Hello Newbe,
I was doing searches on some newly found relatives in the Donald/Smith family and came across your post from a couple of years ago. My association with the Donald/Smith family is a little mysterious. All my life I was under the impression that my great grandfather was a Joseph Flynn, married to Harriet Finamor and they lived and died in Brisbane, in the same street I grew up. Now doing family research, I find that Joseph Flynn was not my biological g grandfather, but that Harriet Finamor, married Ernest James Smith in 1894, they had two children, Charles Ernest Smith b)1894 and Eileen Irene Jesse Smith b) 1904 in Sydney(my grandmother).
Something occurred after 1904 between Harriet and Ernest, but it seems not a divorce, and Harriet took up with Joseph Flynn and they had a further two sons, but never married. Eileen IJ Smith then took the Flynn name, and this is the reason that the Smith connection was lost, and was never mentioned.
Investigating my biological ancestor Ernest James Smith, has proven very interesting as it has turned up my first convict in the family tree, John Smith convicted of pick pocketing in 1833 and sentenced to 7 years transportation at the age of 14. He married Isabella Donald in 1846 and had many many children, one of which was Ernest James Smith.
So Isabella Donald is my (paternal) G G Grandmother and I see she is your 3rd Great grandmother, so I guess we are related in some way.
I am very interested in any information you may have found in your journey on Ernest James Smith and what happened to him. I am having trouble finding any record of him at all after my grandmothers birth. I have her birth certificate, and I have John Smith's d) 1899 death certificate from Ancestry, so I know I have the right family.
Any information we could share would be great. Hope to speak to you soon. Veronica Wark
