An AHA! rush after years of staring at a blank twig of my Music Hall family history. Albert McDougall 1891- 1964 AKA Bert Bendon

 

It's amazing when you are just going about normal research how you find a little crack in the wall which wasn't there before and it takes up the rest of the day or week.

Neil Power and his comedy partner Bert Bendon (photo courtesy of  collinsvariety.co.uk)

I was following up on some newly found information about a music hall artiste who was born Cornelius McBride but was known as Neil Power. First, his grave popped up in London, attached to the gravestone of his mother and father-in-law. A day or 2 later, while trying to retrieve this information, up popped 2 travel documents for Neil, where Neil was returning to England from trips to South Africa in the 1920s. Accompanying him was his wife Louisa Stout, herself in the theatre.

His comedy act with Bert Bendon was a “nationwide bill topper” in the days when variety acts  were hard-working and sincere. Neil married Louisa Stout of Lambeth in 1923. It is quite possible he met her through the theatre as music hall artists Mary and Ernest Silly were boarding with her mother at the time of the 1911 Census.  They are both described as “Artistes” in their travel documentation.  There is also a record of Louisa and Cornelius travelling back from New York in 1924.

Power and Bendon – some background  from https://robynandthegenies.blogspot.com/2015/11/neil-power-cornelius-mcbrides-scottish.html

 

In 1925 Neil Power and Bert Benton, performing at the Hippodrome in Leeds received high praise as “a couple of talented laughter makers” in a review entitled “Star Struck”. This seems to be where they introduced their famous skit  “Mend the Door”. Bert’s catch phrase of “I’m only an apprentice!” made thousands laugh. (I can hear him saying it with all the gravity and timing it required for the effect.) The skit goes along the lines of attempting to mend some sort of door. They performed this act regularly amongst much audience mirth and laughter. It was described in the Variety Stage on 11 August 1921 as “admirably conceived and played in capital fashion by the artists concerned”.

The production, which had opened to acclaim, had had a large amount of money spent on the staging. It was said to have “a considerable amount of brainwork, much time and pain, good taste and a flair for heating the public fancy”. Although it had no semblance of a story Power and Benton and their fellow artists contributed to the general scheme of things doing several skits.

The review opens with Power and Benton doing a Railway Station Scene followed later by a Hospital Scene with Power and Bendon as the doctor and patient and Carrie Kasric as a nurse. The scene goes along these lines. The patient is recalling stories of the instruments left in bodies after a procedure when the absent-minded doctor returns and asks for his misplaced umbrella. It was described as “cleverly done and highly amusing”.

This was followed by a Waxworks Exhibition Scene and a Recording Room Scene has Power and Bendon giving an old and new version of “Annie Lawrie”  to much laughter. The scenes are interspersed by dancing and singing acts so the boys were pretty busy on stage.  On another occasion at the Bedford, Camden Town they play a great part of the 14 scene revue called “S      how Life”. One scene has them as a couple of gas fitters in a Factory Scene but other humerous  scenes include  a Customs Office Scene and  a Rich Aunt sketch set in  a bullfight !

 

They worked together into the thirties and when the partnership ended Bert went on to work with Billy Hayes  as residents of the Edinburgh Paladium. Billy Hayes was the brother of  Mary Oliver  (Margaret Kerr) who had married Neil’s brother Michael McBride (Oliver and Mack)

So when, Albert McDougall artiste, appeared in the travel documents a second time, I looked further at the name, age and place of birth. I was a little intrigued because Neil's stage partner was Bert Bendon. Despite searches over the years and contact with others who asked if I knew his name etc., I had found nothing. I'd never confirmed Bert's date of birth, whether he married etc.

Travel documents for Power and Bendon reveal Bert's real name

All these years I thought he was probably Albert Bendon or Benton. But in the back of my mind, his name was maybe a play on words, "Bend Down" (said with a Scottish accent) as was common for stage names.

I spent all day investigating Ancestry and Scotland's People as you do when you are onto something.

Baptism details for Albert McDougall  aka Bert Bendon

I had a rough year of death for Bert from an article in “The Stage” archives but had never found his death information on Scotland People because it turns out his name was McDougall! This was confirmed when he appeared again on the 2nd travel document and another website had Bert and Power performing at the Glasgow Pavilion in 1922. So they were definitely a performing pair in this document.

The 2nd document had Bert married to Margaret aged 23. Off I delved  and I found Bert McDougall's baptism, giving his parents.

1901 Census in Shuttle Street

The next census after his birth confirmed his birth location and parents. Lo and behold, he lived 6 or 7 tenements from our relatives, the Kerrs. One of his brothers was a cab driver, most likely for the Kerr Carriage Hire business, which operated out of Shuttle Street. I digress.

