A Picnic with Patrick

Yesterday on a sensational spring day husband and I stopped for a picnic lunch at Curry Reserve near Camden, NSW. This park, which is on the edge of the historic town was gazetted as a reserve in 1976, is special to me. On the recommendation of the local Council it was named after my 3xGreat-Grandfather, Patrick Curry, an Irish convict who had been assigned to the Macarthur family of Merino fame. Patrick is one of my favourite ancestors.

It had been several years since our last visit; we were surprised to find a lovely updated park. As we sat and watched local children playing in the beautiful water park I reflected on Patrick's life 200 years ago. I wonder what Patrick would think of this lovely facility for local families close to the area where he farmed on the banks of the Nepean River. I recalled Paddy's words to Caroline Chisholm "I have reared a large family in comfort, want for nothing." 

I am sure Patrick would not have been able to imagine the 21st century facilities at Curry Reserve but he would have been honoured to be associated with the site. 

Lots of opportunities for cool fun

Barbeque area

Modern facilities building

Proud to visit this important family site 

A Reference from Macarthur

Read to the end of this article and you will know why I felt like dancing.

My ancestor Patrick "Paddy" Curry has been the subject of a number of my blog posts. The last time I told Paddy's story was here in 2016.

In a recent weekly members' Hang Out with SAG  on Zoom the theme was emigration so I decided to share Paddy's interview on "The Advantages of Emigration" with Caroline Chisholm. Prior to the Hangout I set up my browser with several websites so that I could share my screen and show the interview during the hangout. 

After I reread the interview in the Sydney Morning Herald I gave some thought to the original source of the article "Douglas Jerrold's Paper" and realised that I had never followed that up.

1848 'Advertising', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 8 June, p. 3. , viewed 17 Mar 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12902254

After a little bit of googling I discovered an article about Jerrold on the Victorian Web. He was "a boy with minimal schooling from a lower middle-class family raised in a dockyard town in Kent goes up to London, where, after an apprenticeship as a journalist, he emerges in the 1830s as one of the country's most popular writers."

Listed on the page of Jerrold's works on the site I found that Jerrold edited "Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper, 1846-1848" and that fitted the timeframe for the original article. I popped that title into Google and, hey presto, found a link to a record in the catalogue of the National Library of Australia.

NLA Catalogue Record

I was on a roll. I found my NLA Library Card and logged into their site from the link on the catalogue record which took me straight to the digitised paper in the Gale collection. I did a search for Caroline Chisholm and found three articles. One of these was the one I was seeking. In addition to the article that was published in the Sydney Morning Herald the original contained the following introduction written by Caroline Chisholm. 

Gale Document Number  

GALE|FRNYPS256237397

"I have a great respect for him, have always found him most trustworthy, honest and punctual."

Any tenant would love to hear a reference like that from his landlord! 

On reading that sentence from one of the McArthurs I was elated. This was my best geneafind of the year. Being able to share it with my genimates from SAG on the day I found it was a bonus.

Paddy was a convict but like so many fellow convicts he was a victim of his times. My great (x3) grandfather, Paddy,  was a good man

Caroline Chisholm

I turned green with envy when, earlier this week, I saw a photo on Facebook of my GeniMate, Sharon Brennan, posing beside Caroline Chisholm's grave in Billing Road Cemetery outside London.

http://image1.findagrave.com/photos250/photos/2008/247/27034110_122057179528.jpg

Sharon's subsequent blog post told of why Caroline Chisholm was important to her and why she made the journey to Billing Road. I made a comment that  Caroline Chisholm  was important to me because her interview with my convict ancestor, Patrick Curry, was published in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1848. Having access to this interview gives me an insight into Paddy's life on Camden Park Estate that I would not otherwise have had.

As my blog has a few more readers than it had when I posted the following to a Carnival of Genealogy in August 2010; I will repost it here for new readers to see.

The Gift of the Gab

My ancestor Patrick "Paddy" Curry as an Irishman from Limerick probably had the gift of the gab but, as he died 130 years ago, I never had the chance to meet him.

Fortunately some of Patrick's words were preserved in a Sydney Morning Herald article from Thursday 8 June 1848. This and many other great stories can be found at The National Library Of Australia's Trove website.

For this 21st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy I am posting a copy of that article in which Paddy demonstrates that he had The Gift of the Gab.

Sydney Morning Herald 8 June 1848

 This post has been prepared for  the 21st edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture