Daisy Meehan is another Meehan child whose birth is shrouded in a little mystery.Like her siblings Michael and Patrick, I couldn't find her birth certificate in the Victorian BDM index. Her death index entry stated that she was 81 years old when she died in 1970, putting her year of birth as c. 1888-89.
Once I located her brother Michael's birth under their mother's maiden name of 'Harris', I searched for Daisy under the same criteria. Sure enough there was a match...on August 29, 1887, at the Women's Hospital in Carlton, 19 year old Annie Harris had given birth to a daughter named Daisy Grace Harris. Annie's birthplace was stated as being New South Wales, which is incorrect, but Annie's age is right as is the name of her baby and the year of birth. The Women's Hospital was a safe place for unmarried mothers to give birth without too many questions being asked- note that on the birth entries page above,of the five births at the Women's Hospital, four were children without fathers named.Although Daisy was given the middle name of 'Grace', she always used the second name 'Teresa' instead-perhaps it was her confirmation name.
Daisy Meehan was days away from her sixth birthday when her parents married on August 24, 1893.Her schooling was done in Yarrawonga,most likely at the Catholic Convent School with her siblings.
I have always had a soft spot for Daisy Meehan...I love her name, and she was named in a newspaper article as one of the bridesmaids of my great-grandmother Bridget Mary Bourke at her marriage to Paddy Sheridan at Tungamah in 1898.
Daisey herself married a grocer by the name of Henry Stanley White, known as 'Stan', in 1915.They had two daughters that I know of: Jean Harris White (married Daniel Fitzpatrick) and Nancy.
The Electoral Rolls again helped me to trace Daisy's life up until 1954:
1931: Daisy Teresa White, Victoria Street, Kerang. Home Duties.
Henry Stanley White, as above, grocer.
1936: 40 Ferras Place, Albert Park.
Daisy Teresa White, home duties.
Henry Stanley White, grocer.
1937: 12 York Street, Prahran.
Daisy Teresa White, home duties.
Henry Stanley White, grocer.
Jean Harris White, sales.
1942: 102 Brunswick Street, Carlton
Daisy Teresa White, home duties.
Henry Stanley White, grocer.
1949: 102 Brunswick Street, Carlton.
Entries for Daisy Teresa and Henry Stanley White are crossed out with "Oakleigh" written over them.
1954: 246 Barkly Street, Fitzroy North.
Daisy Teresa White, home duties.
Henry Stanley White, foreman.
Daisy Teresa Meehan White died in 1970 at the age of about 81 years.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Children of Michael Meehan and Annie Harris.
The birth certificate of Michael Meehan can be seen above, and it immediately becomes obvious why I could never find his birth certificate under the name 'Meehan'...he was born on March 4, 1891,almost two and a half years before his parent's marriage, and registered with his mother's maiden name of 'Harris'.
I could also not find the birth of his sister, Daisy Meehan, and after finding Michael as 'Harris' I located a likely entry for Daisy's birth also...Daisy Grace Harris born 1887, Carlton, no father mentioned. Our Daisy Meehan was born c. 1888,according to her death certificate, so this is most likely her.
Michael Harris was known always as Michael John Meehan. He grew up in Yarrawonga and after his schooling was completed became a clerk. He enlisted for World War 1 on November 12, 1914, at the age of 23 years and 8 months. He was described on enlistment as " 5 feet 7 and 3/4 inches height; 10 stone 3 pounds; florid complexion; grey eyes; brown hair; Roman Catholic." He was lucky enough to survive the battlefields of France, unlike his brother Patrick, and returned home to Australia in November 1918.
The electoral rolls show that Michael, after his return from the War, moved to 12 Park Street, St. Kilda West, and there he remained, working as a clerk, for the years 1924, 1931, 1936, 1937, 1943, 1949 and finally the last available online roll in 1954.
Michael John Meehan died in Thornbury, Victoria, in 1958, aged 67 years.He never married as far as I can ascertain.
Annie Harris, wife of Michael Meehan.
Annie Harris (pictured above) was born in the Lethbridge district of Victoria in 1868, the daughter of Henry Harris and his wife Annie Hoskins. Henry and his wife had married in Victoria in 1857, and had the following children:
1861: Mary Harris born Native Creek, Victoria
1863: Georgina Harris, born Meredith.
