• About
  • Best Baby Names
  • Celebrity Baby Names
  • Celebrity Baby Names – Current
  • Celebrity Baby Names – Past
  • Featured Boys Names
  • Featured Girls Names
  • Featured Unisex Names
  • Links to Name Data
  • Waltzing on the Web

Waltzing More Than Matilda

~ Names with an Australian Bias of Democratic Temper

Waltzing More Than Matilda

Category Archives: Sibsets in the News

Celebrity Sibset: Wendy Harmer

17 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by A.O. in Sibsets in the News

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baby name advice, celebrity baby names, celebrity sibsets, choosing baby names, classic names, famous namesakes, fictional namesakes, honouring, Irish names, locational names, name popularity, popular names, products with human names, surname names

8487-1_n

Wendy Harmer is a highly successful comedian, who for many years has entertained on stage, television and radio. She was the first woman in Australia to host her own comedy show, The Big Gig, in 1989, and for more than a decade she was co-host of a top-rating breakfast show on 2-Day FM, when she became one of the nation’s highest paid entertainers.

Wendy is a prolific and successful author, having written humour for adults, chick lit novels, teen fiction, kid’s books, two plays, and the libretto for an opera. Her best-selling children’s series, Pearlie the Fairy, has been turned into an animated TV show. She is also editor of The Hoopla, a women’s news and opinion site.

Wendy is married to Brendan Donohoe, and has two children. Her son is named Marley (aged about 15), and her daughter is named Maeve (aged about 13).

Wendy appears to be yet another star of radio with a bee-lined bonnet in regard to baby names, because she has written an article about them for The Hoopla. It’s one of those “names not to call your baby” lists, which I must admit I don’t usually care for, because they don’t seem to really be helpful to parents so much as bullying anyone who happens to have different tastes and opinions from yourself.

Interestingly, Rule Number 2 on the list states that you shouldn’t use a famous person’s surname as your child’s name. Her son is named after Bob Marley. Okaaaay. Number 4 is that you musn’t name all your children with same letter. Mmmmm.

This article is an “update” of an earlier one, where one of the pieces of advice was that the pronunciation of your child’s name should be clear from the way it is spelled. Even now, when the name is quite well-known, some people don’t know how to pronounce Maeve from its spelling, and think that it must be MAY-vee or mah-EEV.

I do notice that so often when parents criticise baby names, the same criticisms could be levelled at their own children’s names. The most obvious example is that rather ghastly woman who said that place names as baby names were lower-class, when her own daughter was named after a country in Asia. I guess we all have mother-blindness about our baby names, and I have been guilty of the same thing myself – it’s an easy trap to fall into, but luckily I didn’t do it on TV or anything.

When we come up with rules on naming babies which we ourselves cannot stick to, it may be a sign that the rules aren’t all that useful. Just a thought!

Wendy doesn’t like her own name, which peaked at #15 in the 1950s, when Wendy was born. Part of her disappointment is that her mother chose the name out of a knitting pattern book, when the layette she was knitting was called the “Wendy”. She imagined that she had been named after Wendy Darling from Peter Pan, so being named after a knitting pattern didn’t seem so special.

Wendy much prefers her father’s choice for her name, which was Claire, the name of her beloved great-aunt. In the 1950s, Claire was #224; it rose steeply in popularity during the 1960s and ’70s, and has been in the Top 100 since the 1980s.

Now I think that’s really useful naming advice taken from real life. It may not be the best idea to choose a baby name peaking in popularity and about to fall and become dated, or select one virtually at random.

A better choice could be a classic which is lower in popularity and about to start rising, to become very popular in the long-term future. And it’s probably preferable to honour a beloved family member than to name your baby after a product – it’s nice to have a name which has some significance.

Think about the name story you are going to pass on to your child – a knitting pattern clearly doesn’t cut it. And sometimes dad knows best.

PS Wendy did manage to give the name Claire to one of her characters, the heroine of her novel, Farewell My Ovaries.

(Picture of Wendy and her family taken some years ago at Uluru; photo from Body + Soul)

Celebrity Sibset: Kate Langbroek

25 Saturday May 2013

Posted by A.O. in Sibsets in the News

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baby name stealing, celebrity baby names, celebrity sibsets, Dutch names, famous namesakes, French, honouring, name popularity, rare names

blogimport_ahabxp-15ilmslDave Hughes and his family have been on the blog twice now, so I thought we should look at his radio partner, Kate Langbroek (surname sounds like Langbrook). Kate and Dave do the breakfast shift together on Nova, and their show is called Hughesy and Kate.

