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Hi Lorraine,

Let me add my congratulations to your success at St Vincents Hospital! 
(I guess my diffidence initially stemmed from my enquiries with Sydney Hospital a few years ago....my enquiry, then, about the possibility of there being records from the 1870's was met with polite laughter!)

However, given your 'coup', I rang Sydney Hospital again this morning and it seems they now have a Museum which houses records back to the 19th century.  Unfortunately, the Curator is only there Tues-Thurs, 9-3:00pm, so I have an 'impatient' wait till then  but will keep you posted.

When I originally saw that he died of paraplegia, after a short illness in 1876, I thought he may have had some kind of bad mining injury, however, I'm starting to wonder if he may have had some kind of chronic condition from which he eventually died....

Paul

Mmmmm....thank you JM  - that it a great 1893 Bathurst Gaol mug shot of Thomas Hynes (nee Nestor) and, as per you comment, I see that it doesn't necessarily exclude him from being responsible for the petty criminal reports throughout the 1880's, for which the sentences were all served in Darlinghurst. (There was a Police Gazette Report, January, 1881 - Trove - describing Thomas Nestor as '...about 18 years old, 5 feet, 5 inches tall, slight build, freckled face...' which sounds a bit like the description in Bathurst, 1893).

As far as I can see, a Thomas Nestor was fined 3 pounds at Newtown Court for breaking some glassware in a Rockdale Pub (or 4 months, in default) and this was reported in the Evening News, November 13 1888 (Trove).

Thomas Nestor died of TB in Sydney Hospital, December 23, 1888 with duration of last illness being '1 month and 24 days'.

As Lorraine has pointed out, the births of Julia's (Julietta's) offspring were both registered in Broken Hill, NSW: James E Nestor in 1888 (Father: Thomas Nestor, Mother: Julietta), Registration number 37269; and John A Nestor in 1894 (Father: Nestor, Mother: Julietta), Registration number 7851. (I got the registration numbers off Ancestry).

The 1885 Sydney Funeral Notice referred to above connects Thomas with two brothers, Edward and John, but still doesn't distinguish which Thomas is which 

I think I'm going to have to pull my thinking cap down a bit harder!

Gold Prospector

Lorraine,

Reading your email makes me now wonder if I my theory about Thomas was a bit too simple...

I had concluded there were just 2 possible Thomases - one, with the long history of petty crime, culminating in the Bathurst imprisonment as Thomas Hynes (nee Nestor) in 1893 and the other, a Thomas Nestor (of who I'm not sure whether he had a criminal history or not), who died aged 24 of TB in Sydney Hospital in December 1888. On his Death Certificate (handwritten), it states he was a labourer, in hospital with phthisis for 1 month and 24 days, but (unfortunately) parents' names and occupations 'not stated'.

Incidentally, JM has already cautioned me about this problem of insufficient Death Certificate data! 

On Trove, there is a Funeral Notice on 1 September 1885, in the SMH, indicating  'The friends of Messrs Thomas and Edward and John Nestor are respectfully invited to attend the Funeral of their beloved father, the late Mr Thomas Nestor...etc' The deceased wife's name isn't mentioned but I assumed the younger Thomas mentioned there might be a good 'starter' for Julia's spouse (because the father was 'Thomas'). I recall seeing (I think on Ancestry) that John and Edward were also in trouble with the Law (did it run in the family!)....

However, whether it was the first one who died young in 1888 or the second one, the petty criminal who temporarily 'disappeared' after 1893, it makes sense that, for whatever reason, Julia headed off to Broken Hill to have her first child, James in 1888.

I can see that you prefer the first Thomas as her spouse (who died 1888)....I agree he may be a more plausible candidate than Thomas Hynes nee Nestor ...in fact, they both could well have been petty criminals  (the criminal 'career' of the first Thomas ending in 1887 because he died soon after). 

The only issue that still bothers me is the point that Debra (Dundee) made on this thread back in May and that is that there might have been only one Thomas Nestor who was a petty criminal and her suggestion was that the reason the charges stopped unexpectedly in 1888 was because, from that from that time on, he had assumed the alias 'Hynes'. What do you think?

Paul

Hi Lorraine,

Yes, I have also found Julia's story after her 1883 Nestor marriage to be a mystery until Broken Hill.
As you probably read from the above thread, I was trying to work out whether the 'Thomas Nestor' she married was the one who died, aged 24 years, in Sydney Hospital from TB on 23rd December 1888 or another 'Thomas Nestor' who had a long history of petty crime in Sydney (see Trove) at least until 1893 when he was sent to Bathurst Gaol as 'Thomas Hynes' (nee Nestor). After that, I've lost any trace of him (maybe because of another name change or because he came to a 'messy' end!).

So, could the two Nestor boys, James and John, born 1888 and 1894, have both been illegitimate? Were the Broken Hill birth transcripts you mentioned their Birth Certificates?

Finally, I haven't been able to find any documents on her after 1898 - however, there is a family story from my older cousin who said that Everest came home one day with the young boys and said to his wife, Sarah, 'we're going to have to raise them now...' There is evidence that they assumed the Anseline surname - I think I got that off Ancestry but will check again.

That information you have on Louis Anseline is indeed interesting - were the 25 other gold seekers, on the ship, named or were they just '25 others'? (Incidentally, on the other RootsChat thread, 'Jules F Anseline, Mauritius, gold and slaves' from August this year, there is a bit more on Louis Cambronne Anseline, for your information).

Good luck with the St Vincents Hospital enquiry (I phoned Sydney Hospital some years ago to ask about any archival records on Jules Francois' terminal care there but was greeted with a polite chuckle!)

I know we're jumping about a bit here, but, in relation to Mary's second husband, Charles Gray McRae (your ancestor), I read somewhere he was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in the USA but have lost track of the source. Did you ever track his birthplace down to Cleveland?

Sorry - there are 4 questions there for you thoughts!

There are so many interesting potential stories in our family history, but I guess we should try and stay focussed!

Paul.