#52Ancestorsin52Weeks Wk23/52 Helen Kate (Kit) McLoughlin (nee FORFAR)
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| Kit McLoughlin |
Helen Kate (Kit) McLOUGHLIN (nee FORFAR)
Ahnentafel Number 7
The context for discovery:
The photo above is of my maternal grandmother who died before I was born. She is wearing pearls, pearl earrings, a gondola brooch and a rather fetching pair of adorned glasses. I'm guessing this photo was taken circa 1950s. The gondola brooch was bequeathed to me by my mother.
This biography was written as part of the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks exercise devised by Amy Johnson Crow. You can join in too here. The theme for this month is Mistakes.
Amy says:
“We all make them — and that includes us and our ancestors. What's a mistake that an ancestor made? What's a mistake that you've made in your research?”
Kit's name varies according to the certificates you read.
- On her birth certificate, she is called Helen Kate Forfar.
- On her marriage certificate, she is called Katherine Helen Forfar.
- On her death certificate, she is called Kathleen Helen McLoughlin.
Were
they mistakes? I think we can suspect
that the death certificate was probably a mistake. Kit, as she was called by her family, died
before her husband Tom. Tom came from an
Irish Catholic background. In his grief, he may have misremembered his
wife’s
name.
For
the marriage certificate, I think it reflected what Kit preferred to be
called.
Interestingly,
her twin sister did the same with her name.
On the birth certificate, she is called Grace Isabel, but she was known
as Belle. Was this a genuine preference
for their second names or a rebellion against their parent's choice of name? Parents that abandoned
them in one way or another as this biography will reveal.
Mistakes
– I’ve
made a few. More than I care to
remember. I am, after all, human.
This
blog post is a compilation of several blog posts I previously wrote about my
grandmother Kit.
Childhood
Birth Date/Place:
Kit
was born at 23 Bedford Street Newtown on 8 December 1902 (my mother's birthday
was 7 December) - the younger of identical twins to her sister Grace
Isabella.
Baptism Date/Place:
I
have not identified any baptismal records to date.
The
story of the Forfar family is quite sad.
Kit
and Bel's mother died when the twins were only three and they spent most of
their early childhood in The Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children with older
brother Ernest and sister Dorothy.
The
four children were admitted to Randwick Asylum on Saturday 24 February 1906 by
their father Walter William Forfar of Denison Street Arncliffe.[i]
They
were discharged seven years later back to his care on 20th December 1913 and
taken to their new home in Beauman Street Petersham. Ernest was then 13,
Dorothy 12, and the twins 11 years old.
What
would their life have been like in those intervening seven, nearly eight
years? Have a think - what are your
earliest memories? Could the children remember family life before the Asylum? I
suspect that Dorothy and Ernest could.
Would those memories have faded quickly?
I
rely on the memories my mother shared with me which are very few and she too is
dead now, so these memories are over 30 years old. She told me that the twins were very grateful
to their newly-wed step-mother, Alice Bourke, who upon hearing that Walter had
placed the children in the Asylum, insisted that he bring them home. Alice and Walter only married on 15 November
1913[ii] and
the children came home on 20 December.
That's a quick increase in the size of a family! My mother also told me
that the twins were glad never to smell carbolic soap (or was it Lysol ?)
again.
The twins' older brother Ernest also died before I was born, and our family seemed to have lost contact with their older sister Dorothy's family over the years until after my mother died when her grandaughter contacted me.
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| L to R Tom McLoughlin, Barbara McLoughlin, Kit McLoughlin (nee Forfar), Belle Wingfield (nee Forfar) Joyce Jeffrey (nee Wingfield) , Dorothy Peterson (nee Forfar) and Reg Peterson. |
This
photo shows most of the siblings together in about 1953 or 1954 we think. We're not sure what the occasion was. The
twins would have turned 50 at the end of 1952. My mother would have been 17 or
18 years old. Tom and Kit would have celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary
in August 1954.
Who knows?
The back of the photo says in Belle's handwriting "Reg was feeling happy here doesn't he look a bird. Tom looks like a retired publican".
After my mother died, Dorothy's granddaughter Kath made contact with me but her grandmother had not talked about the Asylum days with her family. They were unaware of that part of her life.
Books
My
mother purchased a copy of Frank Doyle and Joy Storey's publication from the
Randwick & District Historical Society Inc. Destitute Children's Asylum
Randwick 1852-1916.[iii] It
was published in 1991 and is a slim volume of 36 pages. It has a Table of
Contents (weirdly called an Index) and about 14 illustrations and a map of what
is now the Prince of Wales Hospital showing the location of the Asylum which
was in Avoca Street Randwick.