According to their website, Dave has a segment on the show called The Name Nazi, where he tells you the correct spelling of names, and woe betide anyone called Alivia or Phelissitie. I have come to realise that radio hosts have a whole hive of bees in their bonnet when it comes to baby names, which makes them such fascinating subjects as baby namers themselves.

Kate is married to Peter Allen Lewis, an electrical engineer who now owns a bar, where he works two days a week. They have been married for ten years and have four children together.

Lewis Jan (b. 2003)

If you’re thinking, Hmm … am I reading that right? It looks as if that kid’s name must be Lewis Lewis, then yes you’re reading it right. It was a real fad in the 18th century to have your surname as your first name, and Kate and Peter seem to have brought it back. Lewis’ middle name is after Kate’s father, who is Dutch-Australian. You probably know the name is said YAHN.

Sunday Lil (b. 2005)

Sunday was named after Sunday Reed, who founded the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne with her husband John. Sunday Reed grew a rockmelon plant at the Heide, from which, many years later, Kate ate its fruit while she was pregnant. Kate thought it was so magical that it inspired their choice of baby name. She was horrified when Nicole Kidman “stole” her baby name three years later, when she named her daughter Sunday Rose. She worried that everyone would start naming their children Sunday, but last year Sunday did not chart in Victoria.

Art Honore “Artie” (b. 2007)

I feel as if Art should have been named after the Heide Museum of Modern Art, but he may not have been … Honore is a French name meaning “honour”, and it’s pronounced on-eh-RAY.

Jan Allen (b. 2009)

Jan is also named Kate’s father (such a great name they used it twice), and Allen is after Peter’s grandfather.

(Photo of Kate, Peter and their children from New Idea)

Celebrity Sibset: Pete Evans

29 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by A.O. in Sibsets in the News

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

birth notice, Bonds Baby Search, celebrity baby names, celebrity sibsets, food names, nature names, plant names, spice names

indexThis year’s series of My Kitchen Rules came to an end last night, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to take a look at the children of the show’s co-host and judge, Pete Evans.

Pete was one of the founders of the famous Hugos Restaurant Group, which over the years won more than thirty awards, including Best Pizza in the World at the American Pizza Challenge in New York City.

Recently, he has stepped away from the restaurants because of his media commitments; he has hosted several cooking shows on television, and hosted Channel Seven cooking contest My Kitchen Rules since 2010. He has also published a line of cook books.

Pete has two daughters with his ex-partner, former competitive ski-er Astrid Ellinger:

Chilli (aged 8)

and

Indii (aged 6)

The story behind Chilli’s name is that she was born not too long after Apple Martin, daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin. Apparently Pete and Astrid were very impressed with Apple’s food-related name, and felt that they also needed a unique food name for their child. After running through a list of foods-that-could-also-be-names (eg Cinnamon, Saffron), they went with Chilli because it sounded “fiery”.

Late last year, I saw a baby girl named Chilli in a birth notice, and there was also a baby entered in the 2012 Bonds Baby Search with Chilli as her middle name, so Pete and Astrid may have inspired other parents with their spicy name choice.

Celebrity Sibset: Dave Clayton

12 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by A.O. in Sibsets in the News

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

celebrity baby names, celebrity sibsets

The Hobbit 1Amongst all the media buzz around Australians who were nominated for Oscars, somehow everyone seemed to forget about Dave Clayton, who was part of the visual effects team on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

That might be because Dave, born and raised in Queensland, has been living in New Zealand for the past ten years working for Peter Jackson’s Weta Studios; his first project was Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

As it happened, the Australian media eventually discovered Dave was an Aussie, and ultimately his team lost out to Life of Pi.

Dave and his wife Kylie have two daughters:

Esme (aged 3)

and Sylvie (aged 8 months)

I think this is such a sweet sisterly sibset – two simple, pretty French names that you rarely see, and yet don’t seem unusual either.

He may not have got the Oscar, but I am mentally handing him some sort of award for this lovely sibset (which I’m sure more than makes up for any disappointment).

