I have decided that 2025 needs to be a year of summarising and sharing much of my genealogy information, starting off with my eight great-grandparents. I have recently been busy finding out as much as I could about my Arbuckle and Heneberry lines in Victoria, so thought my first summary should be about my great-grandmother Catherine Lalor née Rowland, whose mother was an Arbuckle. But I realise she has already been paid some attention paid via this blog. (I wrote about her here already.) So this blog post just has a few points.
This is the way Catherine and I are connected:
It is quite tricky finding out more about a woman in the mid-late 1800s, and early 1900s. Just as a basic, you have to remember to use their husband's initial in any search of old newspapers etc. (This shouldn't surprise me- my mother was always addressed as Mrs JK Riordan, and even after she was widowed she had to make a determined effort to reclaim Mrs KH Riordan.)
However, here are a few things about Catherine Rowland, my great-grandmother, from my summary:
Catherine Rowland was baptised on 20 December 1845 at St James Church, Melbourne. Her father was described as a gardener, and the family was living in Heidelberg.
Catherine had two younger sisters. Isabella was born in 1853 but sadly she died of Diphtheria aged only 7, on 1 May 1860, near Kyneton. She is buried in the Kyneton General Cemetery, where her mother Margaret was also buried just 15 months later. Margaret suffered from consumption (Phthisis Pulmonalis) for 12 months, dying in August 1861.
Catherine’s youngest sister, Margaret Jane Rowland, was born in 1856, so was only four years old when their mother died. Margaret was later listed on the Victorian Children’s Register, and was admitted to care in 1867 as a result of neglect. Her father Christopher had deserted sometime after her mother Margaret had died. She was discharged on 21 November 1872, to her sister, Mrs J Lalor (Catherine Rowland) in Greymouth on the West Coast, per the Albion S.S.
It appears that sometime in early 1871, Catherine crossed the Tasman and ended up in Greymouth. On 14th September 1871, she married James LALOR in the Roman Catholic Chapel. In their ‘Intentions to Marry’ form, she was described as a spinster who dwelled in the Greymouth District. Her stated ‘length of residence’ was possibly 8 months, but I found the entry hard to decipher. A marriage notice appeared in the Grey River Argus, 18 Sep 1871 in which she was described as a native of Victoria.
In a very sad instance of family news, Catherine was recorded as the one looking after a grandchild, Evelyn Schroeder, in 1903, when the toddler went missing and was found drowned in Nelson Creek nearby.
From the electoral rolls, we can see that Catherine
lived for many years at South Beach- possibly her entire time since marriage.
In the 1899 West Coast (Grey) roll, she is listed as
“Lalor, Catherine, South Beach, housekeeper, residential”
In the 1914 West Coast (Westland) roll, she is listed as “Lalor, Catherine, South Beach, married.”
In the 1928 West Coast (Westland) roll, she is listed as “Lalor, Catherine, South Beach, Greymouth, widow.”
Catherine herself died on 3rd January 1934 at South Beach of sudden myocardial failure. (In the causes of death on her death registration it is also noted that she had a leg amputated due to ‘senile gangrene’ two years previously.) She was said to have been in New Zealand for 62 years.
Trying to find out more about Catherine Lalor née Rowland in newspapers has not led to many finds. In 1915 there was a euchre and dance evening at South Beach for which she contributed some beautiful handwork as a prize. She donated 2s6d to an X-Ray Fund in 1920.
** On 2 November 1928 in the Grey River Argus, it was recorded that: “Mrs J. Lalor, senr., of South Beach, has received word of the death of her sister Mrs E. Bradley, at Auckland.”
