Family Friday; Twin Boys!

Twins Boys, John and Matthew Abberton.

Thomas and Mary’s 12^th and 13^th children were twin sons, John James Samuel and Matthew Joseph. The arrived on 28 February 1871, giving Thomas two more sons, to go with the nine daughters, (eight still living), he had.

Not much is known about these two men. They didn’t marry or have any (known) children. The family rumour has it that they did have ‘liaisons’, with some of the local indigenous women, so who knows. But it is only a rumour.

From my research, I think that John stayed on the farm and Matthew got a job.

Documents from the Australian National Archives have John taking over the post office at Mummell and it ‘being in a deplorable state, that it recommended that it be closed.’ Thomas and Mary had run the post office from a shed on their property, their daughter having taken it on after Thomas’s death.

Matthew appears to have worked for the railways, at Goulburn. In what capacity I’ve still to discover.

Both men were mentioned in various local papers, for their sporting exploits and that is it.

In a blog post on Tuesday 26 April 2016, I wrote that Matthew had had An Eight Year Feud. That turned out to be an ongoing intestinal problem!

Matthew also had a close encounter with a tiger snake, as the article below shows.

 

John died on 10 February 1920, aged 49

 

 

Matthew died on 18 December 1920, aged 68.

 

All these articles came from the Goulburn Evening Penny Post. 1881 - 1940.

 

Bye for now,

Lilian.