Celebrity Sibset: Nicola Charles

09 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by A.O. in Sibsets in the News

≈ Comments Off on Celebrity Sibset: Nicola Charles

Tags

celebrity baby names, celebrity sibsets

133717-nicola-charlesNicola Charles is a British-born actress who first became famous on Australian television. After working as a model, Nicola came to Australia in the mid-1990s, and scored her first acting job on the soapie Neighbours. She was on Neighbours for three years, playing brunette beauty Sarah Beaumont, the too-tempting receptionist of Dr Karl Kennedy. During these years she became well known in both Australia and the UK as a sex symbol.

Nicola returned to Britain after her stint on Neighbours, and later relocated to Los Angeles, where she and her husband set up their own production company. Last year, Nicola returned to live in Australia. At the moment, she is back on Neighbours for six weeks, reprising her role of Sarah Beaumont, and revealing further details of her relationship with Karl.

Nicola signed a two-book deal with New Holland Publishing, and is also working on her first novel.

Nicola had two daughters with her second husband, Irish actor Jason Barry:

Freya Lola Sky (b. 2005)

and

Nova Ingrid Maggie (b. 2007)

and a son with her present husband, British DJ Mark Tabberner:

Archie (b. 2010)

Saturday Celebrity Sibsets: Clare Bowditch and Katie Noonan – Songstress Sibsets

01 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by A.O. in Sibsets in the News

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

celebrity baby names, celebrity sibsets, twinsets

clareClare Bowditch and Katie Noonan are two of Australia’s most respected contemporary female singers. Both began their careers as teenagers in the late 1990s, both have won awards for their work, both have collaborated with other performers, and both of them sing with more than one band as well as pursuing solo projects.

They have sung together on the Broad Festival Project in 2005, which for several years toured annually with showcase the talents of female singers. Each line-up of artists would perform their own and each other’s work.

Both Clare and Katie have married fellow musicians who they perform with.

Clare is married to Marty Brown, the drummer from her band The New Slang; Marty also drums for indie rock band Art of Fighting. Clare and Marty have three children:

Asha (born 2004)

Oscar and Eli – identical twins (born 2006)

Katie is married to Isaac “Zac” Hurren, who plays saxophone as a member of jazz trio Elixir with Katie, and has a successful career as both a composer and performer. Katie and Isaac have two young sons:

Dexter Reed (born around 2005)

Jonah Atticus Roc (born around 2007)

katie

Saturday Celebrity Sibset: Poppy Montgomery – A Handful of Flowers and a Rock Band

17 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by A.O. in Sibsets in the News

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

band names, celebrity baby names, flower names, Moms & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog, People magazine, sibsets

On Wednesday we had Poppy as the Famous Name of the week, in which I mentioned actress Poppy Montgomery, who is 37 and still rocking her name.

Poppy is originally from Sydney, and as a girl, was a poor student who was expelled from six different private schools – even more than Holden Caulfield. Unlike Holden, she didn’t wind up at a rest cure for wealthy whackos, but dropped out at 14 to pursue a career in theatre, and travel around Bali with a boyfriend.

At 18 she moved to the United States to meet a boy in Florida she’d met when he was an exchange student. Within five days she realised she couldn’t stand him, and hopped on a bus to LA to become an actress. Through persistence, she signed with an agent, and worked on a number of TV shows during the late 1990s, including NYPD Blue and Party of Five.

Her big break came when she won the role of Marilyn Monroe in the 2001 miniseries, Blonde. She then got the lead female role in Without a Trace, which she took because she’d be working with fellow expat Aussie, Anthony LaPaglia. Currently she plays the lead in police drama Unforgettable, and Harry Potter fans will recognise her from biopic Magic Beyond Words, in which she played J.K. Rowling.

Poppy’s full name is Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donahue, and she has four sisters: Rosie Thorn, Daisy Yellow, Lily Belle and Marigold Sun. Poppy and her sisters were named after illustrations in the “Flower Fairy” books by Cicely Mary Barker. Poppy also has a brother, who is named Jethro Tull, after the band. Also in the blended family mix are Tara, Sean and Patrick.

Poppy claims that she and sisters’ names sound like “porno star” names and that she was “tortured” at school for being called Poppy – although as she could easily go by one of her more sedate middle names, it seems unlikely that the torture was really that unbearable or she dislikes her name.