1865: Henry Harris, born Meredith
1868: Ann Harris born Lethbridge
1871: Sarah Harris born Meredith
1873: Margaret Elizabeth born Meredith.
Annie Harris married Michael Meehan in 1893 and had a family comprising of four daughters and six sons.
Michael Meehan, only son of Paddy Meehan and Mary Mockler.
Above: Michael Meehan as an elderly man. At the time this photo was taken, he was bed-ridden with arthritis, a legacy of his shearing days.
I have not been able to locate a birth certificate for Michael Meehan, the second of three children and only son born to Paddy Meehan and Mary Mockler.He was born in c. 1857 in Kilmore, and was a little boy of only two or three when his mother was found dead in the bottom of a well near their home.
It is not known whether little Michael remained with his father after the death of his mother, or whether he was raised by his father's widowed sister, Judith Meehan Bourke, who also lived in Kilmore.It is known amongst the descendants of Michael Meehan that there was an irreparable rift between Paddy Meehan and his son, and that in his father's will Michael was left "a shilling and a shot gun".I favour the scenario of Michael livng with his father and sister, and the falling out with his father coming later when Michael was a grown man.
At the time of his marriage Michael Meehan was residing in Yarrawonga while his only living sibling, sister Mary Honora Meehan, lived with their father on the Dairy Creek property near Yea, and after her 1881 marriage to Michael Coonan she remained in the Yea district.
In 1893, two years before his father's death, 35 year old Michael Meehan married Annie Harris, 24, at the Catholic Church in Yarrawonga. Annie brought to the marriage three children- Daisy who was almost six, Michael who was two years and a two month old baby who had been registered as 'John Harris' but raised as 'Patrick Meehan'.All three of these children were registered as 'Harris', with no father's name stated, but were raised with the name 'Meehan' as part of the Meehan family.
Michael and Annie had a large family of ten children,including the three born prior to their marriage, and Michael worked very hard as a labourer and shearer to support his family. Electoral Rolls for 1903, 1909, 1914 and 1919 show Michael Meehan, labourer, and Annie Meehan, home duties, living in Yarrawonga, the 1919 Roll specifying their address as Telford Street, Yarrawonga.
In 1924 the family were shown as living at 28 Penders Street,Northcote, which is a suburb of Melbourne:
1924: 28 Penders Street
Michael Meehan no occupation
Annie Meehan home duties
John Francis Meehan cabinet maker
Harry Joseph Meehan grocer
1931: 28 Penders Street, Northcote.
Michael Meehan no occupation
Annie Meehan home duties
Annie May Meehan sales
John Francis Meehan laborer
Monica Meehan home duties
1936: 28 Penders Street, Northcote
Annie Meehan home duties
Monica Meehan home duties
1942: 28 Penders Street, Northcote.
Annie Meehan home duties
Monica Meehan home duties
1949 and 1954 entries were as above.
On May 31, 1893, just under three months before Michael married Annie Harris, his brother-in-law Michael Francis Coonan passed away. This left Mary Meehan Coonan, Michael Meehan's sister, a widow with three surviving children. She remained on the family property, but died herself in 1900, leaving her children-aged between 16 and 7 years- orphaned.
Stepping in to adopt the Coonan children was their paternal aunt, Margaret Coonan Butler, 52 years old, widowed and herself childless.In September of 1900 Margaret applied for the Letters of Administration of Mary Meehan Coonan's estate, the latter having died without a will.In one part the document read:
" The deceased left no husband nor father nor mother nor sister her surviving, but left one brother her surviving named Michael Meehan who usually resides in Yarrawonga in the Colony of Victoria and is a labourer, but is as I have been informed by a telegram from his wife and verily believe at present in NSW and out of the jurisdiction of this court and who is as I know of my own knowledge in very poor circumstances and has a wife and family dependent on him for support."
Margaret Butler adopted the three Coonan children and raised them herself, and the family property at Yea, 'Tara', is still held by the grandchildren of Michael Coonan and his wife Mary Meehan.
Michael Meehan and his wife Annie had their share of heartbreak in the raising of their own family...in 1918 they lost their son Patrick Meehan in France in WW1, and in 1931 they lost two sons, 17 year old James and 23 year old William, to the disease tuberculosis.
Michael Meehan died in his home at 28 Penders Street, Northcote,on July 4, 1932, aged 75 years. His cause of death was given as 'Rheumatoid arthritis, years; Myocarditis, heart failure, years."
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