Catherine Rowland- Summary

 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 14^th 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.

 

 

Catherine and James had six children. Their first daughter, Margaret Jane, was born 22 August 1872, while they were residing at South Beach, and subsequent children were named John, Mary, Robert, James and Thomas.

 

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 was left a widow on 3 October 1916 when her husband James Lalor died of throat cancer. All their children were still living at that date, four males and two females. 

 

Catherine herself died on 3^rd 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.”

Mention of Catherine Lalor happened a few times in the military records for her son Thomas Patrick Lalor. When he enlisted for war service, he listed his mother as “Kate Lalor”, born in Melbourne, Australia, and resident in NZ for 45 years. In September 1917 when he was in Featherston Camp, he was in the hospital with influenza and Mrs J Lalor, (Mother), Greymouth, was listed as the person to contact in case of necessity.

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Margaret Arbuckle

Margaret Arbuckle is my 2X great-grandmother, the mother of Catherine Lalor (nee Rowland.)

She was born in Strabane, Co Tyrone, Ireland, in January 1815, and she had a twin sister Hannah. Their parents were William Arbuckle, a publican (c1790-c1833) and Sarah STEVENSON (c1790-1833.)

There were at least three other known Arbuckle sisters: Mary Ann (1826), Ann (1832) and Sarah (1833). Sarah Stevenson died 24 December 1833 following the birth of her daughter Sarah, and family tradition relates that their father William died soon afterwards, leaving the five girls as orphans.

At some stage Margaret married Thomas BARNHILL, who was the landlord of the property that her twin sister Hannah was living in, at Longrow, on the Derry Rd in Backfence townland. (This is near the modern border with Co Donegal.)

Thomas and Margaret had one son, Robert Barnhill, born 1838.

Margaret arrived in Melbourne as a passenger on the Marquis of Bute in 1841. She was listed as an unmarried female, a house-servant, aged 24. She was said to follow the Protestant religion, could read (but not write), and was from Co Tyrone.

Margaret’s sister Hannah, with her husband George Hunter, and two sons, William and Robert, also arrived in Melbourne in 1841 on the Marquis of Bute. Robert was not their child, he was probably the son of the ‘unmarried’ Margaret. He was listed as being aged 4. He is a half-brother to Catherine  and Margaret Jane Rowland. (And I have some DNA matches to his descendants.)

Margaret Arbuckle married Christopher Rowland in Melbourne on 6 April 1843. Her name was listed as Margaret Barnall, widow. She signed the declaration with an X (her mark), which showed she could not write.

Catherine Rowland, their first child, was baptised on 20 December 1845, in the Parish of St James, Melbourne. Her father was described as a gardener, and the family abode was Heidelberg.

Their second daughter, Isabella was born on 22 March 1853 in East Brighton, Melbourne but died as a young child. She was buried in 1860, aged 7 years old, in the Kyneton General Cemetery.
The third daughter was Margaret Jane, who was born on 13 June 1856 in  East Brighton, Melbourne.

Margaret Arbuckle died at Green Hill on 27 August 1861 of consumption. She was buried in the cemetery at Kyneton, Victoria with Isabella. Her surviving offspring were Catherine aged 16 years, and Margaret Jane aged 4 years. She had lived in Victoria for twenty years.