Hannah Sutton

Miss W. Biography, Sutton , ,

Hannah Sutton was born on 9 July 1861 in Evandale, Tasmania to parents Matthew Sutton and Mary McCreery who were both convicts. Hannah’s father was a labourer and in 1853 also got his carrier licence. 

Children born to Matthew and Mary:

  • 1852 Thomas Henry
  • 1855 Sophia
  • 1861 Hannah
  • 1863 Matthew William
  • 1870 Clarence St Clair Cyril George

Matthew and his family moved to Lymington near the Nile where he was working as a groom. In 1880, Hannah’s father was charged with cruelty to a horse but the case was dismissed.

On 26 April 1882, she married Alexander Dawson, a miner, at his family home in Gladstone, Tasmania.

Children:

  • William John Alexander Dawson
  • Albert William Dawson
  • Alexander Dawson
  • Catherine Mary Dawson
  • Henry George Dawson
  • John McKay Dawson
  • Myrtle Amy (Dawson) Eaves
  • Olive Maud Dawson
  • George Byron Matthew Dawson
  • William Percy Dawson
  • Frederick Roy Dawson

In September 1889, Hannah’s father passed away from paralysis at the Launceston Invalid Depot.

Hannah and her family moved from Gladstone to Queenstown between 1898 and 1900.  The family were living at Conglomerate Creek where they had moved all their belongings from their house during a big fire. Unfortunately they lost all their belongings and a week or so later, their house was also destroyed. It was just after this that Hannah’s husband passed away in 1901. The people of Queenstown raised over 65 pounds to give to Hannah and her family.

With many young children to look after, Hannah remarried in 1905 to Michael John Carey and had one child with him.

  • Eileen Jessie Blanche Carey

Hannah passed away on 26 July 1938 at Queenstown, Tasmania. An obituary was written up in local papers.

Alexander Dawson senior

Miss W. Biography, Dawson , , , ,

Alexander was born about 1860 but no birth record has been found. He was the third son of William Dawson and Catherine McKay who were both convicts from Scotland. William was a baker.

Alexander’s siblings were:

  • 1855 Francis
  • 1858 William Albert
  • 1860 Alexander
  • 1863 John McKay
  • 1866 Elizabeth

On 26th April 1882, Alexander Dawson was a 22-year-old miner, when he married Hannah Sutton, aged 23, at the home of Catherine Dawson at Gladstone, Tasmania. Both were single. The Wesleyan Church ceremony was performed, by license, by Samuel Harris, Minister, before witnesses Catharine Dawson and Matthew Sutton.

Over the next 18 years, 11 children were born to this couple, all but one born in Gladstone, while the youngest was born after their move to Queenstown.

  • 1882 William John Alexander – died age nearly 2
  • 1883 Albert William
  • 1884 Alexander
  • 1886 Catherine Mary
  • 1891 Henry George
  • 1892 John McKay
  • 1894 Olive Maud – twin
  • 1894 Myrtle Amy – twin
  • 1896 George Byron Matthew
  • 1898 William Percy
  • 1900 Frederick Roy (James)

In late March 1884 Bishop Sandford visited Gladstone and he baptised an infant of Alexander’s. This may have been Alexander who had been born in February that year.

The birth of the twin girls was mentioned in a family notice in Daily Telegraph Launceston on 25 October.

In 1895 Alexander’s father passed away in hospital in Launceston from heart disease.

Between 1898 and 1900 the family moved to Queenstown where Frederick was born.

Alexander was a miner both in Gladstone and Queenstown where he worked at Great Lyell South.

Alexander’s death on 15 April 1901 from inflammation of the lungs was registered in Queenstown, Tasmania, Australia. This left his wife Hannah with 10 children to look after. 

Less than a month later, monies had been raised or given to help the family who were now without a breadwinner after the loss of their father. There was a long story behind the loss of their father and husband.

Australia Project challenges

Miss W. General info, WikiTree , , ,
AI_Solution / Pixabay

I haven’t been doing too much of my own family research lately. Instead I have been taking part in the Australia Project challenge in WikiTree.

Each month there is a different challenge:

  • January – 20th century connecting
  • February – clean up Australian profiles
  • March – Miners connections
  • April – World War I profiles connections
  • May – Mother’s Day connections
  • June – clean up Australian profiles
  • July – cemetery connections

The idea of these monthly challenges is to connect a profile to the big WikiTree rather than having them alone in the WikiTree website. Statistics at the moment say:

  • Over 1 million members of WikiTree
  • Over 42 million people connected as ancestors and cousins
  • Over 15 million have DNA connections

The person organizing most of the challenges sorts the profiles into individual states of Australia, so I have been working on the Tasmanian profiles for each challenge. Sometimes the person in the challenge may have been born in Tasmania or Van Diemen’s Land, married there also but then died in another state. That means I am learning how to use the birth, death and marriage record searches in those other states. Using Trove for newspaper articles under family notices or obituaries can also be helpful.

There is a group of people who are members of various Australia Project Teams who take part in these challenges each month. If I get stuck and can’t work out how to connect a profile to the big tree of WikiTree then there is always help from others. Many of them are members of Discord where I can ask for help and get a reply very quickly.

I really enjoy using WikiTree as you have to include sources when adding a new person to the tree.

Readers: Are you a member of WikiTree? What do you enjoy most about using WT?