For many years George Laws born 1826 in Surrey to John Laws & Hannah Murray remained a mystery man. What had I found about him? He was born and he died. I needed to find out more about this elusive character.
He was baptised on September 28, 1831 at St George in the East in Middlesex England along with 3 siblings ( Selina, Amelia and William). His father John was listed as a mariner. (1) By 1841 Hannah was living in James Place Stepney with Selina, Amelia, George, William( my great great grandfather), another daughter Hannah as well as Priscilla Heby aged 6 years. Hannah was a seamstress and the 2 older girls were servants.(2)
Then we have a gap in George's story as I couldn't find him in the 1851 or 1861 census but I did have a death certificate for 1872 (3) and that he was buried in Dalbonie Queensland and had a wife Maria Laws and one deceased female child and parents John Laws & Hannah Murray. I searched and searched for a marriage to Maria in London in 1850 that was recorded on his death certificate( and here too as we know not to trust everything on records as being true.) and immigration records for Australia seeing as the death certificate said he'd been in the colony for 19 years and nothing came to light.
However my friend Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper did shed a little light on his life. He had a publican's licence in 1871 at Hurley's Rush but wanted to change it to Native Bee Rush just 12 miles from Clermont, Queensland.(4) It looks like the publican's licence was the death of him as he died of alcoholic poisoning.
On Feb 23 in 1872 he paid 10 shillings for a miner's right (5)for the Peak Downs goldfields so perhaps he was going to look for gold there as he had had a miner's right for Clermont issued in 1871(6) as there had been a discovery in 1861. Perhaps he was unsuccessful in Clermont and wanted to try his luck at Peak Downs. He mustn't have found any as he died on March 25 1872 just one month after getting the licence.
The years rolled by and I was contacted by a distant cousin in California. He said "We haven't got much on Uncle George have we?" So we both looked again and still nothing to add.
Last Christmas my husband gave me an Ancestry DNA test. A few weeks ago I was checking the new matches and there was a potential 4th cousin who had a George John Laws as an ancestor who seemed to be born in the same year and in the same place as our George but he was listed in the 1851(7) census at 15 Alfred St Mile end Old Town London as having a wife Mary Ann and 2 children-Elizabeth and John George and he was working as a gas lighter. Next stop was to check the 1861 UK census. Mary Ann & 3 children now were listed-Elizabeth, Harold and George but no husband George John Laws (8). Couldn't find a death for him in England either. Did he sail away to Australia and have a different wife?
Again friend Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper gave me a hint. In 1868 George John Laws was named as executor of the will of John Russell (9)and then another entry later had George John Laws commonly known as George Laws (10) . It seemed like George John Laws had deserted his wife Mary Ann. Well it was said she was his wife in 1851 but no marriage certificate has been found yet. Likewise his marriage to Maria Hopwood has not been found either.
Now I felt confident enough to make contact with the DNA match. She agreed with me but had a family story that had been handed down that told that George John had gone to Australia and never came back. Isn't it amazing that the family story just tied it all together.
It doesn't look like George married either woman and left Mary Ann to bring up the surviving 3 children and guess what? I now have another branch to add to my Laws tree.
1. London Metropolitan Archives, St George in the East, Register of Baptism, p93/geo, Item 014 Ancestry.com. London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Viewed 30/8/2015
2. Census Returns of England and Wales, 1841. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1841. HO107: Piece: 714; Book: 1; Folio:38; Page:22.
3. Death certificate 66839 25 March 1872 Dalbonie Queensland held by me
4. Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Queensland Advertiser (Qld.
: 1861 - 1871) Tue 27 Jun 1871 Page 4
Advertising
5. Queensland Government Gazette 1872 Miner's Rights and Business License George Laws
6. Queensland Government Gazette 1874 Miner's Right George Laws
7. Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1851. Class: HO107; Piece: 1553; Folio: 787; Page: 24; GSU roll: 174784-174785
8. Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1861.Class: RG 9; Piece:297; Folio: 48; Page: 42; GSU roll 542609
9. SUPREME COURT. (1868, August 25). The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), p. 3. Retrieved October 7, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1328061
10. Advertising (1868, July 29). Northern Argus (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1865 - 1874), p. 3. Retrieved October 7, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article214370980
Stories of our families are like blossoms. Some are beautiful stories full of life. Others are not so beautiful, like spent blossoms. Some are just buds as we try to find more information about them. Other stories may be like the loose stones under the tree-not related to the family at all.
