Patrick Cumerford and Anne Carroll

Patrick and Anne were both born in Ireland. He in Tipperary (South), she in Monaghan (Northern Ireland or near enough). No convincing emigration information has yet been found but it’s likely that they came to Australia separately and met each other here in the early 1860s (Their Irish homes were far from each other and there could be up to 10 years difference in their ages).

Patrick and Anne were married in the Warrnambool Catholic church on the 9th April 1864. He was a Labourer – probably a farm labourer as his father is listed as a farmer) and she was a Housemaid/Domestic. They had 6 children all born in Warrnambool.

Tracing Cumerfords has been difficult. There were lots of them in early Australia and LOTS in Ireland (including many Patrick Cumerfords) plus multiple spellings of Cummerford, Comerford, Commerford.

Our Patrick and Anne were probably non-literate. There are various discrepancies in the records such as varying declared ages and non-registration of births. On Margaret’s birth certificate, they “make their mark” and Anne is sometimes listed as “Hannah” (eg son James’ marriage certificate).

Patrick died at the relatively young age of ~53 and Anne at ~63. They were buried in Warrnambool. 

 

Three of their sons had even shorter lives: James left a wife and 2 children when he died in WA aged 31. John was single when he died in Warrnambool hospital aged 46 and, youngest of all, Patrick was only 23 when he was killed in a tree felling accident.  

 

John George Walters and Elizabeth Ann Mills

 John George Walters (son of Benjamin Walters and Eliza Ann Wise) was born in 1829 in the Norfolk Plains area of Tasmania, the son of one ex-convict and the grandson of another. He was the 5^th of 17 children who were all born there. His death certificate says he lived in Tasmania for 14 years suggesting that he moved to Victoria in ~1843 (possibly travelling by paddle steamship out of Launceston - a service that began in 1842)

Elizabeth Ann Mills was born 1834 in Gorran, Cornwall, England. She emigrated to Australia with her parents, who were farmers, and her brother and sister (called Thomas and Thomasina). The family arrived in Portland in October, 1854 aboard “Panama” when she was 20.

They all settled in Kirkstall – an area about 10ks inland between Warrnambool and Port Fairy.

 

The town of Kirkstall near Koroit was established in the 1850s and officially gazetted in 1861. The land was heavily timbered and contained large outcrops of bluestone. Pioneer settlers lived in tents while they cleared the land and built basic two-room huts with lean-tos. Land was available for farmers who could afford it and several large stations provided employment for labourers and farm hands. Kirkstall is located on the edge of an area of rich volcanic soil which originated from Tower Hill (an extinct volcano), about 8 kilometres to the south-east. Kirkstall's land is suited to potatoes and onions towards the east and for grazing and other agriculture towards the west. A school was opened in 1861 as well as several stores and a hotel forming a typical village. In 1890 a railway was opened from Koroit to Port Fairy, enabling traffic to bypass the cross roads where Kirkstall is situated, leading to a decline in commercial activities.

 

John and Elizabeth were married on 27 Mar 1856 in Port Fairy (called Belfast at the time), Victoria, according to the rites of the Church of Scotland (they declared themselves Presbyterian).

Together with Elizabeth’s parents and her brothers and sisters’ families, they lived in Kirkstall where John worked as a farmer and labourer and their family grew. By the 1870s they were having financial and possibly health problems. John declared insolvency in 1871 with debts of 98 pounds. From the newspaper advertisement: “Causes of insolvency - Sickness in family, want of remunerative employment and pressure of creditors.” He died on 12^th June 1874, aged 44, of Gastric fever (Typhoid) and left no will. Elizabeth somehow managed to raise their 11 children (the oldest then aged 18 and the youngest yet to be born).  Elizabeth died in March 1888 in Warrnambool aged 53 from “burn blood poisoning”. Her eleven children (listed on her death certificate) all survived her and went on to have (amazingly) more than 90 children of their own. At least 8 of them served in WWI and 3 were killed.

    

David Walters Coon, son of Caroline Walters and Joseph Coon, killed at Bullecourt, France April 1917 Service #6102   https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=312790

 

Charles You (Charles Nfoo Wing Ah You), son of Elizabeth Walters and Charles Ah You (pictured). Killed at Pozieres (Somme) July 1916  Service #4632 https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=334375

 

Joseph James Walters, son of Benjamin Walters and Margaret Cumerford. Killed in Grevilliers France May 1917. Service #5237. https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=312859