CHAPTER EIGHTEEN From Geelong to WA:- a family spread

Neither Bridget nor Elizabeth Watkins ever married. Both lived to an advanced age and at least in the later years of their lives lived with or near their married sister Mary, in Moonee Ponds. Elizabeth died in 1935 at the age of 80 at Camberwell, and Bridget died in Northcote aged 90 in 1943. 1

Thomas married a Margaret Mary McDonald 2 in Geelong but later moved to Western Australia where he obtained work on the railways, eventually becoming a stationmaster. Eight children were born in Victoria before they moved to the west:- Mary Agnes (b1884, d Perth WA in 1974); Alexander Thomas (b1885, d1960 Perth WA); John Joseph 'Joe' (b1888, d1961, Perth WA) and George Frederick (1889) were born in Geelong after which he family moved to Melbourne where four more children were born. Louisa Ann was born at Northcote in 1891 (d Subiaco WA in 1983), Annie Mary at Northcote in 1893 (d Perth 1964), Thomas George at Northcote in 1895 (d Perth 1928) and Flora at Carlton in 1897. Two of the children died before the family moved to Western Australia. George died at Northcote in 1893 aged 4 years and his infant sister Flora died at Brunswick in 1898. Little more is known except that just before Thomas was due to revisit his family in Victoria he died suddenly on March 12th 1927. His wife made the visit on her own not long after this event. She died in 1938. My mother also recalls a visit from one of his sons, Joe, who was also a stationmaster. In fact another son (name unknown) also joined the railways and rose to the position of stationmaster, but was dismissed for allowing an engine to reverse on a section of line, as a favour to a driver who had neglected to collect an important item. There was also a visit from two of Thomas's daughters (or was it grand-daughters?) at the time of the Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne in 1934. However after this all contact seems to have gradually been lost until I was contacted more than 50 years later by Thea Benson a descendant of Mary Agnes. 3

Photo taken about 1905 of the family of Thomas and Margaret Watkins at Katanning, WA. From left are Louisa Ann, Alexander Thomas, Thomas (seated) Mary Agnes (at rear), Thomas George (centre), Margaret (McDonald), seated, John Joseph and Annie Mary. Photo supplied by Thea Benson, a descendant of Mary Agnes.

Mary married William Carr in 1889 and after living in a variety of locations, including Queenscliff where William was employed at the fort, settled at Taylor St, Moonee Ponds. She had several children including John ('Jack') b 1890 in Footscray, married Jane Quick in Truro, England in 1913 and who died in Parkville in 1968), Mary "Molly", b1897 in Geelong, who married Donald Fraser in 1929 and passed away in Sydney in 1989. Her twin brother Francis died in infancy. Eileen b 1899 in Geelong, married Walter Brasher in 1925 and passed away in 1990, and Leo, b 1904 in Melbourne who settled in Tasmania where he managed a store, married Leila Brooks in Launceston in 1938 and died at Taroona Tasmania in 1991. Mary died in 1944 at the home of her daughter Eileen in Coburg and was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Louisa married Thomas Delahunty in 1895. Thomas conducted a blacksmith and coach-building business in Mt Alexander Rd Moonee Ponds. The couple had only one child who survived into adulthood, Gerard (b1905 in Essendon). The family lived at 42 Bent St in Moonee Ponds. Quite a number of other children were stillborn and another child Leo (b Essendon 1904) died at 4 years of age in 1903. It was possibly these unhappy circumstances that contributed to Louisa's eventual nervous breakdown, from which she never fully recovered. She died in Moonee Ponds in 1938 at the age of 73. Tom was apparently very generous to the Sisters of Charity who had established a convent and school at St Columba's in Essendon - a letter from him was reproduced in a history of St Columba's that was published in the late 1980's. It is also recalled that he was similarly generous with his time and talent towards the Little Sisters of the Poor who conducted a home for the aged in Northcote. 4

The fate of George has been mentioned in the previous chapter. He died unmarried at the age of 27 years at his parent's home in Belmont, but nothing further is known of him. Ada married Bert Yeoman in 1896 and like her sisters eventually lived at Moonee Ponds (in Albert St). They had at least seven children:- Harold, b1899 in Colac, married Jessie Flett in Warrnambool in 1924 and died there in 1975); Mary b1901 in Geelong and died as an infant the same year; Eileen b1902, Geelong, later Mrs Nairn died in 1980 at Prahran, Vic; Cyril b1905 in Geelong, married Lily Duncan in 1925. The couple divorced and Cyril married Sarah McIlroy in 1934. He passed away in 1983 in Wangaratta; Norman, b1909, Geelong, married Evelyn Aird in 1941 and died in Parkville in 1983; Herbert (Bert) b1905 Warrnambool, married Jean Colyer in 1938 and after a divorce married June Kerridge in 1953. He died in 1980 in Malvern Vic; and Marie, b1916, Warrnambool. She possibly married three times, firstly to Leslie Graham in 1938, and later to Walter Jones, then Walter Scott. She passed away at Preston in 1986. Ada herself died at Essendon in 1924 at the relatively young age of 50 and was buried at Fawkner. Her husband Bert was buried with her following his death in 1957.5 Of course far more is known of Margaret and her descendants, and I will now take up their story.

GO TO CHAPTER EIGHTEEN FOOTNOTES