A Kealy in Cairns

When I announced on Facebook in September that I was in Cairns, Queensland one of my Kealy cousins sent me a message:

"Hi Jill

While in Cairns are you going to visit William Kealy’s grave? I’m pretty sure it is at the Pioneer Cemetery."

William Thomas Kealy (courtesy R. Gallagher)

Although I had William Thomas Kealy in my database I didn't know his story and how he was related to me. My database told me that William Thomas KEALY is 1st cousin twice removed of Jill Patricia CURRY. William was the Great-Uncle of the cousin who had contacted me. 

William Thomas Kealy relationship to my Dad, Allan Curry

I did a further bit of searching and responded to my cousin:

"I've worked out where it is, less than a km away. Found a grave number on local history site. Will try to walk that way tomorrow."

Within ten minutes of our arrival at the McLeod Street Pioneer Cemetery I had located the grave marker thanks to the excellent information provided in a gazebo at the cemetery.

Gazebo at cemetery  with details of interments and cemetery history

William Thomas Kealy on interment list

Diagram showing location of William Thomas Kealy's grave

William Thomas Kealy - Grave marker

I was thrilled to be able to send these photos to my cousin. Meanwhile one of my genimates who is a member of the Cairns Family History Group saw our messages on Facebook was able to provide me with some further information. That's Genearosity in action. 

William's ordeal was reported in the local press.

As this next report in The Cairns Morning Post  is difficult to read I am pasting a transcription below:

 SCRUB ACCIDENT.

At 3 o'clock on Wednesday after-noon the Ambulance Brigade received word from thc Cairns Tramway sta-tion- master, Mr. J. Brown, that a man named W. Kealy had been in-jured whilst falling scrub on Mr. A. J. Draper's selection at Babinda; The senior bearer at once proceeded, to Aloomba by tram with the little to meet the injured man who was being conveyed slowly in, and the Super-intendent also drove out to Nelson in the field wagon.  

Particulars re  (next section too blurred to transcribe) »rtliiiE the accldonf. slate dat Point but the giant of the" forc"5t~ I when descending, struck another tree and rebounding suddenly hit Kealy in the stomach, causing severe and painful injuries. His mates, who were not far off,- ran to his assist-ance and hot fomentations were ap-plied to ease the pain of the sufferer but notwithstanding this his agony was terrible.An improvised stret- cher was made and the sufferer ac-companied by 13 of his mates was carried 71/2 miles to Harvey Creek where a pump car was requisitioned. 

The party eventually reached Al-oomba where the senior ambulance bearer was met and the sufferer brought on to Nelson which was reached at 8 p.m. The patient was in excruciating pain the whole time and Dr. .Knowles, who was at the Mulgrave at the time advised the removal of Kealy to Cannon's Hall where morphia- was injected. The surgeon and ambulance bearers stayed with the unfortunate man the greater part of the night' but to-wards morning he appeared 'some-what relieved and gained a little sleep. 

At 6.30 a.m. yesterday, a start was made for Cairns and three hours later the patient was admitted to the hospital. Kealy is about 33 years of age and has a wife; and fam-ily at the Hunter River, New South Wales. Much appreciation is due to Dr. Knowles who immediately, when, apprised of the accident, left a local function and exerted every effort, to relieve the intense agony, of the suf-ferer. The residents of the little township also showed their practical sympathy by rendering all possible assistance to the surgeon and am-bulance.

1908 'SCRUB ACCIDENT.', Cairns Morning Post (Qld. : 1907 - 1909), 14 August, p. 5. , viewed 23 Nov 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39410855

1908 'THE " POST " SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1908.', Cairns Morning Post (Qld. : 1907 - 1909), 15 August, p. 4. , viewed 23 Nov 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39410880

1908 'FATAL ENDING.', Cairns Morning Post (Qld. : 1907 - 1909), 17 August, p. 5. , viewed 23 Nov 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39411026

As this next report in The Cairns Morning Post  is difficult to read I am pasting a transcription below:

THE LATE W. KEALY.

In connection with the death of William Kealy, under distressing circumstances, as the result of a

tree-felling accident at Babinda Creek recently, it may be explained that the young man was 

unmarried, and as a matter of fact, at the time of his death was engaged to be married. 