Much
of the booklet deals with the earlier days of the asylum and you have probably
figured out by now that my grandmother and her siblings lived there towards the
end of its days i.e. from 1906 to 1913. But
the last paragraph of the book struck a chord with me. It is a quote from "an elderly man who
had lived there as a boy - told to Mrs. Nell Pillars, Founder of the Randwick
Historical Society." (The Society
was founded in 1957)
"It
was always tough for the kids, and we were always hungry. Bathtime was no fun.
The boys were put in a long trough (made from lead) many at a time, and always
with 'Lysol' (a strong disinfectant) which stung like hell! At 14 years of age, I started my first job."
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| Asylum for Destitute Children Randwick by Samuel Thomas Gill |
Journal Articles
Several articles have helped me put the Asylum in the context of care available at the time for children in a similar situation.
Rod
Blackmore[iv]
reminds us in his article "State Intervention with Children- Two Centuries
of History" that:
"Fathers...had
no recourse to support if they were left alone to care for a young child"
It
is often said that men of that generation did not know how to boil an egg. This could not be said of Walter William
Forfar as he was a pastry cook by trade but the sheer logistics of working
whilst caring for four young children would have been very challenging.
Blackmore
also reminds us that "there were fewer families with close
relatives". Walter Forfar certainly
had no siblings in the country. His older brother George was living in England
and his other brother Ernest was living in Canada.
I
suspect that they were estranged from his wife Kate's family at the time. They did place a heartfelt death notice in
the paper but four children would have been a big ask for anyone to take on.
Legislation
at the time favored boarding out or fostering neglected children to families
rather than housing them in barracks-style accommodation. The Asylum and similar institutions came in
for much criticism in the 1870s after an outbreak of whooping cough killed 77
children in 1867.
The Find and Connect website gives valuable insight into why Walter Forfar may have chosen the Asylum for his children.
The difference between the Asylum and the boarding out system was that families could use the Asylum for temporary care, and, so long as they paid maintenance, retain influence over their children and keep their visiting rights. The State Children's Relief Board made children wards of the state and considered boarding out to be a permanent arrangement. It generally prevented boarded-out children from seeing their families.
Newspaper Articles
Searching Trove for newspaper
articles has proved very fruitful. Using
the search term "Randwick Asylum" produces a good deal of results
rather than the full term "Destitute Children's Asylum Randwick". There are 718 articles for the period
1910-1919 and 633 articles for the period 1900-1909. Of course, it is worthwhile looking at
advertisements as well.
Most of the articles describe
the annual picnic excursion, Christmas festivities, and annual reports of the
Society.
Joseph
Coulter was the Superintendent of the Asylum from 1886 - to 1916 - a total of 30
years. There was a school on site established in 1877 and staffed by government
teachers. Parents could visit the children once a month.
Three
days after the children were admitted to the Asylum it is imagined that they
joined the other children at the annual picnic described in the article below.
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| DESTITUTE CHILDREN. (1906, March 1). The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW : 1887 - 1909), p. 8. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229662223 |
Does anyone have any idea what the special electric cars might have been? Are we talking trams do you think? Or perhaps buses?
Empire
Day was celebrated at the local school in May and who knew we used to celebrate
Trafalgar Day for goodness sake??
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| THE BRITISH ENSIGN (1906, October 21). The Sunday Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1903 - 1910), p. 5. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231869091 |
There is not much discernible difference in the accounts of these occasions over the seven years that the children lived there.
My mother often looked at
this photo which Randwick Library has kindly given me permission to use (for a
fee) and wondered if the twins and or their siblings were featured in it.
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| Children in the quadrangle of the main building [n.d. but probably 1909] |
The quality of the photos from The Star in an article in 1908[v] leaves a lot to be desired but my wishful thinking wonders if this is the twins being taught to peel potatoes. They would have been aged five years old at the time.
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The caption reads "Meals are a big feature here in such an institution. We see here an elder girl teaching younger ones how to prepare vegetables for dinner" RANDWICK ASYLUM (1908, June 19). The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW : 1887 - 1909), p. 1 (FIRST EDITION). Retrieved June 12, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229911187 |
Dorothy would have been just seven at this time, perhaps that is her standing to the right. We'll never know.
