What a tough lot this family have been to crack!! And while finally, after many years, I am at last making in-roads with my Corvan research, there are double the mysteries now as when I first started in the mid- 1980’s.
Back then I remember writing an introduction to my maternal grandmother’s family history….something along the lines of ‘ Ivy Ellen Brown hails from a family that is 100% English in its heritage’, written almost apologetically that there were no Irish or Scots ancestors to spice things up.
There was the tantalizing family story that mentioned a ‘bad-tempered, red-haired Spanish gypsy g-g grandmother’ (not too sure about how many ‘g-g’s in the prefix!) lurking somewhere in the Brown family’s past, but apart from that titbit, I was on my own with only my grandmother’s parents’ names to start with….John George ‘Jack’ Brown and Charlotte Willett.
The Willetts have spread far and wide throughout Australia since the arrival of James Willett and his wife Isabella Standen in 1841, and the family had been well documented before I even started my research. The Brown family also thrived, although by the time I became interested in the family story, my grandmother and all of her siblings had passed away. I have since found some relations that descend from siblings of Jack Brown, but I have been pretty much on my own whilst chipping away at the Brown story.
Jack Brown’s birth certificate told me that he had been born on October 24, 1873, at Bagshot, a small town in the goldmining region of Victoria. His parents were a 37 year old miner, Robert Brown, who originated from County Durham, and 22 year old Rosa Corvan, from London. At the time of his birth, he had a sister, Penelope, who was 2 years & 8 months old.
I very quickly found all of Jack Brown’s siblings, and fleshed out their family stories by writing to Beryl Barnett, the daughter of Jack’s sister, Margaret Brown.
I found that Jack’s father Robert had died at the age of 59 on 29 October, 1894, at Kamarooka, of heart disease. He left his wife Rosa with nine children ranging in age from 24 years to 1½ years. Further information on his death certificate stated that he had been in Victoria for 34 years, and that his parents were John W. Brown and Penelope Gray. This surname ‘GRAY’ caught my attention, as on Robert’s 1869 marriage certificate, I had interpreted his mother’s name as Penelope ‘GEORGE’ due to a poor quality copy making it very difficult to read.
The IGI index was duly consulted with no luck at all, and the Brown family consigned forever into the ‘too-hard’ basket until a ramble through the internet one day located some indexes for Durham. Half-heartedly, I ventured into the site, and soon was shouting ‘WOO HOO!!!!’ as an entry leapt out at me….
‘ March 19, 1836, marriage of John Brown to Penelope Gray’, from the Pittington Marriage Registers, 1575-1837.
Their son Robert was born at Haswell, Durham, according to his marriage certificate, which was near Pittington. John was a miner like his son, and apparently miners moved from town to town for work very frequently. Between 1831 and 1841, the population of Pittington rose from 1632 to 2295, the rapid increase being due to the progress of the collieries in the district.
Consulting the IGI again, there was no Penelope Gray in Pittington, but records only extended to 1813. There was a John Brown, born June 4, 1809, baptised Nov 19, 1809, at Pittington, to John Brown and Mary Tiplady. Other siblings were Ann 1796; Thomas 1798; Mary 1799; Eleanor 1801; Elizabeth 1805 and Robert 1811.
John Brown and Mary Tiplady were married at Kelloe on March 19, 1796. I have no proof at all that this couple and their family are mine – all I can do is keep them on file and hope to verify ‘ownership’ or otherwise in the future.
I think I have located a possible entry for my Robert Brown’s emigration details….in October 1861, the ship ‘Prince Of The Seas’ arrived in Victoria, and on board was 25 year old Robert Brown. Also on board were 21 year old James Brown and 27 year old Mary Brown – related? Who knows?! This Robert was born in c. 1836, the same year as mine. His year of arrival also exactly coincides with the year of arrival stated on my Robert’s death certificate.
Back to the IGI, there at last emerged an entry for Robert Brown, born August 3, 1836, Moorsley, Durham, to John Brown and Penelope. It wasn’t an actual church index record, but an entry submitted by a member of the LSD church, and so cannot be taken as ‘gospel’.
On the Corvan side, I have the unusual situation of being stuck on research in Australia, whilst making progress overseas. The marriage certificate of Rosa Corvan to Robert Brown supplied the initial information…. on September 27,1869, at Bridgewater, Victoria, Rosa Corvan, an eighteen year old Londoner, was married to Robert Brown, 15 years her senior. Her parents were Anthony Edward Corvan, a commercial traveller, and Mary Healy. They were not around at the time of the wedding, as Rosa was living with her elder sister Ellen Matthewson, at Bridgewater, and her brother-in-law, Thomas J. Mathewson gave written consent for the wedding to go ahead as he was legal guardian of the bride, and she was a minor. Prior to the marriage her usual address was Huntly, as was Robert’s.
The last actual record I could find for Anthony and Mary Corvan in Australia was the death certificate of their infant son who was born in Victoria after their immigration. Anthony James Corvan had been born at New Chum Gully in 1856, to 36 year old store keeper Anthony Edward Corvan and 30 year old Mary Healy.
