Earl Grey’s Irish Famine Orphans (86): Ann Trainer per Derwent

Peter has kindly allowed me to share this version of his orphan ancestor’s story. (see Blogpost 84) Ann was another Port Phillip arrival.

Ann Trainer or Traynor per Derwent

Born c 1833 Ireland. Died 1874 New Zealand

Her story

by great great grandson Peter James Hansen, February 2022.

Ann Trainer, my great great grandmother, was unknown to my family until the early 1990s. My discovery of her was a huge surprise as my parents prided themselves as having no benighted Irish or Roman Catholics in their ancestry. I found an Irish Roman Catholic ancestor on both sides of our family. Both were Irish female famine orphans, each with sad stories to uncover.

This story is about Ann Trainer on my mother’s side.

Born out of wedlock, institutionalised, living much of her youth in a workhouse. Shipped to Australia under a British Govt scheme to provide domestic servants & wives. The Victorian gold rush in Australia from 1851-late 1860s.  Marriage to a sea captain, three children, prostitution, drunkenness & finally an early death in a rip-roaring frontier gold rush town on New Zealand’s wild West Coast.

According to the Magherafelt Workhouse records, Ann Trainer’s mother was Catherine Cassidy b c 1797, single spinster Roman Catholic who had three illegitimate children, Samuel Cassidy b c 1830, Ann Traynor b c 1833 & Patrick Henry b c 1839.

Sam’s father is unknown but Ann & Pat both had surnames acknowledging the putative fathers, Traynor/Trainer & Henry.

The Magherafelt Workhouse records usually name Ann as Ann Traynor but occasionally as Ann Cassidy.

The Magherafelt Workhouse opened in March 1842.

 A few weeks later Catherine Cassidy aged 45 single spinster Roman Catholic, clean, from the Electoral Division of Tobermore townland of Drumreany was admitted 26 March 1842 with two bastard children. Ann Traynor aged 9 & Patrick Henry aged 3. They were discharged on 5 August 1842.

Further transcriptions of the Magherafelt Workhouse records reveal the following

Entering the workhouse 23 August 1842, leaving 16 Sept 1842. Catherine with two children. Ann’s age was recorded as 10.

In 16 Dec 1842 & out 3 April 1843 when Catherine 46 is described as single, a spinner, Roman Catholic woman with 3 bastard children. Ann described as being 9.

In 25 Sept & out 14 Oct 1843. Catherine Cassidy aged 48, single, with children all very wretched. Samuel Cassidy 12, Ann Traynor 10 Pat Henry 4.

In 4 Feb 1845 out 24 March 1845. Catherine Cassidy single mendicant, clean of Tobermore with two children. Ann Traynor 10 & Pat’k Henry 5.

In 12 July 1845 out 28 July 1845. Catherine Cassidy 49 single mendicant having one child clean & healthy of Tobermore. Patrick Henry 7.

(Where were Ann Traynor & Samuel Cassidy?)

Autumn of 1845 saw the first failure of the potato crop.

In 2 Dec 1845 out 26 Jan 1846. Catherine Cassidy 40! Single with 2 children. Clean, of Tobermore.  Samuel Cassidy 15 occupation out of service escaped over wall 25 Jan 1846.  Ann Traynor 12 out of service.

In 15 May 1846 out 24 Aug 1846. Catherine Cassidy labourer,49, unable to support herself and her children. Tobermore townland of Ballinderry, clean. Ann Cassidy (Traynor) 12 & Pat Casidy (Henry) 8.

Autumn of 1846 saw the second failure of the potato crop.

In 26 Sept 1846 out 6 Aug 1847. Catherine Cassidy 48 single labourer unable to support herself and children, clean from Tobermore. Samuel Cassidy 15 escaped over the wall 2 Oct 1846 (for the second time). Ann aged 12.

The winter of 1846/47 was severe and fever was rife.

Patrick Henry aged 8 died 21 April 1847 in the Magherafelt Workhouse.

In 24 Dec 1847 out 7 July 1848. Catherine Cassidy 52, single no means of support mendicant with one child healthy.  Ann bastard child healthy.

In 4 January 1849 out 30 Oct 1849. Anne Cassidy listed on her own aged 16 single destitute. (Where was her mother?)

Nothing more is known of Catherine Cassidy. Had she died by Jan 1849?

What happened to Samuel Cassidy after his second escape over the workhouse wall 2 Oct 1846?

Ann Trainer was selected from the Magherafelt Workhouse to be part of the ‘Earl Grey scheme’.

