Great-Grans old tin from the back shed
My great-grandmother Mary Ann Burnim, Minnie, lived for 25 years in Tenth Street Mildura in a house built for her by her elder sons. Her younger son Mathew Henry Hamilton lived in it with his family after she died in 1947. An old tin left in the back shed contained two small photo albums and a few loose photos with no names or dates written on them. A cousin pulled them out of the albums (sadly) and thought they were useless as no one recognised the people. Thus began a 20-year journey of searching and learning. Today my 2nd cousin Kaye and I can confidently name the people in most photos and have learnt skills in dating photographs, the history of fashions and hairstyles and about photographers.
This photo, taken in the early 1860s, is of James Hamilton and his son William John with his wife, Margaret Ann Gilbert. They married in 1851 at the 2nd Ballyeaston Presbyterian Church. William was a farmer and stone mason, and they had a typical Ulster farm at 7A Ballygowan, Ballynure Antrim. I suspect Margaret is quite pregnant in this photo!
I have been looking for James's parents or birthplace; I have only his father's name, William, on his marriage certificate. Margaret comes from the adjoining townland of Ballyboley, and I have the Gilbert history going back further.
They had five sons and three daughters, four sons left Ireland, and 2 daughters stayed in Ireland.
William John Hamilton was born in Ballygowan on 11 November 1851
He left Ireland and landed in New York in May 1870, then went to Easton, Massachusetts, where he was employed as a moulder or brick maker. He married Anne McMurtery from Ireland in 1874, and they had Rose Mary and William John. By 1880 Anne had died, and William and their children were living in a boarding house. Rose Mary married Thomas John Barr in Pawtucket in March 1896. Their children were Lauretta, Thomas, Rose, Isabel, Irene and Robert. They lived in Connecticut. Rose Mary died in 1922 at age 48. Barr's descendants live in the USA, but no trace of William Junior and William died in an accident in 1906.
This photo was taken in 1872 in Taunton, Massachusetts.
Matthew Henry Hamilton
Was born in Ballygowan
10 April 1859
This is Matthew in Belfast in 1880 and in New Zealand in 1934
Matthew worked as a blacksmith. When 19, he married Agnes Woodside Park in Larne 1st Presbyterian
Church and moved to Ballydonaghy, where the first two of eight daughters were born. They left Ireland
as assisted migrants to New Zealand in 1884 with Agnes Curran Hamilton, Matthew's younger sister,
who later migrated to Canada. He worked in Auckland as a blacksmith but later became a gas engineer
and manager in the South Island. He was appointed a JP in 1901.
He died in July 1941in Rangiora.
Their Daughters were:
Margaret Ann(Maggie)1880
Elizabeth Agnes(Lily)1882
Miriam Emily (May) 1885
Jane Evelyn (Effie) 1888
Edith Gertrude Winifred 1890
Hazel Doris 1892
Muriel Linda Aldridge 1894
Vera Park 1897
Descendants of the daughters are found in New Zealand today.
James Alexander Hamilton was born in Ballygowan on 22 October 1857
This is James in 1880 in Belfast and James in 1893 in Mildura
James left Ireland in 1883 and first went to New Zealand; in 1888, he sailed to Melbourne
and made his way to Mildura, where he worked as a Stonemason, Concreter and Builder.
He married Barbara Farquhar Smith in Mildura on 18 July 1892. Barbara opened a midwifery Hospital,
"Kooyong", and James was a pioneer settler in Merbein,
having Block 23 in the first allocation in 1909. They had 3 children
Margaret Daisy Inglis(Daisy)1893,
Agnes Lily (Peggy)1895
James Morrison (Jimmy)1896 Jimmy was killed in WW1
Daisy married Hugh Stewart Geddes, and her only child Roy, a pilot, died in WW2.
Peggy married Archibald Lauder, and their descendants still live in the Mildura district.
James Alexander died in 1922 in Mildura. Barbara died in 1944.
Joseph Hamilton Was born in Ballygowan in 1863
Joseph was a farmer and stonemason and probably helped on the family farm until he married
Agnes Weatherup in the Larne Registry Office in 1885. They lived in Skilganaban near the Ballygowan
farm. They had Minnie Elizabeth in 1886 and John Weatherup in 1888. They moved to nearby
Carnanee and Ballyboley over the years. Like Maria, Joseph's sister, they were members of
The Brethren Church. Joseph died in 1923 in the Antrim Asylum.
His son John Weatherup brought his family to Australia in 1920. He purchased a block in Merbein.
They later moved to Tasmania back to Mildura and finally settled in Dandenong, Victoria.
John Weatherup died in 1966. There are descendants of John Weatherup Hamilton living
in the Mildura District today.
Andrew Hamilton was born on 23 May 1872 in Ballygowan.
This is Andrew Hamilton, probably on his wedding day in 1893. He is my great-grandfather, who married Minnie Burnim. His father ( James Hamilton) died when he was fifteen, and although he was the youngest son, he took over the running of the farm. After his mother died in 1911, he sold up in 1915 and bought his family to Mildura to join his elder brother James Alexander Hamilton. Unfortunately, he was unwell and unable to work, and he died in an asylum in Ballarat soon after.
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