Smithwick Genealogy

Dedicated to bringing together the greater Smithwick family

John Smithwick

Male 1826 - 1866  (~ 39 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name John Smithwick 
    Born Mobarnan, Co. Tipperary, IE Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Christened 12 Jun 1826  Killenaule Parish, Co. Tipperary, IE Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Male 
    Died 1866 
    Person ID I1521  Smithwick Family Tree | Smithwicks in Australia
    Last Modified 31 Jan 2019 

    Father William Smithwick,   b. 1800,   d. 10 Aug 1872  (Age 72 years) 
    Mother Anastasia Behan,   b. 1803, Clonoulty, Co. Tipperary, IE Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 26 Jun 1870  (Age 67 years) 
    Married 5 Feb 1826  Killenaule Parish, Co. Tipperary, IE Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Family ID F490  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Catherine,   b. 1825,   d. 5 May 1879  (Age 54 years) 
    Children 
    +1. William Smithwick,   b. 1850,   d. 30 May 1902  (Age 52 years)
    Last Modified 5 Jun 2016 
    Family ID F491  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • From Alan Smithwick:

      John was the first child and born in 1827. He married Catherine. He died before 1879 (likely before 1864 as the Irish Death Index, which began in 1864 does not record his death and Catherine is described as ''widow'' on her 1879 death certificate). Catherine arrived in Australia (Victoria) some time after the death of her son William's first wife in 1874.

      It is assumed that this John, who was William's father, is a son of William and Anastasia based on the following circumstantial evidence.

      William was born in Tipperary. his parents were John and Catherine Smithwick.

      Catherine's death certificate records her as born in Tipperary (as does her newspaper death notice).

      William's family grave is beside that of William and Anastasia's son Thomas and backs onto that of William and Anastasia. He was close enough to Thomas to be the witness to his will. Catherine would have been born about the same year as John (son of William and Anastasia) ie 1825/6.

      John is described on his son William's death certificate as a farmer. Catherine died at her son's farm at Lauriston near Kyneton, aged 54 on the 5 th of May 1879 and is buried in the same grave as her son's first wife (Ann O' Sullivan).
      34
      No other children other than William are mentioned on her death certificate. William married Ann O'Sullivan in Cork on January 17 th 1867, he was aged 17 and she was aged 16 (though his death certificate has him aged 29 at the time of his marriage and Ann aged 17).

      (On the evidence it would seem the death certificate was wrong). Ann was a native of Timolegue. Their first son John Joseph was born in about 1868.

      William and his family arrived in Melbourne in June 1869 on the ship Gresham (they were then aged 18 and 19). He was described in the ship's register as an agricultural labourer.

      In 1870 another son, George Francis was born in Kyneton and then in 1872 a daughter Rose Ann in Melbourne. By 1873 they are recorded (Sands and McDougall) as living at 10 Mc Arthur Place. Carlton.

      On the 13 th May 1874, aged 23, Ann died during the birth of another son, James, who also died. They were both buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery in the grave next to that of Thomas (probably his uncle).

      It is presumed that his mother, Catherine then came from Ireland to help with his family of three children aged under7 years (though a Catherine Smithwick is recorded as arriving in South Australia in 1870).

      At the same time he moved to Lauriston near Kyneton where his mother died in 1879. ( He may have been the William Smithwick recorded living at Staughton Vale as a cooper in 1875). He married the same year, Francis Middlemiss (aged 17). They had a daughter, Catherine, in 1883, then another, Eveline Mary in 1887 in Kyneton and finally a son, William Sarsfield in 1889.

      In 1888 the Post Office Directory records that William is a farmer of Lauriston and Francis is at the Kent Hotel. Lauriston

      In July 1901, William Sarsfield died aged 12 years. William himself died 9 months later of liver disease aged 52.

      William Smithwick b 1850 was described on his death certificate (by his daughter Rose then resident at the Sunbury Asylum [resident or employee?] ) as a mining speculator.

      He was resident at the time at 8 Union St.Brunswick. In 1908 his son George is recorded in the electoral roll (er) as living at number 12 Union St.Brunswick, and his daughter Katherine at 5Garden St.

      By 1912 Francis is living at 127Canterbury Rd.Middle Park with her daughter Katherine (sic) Francis Smithwick (a milliner). Francis died on July 1 1942, aged about 80, at the home of her grand daughter, Joan (Mrs. Shapter) in Queenscliff.

      She is described in the death notice in the Age as ''relict of the late William Smithwick (formerly of Bendigo and Kyneton) and loving mother of Catherine (sic) (Mrs.O'Grady), Eveleen (sic) (Mrs.T.W.Brook) and the loving grandmother of Mrs. Mellish (Brisbane), Mrs. Keith Bow and Ellie Brook (A.I.F.) and great grandmother of Raul,Paul and Noel Mellish . Diana and Patricia Shapter and Judith Bow''.

      Of the children of William's first marriage, John Joseph married Mary Louisa Betts in about 1894 (he would have been aged about 26). She was 36 years old and had one child by a previous marriage. They had no children.
      35
      In 1895 John is recorded in the directories as living at Casseldon Street.off Little Latrobe Street while Mrs. Louisa Smithwick is at 10 Lonsdale Street. Melbourne. They change addresses regularly in the following years, with only Mrs. Louisa appearing in the directories in 1896 and at 31 Little Latrobe Street in 1897 and John at 205 Latrobe Street in 1899 and Mrs. Louisa at both 32 Little Latrobe Street and 20 David Street.Carlton in 1900. These areas were both poor and to a certain extent disreputable at the time. John's last appearances in the directories are at 21 Nicholas Lane, Melbourne in 1909-1911, while Mrs. Louisa appears at various addresses from 4 Greeves Street, Fitzroy 1903 in 1903 to 1 University Place, Carlton from 1916-1924.

      It is not known when John died. Mary Louisa died on July 29 th 1944 and is buried in the Coburg Cemetery.

      The second son of William Smithwick, George Francis, married Ellen Agnes Slattery about 1911/12. They had 4 children, John William who died in the year of his birth. George Francis (who married Mary Burden and has children and grandchildren living in Victoria today),

      Mary Theresa who married Jack Quirk and who lived in Sydney and Gerald Joseph who married Maureen and had one daughter (and one grand daughter [1982])

      Of the daughter, Rose, nothing is known beyond the fact that she was alive and unmarried at the time of her father's death.

  • Sources 
    1. [S189] Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915, (National Library of Ireland), http://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000632748#page/136.
      Microfilm 02494 / 02 / p. 136
      Cashel and Emly > Killenaule > 1812 - 1827

    2. [S189] Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915, (National Library of Ireland), http://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000632748#page/185.
      Cashel and Emly > Killenaule > 1812 - 1827
      Microfilm 02494 / 02 / p. 185