Dec 2014 – Edition 117

Thomas Mayborn’s claim to fame was that he married Rebecca Jerrems. To top this off, jumping ahead for a moment, in a further twist Caroline Mayborn (Thomas’s mother) later married Rebecca’s father (James Jerrems). In simple terms, a man married a woman, and later the man’s mother married the woman’s father Simple! It gets less complicated.

The article drew upon information garnered by Sandra, Sandra is an avid reader of the Journal and researcher, from various sources and and earlier information collected by me. In particular Ray drew upon an article about Thomas in a book and earlier information collected by Ray.

Thomas had a very interesting career. In the previous article we left him serving in the Union Army in the American Civil War in 1862.

Thomas was wounded at the Battle of Malvern Hill in the right thigh by a minie ball. This was a conical bullet with a hollow base which expanded when fired to fit the rifling of the gun, named after Claude Minie, its French inventor. With the increased velocity generated by the new rifles like the famous Springfield rifle this bullet caused more injury than musket balls.

Unable to withdraw due to his injury Thomas was captured by the Confederates and placed in Libby Jail in the Confederate capital of Richmond, but was fortunately released twenty-seven days later. This release probably saved his life.

Readers may remember that the Fitz-Patrick line traces back to Big Bill’s son John, who married Mary. Their daughter Ada married Bernard Fitz-Patrick, and one of their sons was Herbert Arthur Lionel Fitz-Patrick. This article is about Herbert.

At the time of volunteering, Herbert was the proprietor of a hotel in the small village of Lake Chrissie, not far from Barberton, where his father had been vicar. The hotel was known as “The Gin Shop” because of the large black bottles of gin behind the bar. Could Herbert have had too many gins one night with friends in the bar and they had all whipped themselves up into enlisting the next day without discussing it with their wives?

Herbert’s first posting was in German East Africa with the 4th South African Horse.

The end result is that tracing the descendants of Elizabeth has turned into one of the biggest single projects Ray had undertaken.

In this article Ray started from scratch with Elizabeth and her husband William Small, through to (but not including) their wedding. In later articles he told about their wedding, the birth of their children and their migration to Australia.

He started with William Small, born in 1800 in Boston, Lincolnshire.

Ray: “Having started off to write a single article about canals I have now found that I have uncovered so much interesting material that I will need to write a second article. My second article will tell you some more amazing stories and (at last) demonstrate the relevance of canals in the Jerrems family history.”

The wedding took place in All Saints Church on 21st March 1833, a Thursday. By coincidence her parents (Big Bill and Elizabeth) were married on a Thursday also, in chilly January 1805.

The article described the people who would have attended the wedding ceremony.

Alexander was the founder of a multi-million dollar tailoring empire in the United States, but his claim to fame from a genealogical viewpoint is that he is the great great grandfather of many of our American viewers, including our editor Donald.

Following clues provided by reader Adam Marshall Ray discovered that contrary to the information in his epitaph Alexander had lived in Melbourne for about 13 years before embarking on his illustrious career in the United States. In the May 2012 article he outlined his tailoring career in Melbourne and listed the children set out below, some of whom were born in Melbourne.

This of course means that many of our American readers probably have distant cousins in Australia who have not been previously discovered. Great news if our American readers wish to have a holiday in Australia!

Some of the specific information about Grim’s career, and the photo, was obtained from an article “Not Grim at all” written by James Lerk and published in the Bendigo Weekly of 21-Feb-2014.

Ray’s interest in Grim was twofold. Firstly he was Ray’s wife’s great uncle, but secondly he was a gold miner, an area that has interested Ray greatly since his early childhood.

When Ray was young he used to visit his uncle, Alf Jerrems, in Gundagai, in the south west of NSW. Although it had never achieved any fame as a goldmining area, there was evidence of gold mines nearby.

Within less than half an hour’s walk from the town there were exploration shafts and a horizontal tunnel going into the hill behind the town (Mount Parnassus, near Shoalwater, Queensland, Australia), which he explored with his long-suffering cousin Sue.

Epilogue: “Welcome Stranger” – Gold Nugget

Apparently Grimm and Ray (and Sue) were looking in the wrong place.

Welcome Stranger was found by John Deason and Richard Oates in 1869 near Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, a distance of about 2,500 km from Mount Parnassus near Shoalwater.

It was 171.9 pounds (78 kilograms) gross, 156 pounds (71.0 kilograms) net.

The previous record belonged to the Welcome Nugget, which was also found in Ballarat. The gold nuggets in Australia are the purest in the world, often are 23K or slightly higher.

Here is what he says: “Don, when Susan and I travel I generally photograph doors as they tend to tell a story about the history of the region. I have done this in the Baltic States, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, China, Cuba and the Caribbean. The photos of the doors in the collage you have picked were taken on a trip to the Mediterranean in 2007. I’m glad you enjoy them. “