Australian Relations: The children of William Joseph Henry BATEMAN

This is another instalment in my ongoing series of articles on the life of William Joseph Henry BATEMAN and his family from Australia. This is an ongoing research project and if you can provide further information then please get in touch.

William Joseph Henry (WJH) BATEMAN and his wife Annie Clark BULL (nee MCCONACHY) were married on the 22nd April 1905 in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. So far I have only found details for three children, certainly only three appear to have survived into adulthood, and I have found no evidence to suggest that there were any other children.

William Thomas Henry BATEMAN (born 1906)

Their first child was a son, William Thomas Henry BATEMAN. According to his entry on the WW2 nominal roll, he was born on the 1st October 1906 in Melbourne, Australia. More specifically his birth registration index entry states that he was born in Carlton, Victoria.

His names all appear to be family names, but of course I can’t say for certain if this is the reason for the choice or whether it is just a coincidence.

William	from his father William Joseph Henry BATEMAN
Thomas	from his maternal grandfather Thomas MCCONACHY
Henry	from his paternal grandfather Henry BATEMAN

Dorothy Marguerite BATEMAN (born 1909)

WJH and Annie’s next child was a daughter, Dorothy Marguerite BATEMAN, born in 1909. Her birth registration index entry gives her place of birth as Port Melbourne, Victoria.

The name Dorothy probably comes from WJH’s mother Dorothy Isabella BATEMAN (nee KINGHORN), but I have no idea where the name Marguerite comes from.

Reginald Graham BATEMAN (born c1913)

The third child was another son, Reginald Graham BATEMAN who was born around 1913. I don’t have his exact date or year of birth because the online indexes don’t cover 1913 yet. The information I have comes from the fact that Reginald was 56 years old when he died in 1969.

Interestingly Reginald was the name of Annie’s first husband, but it is hard to believe that she would have named a son after her dead husband. The name Graham was the surname of WJH’s maternal grandmother, but possibly both connections are coincidences.

Australian Relations: William Joseph Henry BATEMAN (The Marriage: 1905)

This is the third in a series of articles about William Joseph Henry BATEMAN and his family from Australia. This is an ongoing research project and so far much of the research is based on index entries and is unverified, if you have more information or corrections then please get in touch.

On the 22nd April 1905 William Joseph Henry (WJH) BATEMAN (aged 23) married Annie Clark BULL (aged 24). The ceremony took place at the Parsonage, Yarra Street, Geelong, Victoria, Australia and was performed by William Williams, a Methodist Minister.

The digital copy of the marriage registration is not very clear and slightly tricky to read, but for someone used to English marriage certificates it potentially provides much more detail. Instead of just a father’s name, it also includes the mother’s maiden name. It also gives place of birth for the bride and groom and their present residence and their usual residence.

WJH is shown as a seaman, living on the HMS Katoomba, Annie’s residence is not easy to make out except that it was in Geelong, neither is her place of birth, somewhere in Victoria but that is all I can work out.

WJH’s parents are correctly shown as Henry BATEMAN and Dorothy KINGHORN, and Henry’s profession is given as coachman, which agrees with other sources. Annie’s parents are Thomas MCCONACHY (a restaurant keeper) and Elizabeth STEEL. This suggests that at the relatively young age of 24 years Annie was already a widow.

This is confirmed in the condition column, which also tells us that her previous husband died in 1900 and that she had one child surviving from that marriage.

Australian BMD indexes on Ancestry.com.au

The release of the Australian BMD indexes on Ancestry.com.au is great news for my BATEMAN research. As most of the records relating to this family are connected with the state of Victoria I have so far been limiting the amount of index searches I do, because the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages charge for their index search results.

I know the charges for index searches weren’t particularly high, but with an Ancestry Worldwide membership I can now search to my heart’s content and can also extend to some of my other surnames just to see who might have ended in Australia as well. I am sure there are more than just the BATEMANs who went out there.

Interestingly a search for the surname GASSON in the death indexes only returns 81 results, and the surname TROWER returns only 49, both of which are a lot lower than I would have expected. The result might reflect the coverage of the indexes more than the number of my relations that actually left these shores.

One thing that doesn’t seem clear from the Ancestry web pages is the coverage dates for these indexes. It correctly states that the dates when civil registration started varies for each state or territory, but doesn’t mention that they also appear to have different cut-off dates for public access to the indexes.

As an example, although the birth index quotes the dates 1788-1922, there don’t appear to be any Victoria births after 1909. I haven’t played around to find the limits for all event types and places, but don’t be surprised if you don’t find the record you are looking for, despite what the collection title might say. The shame is that there is not an easy way to find out, unless I am missing something.

Personal Genealogy Update: Week 26

Time for another confession, I really struggled last week to actually do any genealogy. I blame two things for this:

1. The warm summer evenings, perfect for walking or sitting in the garden doing nothing.
2. I can’t decide what to do next.

I need to stop beating myself up for not doing any family history, but I really feel that I should be doing some research, but haven’t been able to pinpoint what I want to do.

I did a bit of work around the MITCHELLs and Exton, Hampshire but I just couldn’t get enthused about it, which disappoints me. I fear all that time organising files and folders has spoilt my appetite for research.

I do have plan though for kick-starting my research, and that is in part because of the Capital Ring walk on Saturday. I have given myself a challenge, to find out why my grandfather was at school in the London Borough of Greenwich between 1917 and 1924, and when did he come back to Sussex after he finished school.

I will explain more about this challenge later, but for now I think I have settled on three projects to concentrate on, which is more than enough for the time being, and allows me some flexibility to take on other bits and pieces as they turn up.

The three projects are:

1. Finish off my research into the GEERINGs of Hailsham, Sussex.
2. Investigate and write about the life of William Joseph Henry BATEMAN of Victoria, Australia.
3. Find out why my grandfather Charles Percy GASSON was in Greenwich, London.

While the (virtual) photo album is still open…

This is another BATEMAN family group, this time from the other side of the world. The family connection is that the large gentleman, second from the right is the son of Henry and Dorothy Isabella BATEMAN from yesterday’s photo.

Sadly I don’t really know much about at this part of the BATEMAN family at this stage. Hopefully one day I will have the time and money to get down to some serious research into this lot.

What I do know is that William Henry Joseph BATEMAN (second from the right) my 2x great uncle, married Annie Clark MCCONACHY (second from the left) in Geelong, Victoria, Australia on the 22nd April 1905. He was serving with the Royal Navy and appears to have remained in Australia when his service came to an end.

As far as I can tell they had two children, Dorothy (in the middle) and William (on the far right). Written on the back of the photo is Dorries wedding Dec 1934, but I haven’t got around to finding out any more. I don’t know who it was she married or if William ever married, but I do know that there were descendants of William and Annie BATEMAN in Australia perhaps 20 or 30 years ago, but I don’t know their names. I don’t know who the gentleman on the left is either, presumably some relation of Annie.

If you do recognise any of these names or faces then do get in touch, it would be great to make contact with this side of the family.