You’d be forgiven for thinking Poppy’s parents must be free-spirited hippies who sell rainbow banners and unicorn bracelets from a caravan in Nimbin, but mum Nicola (nee Montgomery) is an executive in market research, and dad Phil Donahue runs a restaurant (from which Poppy got fired).

Poppy has one son, named Jackson Phillip Deveraux Montgomery Kaufman, Jackson’s dad is actor Adam Kaufman, who this year was in Hawaii Five-0. Poppy is currently dating Shawn Sanford, a Microsoft marketing executive.

Poppy is also a blogger at People magazine’s Moms & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog where she writes amusingly and realistically about bringing up Jackson on her own.

(Photo of Poppy from Zimbio)

Saturday Historical Sibsets: Sibsets from the Wells Family Tree

10 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by A.O. in Sibsets in the News

≈ Comments Off on Saturday Historical Sibsets: Sibsets from the Wells Family Tree

Tags

historical records, name combinations, sibsets, twinsets

A selection of sibsets from the family tree of Claris Wells. You can see the complete family tree here. Simply click through each page to see all nine generations.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

The Wells Family of Kent

Parents: Thomas and Alice Wells

  • Eliza
  • Ann
  • Thomas
  • Alice
  • Sarah
  • Mary
  • John
  • Jane
  • Susanna

NINETEENTH CENTURY

The Wells Family of Ide Hill, Kent

Parents: Joseph and Rebecca Wells

  • Charlotte
  • Jane
  • Joseph
  • John Thomas
  • William
  • George
  • Isaac
  • Alfred
  • Harriet Emily (Harriet’s mother-in-law was named Philadelphia)
  • Mary Ann

The Walter Family of New Zealand

Parents: Elizabeth and George Walter (m. 1821)

  • Harriet
  • Thomas
  • Elizabeth
  • Henry Shilock
  • Sarah
  • Mary
  • Avice

The Wickens Family of Kent

Parents: Elizabeth and Edward Wickens

  • Twins John Wells Barden and Mary Thorp Barden
  • Barden Edward George
  • James Morgan Barden
  • Charlotte Katherine Barden

The Walter Family of Tonbridge, Kent

Parents: Henry and Hester Walter (m. 1852)

  • Eleanor Avis
  • George

The Steed Family of Kent

Parents: Mary and Robert Steed (m. 1868)

  • William
  • Elizabeth
  • Mary
  • Minnie
  • Amy
  • Robert
  • Hester

The Wells Family of Surrey

Parents: George and Martha Wells (m. 1870)

  • Rosa
  • Lily

The Wells Family of Plumstead, Kent

Parents: Isaac and Sophia Wells (m. 1870)

  • Arthur Isaac
  • Florence Ellen
  • Elizabeth
  • William Walter

The Wells Family of Essex

Parents: Alfred and Eliza Wells (m. 1870)

  • Alfred Edward
  • Mary Ann
  • Charles
  • Beatrice Eliza

The Smith Family of Kent

Parents: Mary and Benjamin Smith (m. 1877)

  • Miriam Rebecca
  • Olive Annetta
  • Maurice Rudolph
  • Lillian Wells
  • Mabel Sylvia

The Earl Family of Kent

Parents: Jane and John Earl (m. 1884)

  • Twins Archibald and Reginald
  • Arthur
  • Percival
  • Frederick

The Ward Family of Kent

Parents: Harriett and Frederick Ward (m. 1886)

  • Alfred Herbert
  • Ellen Frances
  • Mary Charlotte
  • Harriet
  • Thomas James
  • Elizabeth Jane
  • Marjorie
  • Rose Emily
  • Walter Henry
  • Frederick George

The Wells Family of Canada

Parents: Henry John and Lavinia Rosetta Wells

  • Susan
  • Henry John
  • Rosie Marie
  • Margaret Jane

The Wells Family of Sussex

Parent: Susanna Wells

  • Gertrude Susanna
  • Cecil
  • Ethel
  • Lillie

TWENTIETH CENTURY

The Ward Family of Canada

Parents: Rosie Marie and Frederick George Ward

  • Ellen Frances
  • Lavinia
  • Frederick
  • Susan May
  • Elizabeth
  • Daisey

The Ward Family of Canada (2nd generation)

