The Taits - Part 2

SS Cloncurry watercolour by Allan C. Green (1878-1954)

It's been a busy week and I haven't nearly achieved all that I wanted to achieve but  did have some success....


First of all I ordered a book from the Maryborough Family Heritage Research Institute which turned up very quickly.  Here is a picture of it.....

Now it is a slim volume at 21 pages but didn't cost an arm and a leg ($5 incl. postage) and its authors Judith A. Grimes and Kay F. Gassan had discovered information about The Shenir that I hadn't been able to find, so I was well pleased.  If I have any criticism of the publication it is that it does not cite sources which is a bit frustrating if you want to confirm the information for yourself.  The booklet was published in 1995.  I suspect that the information came from some papers at the Queensland State Archives so I shall investigate further.  But I am pleased to have the book and a bit more information about the arrival of the immigrants from Glasgow.  


In the meantime, I have corresponded further with a fellow descendant of the Taits who advised me that he  had in his possession "a discharge certificate from the relative authorities in 1917 for Sydney (Tait) who was listed as a cabin boy on the steamer BOAMBEE".  Yippee!  Another angle to investigate.  I would show you a picture of the Boambee but it is in copyright, so you will just have to go here to check it out....

At the same time I was trying to discover the link between the Taits and the Linnings.  Just to refresh your memory.....Elsie Coralene Tait and Sydney were the children of William and Mary- Anna Tait (nee Cathcart/Grieve).  After Mary-Anna (known as Annie) died in 1908, Elsie Coralene (known as Coraline) went to live with the Linnings.  We're not quite sure what happened to her older brother Sydney.

So I burrowed around on that estimable source Trove with a bit of back-up from Picture Queensland and this is what I found.....

Linning and Allison Quartet practising around the piano, Baroona, 1913 taken by John Frederick Shale John Oxley Library Collection found on Picture Queensland

Now I like this photo because my sisters-in-law told me that their grandmother (Elsie Coralene Tait) had a musical education whilst in the Linnings care so it is nice to have this kind of picture to help tell the story.  


There are lots of other great photos of the Linning family online including this one.....

Norma, Ronald and George Linning at 'Baroona' in Glamorgan Vale, 1907

 

 

But back to the family detective business....how were the Linnings connected to the Taits?  I thought I would have a look at the Historical Index to Qld BDM and see how much information was there on the Linnings.  It wasn't a name like Smith, so the results might be manageable.  I searched Marriages and limited the search from 1865 to 1937 because this photo indicated that the Linnings had come to Queensland around that time.  There were 19 results - quite manageable.  

I looked at them.  Bingo!  There was a familiar name - Mengel.  James Henry William Linning married Margaret Elizabeth Mengel in 1897.  Where had I seen the name Mengel before?  Well, after Mary-Anna (Annie) had died, William Tait went on to marry Elise (sometimes listed as Elsie) Louse Emma Mengel in 1909.  Aha!  Were Margaret Elizabeth and Elise/Elsie sisters?  Elise/Elsie died in 1925 and her parents are listed as Jacob Friedrich and Margaret Koob so I think it may be likely.


Now of course I don't have any of the certificates yet but I studied births and marriages and am coming up with a rough idea of who was who and who was married to whom.  I think that Frederick and Johanna Linning (nee Lorenzen) had about six children - James Henry William (born?),  Frederick William in 1871, Ferdinand Detloff in 1876, Ludwig Wilhelm in 1878 and Enora Emilie in 1881 and Carl Frederich (born?) who died in 1933. 


I cannot find any children born to JHW Linning and Margaret Elizabeth Mengel so I wonder if they were the Linnings that took in Elsie Corale/ine.  The photo above of Norman, Ronald and George belong to JHW's brother Ludwig Wilhelm and his wife Violet Helen Shale.  They were the eldest of 7 children and  Ronald would have been about the same age as Elsie Corale/ine Tait being born in the same year.


When you look at Elsie Corale/ine's marriage certificate, one of the witnesses to the marriage is JHW Linning so I think this is correct.  Maybe he wasn't known as James but rather Henry because my husband's mother remembers him as Harry.  Anyway, I should order some certificates I think.  


Back to Sydney, Elsie Corale/ine's older brother.  I did a bit of hunting on the Queensland State Archives website - namely the Index to the Register of Seamen 1882 - 1919.  I found a Sydney Tait listed on the Cloncurry on Page 84, HAR/2 Item ID 17909 Microfilm Z2412.  I can and will order a copy of this page in the register for $6.50 - bargain!  It may not give me very much information but I am hoping that it will give us "details of employment including current number/number, date of entry of particulars/date of occurrence name of ship and official number, name, age, capacity, whether engaged, discharged etc., home address (or at least country of origin), and wages."


How's your research going?