would have been pitch black and oven like especially during the heat of the day.  A grandiose church complete with flying buttresses.  And in those days, many, many pubs.

This whole area was called  Forest Creek.  Gold was discovered there in the mid 1800's and my family settled there very shortly afterwards, in search of work.   I can't imagine how the Scottish born Janet felt coming over from Adelaide to a place completely unknown to her, but it probably seemed like less of a gamble than the one she had already taken in coming to Australia.  Janet  had already buried two husbands and had just married her third when gold was discovered in the Forest Creek area. Her third husband James was a labourer, not a miner, although Janet's son-in-law tried his hand at mining.

Janet's husband bought property in the first big land release in 1860 in Chewton, and the property was valued at 15 pounds, land and bark hut included. The rates were five pounds a year. Imagine if your annual land rates were calculated on the basis of a third of your property value!

Janet is buried in Chewton cemetery with her daughter and her baby grandson.  They have no headstone, so sadly, we can only conclude our miner never struck it rich.