Susan BOYD

Susan Boyd was the second child born to John Holliday (Henry) BOYD and Martha HEARN also known as Martha VICO or VIRCO. She was born 29 May 1844 and her birth was registered in Launceston by Thomas Jones who worked at a place called Falls (possibly Logan Falls near Evandale). Susan’s parents had both been convicts – John received his free certificate on 26 September 1842, Martha got hers on 2 February 1849.

Life as a child

Susan’s siblings:

  • 1842 – Anne
  • 1846 – Catherine
  • 1848 – Robert John
  • 1850 – Martha (Caroline)
  • 1852 – Sarah Jane
  • 1855 – Frederick but died 1859 of croup
  • 1858 – Harriett
  • 1859 – Harriett – baptised in 1860 but could be Harriett born in 1858
  • 1861 – unnamed male but is probably Frederick baptised in 1862

All the births of Susan’s siblings were registered at Evandale (Morven) which is south of Launceston, Tasmania. Her father John was a carpenter in the district.

On Catherine’s baptism in 1846, it says her father was a labourer at Logan Falls.

Robert’s birth record now has John working as a carpenter at a place called Mary Vale.

Sarah Jane‘s birth was recorded at Evandale by her mother Mary (Martha?)

Susan’s father died from pneumonia in October 1862 aged 47. His wife Martha was left to bring up  4 children 12 years and younger.

Anne, Susan’s older sister, had married in 1859 so Susan would have been helping her mother look after the younger children.

Married life and children

On 19 May 1865, Susan, aged 20, married Francis John COLEGRAVE, aged 21. They were married at the Manse at Evandale by the rites of the church of Scotland by banns. Witnesses were Catherine Boyd and Samuel Colegrave. Francis was the eldest son of two more convicts Francis Colegrave and Isabella Watkins.

Francis John was a labourer in Evandale.

Over the next 20 years, Susan gave birth to 10 children.

All children lived to adulthood and many died in their 70’s.

On the birth record for Frances in 1869, the family are now living at Blessington with Francis as a farmer.

In 1876, there is a Francis Colgrave purchasing a property in English Town area. This may have been Susan’s husband or her father-in-law also called Francis. But there are many properties owned by Colgrave men in the Blessington, Deddington or English Town (white marker on map) areas.

Adam Burston, constable for Deddington, was the informant of John’s birth in 1878 and Ernest’s in 1881.

Susan’s mother Martha died in 1880 from pneumonia at the age of 68.

In 1881, a letter in the local paper was asking why there was no public vaccinator allocated to the area around Deddington, English Town especially as measles was prevalent at that time.

Letter in local paper

Two months later, there was another report in the paper about the vaccinations held at Deddington by Dr Oldmeadow from Evandale.

In March 1882, there were terrible thunderstorms and flooding of the Nile River and the ford and road to English Town was impassable for a while.

There was no public school at English Town, but a private teacher had 19 students on his books. Wonder if Susan taught her own children or if they went with the private teacher?

Ethel’s birth record shows her older brother Francis John, of English Town, was the informant of her birth.

In 1890, the Public Works Scheme decided to improve the road from English Town to Deddington for the cost of 300 pounds. Tenders were taken again in 1893 to further improve the road.

On 13 March 1890, the marriage of Martha Jane to George Davey was held at Francis and Susan’s house. This was according to the Presbyterian church by license.

1892 marriage of Francis John to Laura Maud Wynwood was according to Baptist rites.

On 14 May 1895 marriage of Lilian Ada to Charles Davey was held at Francis and Susan’s house. This was according to the Presbyterian church by license. This was the second marriage between the Davey and Colgrave families.

In April 1896 at the Evandale Agricultural Society Autumn Exhibition, a Mrs S Colgrave won second prize for her Swiss Roll. This might be Susan or the wife of Samuel Colgrave.

1897 marriage of William to Lillian May Brown according to Baptist rites.

