We all love to hear those stories of finding a message in a
bottle on a remote seashore and how it changed lives. We don't expect to find a
message in a bottle ourselves.
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But when you think about it, family history discoveries can sometimes
be like finding a message in a bottle from a long-gone person. This was brought
home to me last week when I found a short notice in the "Missing Friends,
Messages Etc" section of the Argus
running on 16th, 17th and 18th July 1857. It reads:
CATHERINE DORNEY acquaints her sister Margaret, wife of John Brown,
blacksmith, of her arrival. Mr. O'Hara's, Prahran.
Tragically, Margaret had died three and a half years before that optimistic
notice was published. I am left
wondering if John Brown, or someone who knew of him, read the notice and delivered
the sad news of Margaret's death to Catherine.
Margaret Dorney was my third great grandmother. She had
married John Brown, a blacksmith, in Cork, Ireland in 1841. They immigrated to Australia in 1842 and
lived in Melbourne and Adelaide.
Margaret died of consumption in Melbourne in 1853 leaving a family of four children,
one of whom was named Catherine and known as Kitty.
Until now I knew nothing of Margaret's family in
Ireland. But that little notice, so full
of joyful anticipation, led me to her sister almost 161 years after it was
published. I've learned that Catherine was just 17 when she arrived in
Australia and so may not even have been born when Margaret left Ireland.
I'd like to find Catherine's descendants, if any exist. Perhaps we can meet one day and remember our Irish
grandmothers who were sisters - destined never to know each other. And then
I'll feel that Catherine's notice in the Argus,
like a message in a bottle, has found a destination and played its part in the Dorney
family history.