Parents: Susan and Frederick Ward

  • Emma
  • Doris
  • Joseph
  • Frank
  • Henry
  • Freda

The Johnson Family of Canada

Parents: Margaret and Joseph Johnson

  • George
  • Rosie
  • Thomas
  • Ernest
  • Florence
  • Elsie
  • Joseph
  • John

The Best Family of Australia

Parents: Sarah and Thomas Best (Sarah was a daughter of Claris Wells)

  • Elizabeth Sarah
  • Ivy May
  • Twins Gladys Maud and William Thomas
  • Daphne Margaret
  • Hazel Doreen
  • Pansy Myrtle

The Short Family of Australia

Parents: Sussannah and James Short (Sussannah was a daughter of Claris Wells)

  • Evelyn May
  • Roy James
  • Pearl Annie
  • Hazel Amy Maud
  • Keith Thomas
  • Myrtle Sarah
  • Harold George
  • Cecily Eton

The Gale Family of Australia

Parents: Ivy and Aubrey Gale (Ivy was a granddaughter of Claris Wells; Aubrey’s mother’s name was Mary Christmass)

  • May Doris
  • Leslie Thomas
  • Roma Joyce

The Douglas Family of Australia

Parents: Gladys and Roy Douglas (Gladys was a granddaughter of Claris Wells)

  • Phyllis Lorraine
  • Mervyn Laurence
  • Mavis Estelle
  • Neville Thomas
  • Robert John

The Best Family of Australia (2nd generation)

Parents: William and Constance Eveline Best (William was a grandson of Claris Wells)

  • Joan Patricia
  • Merylea May
  • Elaine Constance
  • Colin William
  • Raymond Thomas

The Wood Family of Australia

Parents: Hazel and Frank Wood (Hazel was a granddaughter of Claris Wells)

  • Raymond William
  • Barrington Duncan
  • Leslie George
  • Lillian May
  • Allen Burkinshaw
  • Kenneth Victor
  • Christine Frances

The Ward Family of Hampshire

Parents: Mark and Deborah Jane Ward (m. 1989)

  • Aaron Mark
  • Leah Jacqueline

(Picture is of the village of Leigh in Kent – the Wells family originated from this area; image from Old UK Photos)

Saturday Historical Sibsets: Nine Generations of the Wells Family, from 1660-1960

27 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by A.O. in Historical Records, Sibsets in the News

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

historical records, name combinations, sibsets, twinsets

This follows the direct family line of Claris Wells, who we met last week, tracing it from his great-great-great grandfather John Wells, who was born around 1660, and ending with his great-great grandson Brett, born in 1960. As we travel through history, we can see how family naming traditions were maintained, and altered, and how fashions in names changed during these three hundred years.

The Children of John and Elizabeth Wells (m. 1681) – Claris’ great-great-great grandparents, who came from Kent

John (1699-1709)

Thomas (b. 1703)

Robert (b. 1706)

Alexander (1709-1784)

John (1710-1800)

Elizabeth (b. 1714)

The Children of Alexander and Martha Wells (m. 1733) – Claris’ great-great grandparents

Elizabeth (1736-1737)

John (b. 1738)

Thomas (1740-1816)

Alexander (b. 1741)

Martha (1743-1743)

Robert (1745-1745)

Robert (1746-1812)

The Children of Alexander and Elizabeth Wells (m. 1764) – Claris great grandparents

Rose (1764-1829)

Thomas (b. 1766)

Thomas (b. 1773)

Mary Ann (b. 1774)

The Children of Thomas and Sarah Wells (m. before 1812) – Claris’ grandparents

Thomas (b. 1812)

Sarah (b. 1814)

John (b. 1816)

Alexander (1817-1863)

The Children of Alexander and Caroline Emily Wells (m. circa 1850) – Claris’ parents, who left Kent in 1857 and emigrated to Western Australia

Martha (1852-1936)

Alexander Thomas (b. 1855)

Alfred John Claris (1857-1937)

Amelia Ann (b. 1858)

Ellen – known as Eliza (1859-1937)

Emily (b. 1862)

Alexander (b. 1864)

The Children of Claris and Sarah Jane Wells (m. 1877) – Claris and his wife

Susan Maud (1878-1878)

Sarah Mary (1879-1952)

Alexander James (1881-1921)

Susannah Maud (1884-1972)

Eva Emily (1886-1943)

Clarence Alfred (1892-1953)

The Children of Clarence Alfred and Margot Linton Wells (m. ?) – Claris’ son and daughter-in-law

Douglas Howie (b. ?)