Sixteen days later, poor little Anthony was dead, the victim of a 10 hour bout of convulsions. His father registered the burial at Sandhurst the next day, describing himself as ‘storekeeper, New Chums Gully’. From this point, I have found no record of Anthony, his wife Mary or their daughter Mary. Daughters Ellen and Rosa married and raised families in central Victoria. First child, Catherine Mary, had died in London prior to their leaving the city, as had a son John at three months.
Just what happened to Anthony, Mary and young Mary after 1856 was anyone’s guess. Their deaths were not to be found in the Victorian indexes, or those from NSW. The South Australian and Queensland indexes were checked with no result. I thought that perhaps they ended up in another Australian state, or even returned to England, although their deaths were not to be found there, either.
The IGI has never been helpful with the Corvan family- in fact, details on the Corvan family world-wide are very thin on the ground. Anthony Edward Corvan had stated on his son Anthony’s birth certificate that he and Mary had married on June 4, 1844, at Lincolns Inn Fields, London, England. I had this piece of information for years before finally, in June of 2003, I finally acted on it. The English BDM indexes came on line for a small price, and at last I had the index number needed to order the marriage certificate of Anthony Corvan and Mary Healy.
Well, euphoria erupted 3 weeks later when the certificate arrived ….. on June 4, 1844, in the Sardinian Catholic Chapel in the districts of St. Giles In The Fields and St. George, Bloomsbury, Anthony Edward Corvan, full age, a bachelor of 16 Adam’s Row, Hampstead Road, occupation baker, was married to Mary Healy, a minor, of 184 High Holborn. Best of all, their fathers were named as Patrick Corvan, a coal merchant, and David Healy, an undertaker!!!!!! Witnesses to the ceremony were Rosa Corvan and John Corvan.
They were Catholics!!! My Corvans were Catholics!!! I was absolutely gobsmacked…. my Nan Oakley (Ivy Ellen Brown), who initially refused to go to my mother’s wedding because it was in a Catholic Church, had a strong Catholic heritage starting as recently as her grandmother!! I have no idea as to why the Corvans didn’t retain their Catholicism when they immigrated to Australia…perhaps the parents did, but the daughters Ellen and Rosa married into the Wesleyan and Presbyterian faiths respectively, and none of their children were raised as Catholics.
Prior to obtaining Anthony Corvan’s marriage certificate, I had purchased the marriage certificate of a Rosa Corvan, who had married in the St. Pancras district of London in 1848. The name ‘Rosa Corvan’ was too much of a coincidence for her not to be mine, I thought, but when it arrived and showed that the marriage to Edward Corish took place at St. Aloysius Chapel according to the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic church, I lost some of my certainty…my Corvans certainly weren’t Catholic, or so I thought!
Once I received Anthony’s certificate, I had another good look at Rosa’s, and bingo! She was the daughter of Patrick Corvan, a merchant who at the time of the marriage was deceased. Her age was given as 23 years, and she lived at Stanhope Terrace, St. Pancras, London. Witness to the event was John Corvan, also of Stanhope Terrace.
So now I had two siblings, Anthony Edward Corvan, born in London c. 1819-20, and Rosa Corvan, born c. 1825, whose father Patrick was a coal merchant who had died prior to Rosa’s marriage in 1848.
Chances were that John Corvan, who was a witness at both Anthony’s and Rosa’s weddings, was also a brother, so it was back to the internet to do a search on the Free BDM site for all London Corvans. This site was terrific, but still very incomplete at that early stage. It was, however, a handier tool for me to search for my Corvans than the usual IGI, as Catholic records are not very well covered by the IGI site.
A Mary Louisa Corvan was married in the St. Pancras district in the June Quarter of 1844 – the same time and area as Anthony Corvan. John Corvan was married in the June quarter of 1840, in the Bloomsbury district; Ann Corvan in December quarter 1841, Bloomsbury; John Corvan in September quarter 1844, St. Pancras; and Patrick Stephen in March quarter 1846, St. Giles.
I ordered the marriage certificates of Mary, Ann, Patrick, and the two Johns , and they were all siblings of my Anthony Edward Corvan, with the exception of one of the two John Corvans. Early deaths possibly connected to my Corvans were Ann Corvan died Bloomsbury 1839; Anthony Corvan died September quarter 1856, Strand; and Catherine Mary Corvan , who died in December quarter, 1845, St. Pancras district. The latter is definitely mine – she was the first born child of Anthony Corvan and Mary Healy who died in infancy. The Ann Corvan proved to be my Anthony's mother.
On the Healy side, once I recovered from the shock of having an undertaker ancestor, I hunted on the U.K. Public Record Office site for a will for a David Healy (a search for any Corvans at all drew a blank). I couldn’t believe it when the search returned a positive hit for David Healy, undertaker, of Bloomsbury, dated 22 March, 1844.
Amongst other things, David mentioned his wife, Ellen Healy, a son James and a daughter, Mary. The latter is my great-great-great grandmother who married Anthony Corvan and found herself half way across the other side of the earth with a young family. David Healy also mentioned two granddaughters in his will, Ellen and Sarah Healy.
The U.K death index has an entry for David Healy in the March ¼ of 1844, registered at Bloomsbury (Vol:1 page 46 ).
The chase is still in full flight….these words are just a preface to the beginning of the documentation – after all these years – of my Corvan Story.
No comments:
Post a Comment