This will serve to contra-dict a statement that the man was

married, having a wife and family in New South Wales. He was a native of the Hunter River district

and his father and mother are both living at Dungog on the Hunter. We conversation yesterday with 

Mr. Her-bert Tucker, one of his mates for the past nine years, a "Post" repre-sentative was informed 

that "Billy" Kealy, as he was popularly known was a steady, decent, 

and respectable young fellow, a favourite with every-body, and a staunch comrade. He

had been in Queensland between two and three years, having been about six months in the

 Cairns district, and at one time worked on the Town Council. Latterly, he, with Mr. Tucker

and others, had a contract clearing some sugar land for Mr. A. J. Draper at Babinda Creek, and

were by the latter insured under the Workmen's Compensation Act, so that the parents of poor Kealy

 will receive a substantial sum to com-pensate them in a small measure for the loss of an affectionate

son.

1908 'THE LATE W. KEALY.', Cairns Morning Post (Qld. : 1907 - 1909), 18 August, p. 4. , viewed 23 Nov 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39411114

1908 'Family Notices', Cairns Morning Post (Qld. : 1907 - 1909), 23 September, p. 4. , viewed 23 Nov 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39413512

Visiting Ann

Several months ago I was going over some old research and found a new reference on ancestry.co.uk. to my husband's 3xGreat-Grandmother, Ann Elms (nee Jones).

It was a record from the Register of Private Graves at The City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery. The record gave details of the grave's purchase by Ann's husband, Benjamin John Elms, and notes Ann's interment in the grave.

I then found a second reference from the Register of Burials in the year 1866 at The City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery. 

Once I knew that Ann was there I wanted to plan a visit to the cemetery. It so happened that we had a holiday to Europe planned later in the year so we included a stay in London and a visit to the cemetery on our itinerary.

I learnt about The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, an independent charity that looks after Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park (the current name for The City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery). I found a wealth of information  about the cemetery and its history plus an offer from The Friends to provide assistance in locating graves. 

Several weeks prior to our intended visit I wrote to The Friends and received a reply that I had been put on a list of enquiries to be dealt with by volunteers and that it may take some time to get help from them.

As we were driving up to London last week my husband asked if I had heard back from The Friends and I indicated that I hadn't. We resolved to visit the cemetery on our own and try to locate the grave by ourselves.  

Robert was anxious to honour his ancestor

After we settled in our hotel a few hours later  I received an email from the Heritage Officer at the cemetery who said "Do you have a copy of the burial record/s or at least a burial number for Ann? Happy to help but we need the grave number to assist. If you are visiting on Monday I may be able to meet you on site to help with the location."  I responded immediately. As it was after business hours we didn't expect an immediate response and resolved to visit the cemetery on Monday.

As we were heading out last Monday morning we heard from Claire Stack the Heritage Officer  "Thank you for those documents, that's all I need. I can do anytime from 10am today." We agreed to meet at 10am.

We received a warm welcome from Claire whose passion for her work and love of her workplace were evident. Claire had access to information not on Ancestry that enabled her to take us to the old area in the cemetery where the grave could be found. 

Ann's grave was somewhere among the ivy and brambles 

Claire and Robert started looking through the undergrowth and stinging nettles in the appropriate section and, after just a few minutes, Claire called that she had found it. There was a headstone but it was covered in ivy which obliterated the inscription.

Headstone covered in ivy

Mindful of the fragility of the headstone Claire asked Robert not to pull the ivy off but to remove the leaves and try to break off the ivy at the base of the headstone. This we did.

It appeared as though Ann's husband, Benjamin John Elms, had intended for this to be a grave for the whole family. The inscription at the top of the headstone is "The family grave of  Benjamin & Anne Elms of Poplar." I have not yet been able to locate Benjamin's final resting place in 1872. The Register of graves indicates that there is only interment.

The inscription revealed

Robert, a happy descendant

She is not lost but only gone before
I hope we meet her on a brighter shore
Where we shall never part again
Lord be it so - Amen Amen

Being able to honour an ancestor was a rewarding activity on the last day of our holiday.

Our thanks go Claire for her warm welcome and assistance in locating Ann's grave. We would never have found it without Claire's care and kindness. 

