Editorial

When researching your family tree, you soon discover that not all the information you come across, even that found in official records, is necessarily correct or accurate. For example, an age on a marriage certificate may be a few years off, or a place of birth in a census can be the nearest town, rather than the small village where your ancestor was actually born. Conflicting evidence can highlight these factual discrepancies. Deliberate lies are also a common hazard. However, recently, I’ve been thinking about another problem that is particularly subtle and hard to spot: information that has been omitted from a record.

I’ve been extending out the branches of my family tree and in doing so, conducting some research into the Monkhouse family. Laura Thorndike, my great grandmother’s sister, married Martin Monkhouse, a 23 year old cooper, on 28 February 1876 in Cliffe, Kent. Martin was the son of John Monkhouse, an engineer, and had been born in Gateshead in the north east of England in 1851. At the time of the 1861 census, Martin was ten years old and living in Gateshead with his mother, Mary, and two year old sister, also named Mary:

What caught my eye immediately was that Martin’s little sister, Mary, had been born in Australia. Martin’s mother must have only recently returned to Gateshead though, as there was no sign her husband, John. Perhaps he had decided to stay on in Australia.

Ten years previously, John and Mary Monkhouse had been living together in Gateshead and they were recorded in the 1851 census, along with their young son, Ralph, aged 2:

John and Mary’s son, Martin, was born a few days after the census was taken on April 9th. Sadly, the birth of one son was accompanied by the loss of another, as little Ralph was buried in Gateshead on April 16th.

Passenger lists revealed that John Monkhouse had travelled alone to Port Phillip, Melbourne, the following year on 26 October 1852. He was aged 25, married, and listed as a mechanic when he boarded the Brooksby in Glasgow. Perhaps he wanted to check out the opportunities in Australia and find employment before bringing over his family to join him. This appears to have been the plan as on 15th June 1854, Mary Monkhouse, travelled with her three year old child, Martin, on the Queen of the Seas, from Liverpool, destined for Melbourne, Australia.

Over the next few years, John and Mary Monkhouse added to their family. A daughter, Elizabeth, was born 16 July 1855 in Queenstown, South Australia, followed by a son, John Thomas, born 24 May 1857, also in Queenstown. Another daughter, Mary Adelaide, (who appeared in the 1861 census in Gateshead), was born 20 Mar 1859 in Port Adelaide. Sadly, both John Thomas and Elizabeth died in childhood and were buried in Port Adelaide, John Thomas in 1858 and Elizabeth in 1859.

Perhaps the deaths of her children in Port Adelaide played a part in the decision Mary took to return to England, accompanied by her two remaining children. It’s possible that she had never felt settled in Australia or maybe her marriage to John had broken down. Mary Adelaide was baptised in Gateshead on 2 Jun 1861 so she had probably arrived back in England not long before the census that year. However, after this date, I can find no further trace of Mary in either England or Australia. There is no sign of her or her children, Martin and Mary Adelaide, in the 1871 census, nor can I find a likely entry for her death in the GRO indexes. Passenger lists provide no evidence that Martin or Mary Adelaide ever returned to Australia. In 1876, Mary Adelaide married William Crompton in Gateshead and the same year, Martin, as mentioned previously, married Laura Thorndike in Cliffe, Kent.

Looking at further passenger lists, John Monkhouse appears to have travelled alone from Port Adelaide to Melbourne on the Aldinga on 22 June 1870. John was described as married and a 41 year old engineer. This seems to indicate that Mary, his wife, was still alive at this date but if so, she died not that long afterwards, as on 25 March 1873, John Monkhouse married Catherine Robinson in Geelong, Victoria. John and Catherine went on to have five children together and after a few years in Williamstown, Victoria, moved to Port Adelaide, South Australia, where John had previously lived. According to a newspaper obituary for his son in 1939, John Monkhouse was a port pilot there.

After many years in Port Adelaide, John and Catherine Monkhouse moved to the town of Bunbury in Western Australia in their old age. An obituary for John Monkhouse appears in the Southern Times newspaper on 17 March 1903:

The obituary of John Monkhouse provided quite a lot of biographical details, even though they were not completely accurate. The article stated that John Monkhouse had been born in Newcastle upon Tyne, whereas in fact, he was born across the river in Gateshead. Similarly, he had apparently been in Australia for 55 years, arriving in the country at the age of 21 but passenger lists indicate that he had actually been in the country since 1852 (51 years), and was 23 years old when he arrived. These are the sort of minor inaccuracies that are commonly found in newspaper articles. The article said that “his family are all in Western Australia” and there is information on his five children. However, there is no mention of his previous marriage, or his two children back in England, Martin and Mary. If you think about it, Martin and Mary’s absence from the obituary is not that surprising. After all, it is doubtful that they ever had the opportunity to meet their half brothers and sisters, given that they lived on the other side of the world. If there had been some estrangement were they even in touch with their Antipodean half siblings or was their existence even known about?

For me, this story shows the importance of being open to information that may be hidden from one’s immediate view. In this instance, the newspaper obituary does not record all of the children of the deceased. It only gives a partial picture of John Monkhouse’s life and to document his life fully, one would need to trace him in as many records as possible, both in England and in Australia. On a final note, I have discovered that John Monkhouse left a will. I have yet to get a copy but I am really hoping that it will reveal that he did not forget his two children in England. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Genealogy News

Did you know that Peter Christian has made his book, The Genealogist’s Internet, available for free online? Although the text is from the 2012 edition, all the links have been newly checked and updated where necessary. A web version can be found at Peter Christian’s website: http://www.spub.co.uk/tgi

Website Focus

The Guild of One Name Studies is a charity founded to assist those undertaking research into surnames: https://one-name.org/. Members can share, publish and exchange information on their one-name studies and conferences and seminars are run by the Guild on a regular basis. The organisation currently as 2301 members and 7770 surnames are registered. Non-members can also search the Guild’s directory to see if a particular surname has been registered: https://one-name.org/surnames_a-z/ Searching for my family name of Bezant, I found a wonderful page that gave all sorts of useful information about the origins of the surname, the variants that can be found, their geographical basis and prominent family groups and people. You can also contact the person who has registered the surname to request or offer additional information.

Did You Know

In times past, if you wanted to do some shopping in one’s local town, it could take you the best part of the day to visit, especially if you were going on foot. Unsurprisingly, it was often more convenient to buy your necessities from travelling salesman who visited villages, door by door. A higgler drove a horse-drawn cart and sold all sorts of useful goods in country areas. Alternatively, the term higgler or haggler can describe a person who sold eggs or dairy products to customers or shops, which he had bought directly from farmers and producers.

Media Moments

My Grandparents’ War is a Channel 4 documentary series, made in conjunction with MyHeritage, that explores the extraordinary wartime stories of the grandparents of well-known actors such as Keira Knightly and Helen Bonham-Carter. The first four part series aired in 2019 with the second series airing in 2022. I found each episode absolutely gripping as the part played by these remarkable individuals is revealed. All eight episodes can be found on the Channel 4 player: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/my-grandparents-war. Alternatively, both seasons can be viewed on Netflix, (ad free) or on PBS.

© Judith Batchelor 2024