Grandmas who do family research and write histories for their families sometimes get told they aren’t doing their families any favours as they rob their families of the joy of discovery for themselves. As I said in the introduction I have left ships for my grandchildren to research. Though I am writing Grandad’s and my Grandmas’ histories I have left you your other Grandmas to research. What I didn’t tell you is we have half a dozen Grandmas we know little about and there is plenty for you to play detective with. You could say they are work in progress and I will give you the clues I have. If you want to know the answers you must look for yourself and here is a mystery grandma.

Caroline was born about 1831 the daughter of Richard and Danielle Smith and it is thought they were living in Plymouth. The story is that she was orphaned and having difficulty in making a living, so decided to look for work in New South Wales as a domestic servant. Caroline sailed on the Lord Stanley as an assisted migrant and arrived in Botany Bay August 27 1850. Soon after she arrived Caroline met Welsh Evan Richards [1] who was working as a school teacher at St James School, King Street. They married at Holy Trinity Church, the Rocks, what is called the Garrison Church and moved to Mudgee to help set up the first school in that town. In the first year at Mudgee their eldest child Elizabeth 1851 was born followed by a son Evan 1853 and then a daughter Laura in 1854, Edwin in 1856, Sarah in 1857, and Jane in 1859. After their eldest son Evan died, they decided to call their seventh child Evan in 1862 and in 1863 little Jane died so they called their eighth child, born in 1864, Jane. David was born in 1866 and his brother Evan died a couple weeks later. Caroline was born in 1868, and in 1870 a eleventh child was born and again the name Evan was used. This son Evan survived to be an adult. There was sadness with their children as they were keen to have a son Evan and their first son Evan died in his first year and their second son Evan when he was four years old and the first Jane died so we have a second Jane, very confusing. Eight of their children survived to adulthood and all survived their mother. Evan Richards senior worked as a school teacher at Mudgee until Evan had an arguement with Archdeacon Gnuther and resigned as a school teacher, and left the Church of England Church with his family, and became an active Primitive Methodist. He also became the church organist. From 1856 Evan worked as a tailor and managed the Mechanics Institute. In 1866 Evan got a job as Sheriff’s Officer of the Mudgee Supreme Court. He did this work until he retired on a pension in 1895.

Though we don’t know much of Caroline’s life in Mudgee we do know her surviving eight children all married and she had forty-four grandchildren. Elizabeth married a dentist; Laura an auctioneer; Edwin became a member of the New South Wales state parliament; Sarah married a coachbuilder; David became a journalist and worked for the Mudgee Guardian; Caroline married a pattern maker; and Jane married and moved to England. One of Caroline’s thirty six grandchildren Wallace Dean became a well known Methodist clergyman and headmaster of Burwood Ladies College.

Caroline’s great grandson Bob Dalrymple created the genealogy programme Relatively Yours that I use to record my family history.

Footnotes

[1] The original material for the Family Tree of the Descendants of Evan Richards of Caernarvon, Principality of Wales, came from a research document The Richards Relatives that Robert Keith Dalrymple distributed around the family in 1986. Since then I built on his research by adding more and correcting some.