His death certificate was available on Scotland's People and confirmed he was a retired music hall artiste, still married to Margaret Kirk Scott, and also matched up his parents with the birth and baptism records. a missing marriage in Scotland's People was found listed in FREEBDM . They married in Camberwell England June Q 1928. 

Birth announcement in the Stage Archives

A first son born to Mr and Mrs Bert Bendon in 1/7/1929 is now identified as Ian Ramsay McDougall born in Shettleston Scotland. This was confirmed by Margaret's death certificate. She died 1972  aged 67 in Glasgow.  

Albert McDougall death certificate corroberates it all

That brick wall was definitely wobbling and I had the sledgehammer to break it down.

Did I mention that I recently received a wedding photo for Neil and Louisa?

Cornelius McBride  and Louisa Stout

 

 

 

Cornelius Neil Mcbride and Louisa Stout marriage 1923 

There Bert is in the back row, if not Margaret, I’m still trying to identify the others such as my great-great-aunt,  Neil's mother sister of my great, great grandmother, and perhaps some of the relatives who were also music hall artistes.

This beats finding a $20 note in the pocket of jeans you're about to send to the op shop. I don't care that he's not a relative or that I've spent years on this. I'm a world-class detective even if I've spent years looking. Finally I wrote to a Don Ferguson  who asked me about Bert Bendon a few years ago. I let him know how I had solved my brick wall and asked him what his original question was. I offered him a little additional proof for his family conundrum about Margaret Knox Scott. Within hours he replied that the family myth was right. 

Well it seems I  have knocked down a second brick wall for Don.

Gosh I’m GOOD!!  

 

Elsa Cohn nee Prestel and James Cohn - Jewish Refugees

 

Having just read a another  book about Auschwitz, I was reminded of a lady who used to be one of our neighbours in our block of flats  when I was a child. Elsa Alma Marie Prestel b 1912 was the daughter of Albert Prestel and Anna Licht in Sonnenburg, Brandenberg. She had met James Cohn a French Polisher  b 1911 and was and amateur dancer and his dancing partner for three years before their marriage. Elsa and James had married in Berlin in 1933. Hitler had come to power the year they were married. At that time Jews made up less than 1% of the German population and trouble was brewing for Jewish people.

Elsa and James Cohn Wed 1933

 

She was a Jewish refugee who departed her homeland of Germany from Berlin before the atrocities of World War II. Elsa and her husband James Cohn born 1911 along with his parents Nathan and Elsa, they were four of the 70,000 people who fled from Berlin to England with the hope of starting a new life before the start of the war.

There they waited to be accepted by another country. They lived and worked as merchants in London.

James and Elsa were in their mid-20s and his parents, Elsa and Nathan, were in their 50s.  They were escaping from persecution, restrictions on money, restrictions on moving their money, and were lucky enough not to end up being murdered in ghettos or taken to German concentration camps for a certain death and James and his father were merchants in London during their wait.

Shipping List "Jervis Bay" 1939

   

They left London for Sydney  along with other Stateless  Germans, Poles, Croations etc on the “Jervis Bay” around  April 1939.

Elsa and James arrived in Sydney in mid May on the “Jervis Bay”.  I believe his brother and sister in law had already arrived as well. After living for a short while in inner-city Sydney, they were supported by the Australian Jew Welfare Society. There, they received some farm training from the Chelsea Park Farm in northwest Sydney. Being German and with war brewing, they were heavily scrutinised by locals.

Local charities helped them form a tight-knit community, which was essential for survival as they were. Later in 1939, they were supported by refugee settlement support services with some financial assistance from the Australian Government. In 1939, the Hebrew Standard reported that they had departed the Chelsea Park Training Farm for work in the country as a married couple. The Cohn’s moved to Goulburn on a farm employment scheme, but they soon returned to Sydney and worked in various positions. Elsa was a dressmaker and James  previously, a French polisher became a Salesman.

The Hebrew Standard 1939

During the war, James enlisted with the CMF, the Citizens Military Force, as a private in the Employment Company where he spent 1,200 days from 1942 to 1945.

After his stint in the CMF, Elsa and James applied for their Certificates of Naturalisation as stateless persons in September 1945. They began living in Edgecliff Road, Woollahra next door to my grandparents and below my uncle's flat from about 1946. James would probably have hit it off with my grandfather, who was a furniture designer. The Cohns lived in the apartment from 1946  for roughly 14 years. I was born in 1955, so I knew Elsa for several years.

By 1952 James had received some German restitution payments which he shared with Elsa.

I had always wondered why I had not known a Mr Cohn to attach to Elsa. Her marriage broke down, firstly in 1956 when James went to live with another woman  for a number of weeks. After returning, he had several affairs and eventually planned to marry Dorothy Brown, a lady he had met at work.  I read all about it in the Divorce proceedings!