On 9th Nov 1849 she and 135 other female orphans from northern Ireland left Plymouth in the 365 ton barque ‘Derwent’ for Port Phillip. There was the usual problem of the crew fraternising with these young girls on the long voyage. There is no record of Ann being involved in any incidents on the 78-day trip.

The ‘Derwent’ arrived at Port Phillip Bay on 25 February 1850.

The Derwent’s manifesto names Ann,

No 121 Trainer, Ann, House Servant, age 16, Native Place and County – Maherfelt, Derry, Roman Catholic, Read & Write – both. (Ann only signed with an ‘X’ on her marriage registration)

 On the Disposal list she appears as ‘Trainer, Ann, 16, RC, House Servt., Employer – Andrew Doyle, Carpenter, Collins St. at the rate of £8 per annum for 6 months.

There is no further record of Ann until her marriage in January 1854.

In the meantime, the Victorian goldrushes commenced in 1851 and literally hordes of mostly males seeking their fortunes arrived at Melbourne from the world over and dispersed throughout the diggings in Victoria. Melbourne became deserted as goldrush mania affected many. Crews deserted their ships including that of Ann’s future son-in-law William McKechnie from Dundee, Scotland. It was probably there that he first met Captain Whitford, Ann’s husband and also Richard Seddon, future Prime Minister of New Zealand. They were all ‘mates’.

On 18 January 1854, St James Church Melbourne Ann married George Whitford. The marriage certificate describes George as,

George Whitford, Bachelor, born At Sea, Master Mariner, age 23, residence Russell Street, parents John Whitford, deceased, Master Mariner, Mary Whitford maiden name unknown.

And Ann as, Ann Trainer, spinster, born Belfast, Ireland, occupation ‘Independant’, age 21, residence Russell Street, parents James Trainer, Schoolmaster, Catherine Kessedy maiden name.

They married in the Cathedral Church of St James according to the Rites of the Church of England.

Signed-George Whitford & Ann ‘X’ Trainer

George Whitford was master of the lighter “Allegro” which traded around Port Phillip Bay. Ann went to live with him on the ship and their three children were born on board at nearby Hobsons Bay.

Their first child George Arthur Whitford was born in Hobsons Bay 20 August 1854.

Their second child was born on the lighter ‘Legro’ (the “Allegro”) Hobsons Bay 23 May 1856. She was registered on 24 July 1856 by Ann as Winefred Elizabeth Whitford. Father, George Richard Whitford, 25, Master Mariner, born at sea Malabar Coast (India), mother Ann Whitford formerly Trainer, 22 born Belfast Ireland. Informant-The X mark of Ann Whitford, mother, Hobson’s Bay.

No trace of Winefred Elizabeth exists after this. However, on 15 October 1856 a baptism took place in St James’ Cathedral of a Mary Jane Whitford with the same birth date 23 May 1856, same parents & their abode is given as Yarra Yarra (Melbourne wharves). Baptismal names take precedence over registered names. Mary Jane is my great grandmother.

Their third child James Richard Whitford was born on the ‘Allegro’ 5th May 1858. Ann again signed X Her mark. 

George Whitford then went on to be master of the paddle steamer ‘Lioness’ for seven years. It seems that the Whitford family then moved into a cottage at Port Sandridge near Melbourne.

In Oct 1865 at Hokitika, Westland, New Zealand, Capt George Whitford met his former ship ps ‘Lioness’ to take up duties as a tug master towing sailing ships over the dangerous Hokitika river bar. Hokitika and Greymouth became the centres of a goldrush. There are numerous recorded accounts of Capt Whitford and his superb seamanship.

Ann and the three children followed at a later date & lived in a house Capt Whitford owned near Gibsons Quay in the town.

In 1869 Capt Whitford was appointed as Pilot for the Ports of Westland. However soon afterwards he disappeared. A George Whitford seaman died in a Melbourne infirmary in 1879.

George Whitford, Master Mariner, Ann’s husband.

Family tradition is that Ann and her children were left unsupported and destitute. However, the children appear to have received an education.

Shortly before she died in 1874 Ann featured in a sordid court case held in the Magistrates & then Supreme Court. March & September 1874. It was reported in salacious detail in the West Coast Times.  A sad finale to her life. Ann was acquitted of charges but was a witness to a theft in a brothel where she was staying.  She’s described as being very drunk.

Finally, in the West Coast Times 8 Sept 1874

“In the case of Annie Haines tried yesterday for larceny, a most material witness, a woman named Whitford, was unable to attend, being ill in Hospital……”

Annie Cassidy/Trainer/Whitford died on 8th October 1874, Hokitika Hospital aged 36 (sic) years, actually c 41) married, of Phthsis (Tuberculosis), informant NR Goodrich, Carpenter, Hokitika.