However, I did find mention in this article of twin sisters as follows:
"Two great pets, small twin sisters, were then brought out to sing for us, for, as explained before, as well as being the hospital quarters, this is the nursery for the very wee mites." (this would have been the Catherine Hayes Hospital building)
The article mentions that there were 165 children resident at the time - 111 boys and 54 girls. The matron was Mrs. Jennings. The article describes garden beds and the boys being responsible for growing vegetables. They are pictured at the wood heap where they no doubt learned to chop wood. The girls did the laundry and made clothes. At the age of 14 children were apprenticed out to agricultural or domestic work.
There are some rather
engaging images of the children going on a motoring excursion in 1907.
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| RANDWICK ASYLUM, SYDNEY. (1907, December 21). The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946), p. 29. Retrieved August 19, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139282335 |
Although we originally obtained the Admission and Discharge records for the Randwick Asylum from the State Archives of NSW, those records are now available through Ancestry.
Also available through Ancestry are Police Gazette Records and it was through these that I discovered that poor Ernest (recorded as Henry Forfar) seems to have made his way back into state care shortly after being discharged from the Randwick Asylum. In 1915 he is recorded as having escaped the Gosford Farm Home for Boys on 27th November.[vi] He was described as 15 years of age, 5 foot high, slight build, sallow complexion, dark hair, and grey eyes. He was dressed in a blue dungaree suit with a black cap.
Questions for me to follow up
The twins were just eleven
years old when they were discharged from the Asylum in December 1913. Would they have gone to school the following
year? Would they have gone to Petersham School as
my mother did? Would they have gone to a
local Catholic school given that Alice their step-mother was a Catholic?
Addresses
Walter William Forfar and his
new wife Alice were listed as living at 1 Benham St Petersham in the Electoral Roll.[vii] Five years later they moved to 230 Old
Canterbury Road Summer Hill.[viii] This is not very far from Nowranie Street
where my mother spent much of her childhood.
Alice is also listed at 450 Oxford Street Paddington in the 1920 Sands Directories.[ix]
Dick Forfar has various addresses from 1922 - 1925 including:
843 Oxford St Paddington[x] and
160 Elizabeth Street Sydney
in 1922[xi]
99
Glebe Point Road Glebe in 1923[xii]
and
wait for it - even a Queensland address! Owen Street Innisfail in 1925[xiii]
I'm not sure whether these
were all domestic addresses or whether some of them might have been business
addresses. Walter William (or Dick as he
was called) was a pastrycook by trade.
Kit's twin sister Belle
married in 1922.[xiv]
In
1928 the girls' father had a rather spectacular accident as reported in this
newspaper article.
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| DYING MAN. (1928, March 30). The Richmond River Express and Casino Kyogle Advertiser (NSW : 1904 - 1929), p. 3. Retrieved June 11, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121266695 |
Note that Walter is described as living alone. His wife Alice is living in Wollongong in 1930 at a place called "Inglebah" in Smith Street.[xv] Upon further investigation it seems that "Inglebah" is a high-class guest house. There's a badly scribbled-on advertisement from the Goulburn Evening Penny Post from 1932 which describes its attractions. I don't know whether Kit was living with Alice or perhaps with her twin sister and her husband - the Wingfields in Newcastle. Walter survived this accident but spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Belle accommodated him for some time before he moved into the Lidcome State Hospital in about 1930. He eventually died in 1949 at the age of 70.
Married Life
Marriage Dates/Places:
Kit
married Tom on 4th August 1934 at the age of 31 at St Patrick's Roman Catholic
Church Bondi.[xvi] I never heard the story of how they met and I
suspect anyone who knew is now dead.
There
are no photos of the wedding to my knowledge.
This is I think the earliest photo I can find of Kit, probably before they were married. I think she looks very stylish.
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| Kit at Archibald Fountain Hyde Park, Sydney |
Kit was described as a spinster on the marriage certificate and her usual occupation was domestic duties. Witnesses to the marriage were V McLoughlin - I'm guessing this is Tom's brother Vince. Helen Reily was also a witness. I don't know who Helen was and I should follow this up with cousins.
Kit and Tom were married by The Rev. Michael Fitzpatrick. He died three years later and this is his obituary.
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| PEOPLE MOURN FOR PRIEST (1938, May 2). The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), p. 5 (LATE FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved June 11, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231028479 |
Kit and Tom's marriage was what was called a "mixed" marriage in those days. She was Church of England and he was Catholic and I think it caused a great deal of heartache for much of their married life.