The two apartment blocks they all lived in were like living in “Number 96”. Scandalous goings on but James and Elsa were not alone as there were plenty of people to compare notes with on “how to proceed with divorce”. My Grandfather and  2 Uncles (one of them twice)  had all consulted lawyers about marital issues in recent years.    See story  "The Days of our Lives" at 318 Edgecliff Rd Woollahra

Officially, the grounds for James and Elsa’s divorce were desertion, but the divorce records divulged that the marriage was never consummated, nor did Elsa want to adopt children. Poor old James was frustrated by life with single beds!

Elsa moved to Bondi after the divorce in 1968. Even though we moved in 1960 we still managed to run into her over the years when we visited my aunt in years to come.

I will always remember her smile and the clothes she wore, but cannot remember her accent. I suppose she had one. James died in September 1976 and  Elsa some time after.

Here she is pictured with my Auntie Airdrie, who lived in the flat above her.

                 

 

I started off searching for Elsa's back story, found her born in Germany, married in '33, stateless in London in '39, and arriving in Sydney in '39. She declared as a natural British citizen in 1945, and her divorce several years later provided more information about her. Looking at Ancestry records i feel her parents and brother didn't make it through the war.

I realise now they were most likely good friends of my grandparents, my auntie, and mother. I reflect on her story after the events of Bondi 2025 and growing anti-Semitism in Australia and Sydney. I can't believe some people deny the Holocaust and the events before and that they can feel they can persecute these same poor people years later . No wonder they formed close knit communities. Seems to me the Cohns and their cohorts were perfectly productive members of Sydney society from the word go. Not to mention friends and neighbours. There but for the grace of God go I.

May they rest in peace and I need not say this should never happen again.

Time, Crime and the Tennent Family

 

This story follows on from the blog The Jessies and their Legacy The Cross Family Story

Key people:

• John Tennent (clockmaker, born 1825- 1894)
• Isabella Hutton (John’s first wife d 1860)
• Jessie Smart/Cross (John’s second wife, 3× great-grandmother m 1861)
• Jessie Tennent (daughter from John’s first marriage)
• David Cross (Jessie’s son who becomes a clockmaker)

 

The group coordinator of my U3A writing group, Sandra Fuller, wrote this about me in her 2025 roundup for the year.

“Robyn likes to delve into her Ancestry relating stories of her family and in-laws. Unfortunately, many of the in-laws have turned out to be outlaws! Her research is amazing, but there are dangers in looking far into the past.”

Not this year….. I thought, as I began researching the Cross family history in January. They seem a quiet lot with some solid jobs. Not, that is, until I investigated Jessie Cross, nee Smart, and her second husband, the knight in shining armour, who married her after her first husband James Cross' death in 1854 which was quickly followed by the death of two of her infant children.

Guess who I found on page two of the census?

Jessie with her mother and two children - turn the page  on the census!
Click on images to increase the size

Jessie and John Tennent married in 1861 after he had been a boarder at 5 Amphion Place.  They had all been living in a tenement in 5 Amphion Place with John a boarder at her household. Amphion Place was at the back of Canongate, Edinburgh. The houses was substantially built, 4 story high and in good repair.  

John is a boarder at the tenement

I rather liked my 3x great-grandmother Jessie and her knight in shining armour, who married her after the death of her husband.

 What's the backstory on John Tennant?

Born in Strathaven, Lanarkshire in 1825 he had finished school and became an apprentice clockmaker. He lived with his widowed mother Margaret and siblings, in Strathaven, Lanarkshire, making a living as a clock and watchmaker or so I thought.

John with his mother 1851 census

He'd been previously married to Isabella Hutton in 1854. They were living in 5 Amphion Place in Edinburgh when she died in October 1860. At that stage, she had two children with John: Jessie, born 1855 in Blythswood, Glasgow, and Isabel in 1860 in Edinburgh.

The craftmanship of the watch maker.

John likely worked in a small work room within his tenement house or in a small workroom nearby. In  front of him was a  table full of fine pieces of brass, an oily rag and plenty of metal filings to show for his days work.

In the 1800s, British clockmaking shifted from individual handcrafted pieces to industrial production, with London remaining a centre for precision chronometers while Scotland (particularly Edinburgh) was noted for elegant, high-quality longcase clocks. The century saw innovations like electric clocks around the 1840s and specialized marine chronometers for trade. 

Edinburgh and Glasgow were major hubs for watch and Clockmaking. Clock cases often followed popular styles, with Edinburgh producing exceptionally elegant, refined longcase clocks.  Scottish longcase clocks from this era are often noted for their sleek, thin designs.

There was later a shift from hand finished to factory production and interchangeable parts. Thus, the clockmaker/ watch maker’s work shifted from making clocks to assembly and repair.