Hugo Clarence (b. 1919)

Undine Margot (b. 1921)

Bruce Alexander (1922-1927)

Ivor Stewart (b. 1925)

Marcus James Pierce (b. 1928)

Roderick Ramon (1932-1933)

Twins Rodney Brian and Neville Brice (b. 1933)

Haidee Clare (b. 1935)

Harold George (?)

The Children of Neville Brice and Dolores Wells (m. ?) – Claris’ grandson and granddaughter-in-law; their children are his great-great grandchildren

Donna Dianne (b. 1954)

Vicki Suzanne (b. 1955)

Kerry Janette (b. 1956)

Debbie Lee (b. 1958)

Gregory Mark (b. 1959)

Brett Ramon (b. 1960)

The records end in 1960 – I presume because we are now in the realm of living Wells family members who would like their privacy protected.

You can see how important handing down family names was, with the name of their direct ancestor, Alexander, being used in every generation until the 1950s. Claris Wells was the first not to use the name Thomas amongst his children, but he did start his own naming tradition. He named his son Clarence, and his grandson had Clarence as his middle name. This is another family tradition which didn’t last into the post-war era.

It also seemed to be a tradition for the names of children who did not survive to be used again for later siblings. This is something which has definitely gone out of fashion. You can see it changing with Claris‘ children, for his first child Susan did not live a year, and he gave his daughter Susannah a variation of her name instead of the name itself. Two of Claris‘ grandsons died young, Bruce and Roderick, but their names were not recycled for future siblings (although they did have a Rodney).

The “Alexander” branch of the family ended up in Western Australia, and another branch went to Canada, so the Wells family spread far from England. However, one branch of the family did remain in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, and stayed there until quite recently. The youngest Wellses in the records are a brother and sister in their early twenties, living in England.

One interesting thing I discovered by chance is that the Wells family has some distant connection with the Armytages of Como House, who we met in an earlier blog entry. It’s either a small world, or a small country.

Next week we will conclude the Wells family saga with some of the names from other branches of the family.

(The painting is of Toodyay, Greenmount, by Edward du Cane – 1854; image from the National Gallery of Australia)

Saturday Historical Sibsets: The Siblings of the Sea-Born Babe

20 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by A.O. in Sibsets in the News

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Baby Names from Yesteryear, historical events, historical records, honouring, name combinations, names of ships, sibsets

This is a story I read on Baby Names from Yesteryear, and with Zeffy’s blessing, I have investigated some of the history behind it.

On March 21 1857, a baby was born on board a convict ship, two days after leaving England for Western Australia. He was named Alfred John Claris Wells – Alfred and John were family names, but Claris was in honour of the ship he was born on, the Clara. It seems that he went by the name Claris in everyday life.

Claris’ parents weren’t convicts. His father, Alexander Wells, was a pensioner guard employed to watch over the convicts on board ship. These guards tended to be recruited from the rural working class, and offered farmland in Australia as an inducement. The Wells family had been in villages around Sevenoaks in Kent since at least the 17th century, and Alexander’s branch of it had lived in the village of Leigh for several generations.

Claris’ mother was named Caroline Emily Minnor Goulding, and she married Alexander when she was in her early twenties, while he was in his early thirties.

The Clara arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia on July 3 1857 with its one very small extra passenger. The Wells family was offered farmland in Newcastle (now called Toodyay), one of the first inland towns to be established in Western Australia. It’s in the Avon Valley about 85 km from Perth, and today at least, Toodyay is a very pleasant country town, an easy drive from the city and popular for weekends away. Back then, it would been just a village, and farming difficult, even with free convict labour offered as part of the deal.

Claris wasn’t the only child of Alexander and Emily. His siblings were:

Martha (1852-1936) She was born in Kent, and was five years old when she arrived in Australia. She was living in Fremantle when she died at a ripe old age.

Alexander Thomas (b. 1855) He was born in Kent, and seems to have died before the family came to Australia.

Amelia Ann (b.1858-?) Amelia is missing from some family records, which makes me suspect she died during early childhood.

