Margaret Hudson Australia Day 2013

I started my blog 2 years ago with an Australia Day post on John GALLIGAN, my first ancestor to arrive in Australia.

This post, inspired by Helen V Smith's 2013 Australia Day challenge will be about John's wife Margaret HUDSON, my first female direct ancestor to arrive in Australia.

Believed to be Margaret HUDSON

Margaret HUDSON was born 1 January 1867 in Ballinatray, Gorey, Wexford, Ireland.  Her parents were James HUDSON and Jane FITZSIMMONS.  I know Margaret married in Brisbane, Queensland in 1888 so I looked for an arrival prior to that date.  Her death certificate in 1942 indicated she had lived 60 years in Queensland.  Therefore she had arrived approx 1882.

I think that she most likely arrived on the Zamora which left Plymouth 1 April 1882 arriving Brisbane 14 July 1882 with the shipping list showing

• Matthew HUDSON age 22
• Ann HUDSON age 18
• Margt HUDSON age 16

Margaret's wedding to John GALLIGAN in 1888 was witnessed by Annie HUDSON (and I've subsequently confirmed Annie was in Australia via her marriage to Thomas SKELLY & death certificate in 1919 which confirmed her parents and said she resided 39 years in Australia ie arriving 1880).  

But was there a brother Matthew?

The answer is yes and the Queensland police service file and insanity file at the Queensland State Archives have confirmed the family relationship. However,  I have found no trace of Matthew after 1888.

I wonder if Matthew knew John GALLIGAN who was also a constable in the Queensland Police?  There was certainly a period where they both served in the Brisbane city area.  Perhaps he introduced the couple.  Guess we'll never know.

Ancestry hint points me in the right direction

I was looking at 'people with hints' in my ancestry tree.  My great grandmother Margaret HUDSON had a hint to her death record in the Australian Death Index. I've had her death certificate for a while so wasn't too interested.  But I noticed

• mother's name Jane Fitzsimm*   

and that gave me an idea - to search the Australian Death Index only giving mother (I used the * after fitzs) & father name in the hope I may find any brothers/sisters of Margaret who had also immigrated to Australia.  And it paid off for I found:

• Annie SKELLY
• Mary Jane TATTON

I thought I had done this type of search before on the Queensland births, deaths and marriages search site.  
In fact this is how I had already found Annie Skelly and obtained some certificates to verify she was the sister of my Margaret Hudson.  So why had I not previously found Mary Jane Tatton? 

Looking back at my records I can now see I was only able to seacrh to 1929 on the Qld BDM site at the time I searched ....Mary Jane lived to 1953.  In any case you have to enter a family name now in the Qld BDM site to search for a death which is no use if you don't know the married name.

So the lesson - whenever a new database becomes available check it, even if you've done a similar check in another database before.   And follow through on the ancestry hints, it's not that time consuming to just ignore those that are no use.

I'm busy now researching Mary Jane TATTON - I have obtained her death certificate and first marriage to Edward SHIELDS so know I'm on the right track.

Australia Day 2011: John Galligan joins the Queensland police

Happy Australia Day 2011

As part of the Twigs of Yore Australia Day suggestion to find the earliest piece of documentation about an Australian ancestor I have selected this letter written by my ancestor John Galligan in 1881 "respectfully applying for a situation in the Queensland Police Force".

I first obtained this letter early on in my research after hearing from relatives that John had been a policeman.  It  came in reply to a letter I wrote to the Queensland Police Department.  The covering letter to that reply said "I hope the material forwarded provides new data and further avenues for investigation." It most certainly has.

This letter in John's own hand and hopefully accurate on the facts tells us

• John was in Brisbane in 1881
• John could read & write
• John had been in the country for the last 7 years - if I was absolutely certain his arrival was on the Clara in 1875 then the shipping list would be the earliest piece of documentation  
• John was 27
• John was 5 feet nine 
• John had worked for Hon HE Ring who was the speaker of the Legislative of Assembly (Queensland Parliament).  At the time there were 42 members (there are now 89).

Visiting the Queensland State Archives in 2009 I thought I may as well look at John Galligan's police file which I had seen in their index.  My expectation was it would be the same as what I already had.  Instead there were a few surprises including his application to get married to Miss Maggie Hudson residing with her father in Montague Road South Brisbane.   This sentence has opened the door to new Australian & Irish research on the Hudson family.