Victorian silver Pocket Watch

Back to John...
After Isabella's death, little Isabella and Jessie stayed with their grandparents, Isabella's parents. Young Isabella died in 1861, soon after the census was taken.

Later that year, John married the widowed Jessie, my three-times great-grandmother who was living with her widowed mother, my 4xggm at the same tenement block as John and Isabella were living in. He married Jessie Cross in late 1861, bringing his daughter, Jessie, from his first marriage to live with them.

A second marriage for Jessie Cross nee Smart and John Tennent

 
I was always intrigued that he had a different occupation to others who were either in spirit making and selling, spinning mills or agriculture. He was a clockmaker/ watchmaker, a skill that was passed on through the family. Over the years he had moved away from Lanarkshire and lived in Edinburgh, a move that would be like moving from Wollongong to central Sydney, surely upwardly mobile. That is, until I found a hint about his past.

It was likely he had to move away in the 1850s from his hometown because of his criminal past. Yes, he had done time. He had, according to the prison sheets, been convicted of the theft of two silver watches on the 13th of December 1853 in the Magistrates Court. He had never been imprisoned before. This was his first offence. 

At 28 years and one month, 5 foot 8 inches, he is recorded as being able to read well and write well. The prison officer confirmed he would be with them for three months. So he spent Christmas and the bitter cold months of winter imprisoned in Glasgow Duke Street Prison.

Just for the record in 1853 a sterling silver cased key-wind pocket watch would be worth about $10 to 20 in today’s money. John was probably earning about $1 - $1.50per day. So, his theft was equivalent to about 4-6 weeks wages

Extract from the Criminal record fro Duke St Prison Glasgow

Well, that probably explains the move from Strathaven to Edinburgh. John and Isabella married about 9 months after his sentence was finished in December 1854 and moved into the tenement in Amphion Place, Edinburgh. They probably would have done quite well there given the amount of business there for quality and stylish clocks had Isabella not passed away a few years later, aged 32.

As mentioned before Jessie and John married and moved back to Glasgow with John continuing in the clock making field.   By 1871, they had moved to Glasgow with his two stepchildren, Jessie and David, his daughter, Jessie, and two sons by his new marriage, William and Robert Tennant, who had both been born in Edinburgh before they made the move. Jessie's mother, who had been so helpful with the children when Jessie's husband first died, had died of gangrene in 1865. He continued there as a clockmaker/watchmaker.

John Tennent's death 1894

 John Tennent died of paralysis apoplexy in 1894 aged 68 still working as a clockmaker in Crookston St Tradeston. The two Jessies moved in together. (Note Jessie’s other daughter Jessie had passed away in1881.) Her husband had his own brushes with the law but don’t tell Sandra!

Jessie Tennant, the young girl who had joined Jessie's family when her father married Jessie Cross never married. She was with her step mother, Jessie senior when she died in 1904 of senile debility aged 74. Jessie Junior died in Govan, 1906 aged 51.

Following in his step father’s footsteps…

David Williamson Cross 1850- 1918, who was Jessie's first child from her marriage to James Cross, became a clock maker following his stepfather’s trade. After their move to Glasgow around 1871, David took on the occupation of clockmaker. Soon after, in the early 1870s, he moved to Newcastle in England and continued his career as a clockmaker. It seems he rather liked the large timepieces as he became a foreman mechanic at the Postal and Telegraphic Service.

In his 1873 marriage to Elizabeth Steed, he was noted as being a clockmaker journeyman. In the 1881 census, he was noted as having the occupation of “English” clockmaker. The 19th century saw an increase in public tower clocks, crucial for coordinating regional, city, and railway time.

By 1891 he was noted down as having the occupation of foreman mechanic with the Postal telegraph. I half expect this was someone who oversaw the clock towers in the local post office buildings.

He continued his career working as a postal mechanic, serving for 27 years and receiving superannuation and other retirement allowances of 12 pounds, 12 shillings.

David Williamson Cross and daughter 1911 census

Finally ….

One of my friends once complained that I only wrote about the rosy side of my family life. Today, digitised history records allows this genealogist to reveal all the messy human truth she discovers behind the tidy family legends!

The Cross Family goes a few generations back to Linen manufacturing times

Old map of Coupar Angus

When writing the last story, I must have been distracted, as I didn't follow up on a child for Jessie I had marked as “female unknown”. We genealogists can't help ourselves. A genie friend read the previous blog story, "Jessies and their Legacy- the Cross family story," and she researched the name of the unknown girl I had mentioned just because she happened to have Scotland's People open!

Agnes Ducat Cross death 1856

Thanks  Lorraine.  The unknown baby was Agnes, who died aged three of Tabes Mesenterica, which is an historic term for a tuberculosis infection, swelling and calcification in the abdomen of children. It was a wasting disease. In this case, she suffered for eight months.