Ellen – known as Eliza (1859-1937) Eliza married a local man named Alfred Hutchings when she was 20, and had twelve children. The Hutchings moved to Northam, a town very close to Toodyay.

Emily (b. 1862-?)

Alexander (1864-?)

Alexander Wells died in 1863 aged 45, leaving his widow Caroline in a fairly desperate situation. She was 34 years old, had at least three children still living, and must have been pregnant.

In 1864 she married a convict called Esau Wetherall, a name that wouldn’t look out of place in a novel by Thomas Hardy. Esau was born in London, and had lived in Somerset. At the age of 35, he was transported to Fremantle on the Scindian, sentenced to fifteen years for horse-stealing. He was in the first group of convicts to arrive in Western Australia, and because they weren’t really prepared for convicts at the time, they only sent those who had a record of good behaviour. While in Toodyay, he was accused of stealing a sheep and brought to trial, but was acquitted. At the time of his marriage to Caroline, he was 49.

Caroline and Esau had only one child together, a baby girl who was stillborn in 1865. This was Claris’ half-sister.

Esau had been married before – his first wife was Mary Mallaby, and they were married in Toodyay the same year that the Wells family had arrived, in 1857, just after Esau was granted his ticket of leave. Mary died in 1864, so like Caroline, Esau had been left widowed and no doubt in equally desperate circumstances.

Esau and Mary had five children together, and these were Claris’ step-siblings.

Sarah (1858-1874) Sarah died when she was only 16 years old.

Mary Ann (b. 1859-1941) Mary married a man named Donald Lee when she was 18, and had fourteen children. She lived her whole life in Toodyay.

Ellen – known as Elizabeth (1861-1941) Elizabeth married a man named Thomas McKnoe when she was 17 and had eleven children. She was living in Perth when she died.

Twins Edwin and Frederick (1864-1864) Mary left behind her newborn twins when she died, and it’s not surprising they only lived for a few months. It’s very possible that Mary died giving birth to the twins, or shortly after the birth.

So Claris Wells had six siblings, one half-sister and five step-siblings.

Esau Wetherall died in 1889, at the age of 73. Although he has numerous descendants living today, for many years the family was deeply ashamed of having convict ancestry, and he wasn’t talked about or even mentioned.

Caroline Wetherall died in 1905 at the age of 75. However, the Wells family continued through her son Claris, and next time I will follow his family line through all the generations.

NOTE: Passenger list for the Clara is here.

(Picture is of a painting of Fremantle Harbour in the 19th century, close to where the Clara would have docked when she arrived)

← Older posts

Enter your email address to follow this blog

Categories

Archives

Recent Comments

waltzingmorethanmati… on Zarah Zaynab and Wolfgang…
Madelyn on Zarah Zaynab and Wolfgang…
drperegrine on Can Phoebe Complete This …
waltzingmorethanmati… on Rua and Rhoa
redrover23 on Rua and Rhoa

Blogroll

  • Appellation Mountain
  • Baby Name Pondering
  • Babynamelover's Blog
  • British Baby Names
  • Clare's Name News
  • For Real Baby Names
  • Geek Baby Names
  • Name Candy
  • Nameberry
  • Nancy's Baby Names
  • Ren's Baby Name Blog
  • Sancta Nomina
  • Swistle: Baby Names
  • The Art of Naming
  • The Baby Name Wizard
  • The Beauty of Names
  • Tulip By Any Name

RSS Feed

  • RSS - Posts

RSS Posts

  • Celebrity Baby News: Melanie Vallejo and Matt Kingston
  • Names from the TV Show “Cleverman”
  • Can Phoebe Complete This Sibset?
  • Zarah Zaynab and Wolfgang Winter
  • Baby, How Did You Get That Name?

Currently Popular

  • Celebrity Baby News: Alicia Molik and Tim Sullivan
  • Famous Name: Molly
  • The Top 100 Names of the 1920s in New South Wales
  • The Top 100 Names of the 1940s in New South Wales
  • Celebrity Baby News: AFL Babies

Tags

celebrity baby names celebrity sibsets english names famous namesakes fictional namesakes honouring locational names middle names name combinations name history name meaning name popularity name trends nicknames popular names saints names sibsets surname names twin sets unisex names

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Waltzing More Than Matilda
    • Join 514 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Waltzing More Than Matilda
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...