Children’s Birth Dates/Places:
My mother, Barbara Helen
McLoughlin, was their only child born at Drummoyne in 1935.[xvii]
My
grandfather worked variously as a clerk,[xviii] a salesman[xix]
and then in an an aircraft testing laboratory where he lost his hearing as the
result of an industrial accident.
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| Barbara, Belle, Shirley, Kit and Joyce in street |
My
understanding is that Tom was rather fond of the ponies. He spent most of his weekends glued to the
transistor radio with the form guide by his side. As a result, my mother couldn’t
bear to hear the races as part of the sports news in the evenings and I was well-trained in turning it off the
second they came on. My grandmother was
obliged to work to make ends meet when it was far from fashionable to do so and
my mother believed her educational opportunities were compromised as a result,
leaving school before matriculation, much to her shame.
I
don't know anything about Kit at all in terms of her occupation. She doesn't
seem to appear on any electoral rolls prior to her marriage which makes it
somewhat difficult. Cousin Doug says he
remembers her working in a dress shop.
Kit
was very fond of her twin sister and my mother remembered fondly many weekends
and holidays spent up at Newcastle with her aunt and cousins. Kit always looks
very happy and relaxed in these photos.
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| Kit, Joy, Shirley and Barb |
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| Nelson Bay, Barb and Kit |
From these photos, I can deduce that Kit liked the Blue Mountains, cats and knitting as much as I do :)
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| Kit at Katoomba |
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| Kit knitting |
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| Kit and cat |
Senior Years
Date and Place of Death
Kit
(as she was known) died on 11 April 1958 at the age of 55 at
Gloucester House, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Camperdown.[xx]
My
mother was only 22 years old when Kit died.
The
cause of death on the death certificate says Pituitary Adenoma.
I
remember the story being that they discovered a brain tumour. She had an operation to remove it, which was
successful, but she died of high blood pressure shortly after.
There
was also a story about a family picnic in a park somewhere - years before the
tumour was discovered. A tire was
reported to have come off a car and hit Kit in the back of the head. The family conjecture was that that was the start
of the tumour which grew for years, undetected for a long time.
Buried
Kit
is buried at Rookwood Cemetery in the Independent section with her husband Tom.
Conclusion
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| Arwen sporting her new winter woolies |
[i] Ancestry.com,
New South Wales, Australia, Registers for the Randwick Asylum for Destitute
Children, 1852 - 1915, State Archives NSW; Series: NRS 13362; Item: 7/3799;
Roll: 1868
[ii] Ancestry.com.
Australia,
Marriage Index, 1788-1950
[database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
[iii] Doyle,
Frank and Storey, Joy, (1991), Destitute
Children's Asylum Randwick 1852-1916, Historical
Monograph No. 5, Randwick & District Historical Society Inc.
[iv] Blackmore,
Rod (1998) State Intervention with Children - Two Centuries of History, Australian
Journal of Forensic Sciences
30:1, 5-17
[v] RANDWICK
ASYLUM (1908, June 19). The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW : 1887 -
1909), p. 1 (FIRST
EDITION). Retrieved June 11, 2022, from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229911187
[vi] Ancestry.com,
New South Wales, Australia, Police Gazettes, 1854-1930
[vii] Ancestry.com.
Sands
Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, Australia, 1858-1933 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA
[viii] Ancestry.com.
Sands
Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, Australia, 1858-1933 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA
[ix] Ancestry.com.
Sands
Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, Australia, 1858-1933 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA
[x] Ancestry.com.
Sands
Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, Australia, 1858-1933 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:
[xi] Ancestry.com.
Sands
Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, Australia, 1858-1933 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:
[xii] Ancestry.com.
Sands
Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, Australia, 1858-1933 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA
[xiii] Ancestry.com.
Australia,
Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980
[database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA
[xiv] Ancestry.com.
Australia,
Marriage Index, 1788-1950
[database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
[xv] Ancestry.com.
Australia,
Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980
[database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Original data:Australian Electoral Commission. [Electoral roll].
[xvi] Ancestry.com.
Australia,
Marriage Index, 1788-1950
[database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
[xvii] Vernon
Mark Bennett Principal Registrar, Barbara Helen McLoughlin Birth Certificate, (NSW Registry Office). Custom Id: 3647;
Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages NSW, <line>GPO Box
30</line><line>SYDNEY NSW 2001</line>. Tel: +61 (2) 9354
1370.
[xviii] Ancestry.com.
Australia,
Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980
[database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA:
[xix] Ancestry.com.
Australia,
Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980
[database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA
[xx] Kathleen Helen McLoughlin Death Certificate, (NSW Registry Office). Custom Id: 969;
Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages NSW.
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