In line with Scottish naming patterns, the name Agnes Ducat Cross was something to follow up. Her name would likely point to the name of a grandparent and one of the things that I wanted to follow up was who was James Cross's father. I had selected a couple of parents for further investigation, as James's parents, George and Agnes, and one other. I only had to search for a marriage for George and Agnes Cross, and there it was. George Cross had married Agnes Ducat in Kettins, Angus in 1824. Bingo!

George Cross m Agnes Ducat

On the first attempt, the Ducats were well-documented and extended my family tree back to nine great-grandparents. Another story beckons. So there they were in the 1840s in Coupar Angus in Perthshire a town I knew very little about.

Perth, Coupar Angus and surrounds

Coupar Angus was a small market town on the River Isla, split between Angus and Perthshire. In the 1841 census, the first nominal census recorded, about 2,532 people in the parish, with most families working in linen weaving, leather, agriculture or trades tied to the Abbey and Market Square. Linen had taken off between the 1750s and 1800s, and the town had tripled in size, largely because of linen manufacturing arrived and the new town pike roads boosted trade.

By the early 1800s, Coupar Angus was already a market and manufacturing centre, with weaving as a main work for the labouring classes. The town's economy was built on hand loom weaving of linen, mainly the coarser grades of cloth. Soil was good for growing flax Families worked from home, the farmers grew the flax, their wives spun the yarn and the men wove it in winter. Weaving was a cottage industry throughout the villages until factories began to dominate.

Approximately 200,000 yards of linen cloth were woven each year. Although linen work was the chief employment, pay was low. An able-bodied man could earn about five shillings to six shillings per week in the 1840s, and the trade was often feeling periodic slumps.

George Cross and Agnes Cross nee Ducat

Upon investigating the discovery of these two, I checked the 1841 and some 1851 census and made the story more interesting.

George and Agnes were born in 1787 and 1796. Agnes gave birth to four children: James b 1826, Mungo Ducat Cross b 1828, Catherine Ducat Cross b 1833, and David Ducat Cross b 1836. Alas, Agnes Ducat had passed away, just before the 1841 census was taken, leaving George and his two boys, Mungo Ducat-Cross, and David Ducat-Cross to appear on the census. 

George and family 1841 Census

Catherine Ducat was discovered living with her 30-year-old maiden aunt Agnes Cross b1803 nearby at Borlatch or George Street Coupar.

It makes sense, one of the little motherless children living with an aunt. The other son, James, was living elsewhere in Coupar with the Taylor family as a 15-year-old brewer of spirits. Mr Taylor was a brewer and spirit dealer.

George was a gardener born in Coupar Angus, Perthshire, and in 1851 he was living in Touttie Street, in the parish of Alyth.

George Cross 1851

George continued to live in Touttie Street until his death from epilepsy in1859. He was buried in the Coupar Angus churchyard. His will left an inheritance of 66 pounds, nine shillings, and four pence, to his three remaining children, Mungo, Catherine, and David. James had died in Edinburgh in 1854.

Catherine Ducat Cross 1851- the census which reveals much

There's a bit of a story behind where Catherine was living in the 1841 and 1851 census. She's living with her aunt, who's living with her uncle, and her deceased aunt's husband, John Mackie, aged 87. He had been a linen manufacturer and married to Agnes Cross. Agnes's brother James, aged 86, is an ex-farmer.

Agnes Cross, George's sister, is listed as a general servant, aged 47. And Ketty, or Catherine Cross, is a dressmaker, aged 17, in the 1851 census. There’s hints a plenty about the extended family in this document.

Ketty is still living with her aunt in the 1861 census, in the same street, George Street. Agnes is head of the household, and her aunt Agnes died later in that year of a tumour. Agnes’ sizeable will is shared between a niece Margaret Cross, a local church, a local minister who later married Catherine Ducat Cross, who inherited the rest from her Aunt. It seems Agnes  was more than a housekeeper, but more living under her own means, as she left about 950 pounds to Catherine.

Catherine Ducat Cross and John Barr

Reverend Barr, who was born in Derry, Ireland in 1822, obviously featured in Agnes and Catherine's life, as he received an inheritance from Agnes Cross and he married Catherine a few months after Agnes' death. He had come to Glasgow Uni in 1847, and was a divinity student after graduation.

He was ordained in February 1857. Barr was a popular minister and received an urgent request to join the Original Succession Church in Philadelphia who were undergoing expansion. This was not approved by the Synod and Barr remained in Coupar Angus. Catherine and Rev John married on the 30th of October 1861 in Glasgow. John and Catherine had six children. He died in August 1872. He is buried in Coupar Angus churchyard with many local and visiting clergy attending.

Both he and Catherine are commemorated in the Coupar Angus Abbey churchyard with a memorial headstone erected by friends.