Annie Whitford was interred in Hokitika Cemetery 13 October 1874. The plot in the Roman Catholic section was purchased by her husband’s friend William McKechnie.

Annie’s grave set apart from the row of nuns nearby.

Earl Grey’s Irish Famine Orphans (85): Julia Keohane from Skibbereen

I’m still on the subject raised in the last few posts, the relationship between family and academic historians. See https://earlgreysfamineorphans.wordpress.com/2022/02/04/earl-greys-irish-famine-orphans-82-hooroo/

If an academic historian writes about your ancestor without consulting you, is that appropriation? Or if a family historian ‘borrows’ something written by a professional historian, say, about the Earl Grey scheme, without acknowledgment, is that plagiarism? There are all sorts of tricky questions to explore, are there not?

Here’s the latest story testing the hypothesis raised in the last post. Thankyou for this loving, sensitive tribute, Bren. This is something special that only a descendant can bring to an orphan story.

Bren’s heartfelt story of her Irish Orphan …

One day out of the blue I read an article about the Earl Grey Scheme.

There had been no luck finding my Mum’s maternal side of the family and the joke was they must have swum to Australia, but after reading this story I started researching every Julia that came to Melbourne through this scheme and that’s when I found her.

A 16 year old girl named Julia Keohane.  Taken out of the Skibbereen Workhouse, put onto the ship ‘Eliza Caroline’ in 1849 and literally dumped onto the other side of the world. 

Others might say ’well that sounds a bit dramatic’ but it’s my take on how my GGGGrandmother was treated, it’s personal for me and my family.

An illiterate, RC girl who lived in rags and walked barefoot all her life was given a box full of clothes, two pairs of shoes and the chance to leave the hell hole that was Skibbereen Workhouse.  She didn’t have a clue where she was off to, no concept of distance, gave no thought to how she was to survive, she just wanted to escape the misery of where she was. 

Julia became my obsession.  I could follow most of her tough life through Trove newspapers.  At times she comes across as feisty, cheeky and cocky during her court appearances, but it struck me she was never treated with any empathy or care. 

Julia was a loving Mum and I’m pleased to tell her story, though it’s a sanitised version of her life as a means of offering her some dignity that never came her way during her lifetime. 

This is Julia’s story … a kid from Skibbereen.

Julia Keohane knew only abject poverty growing up.

Then a miracle occurred in her young pubescent life.  Being presented with a box full of new clothes and two pairs of shoes, Julia had never worn shoes before, she was made to feel important and special for the first time in her life.  Most of all she was being given the opportunity to escape from the misery that was the Skibbereen Workhouse.

Her adventure began on New Years Eve 1849 when the ship ‘Eliza Caroline’ sailed out of Plymouth. 

Julia had no concept of where she was being sent, but it was understood that work would be found, even though she had no skills and had never been employed before.  It was also accepted by every girl on that ship that you needed a man to survive in this world, more than employment.

After leaving the Immigration Depot it was the first time in her life that Julia could make decisions on her own.  She was employed with a Mrs Andrews of Spring Street, Melbourne and within weeks had somehow met Thomas Connolly and was pregnant!  With no thought of the consequences this 16 year old naively rushed and put all her faith and trust into an ex-convict from Tasmania who was 10 years her senior

Julia and Thomas were now a couple with a baby on the way.  The summer of 1850/51 has been recorded as long and hot, a new phenomenon for Julia.  For days bushfires raged terrifyingly uncontrolled in the Plenty Ranges north-east of Melbourne and this is where the now 17 year old gave birth to a healthy son, John Thomas Connolly.

S.T. Gill, ‘Canvas Town” Yarra River c.1852-3, Wikimedia Commons

Twelve months on and a large tent city called Canvas Town sprung up on the banks of the Yarra River housing all the new arrivals coming to Melbourne.  For a few shillings a week you could hire a tent to provide shelter from the elements.  This is where the new family settled with Julia starting a small shop from their tent, while Thomas was up to his petty criminal ways.

By 1853 Thomas had a reputation around Canvas Town and had progressed to the more serious crime of robbery and assault.

When Julia heard about the arrest she marched up to the victims tent and tried reasoning with them not to lay charges, but the situation turned ugly with the police now charging Julia with intimidating a witness.  She went to court and pleaded for mercy and because of her circumstances, a young girl with a baby, she was given a warning.  Thomas got 3 years hard labour on the roads.

