Lilian's Tree

Thomas Joseph Abberton was born 30 March 1865 [i] , the elder of twins, at Mummel, near Goulburn. The other twin was a girl, Francis Maria. Their parents were Thomas Abberton and Mary Torpy. Thomas Joseph was their second son and eighth child. I don’t know anything about his childhood but can assume that as the school was located on what had been Abberton land that he would have attended, sometimes. He would probably have worked on the family farm and maybe helped in the post office, that his parents ran. I do know that his future wife, Louisa Nicolls, was appointed teacher of Mummel School in 1885 [ii] and that this is where they would have met. Thomas and Louisa married 1 January 1890. [iii] They had seven children, Fredrick Thomas 1891-1935, Sidney Michael 1892-1928, Marianne Clara 1894-1975, Matthew Henry 1896-1958, Leslie John 1898-1917 WW1, William Patrick 1900-1978 and Michael 1903-1903. Louisa also died in 1903 [iv] , just after Michael. In 1904 Thomas w...

                                          I am now at the pointy end of the book. All edits have been done and a couple of last minute changes done. It wasn't good to say she had nine children, when she had 10. I also added two more photos, my editor does like me. Today I went and has some professional photos taken, as I will need one on the back of the book. It was so not me to have full make-up on, I usually do lipstick and eye-shadow. I saw some of them on the camera and am thrilled. Rachel did an amazing job and once I have her website details they will be on both my blog and my  website. Knowing her as a friend made the session fun and when her 2year old wandered in and gave me a cuddle, it was lovely. I have designed the cover, added a blurb and the ISBN and once I sel...

                                                   Thomas Joseph Abberton. (Thomas is the elder born of twins. I will do his twin, Frances Maria, next week.) Thomas and Frances arrived in the world 30 March 1865*, being the eighth and ninth children of Thomas and Mary. Thomas Joseph was also the second son, Frances was the seventh daughter. The information I have on Thomas is scant, with bits and pieces being found in TROVE and Archives NSW. Thomas married Louisa Mary Ann Nicolls 1 January 1890*, in the Roman Catholic Church, Mummel. Louisa was a school teacher and five years older than Thomas. Louisa also continued to teach, up until the birth of her second child.   (I can assume that they met at Mummel, as this was wh...

                                                     An Eight Year Feud. Wow, I thought, a feud, I haven't heard about that. Who was Matthew, my great-uncle feuding with and why?  A mystery, to research. Well alas, no.  Reading the article I burst into fits of laughter. It wasn't a feud but as one article headed it 'Debility and Dyspepsia.' Great-uncle Matthew had gut problems and the four doctors he saw couldn't fix it but taking ' Dr Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People' did the trick. This was the first mention of the feud, in the Goulburn Evening Penny Post on Saturday 5 October 1901, page 4. Four other newspapers copied the article, with the same title. These were Sunday Times, Sydney, 7 October 1901, Evening...

I can't believe that I forgot to do this last week! This Saturday I'm going with ABBERTON, my Dad's side. A search of the Surname Database came up with nothing but I remembered that ages ago I did find information on the name. From 'The Surnames of Ireland' by Edward MacLysaght,  published 1978, call number R929.4 Mac, Campbelltown Library.*  'ABBERTON.  An English toponymic found in South East Galway, locally classed as one of the 'Oultaghs', i.e. families which migrated from Ulster in the Early 18th C. My furthest back Abberton it my Great-great-grandfather, Thomas Abberton bc 1799 in Ballynakill, Co Galway. He married Bridget Chaffey and they had five children; 1) Patrick b 1822 2) James b 1828 3) Thomas, b1830 4) Catherine b1832 5) Anne b 1836.  Thomas, and Anne, arrived in Port Jackson, on the 'Joseph Somes', 1 February 1852. Patrick was already in the colony and appears to have sponsored them. Catherine and James arrived in ...

I went down to Goulburn, last Wednesday and from there went out to Mummell. Mummell is where my Grandma, Louisa Abberton nee Nichol taught school. The building is still standing and I have been trying to contact the owner. Well he was there and showed us around and gave us some more history of the area. I didn't realise that it was such a big community, in the 1880's. Now to do some more research on it!

Just adding some family info about my Abberton side and I hope I can make a connection. Thomas Abberton came from Ballinakill, County Galway, Ireland, to Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia. He married Mary Torphy/Torpy and they had 15  children. They lived just out of  Goulburn in a place called Mummell.