Catherine and John's Memorial

 

“Erected by a few friends in affectionate remembrance of Reverend John Barr, who for 15 and a half years was the original session congregation. Coupar Angus died 4-8, 1872, aged 50. -verse- and his wife Catherine, Ducat Cross, died in 14-6, 1906, aged 73.”

Catherine lived in Glasgow until 1906, living off her own means, presumably from money inherited from her aunt, father, and perhaps a stipend from her husband's church. She died aged 73, and she had been living with three of her children, Agnes 36, John 34, an engineering clerk, and Margaret 32, who was a cape machinist. The value of the estate was 40 pounds.

 

Mungo Ducat Cross

James and Catherine's first brother was Mungo Ducat Cross, born in 1828.

 

Mungo Ducat Cross marriage

Mungo Ducat Cross death

He married Jean McIntosh in 1849 in Alyth and they welcomed five children. After starting his working life as an apprentice Tinsmith, he became a baker for Mr. McLeish. One unfortunate day in 1863, at age 35, he dropped dead at work of suspected heart disease. Although stout and thickly built, he was in the prime of his life.

A well-attended concert in aid of his widow and family was held in the local hall. £2.14 was raised and several locals offered their talent, including the Ritchie Band and other amateurs who entertained the audience. After he died, the females of the family worked in a linen factory as power loom weavers.

David Ducat Cross 1881 census

David Ducat Cross
The youngest of James' brothers was David Ducat Cross, born in 1836. Originally, we saw David at age five years in the 1841 census, shortly after the death of his mother. 

Ten years later, he was working at 15 as a servant farm labourer for the Fairweather family. He moved on to a career as a coachman, stableman. A career a number of people in our family have followed. In 1864, he married Elizabeth Hunter and together they had three children. David Ducat Cross died in 1912 in Dundee.

I'm also interested in taking the parentage back further.

John Cross b 1773-1833 Coupar Angus -5^th great grandfather

So, George's father was John Cross who married Julia (or Emily or Maria) Henderson in 1796 in Coupar Angus. His profession is listed in two different documents as an ironmonger but also as a grocer.

John Cross m Emily Henderson

 

During his working life, he was a member of the Royal Arch Lodge of Masons in Coupar Angus. He was held in high esteem and received an elegant and valuable snuff box in thanks for his work as Master of the Lodge. The Lodge had been in a poor financial state when he took over 20 years before. At the time of the gift, the situation had been rectified with over a thousand pounds in the kitty. In his probate notice in 1833, he is mentioned as a merchant. His parents are still a work in progress……..

Patrick or Peter Corse b1745, Cargill -possible 6^th great grandfather
I have researched the name Cross or Corse. There is enough evidence of a very large family baptised under the name of Corse with father Patrick or Peter Corse married to Agnis Robertson.

A name change Cors, Corse means Cross 

 

In all, there were 10 children, two of which fit in with the James Cross, in the 1851 census living with Agnes Cross, born 1803. James Cross is her uncle aged 86. And another attributed to Patrick ie Agnes Cross, deceased, who was married to John Mackey 86, who was also living with Cross relatives in 1841-1851. More to research.

The surname Corse is a Scottish Midlothian or Orkney name, from Corse in Saint Ola Kirkwall Orkney mainland or from other places in of that name in mainland Scotland derived from north northern middle English.  Cors or  Corse meaning  “Cross”.


Understanding the Scottish naming pattern saw me make some genealogical assumptions which opened up research and expansion of the family story. The Scottish naming pattern goes like this:

So the Scottish naming pattern can be useful in extending the family tree or has it? 

In my case, I think they sometimes pleased themselves.

Understanding Freemasonry; that's another quest!   

 

Next stop the Ducat family……….

 

Who was Mary Thelma Goodworth?

Mary Thelma with Chris and another grandchild at Londonderry c1961

My cousin Chris, who was orphaned while still at school, asked me to find out about his grandmother. She was a puzzle to him and he had been told that she was a Jewess. Generally, women who are from the Jewish religion bring up their children in the Jewish religion, so this was curious. His mother had been Church of England.

Chris’ details about her were. “Her name was Mary Thelma Goodworth and she had a hardware store in the Darlinghurst, Eastern Suburbs” known to be part of the Jewish community in Sydney.

I had to work backwards as it turns out she appears to have had more than one marriage. My father had been involved with tidying up Chris’ mother’s affairs upon her death somehow he had found a few bits of information but the wider Ancestry trees were all over the shop with names for parents, birth details and a marriage to John Kennedy in Mannum South Australia while she was a minor. 

This led me to search for Mary Thelma’s parents and her beginnings in South Australia. One thing led to another and the search gave the tragic story of her mother, her sister and their neglected beginnings.