Barely 19 years of age, after being dumped in a strange country now with no man or family for support, Julia was totally alone.  To make matters worse she was going to lose her home, because the Government had decided to close down Canvas Town which had slowly turned into a slum full of fever and crime.  Her only option was to head to the other side of town where all the outcasts lived and the Chinamen welcomed her to their tribe.

The following years had Thomas in and out of jail which left Julia and baby John struggling on the streets.  Alcohol became her crutch. There are many articles in the newspapers written of her arrests.  She was shown no empathy, given no dignity, and left to endure the hardship of survival on the streets.

In the following ten years Julia did distance herself from Thomas Connolly and left Melbourne moving to another big city, Ballarat.  Her son John now a teenager and independent, was working as a Wood Splitter in the Ballarat area.  After living such a hard, unstable life with alcohol her only comfort and respite Julia was by this time psychologically damaged.

It was in Ballarat that Julia met up with Tom Middleton through their shared bad drinking habits and arrests.

By 1866 they had set up house together.  Tom worked as a fish hawker and was away from home days/weeks at a time.  Julia was fearful being alone and slept with a knife under her pillow.   Depression and drink often left her talking of suicide.

In 1870, Thomas Connolly the father of her son, died in a horse and dray accident.  Two years later Julia’s now partner Tom Middleton lost his younger brother John and buried him in the new Ballarat Cemetery. 

It was around this time Julia’s son John stopped using the surname of Connolly and assumed the name of Middleton.

In 1889, after living together for 20 years, Julia and Tom decided to get married.   They were living behind the kitchens in a room at the Perseverance Hotel, Main Street, Ballarat.

Julia being illiterate needed someone to complete the marriage forms on her behalf and she wanted it acknowledged that she had given birth to 6 children.  Tom Middleton says he had none.  Where are those 5 missing children?  Only Julia knows, but to acknowledge them on her marriage certificate demonstrates that she had not forgotten them.

A year passes and on the day of Julia’s death Tom had been away working.  When he arrived home Julia was across the laneway visiting a neighbour.  Tom asked her to go home and make him some dinner while he checked on the horse and from there an argument erupted and Julia got stabbed.

From the Inquest there is evidence from neighbours describing how as Julia lay dying, after saying her prayers, it was her son John who she was most worried about.

Tom did get arrested, but was it manslaughter, murder or suicide? 

Three times a jury could not come to a verdict, so the Judge had no option but to give him his freedom. 

Tom buried Julia in the Ballarat Cemetery, alongside his younger brother. 

He stayed on in Ballarat alone and died in 1906.

Julia’s son John grew into a hard working man employed as a Line Repairer with the railways.  He married and had 12 children and lived to the grand old age of 89 years.  His first daughter was named after his wife’s mother, his second daughter he named Julia, after his mother.

p.s. The cover image is of Old Chapel Lane, Skibbereen at the time of the Famine, from the London Illustrated News.

Earl Grey’s Irish Famine orphans(84): an orphan’s impact on her descendant

Lately I’ve been thinking about the relationship between academic and family historians. Is it an equal relationship? Do outsiders always bring a helpful perspective, or does their influence weaken the very personal and emotional tie family historians have with their orphan ancestor(s)? If authority is shared in the best possible way then everyone wins. I’m thinking here of David Fitzpatrick’s Oceans of Consolation and Tanya Evans’s Fractured Families. But it may not always be the case.

Let me test my belief that family historians should be given free-rein to write their particular orphan history. Only they can provide a very personal, passionate and lively engagement. Let’s test the hypothesis.

First is an interesting essay by Peter Hansen from New Zealand describing the effect his orphan(s) have had on him. My sincere thanks to Peter for allowing me to publish it.

PETER and his Irish orphan

It’s 30 years since I first came across Ann Trainer per Derwent as one of my ancestors. The initial shock impact of my discoveries has long gone. Information-gathering has been slow, in fits and starts, and very piecemeal. I’ve done most of the research along with three Whitford cousins, all of us descended from the two sons and the daughter of Ann Trainer/Whitford.

It’s astonishing how quickly families forget their recent family histories and ancestors. At least it is in Western societies. Here in New Zealand the indigenous people, the Maori, know their ‘whakapapa’, their genealogy, for 10, 20, 40 generations or more. I have a Syrian friend who could trace his family back to Adam.

In Ann Trainer’s case, was it because her family didn’t want to remember her because of her colourful history in the Victorian culture of that time? Who knows? Or was it because Ann died young at the age of 41 and there were stories untold to her children?

