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« on: Thursday 17 October 13 11:34 BST (UK) »
Information about Thomas McCarthy - son of Mary Quin and John McCarthy (as requested)! It is also a good family story but a tragedy.
As you know, Thomas was the youngest son of John and Mary and was born in Kilmore, Victoria on 08 June 1858. Other variations of Thomas’s birth place include Weddin Mountains and Lachlan River as recorded on his children’s birth records. Kilmore also pops up a couple of times. The family were making their way north when Mary McCarthy (nee Quin) died at Warnbrook(?) in the district of Cooma. Their address was listed as “on the road to Kiandra”. By 1876, the family were in Queensland as evident by John McCarthy’s death certificate. He died in Duaringa of slow fever. From here, Thomas appears to have followed the construction of the Queensland Central Railway and picked up work along the way. On 04 April 1880, Thomas married Annie Gallagher at the Emerald Terminus Central Railway and their address was listed as 10 Mile Camp. These Mile Camps appear to be “shanty” towns that housed workers temporarily during the construction of the railway. Annie’s father was also a labourer for the construction of the railway. All of these facts lead me to make the assessment that Thomas was also following the work created by the railway construction.
Thomas and Annie had several children but of note obviously is my great grandmother Elizabeth who was born on 04 May 1882. She was born on 04 Apr 1881 under the name of Clara. I have made this assessment based on the next birth certificate for another girl named Clara but the name of the first child was now Elizabeth. Following the birth records of those children that I have been able to track down the family headed north, appearing to follow the railway construction for a while. Tragedy struck on 09 Oct 1888 with the death of Thomas’s wife, Annie. She died during child birth at Mackunda hotel, Mackunda Creek (basically near the gulf country), QLD. This left Thomas with three surviving children – Elizabeth, Clara and William.
It is hear that the story gets interesting. The family story was that Thomas was unable to cope with raising three children (they were 8, 7 and 1 ½ years old at the time) and that he dumped them at an orphanage. He was never heard of again. The true story is quite more tragic. Thomas and his family ended up at a station just north of Cloncurry (near Canobie). I found an interesting newspaper article in the Brisbane Courier dated 21 Oct 1890. It states that the police from Cloncurry station were investigating the suicide of Thomas McCarthy. He apparently told his wife (it turns out that he was living with a Flora Dunn – no marriage record exists) that he was going out to shoot himself – which he did. The article is quite graphic in its detail, outlining how he shot himself. Thomas’s death certificate states cause of death as “death by shooting”. It is interesting to note that Thomas shot himself on 13 Oct 1890, not long after the two year anniversary of Annie’s death.
I have records from the Cloncurry watch house of when Elizabeth, Clara and William were housed there before they were transferred to Townsville Orphanage. They were then transferred down to Meteor Park Orphanage near Rockhampton. From here, I know that my great grandmother was farmed out to work for at least two different people. She met her future husband, William Searle, at Rockhampton and they then had my grandmother.
Hope that this is of some use. Karen
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