600 Burials

I have been very quiet on the geneablogging scene lately as I have been concentrating on my personal research. 

Since I started researching 35 years ago many things have changed and many new indexes and resources have become available on the internet. My recent efforts have been directed towards killing off and burying the relatives in our family tree, I am slowly looking at those born prior to 1930 and seeking out their Birth, Death, Marriage and burial records.

I use the spreadsheet type view in Family Historian software that allows me to choose which fields I want to display and then sort them by name, date or other element. Viewing this shows me the gaps I need to fill

An excerpt from my database sorted by a surname (hidden) then a death date which shows the gaps 

To support this work I have many popular site tabs open on my menu bar. One of these is FindaGrave where I may have two or more tabs open.

In conjunction with this research I have been creating a Virtual Cemetery of our children's descendants on FindaGrave. When searching this site add extra details to family profiles and I try to link up family members. While on the site I add our biological relations to my cemetery. 

So why am I blogging about this today?

I have reached a milestone as I just managed to inter the 600th biological relation into my Virtual Cemetery. (I had intended celebrating at 500 but forgot.)

My Virtual Cemetery

I hope that some time in the future family members may find this useful. 

20 Something Snaps - Open Day

On our recent cruise I asked one of the guest presenters, Celia Heritage, from Ancestry Pro Genealogists for suggestions on an interesting cemetery to visit in London. Celia suggested Brompton Cemetery.

It just so happened that Brompton Cemetery's Open Day was scheduled during our post-cruise days in London. We were definitely meant to visit that cemetery! On  Sunday 17th July, a hot day in London, a bus from near our hotel in Kensington dropped us at the cemetery gates. 

As we had theatre tickets for a 3pm matinee in the West End we didn't have time to dawdle around the cemetery or do the tour of the catacombs but we managed to spend a few hours wandering around this historic site. Of course we took many photos. You may recognise the cemetery from the Rowan Atkinson film "Johnny English"

Organised by Friends of the Cemetery

Impressive Entrance

Crucifixes were in abundance

While the plots around the main avenues were visible those in many areas were covered in weeds/natural vegetation. Apparently they receive annual maintenance. 

Catacombs in background

A Simple Grave

Military Man's Grave

Grave of John Jackson, Prize Fighter

Newer graves. Burial spaces are still available on this 39 acre site

Vintage hearse on display

There are many magnificent monuments

Locals are encouraged to use the cemetery for recreation but are warned "Please do not feed the birds and animals, it causes more harm than good."

Grave of Frederick Leyland, Ship Owner
https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/brompton-cemetery/explore-brompton-cemetery/famous-graves-and-burials/frederick-leyland

A peek inside  the catacombs

The Dome of the Chapel. Unfortunately there was an art exhibition in the chapel so we couldn't appreciate the architecture.

Commonwealth War Graves area is mown. Thanks to CWGC?

There is a number of impressive mausoleums scattered through the cemetery grounds

A unique memorial

Headstones among the trees

Stalls along the majestic Central Avenue detracted from the atmosphere

Stumbling across Bunhill Fields

While our current holiday is not a geneajourney we will probably visit a few genealogy related sites like the odd cemetery (or two or more!).

Being mindful of not contracting Covid before our cruise we are spending a fair amount of time walking in the open air away from crowds. Today's walk took us past some interesting sites as we made our way to a Covid Testing Centre to be tested prior to our cruise. 

As we toddled along I spotted a sign to the Bunhill Fields so we took a tiny detour. The former burial ground is situated in a mostly residential area and provides a peaceful space for passive recreation.

Welcome sign

 It didn't take us long to traverse Bunhill Fields, a relatively small site that runs between two streets. Of course I managed to take a few pics as we strolled down the main path.

The information boards related the history of the cemetery and provided a useful map.

As is the case with several old London cemeteries the areas around the graves is rather overgrown but the paths through the cemetery are wide and clear. 

The graves of some more prominent residents were accessible. 

John Bunyan's tomb

Inscription on Bunyan's tomb

Defoe Monument

Daniel Defoe Inscription

More on Defoe

A William Blake inscription

William Blake lies here?

In the middle of the site near the famous graves there was a paved rectangular area with comfortable seating where I sat and contemplated on my good fortune in stumbling across Bunhill. 

A space for reflection