Australian marriage and births

[Gardengirl]

Did Annie Caroline sign her name with Katherine in the middle? Could it be the rector misremembering? Are you looking at the PR or BT?

Yes, I went back to the parish register and she has signed it as Annie Katherine.

I do kind of understand why the girls in particular changed their names, when I was young it was not uncommon for young girls to decide to change their names, almost as a statement of independence and individuality or maybe their given name reminds them of someone they didn't like or their choice of new name might be to reflect someone that they admire. I wonder if Annie Caroline admired her new sister-in-law's courage in going to Australia.

My next big challenge in the story is to unravel why Lady Kate (Katherine Annie) came back from Australia, apparently on her own without her two little girls. There is a newspaper item that her husband was brought before an insolvency court just after she left. Maybe she had just had enough? But why are the children not on the passenger list? Did she leave them behind? Her husband also came back to England at some point and by the 1901 census they were together with two more children - both born in England.

Lots of loose ends still to tie up!

[Gardengirl]

Well, it's taken a while but I have finally sifted through the information and pulled what I know together into a new story on my blog site for anyone who is interested. There's still unanswered questions about how / when Thomas and the children came back to England but they might never get answered. I have submitted it as a question for Ask the Experts at RootsTech so I might get some suggestions from them.

In the meantime this is the story so far https://ourpaststories.weebly.com/

I will write up their lives after they came home in another chapter. Let's hope it doesn't take me quite so long this time!