Family Friday; Thomas Joseph Abberton.

                                                   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 where Louisa was teaching. Thomas’s father had sold the land, for the school, to the Education Department. Mummel was also a thriving town, with several hotels, church, copper mine, post office and school.)

I am going to just list Thomas and Louisa’s children, as they will each be ‘done’, later.

Thomas and Louisa had seven children, these being;

1)      Fredrick Thomas, born 1891, d 26 October 1935*.

2)      Sidney Michael, b 5 November 1892, d 30 June 1928*.

3)      Marianne Clara (Claire), b 22 July 1894, d 23 July 1975.

4)      Matthew Henry, b 29 October 1896*, d 28 May 1958*.

5)      Leslie John, b 26 May 1898, d 30 November 1917*, WW1.

6)      William Patrick, b 11 June 1900, d 1978.

7)      Michael, b 2 May 1903*, d 3 May 1903*.

Louisa died 7 May 1903*, leaving Thomas with six children, the eldest being 12 and the youngest not yet three.

I don’t know what Thomas did, between Louisa’s death and his re-marriage but I have found that he was charged with deserting his children. Life must have been very hard for him.

Thomas re-married, to Mary Murphy, 24 January 1909* and they had a son, Thomas Joseph, 26 June 1910*, d 29 February 1944, WW2*.

Thomas died 5 May 1914*. Mary, his second wife had pre-deceased him, in 1912*.

Not much to show, for his life, just names and dates but he was an interesting man. Well I think so.

Thomas had many a varied jobs, according to the certificates, of his children’s births, his marriages and his death.

On his marriage certificate he is a farmer’ son, living at home. On Matthew’s birth certificate, he is a miner and they are living in Cowra.  He is a carter for wine and spirit merchant, living at 2 Centre Street , Redfern, on Michael’s birth certificate and both Louisa and Michael’s death certificates. On Thomas Joseph’s  birth certificate, he is a wagon driver, living at 124 Wilson Street, Redfern. It would appear that Thomas didn’t stay in one place to long.

Searching Archives NSW, I discovered that he had held a publicans licence, for the Salutation Hotel, Goulburn. The building is now a sewing shop.

On his death certificate only Louisa and their children are named, no mention of Mary or Thomas.

(* denotes that I have the document)