See previous story on Mary Williams Campbell 

https://robynandthegenies.blogspot.com/2026/03/whats-story-maria-wheelhouse-aka-mary.html 

The little neglected girls from Mitcham…… the story so far

Mary Thelma Wheelhouse b 1908 and Lillian Olga Wheelhouse b1905 were the daughters of Mary Williams  Begg nee Campbell. Their births and therefore their father’s name were never registered. Let’s say they were born out of wedlock and their mother was left to care for them in say parts around Mitcham South Australia. Mary was also known around SA as Maria Wheelhouse.

There is newspaper article that mentions Lillian and her grandfather Mr Wheelhouse in Blanchtown giving a presentation of violets and snowdrops to the wife of the Governor. This suggests they are familiar with their grandparents around 1909.

There is more evidence of her relationship to the Wheelhouse family. Papers submitted during Maria’s admission to an Asylum tell of their accommodation and relationship with the Wheelhouse family.

The gist of this letter has Maria living in Cromwell St Adelaide with minimal furniture, bedding and a piano. Harry Hugh Wheelhouse the presumed father of the girls is living in Kalgoorlie- some evidence of money sent to her is found.

Letter regarding the situation with Mary Williams Begg

Indeed, it does point to a poor situation for Maria and the Children.

As was mentioned in Maria’s story in the previous blog,  their mother known as Maria Wheelhouse was never released from the Parkside Mental Hospital where she died in 1946.

The two little girls from Mitcham were charged with being neglected in 1910 were sent to Industrial Schools and foster homes until they reach adulthood.

Another couple of entries in Government Gazettes charge that Mary Thelma has absconded from her foster home. At this time she is still a minor and needs to be found.

Mary Absconded from Foster care

Later presumably from the next notice  she is now of legal age or found and the search is off.

Mary no longer being looked for

Another report in the South Australian newspaper has Thelma missing for three months. She had been working in Petersborough. Her sister Lillian had sent her a present at Christmas but had heard no more. Lillian inquired of her friends and they thought she had gone to Sydney. A handy description tells us Mary Thelma was described as tall for her years, brown eyes, olive brown complexion with semi shingled thick black hair.

Mary's missing

Mary Thelma makes her way to New South Wales. There is supposedly a marriage to a John Kennedy. A date bandied around in Ancestry is 12/9/1926 in Mannum, South Australia. This is not right as Mary Thelma would have been underage at this stage and besides no record can be found for the marriage or the birth of her daughter Aileen Kennedywhich comes soon after. Aileen Jill Kennedy was born we think around 1928 or 1929 and it was previously assumed this happened in Mannam South Australia.  I can’t access a birth certificate yet because of the 100 years rule. We now suspect she was born in Waratah, New South Wales.

Mary Thelma and Aileen Kenedy

By the next year Mary Thelma is in Warringah Electorate in Sydney. The information I have heard from one of the other researchers  is that John or Robert Kennedy was a merchant seaman from Scotland with a wife and children. He was not at liberty to marry Mary but he hung around long enough to father another son Alan Robert Kennedy who was born 4^th January 1930 in a destitute mother’s hospital in Sydney after his father had returned to Scotland.  Mary is doing it tough raising two children without support and Alan is fostered out to the Carroll family. Not everyone in the family knows about Alan including my cousin but it seems Mary maintained the relationship with Alan as he is mentioned in Mary Thelma’s obituary along with his wife and children.

Alan his mother and a foster parent ?Sommerville

 

In December 1933 Mary married Charles Louis Roland Jackson in a Presbyterian Church at Gladesville. He was a Yorkshireman working as a merchant seaman.  Soon they hear the pitter patter of little feet and little sister Ivy Priscilla Jackson is born in August 1934.The marriage ends in divorce in 1954. According to the divorce papers, Charles Jackson sued Mary Thelma for divorce in December 1954 on the grounds of desertion. The dissolution came about in March 1956. It seems Mary Thelma had left him “deserted” on many occasions. Another excerpt from the divorce files shows a history of desertions.

Charles Jackson's statement at the divorce proceeding

 Read into this what you will but in the 1950s women had few options for getting out of an unfortunate marriage. The man seems to be the disadvantaged one with their lack of conjugal rights but the women had to deal with the expectations of the times, little chance at working,  lack of systems in place and little government support.

Her divorce papers state she only has one child by him, Ivy, and no mention of a step daughter Aileen or second child, Alan.

Divorce, marriages and births 

By this time Aileen had married Richard Knighton aka Moran Gray in 1950. They had divorced after a marriage of domestic violence.

Aileen's wedding with her mother Mary Thelma

Soon, she married Frank Kelf, my uncle, in April 1959. Her son Christopher was born a little over a year later.

She lost her husband when he died about six months later and continued on the path of being a single mother until her death in 1974.