Or perhaps it was because her daughter Mary Jane Whitford/McKechnie died aged 36. My grandfather was 7 when she died and he and his siblings had little memory of their mother. Stories untold and lost. I don’t even know if any of them knew that their grandmother was buried in a nearby town. Or that she was Irish, and Roman Catholic?

But it’s left me with lots of unanswered questions, questions that perhaps haunt me, or have become obsessional.  I have many ancestors I could research but Ann Trainer’s story is the one on which I seem to focus. It’s so out of the ordinary. Reactions from family and friends vary from having a giggle about a prostitute in the family to having a deep empathy for Ann’s life and circumstances.

I worked for many years in social services, chaplaincy and counselling, and am well-acquainted with sad and dismal stories. I was always objective. But that changed when I was affected personally. Subjective, not objective. There was an ancestor in my mother’s respectable family who was a bastard, a prostitute, a drunkard, and frequently in the courts.

It was compounded at the same time when I discovered my father’s Irish famine orphan ancestor in Sydney, NSW, was in and out of the courts and prison, a drunkard and a well-known prostitute. Disfunctional. How much did her earlier tragic life affect her in later years?   All published in the media. It was a relief recently to finally learn through a DNA match that her husband was the actual father of my paternal gran’s mother. I could never tell my elderly parents any of this as they would’ve been too shocked. My siblings and cousins knew though.

My mother’s family, Scottish and Cornish were well-educated, liberal-minded, urbane and involved in politics and community. Her father was a bank manager in a prosperous rural farming district in South Canterbury, New Zealand. Very much the country gentleman and sportsman. His maternal grandmother, as I discovered, was Ann Trainer, born only 50 years earlier than he. What a stark contrast there was in their lives.

I’ve found it distressing reading the descriptions of Ann and her family in the Magherafelt Workhouse records, where the keywords are,

Bastard(s), mendicant, very wretched, destitute, no means of support.

It’s left me with an underlying grief, learning about my two Irish Famine orphans. Life was awful. My father’s orphan ancestor’s parents are likely buried in a mass grave in Athy, Kildare along with 10,000 others. Sobering.

The Famine has become very real and personal to me.

In 2015 I spent a week in Sydney researching my father’s famine ancestor. A highlight was visiting a museum, the former Hyde Park convict barracks used from 1819-1848 to house convicts transported from Britain. It was then used as an immigration barracks for Irish female famine orphans coming to Sydney 1848-1850.  (Ann Trainer went to the Immigrants’ Depot in Melbourne) 

Outside in the yard is a memorial to the Irish famine orphans sent to Australia. It’s stark but very moving and poignant.  A metal table and stool, a bowl and spoon. This Australian Monument to the Great Irish Famine was inspired by Mary Robinson, President of Ireland. 

I sat at that table in the deserted yard and suddenly found myself overwhelmed and weeping, quietly. A grief welling up inside me for what my ancestors had endured.

Their lives still affect me but I’m more objective now in my search for facts. I’ve lots of questions! Who was Cathy Cassidy, mother of Ann Trainer?  Who was her family? Why did she not marry? She had her first child when aged 30. That’s late. Who were these men that she had relationships with?  James Trainer and a Mr Henry who sired two of her children.  Are there secrets in their families?

What made William McKechnie buy the burial plot for a ‘fallen’ Ann Trainer/Whitford whose daughter he married a few months later?  We know that he was a friend of Annie’s husband Captain George Whitford. William McKechnie was a well-known businessman, philanthropist and local politician on the West Coast of New Zealand. He was good friends with Richard ‘Dick’ Seddon, Prime Minister of New Zealand. Roman Catholic Bishop Grimes was a guest at William’s hotel in a goldfields town near Greymouth and Hokitika. My grandfather & his siblings used to tell me stories of these people.

This is the world of people that Annie’s daughter lived in. But there’s nothing about Annie Trainer/Whitford, who’s not far removed from these notables.

Her descendants have done well overall and become good citizens in Australia and New Zealand–in all walks of life including the public realm. Though at times some of us have wondered if inherited characteristics from Annie and her husband have been responsible for some of our families’ misfortunes? Just a thought.

Peter J Hansen ( J = James as in James McKechnie, James Whitford & James Trainer)

Born & raised in New Zealand. Family history was important to me from an early age because I had no first cousins. A sense of loss not having extended family to connect into. Well-travelled in my younger days, living overseas for 11 years in the UK & South Asia. I’ve years of family research desperately needing to be written up, and digitised. Ensuring our stories are not lost to our families & communities. That’s my current goal & project. As C.S. Lewis said “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

Peter’s visit to the Irish Famine Monument at Hyde Park Barracks