1898 marriage of Samuel to Jeannie Duncanson according to Baptist rites. Susan was a witness to the wedding.

Before her death in 1900, Susan had seen 5 of her children get married

Susan died on 27 February 1900 at her son Samuel’s residence and registered as living in English Town, Deddington. She was buried at the old English burial ground in Evandale.

No genetic relationship but ….

Mum and Sibyle have been friends for ages through the Girl Guide movement where they were both commissioners at some stage and members of Trefoil.  A few years ago they were travelling back from a meeting in Launceston via Evandale where many of my COLGRAVE and DAVEY relatives were born. Mum pointed out a house where her great aunt Ethel lived and mentioned she had brought me up there one time when I was a baby.  To mum’s surprise, Sibyle said Ethel was her cousin – in fact they were first cousins once removed.

So how are mum and Sibyle related?

They both share Francis COLGRAVE and Isabella WATKINS(ON) – Sibyle through her grandfather Samuel Colgrave and mum through her great grandfather Francis John Colgrave, sibling to Samuel.

Sibyle turned 100 last year and as she is one generation older than my mum, I thought I would ask if I could get her DNA tested. She said yes, so I spent a fantastic afternoon in the nursing home, chatting to Sibyle while she worked up enough spit to put in the tube to send back to Ancestry.

Wait …wait … wait …

Two nights ago, the results came in. Now as 2C1R I was expecting to see mum and Sibyle sharing at least some DNA but when I went to shared matches for mum, Sibyle was not there. Why not?  I asked on a Facebook DNA group was it unusual for 2C1R not to share DNA and had many replies but one was from Blaine Bettinger who had written a great post about just this problem.

Yesterday I uploaded Sibyle’s DNA to Genesis. This is the next version from Gedmatch. It allows people to compare others who have tested with other DNA companies not just Ancestry.  Because of the algorithm used by Ancestry some smaller segments might not be included in their results, so I was hoping those smaller segments would be there in Genesis.

More waiting … but using the one to one comparison, I found mum and Sibyle did share DNA but only 18cM over two segments which should mean they relate about 5 generations back.

Results comparing mum and Sibyle using Genesis.

I then decided to compare the amount of DNA from matches shared by both mum and Sibyle. The results in the table are from Ancestry other than the one where I have Genesis.

Readers: Has anyone else had a surprise when there was no DNA when you thought there should be especially with closer relatives?

Story 5 – Murder at the lodging house

“Murder!” One of my children knocked frantically on our bedroom door. “Ma, someone’s being murdered in the back room.”

Dashing out of bed in my nightgown, I lit a candle and moved quickly down the hallway following the child.  At the doorway to the back room, I called out nervously, “What’s the matter?”

Someone inside the room replied. “Get a light missus, one of the men is being murdered.”

On entering the room, I saw a man, later identified as Richard Furlong, kneeling at his bed and stooping over it, holding his hands to his stomach. He had been stabbed but he was not yet dead. The woman he called his wife was sitting up in bed. This couple and another man had arrived at the lodging house about three hours earlier. All three were rather drunk when they arrived but they stayed up, sitting in the kitchen. About 9.30pm the man and his wife went to bed.

The other three beds in the back room were also occupied but I only knew the name of the woman Eliza Kelly or Higgins. She was now standing in the kitchen, screaming. Richard’s mate, dashed out the front door and ran to get the doctor.

I went to check the other bedroom where six more men were sleeping but one bed was empty. Where was that man? Had he committed the murder and then run away?

I remembered hearing Richard’s wife talking to the absent man earlier that evening. “Hello, what fetched you here?” He replied, “I only came here today.”

Source:  

1861 ‘THE LATE STABBING CASE AT EVANDALE.’, Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 – 1899), 23 February, p. 4. (MORNING.), viewed 17 Jan 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38757954
Background: The woman Isabella Colgrave nee Watkins is my great great great grandmother.