Alan, who was brought up under the name of Carroll, married Elaine Jeffrey in 1958 and had three children. (2 boys and a girl)

Ivy Priscilla Jackson married Otto Arnold Ruhnau in 1957. Together they had three children (2 girls and a boy) and I had brief contact with Ivy before her death in 2024. She had been searching for information about her mother and grandmother who she believed had died in childbirth and some of the information turned up had reached her before her death.

Ivy's wedding 1957  Arnold 2nd left top, Aileen Mary  Thelma and Ivy mid left 

Happiness at last

After her divorce from Charles Jackson, Mary married Peter Bateson Goodworth (1913-1996) in 1958. They lived together in Sydney until her death in 1977. Mary Thelma died on the 10th of June 1977 at Carlton, New South Wales.

Mary Thelma, Peter Goodworth Chris and Aileen

She’s not Jewish
Fast forward, I talked to my cousin to update him and tell him I had found a lot more about Mary Thelma's past. I explained that she probably wasn't Jewish. 

Blow me down. Then he said, “I remember relatives saying she was a Jewess, but I remember her in a Catholic church being very devoted Catholic. She was a convert.”

Apparently, her family had called her the derogatory word “Jewish” meaning miserly. It appears she was careful with her money. Any little wonder, considering her harsh upbringing, neglect at the age of 14 months, foster homes, lack of money, single motherhood, abandonment, divorce, etc.

Nevertheless, his request to find her religion has unearthed her story of her sad upbringing.

Misinformation and more….it was a bit of a nightmare
I had looked up what was recorded already in her tree. She was supposedly married three times. My dad had started on the research after the death of my cousin's mother. I checked out Mary Thelma’s obituary. I consulted Ancestry and she had numerous surnames. Coupled with the fact there was not  a definitive birth nor a marriage in South Australia, as was reported on her daughter's documents. Her children's births are not yet “open” on Births, Deaths, and Marriages.

Upon further researching, it turns out her name was  indeed Wheelhouse. No credible parents' names were available. People had various versions and possibilities in their own trees - West, Western, Daley etc. Differing Christian names for her parents were Mary, Matilda, Thelma, John.  Even the first name for her sister and herself were interchangeable.

So, hitting a bunch of brick walls, I decided after a year or two to check her divorce record from Jackson in 1954. Details were vague on her daughter's documents, also with her mother's name listed as West. The marriage certificate in these documents confirmed her name as Wheelhouse and a comment: ‘never married previously’ helped rule out John/ Robert Kennedy. Her mother was down as Mariam Daly and her father John. So it helped a little.

Facebook genealogy groups helped with checking South Australian births and marriages. Nothing came up. After searching for Wheelhouse on Trove, bingo. I found the Gazette entries around the 24th of August 1910 - three Wheelhouse females. Thank you to the genie gods. Never discount the Ancestry algorithm. It amazingly found the connection Mary Williams Begg nee Campbell and opened up the whole investigation.  

Lillian’s story

Lillian and Mary maintained contact in South Australia as they got older. Lily reported her sister missing before she left for Sydney.  Meanwhile, living in Peterborough, Lillian had met a man named Clifford James Fowler and an announcement in the paper stated that they had become engaged.

Lillian ended up in Sydney, joining her sister. Presumably her engagement fell through before she came to Sydney. She was working as a theatrical artist in Adelaide.

Having married John Sidney Murphy, a stevedore, in 1930 they welcomed eight children. Four sadly died in infancy.

Olga's marriage certificate

However, it wasn't a happy marriage. According to reports in the divorce her husband's habit of drinking and staying out late usually ended up in a domestic violence assault and attacks on the children. Lillian became a kindergarten teacher to support herself and her children.

The divorce as reported

According to the divorce papers they moved several times during their marriage. For the last 10 years of her marriage, she lived at the same address as her husband, but there was no cohabitation and few meals were served nor washing and cooking etc. They divorced in 1961.

Later Lillian married Cecil Harold Denning in 1962 and they lived together until he died in 1978. Lillian lived until the ripe old age of 86 when she died in Sydney in 1991.

Lilian Olga  (from MM Ancestry tree)

DNA works its magic

During the courses of my research other researchers had been networking through DNA matches. Isn’t it interesting when various people for various reasons independently do DNA tests. Be prepared for the surprises.

DNA found from Mary Thelma and Lillian Olga’s offspring strongly match the Beggs family members. In turn DNA from Mary Thelma’s and Lillian’s offspring match others who were looking for answers.

Thankyou

This has taken three years at least to work through. Thank you to those who DNA tested, to those who corresponded with me via Ancestry Message, email and phone.  Some information is not mine to tell so there may be some gaps in information.    To my partner in crime, Lorraine Jeffrey- we made a good team and I enjoyed working through this with you. Thanks Chris for the photos and MM from ancestry.

Any errors in this story are mine.