the continuation, page 2.
My thoughts are these, that at an earlier stage, around late 1866 or early 1867, Mary Ann/Marion leaves Melbourne. She leaves her two children, with her husband Frank Balli, (his correct name was Giovanni Balli) and takes off for New Zealand, ending up in Kumara/Hokitika. She would have been pregnant at the time of her departure.
Once in Hokitika, she gives birth to another son, this time named William, born 2 May 1867, in Kaniere and his birth was registered in Hokitika, with the father as Frank Balli, an Inn Keeper, mother Mary Ann Balli nee Eastman. The informant for the birth was a John Grubb from Kaniere.
Meanwhile, back in Melbourne, our poor Giovanni/John and now Frank Balli is languishing in the Melbourne Hospital, and it was only a matter of 17 days later that he died. As previously mentioned, it was a Hall Porter who was the informant for his death.
Of course, there are the previously born children born to Giovanni and Mary Ann, I have always presumed, to be then taken to be cared for by Mary Ann's parents William and Jane Elizabeth Heasman. Three years later, we find George died, but under the name of Heasman, and not Balli. Now of course this is only an assumption, but I do not think it likely ( although never impossible) for William and Jane Elizabeth to be having children at that age. I do not have the death dates for either William or Jane Elizabeth, but from the previous postings, I GATHER that William may well have already died by that stage himself, so it would have been Jane Elizabeth who would have cared for George and his brother James, her grandchildren. Now, as I have said, I have no proof of this,, it is supposition, but as we have the birth of George as 1865 and then the death of a 5 year old in 1870, it runs correct.
Now,, I have to say at this point that I have never located what happened to James, he may well have kept his name of Balli, may also have changed his name to Heasman, or could have changed it to Caldwell, in the same way as his younger brother did. An explanation of that to follow.
as I have said, Mary Ann/Marion has given birth to William Balli in New Zealand. The next thing we find is Mary Ann/Marion is having more children.
She meets up with, and apparently marries in April 1868 in Hokitika ( although to date NO marriage record has ever been found) a man called William Richard Caldwell. William Richard Caldwell was born in Londonderry approx 1844. The two of them go ahead and have a further 7 children. I have a list of all 7, and seeing there is a repetition of names, I will not record them here for the moment, otherwise you could get confused ( I do when I am working on this line ha ha)
On these children's birth registration, the marriage date of the parents was listed on SOME of them as April 1868, there is never a DAY listed, just the month and the year), others have no date recorded, but no record has been found.
As for my William Balli, of course he is now being raised by his birth mother and step father, so while there were no formal adoptions, he obviously just assumes the surname of his step father and then becomes known as William Caldwell. To confuse matters even more, later on, in different certificates, he even uses his step fathers second Christian name as well, so sometimes is recorded as William Richard Caldwell jnr. ( urgh!!!!)
Now we do know that our William Balli, now known as William Caldwell, knew of his correct parentage, and the reason for this is that later on, the family moved back to Victoria and our William Balli now Caldwell becomes ''friendly'' with his future wife. William and his future wife Mary Jane Elizabeth Dobbin have a child before their marriage. The child is registered at birth as William Henry John Dobbin, but he died 2 months later ( sadly, just the day before Christmas) and when his death is registered, the fathers name is listed as William Baylli. Two months after the death of this child, they married in Bendigo. 8 months later they gave birth to another child, and from this time on, William ALWAYS used the surname of Caldwell, and I have never seen any reference again to him using his original name. They went on to have a further 6 children, one of them being my grandmother.
As an aside, the family moved yet again, back to New Zealand, so this family were moving between the two countries often.
Now, I think I will leave it there for the moment and see what you think, I have some Baptism records, other birth records and deaths, but I will tell you about those later, although I gather you have a number of these records yourself.
from
Aumarire in Auckland New Zealand
