Offer:Toowoomba QLD Headstone Photos

[MarieC]

Ah.  I didn't think the wording of the grave location sounded quite right for Toowoomba!

Hope you can get someone to look in Toowong for you, liverpool lass!  Pity that Trish251 isn't here any more - she would definitely have done so!

Best wishes,

MarieC

[heapsofus]

Hello Marie,
 
I just found your post (I don't know how old it is) and I was just wondering if you are still 'in business' If you are I would really appreciate a photo of the grave of
 Emily Ford
d. 20th June 1906 - 42 years old
Methodist
from the Toowoomba (Drayton) Cemetery.

I live in Victoria so it is a little hard for me to get to the cemetery!

If you can do it do I pm you my email address?

Thank you and have a really nice day
Tiana

[MarieC]

Hello Tiana,

Yes, I am still here and the offer is still open!

Unfortunately, though, I have bad news for you.  I've looked hard for your Emily, but the section where she is buried has quite a few unmarked graves and I fear that hers is one of them.  I certainly can't find a headstone, and without that, it's hard to know which patch of grass is hers.

Were there any other family members here?  Or any clues that could be followed?

Marie

[heapsofus]

Hello Marie,

Thank you so much for the trouble that you have gone to for me! When you mentioned 'clues' it made me smile:) because Emily's life was an entire 'mystery' to us until just recently!! Her story is very sad

I had another look at the cemetery website and found the plot number:)
She is in METHODIST section 1, plot No: 012-0026

Here is the information off of the website:
Last name FORD

First name(s) Emily

Maiden name

Gender Female

Religion Methodist

Date of birth Date not available.

Date of death 20 June 1906

Date of burial 22 June 1906

Age at death 42 Years

Cemetery Drayton & Toowoomba

Interment number METH1-012-0026

As to 'clues'......   Emily was born in 1863, in England. When she died she was the wife of William Ford (b.1869), who was her second husband. Her first husband had been Alfred Baker (a terrible character!). Her maiden name was Lunnon/Lennon/Louden/ and London (she used all of them!!!!!)

I hope that something of the above may help you identify her plot 

Thank you sooooo much for your help - and I do hope that I am not being too much of a bother!!!
Have a great day
Tiana

[MarieC]

Hello Tiana,

Yes, I had found all that information myself, but it does not help to identify her grave.  She is in the "Old" Methodist section, and in the "Old" sections of the Drayton and Toowoomba cemetery, things tend to be a bit higgledy-piggledy.  I have searched around the area where she would be according to the cemetery records, but there is no headstone.

I see there are several William Fords buried there but I can't tell which, if any, is her husband, and it wouldn't help much anyway as they are all in completely different parts of the cemetery.  No sign of Alfred Baker.

I'm sorry to hear that she had a sad life.  She certainly died young.  Is she a direct ancestor of yours?

Marie

[heapsofus]

Thank you Marie, for all of your help - I will just make a note in my file that she has an unmarked grave.
Yes, she is a direct ancestor of mine - my great great great grandmother and she died of stomach cancer and exhustion.

I do not think that William Ford is buried in that cemetery because none of the ones that I saw, that are buried there, matched up with ours.

I am not surprised that you can find no sign of Alfred Baker(my great great great grandfather) - he is still a mystery to us, we cannot find a death for him anywhere. Another person doing research on him said that he amy have chnged his name.  He was a bit of a rogue! 
Thank you very much for your help,
Tiana

[MarieC]

Poor lady - it seems she did have a short sad life, with a painful death.  I hope she was happier with Mr Ford than with your ggggrandfather.  Anyway, she would be very pleased that you are researching her.  I'm afraid I won't be able to follow up those husbands, by the sound of things. 

This is a long shot, but have you looked for her on Trove?  It's just possible that a death notice or obituary might have appeared in the Brisbane newspaper, the Courier Mail.  Sadly, the Toowoomba newspapers are mostly undigitised - it's a long story, don't start me off on it!  If you haven't got a death notice of any kind, if I have time I may go and look in the microfilms of the Toowoomba Chronicle and see if there is a death notice. 

Just a thought - if ever you can afford it, you might think of getting a marker for her grave.  That way, the cemetery will have to identify her patch of grass and there will be some record there for her descendants.  (Of course, I have seen this happen on WDYTYA but I know those people have more money than you and I!! )

Let me know if I can be of any more help.

Marie 

[heapsofus]

hello
Thank you so much for all of your help! I have looked on Trove and cannot find a death notice, so if you ever have time could you hace a look at the Toowoomba Chronicle for me?  I do not want to be a bother!!

I would like to get a marker for her grave - if oneday I can afford it - so that she will be remembered, more, in the cemetery

She, her husband, and their two children immigrated from England - her infant son died at sea. When they were in Australia she had another son, but, when he was still only an infant, her husband, Alfred, absconded and left his wife and family penniless and without a home - he drank everything away.

She suffered severly from depression and became mentally ill. The two children, Annie 4, and John 1, where put into an orphanage and she was put into the Goodna Asylum. She was so ill that she put John's name down as Harry (her dead baby's name) and his birthplace as Ceylon!!!!

She eventually got out of the Asylum, had another son, which she could not afford to look after (Alfred had again gone) so she gave him up for adoption. She married William Ford in 1903 and then died in 1906.
Her story is sad, but thankfully, William was a lot nicer than Alfred!  (I just thought I would tell you this so that if you do have time to look for a death notice - this info might help.) She married William Ford in Mt. Whitestone - he was a widowed farmer with two little boys when Emily married him.

Thank you so much for your help!!! It is so much apperciated
Best Wishes,
Tiana

[MarieC]

She certainly did have a lot of sadness and difficulties in her short life!  I'm glad to hear that her last few years with William Ford were probably happy.  Which of the children are you descended from?  And have you been able to trace any of the descendants of the one given up for adoption?

I'll have a look at the microfilm of the Toowoomba Chronicle for you.  Can't promise when this will be, but I'll do it as soon as I can.  I think we owe it to Emily to find out all the details we can, and honour them and her life!

Marie