The Beyond the Headstones series of posts was inspired after having spent a bit of time in Wangaratta cemetery, visiting loved ones, attending funerals or wandering around taking photos. In some sections I have been known to point at a headstone and exclaim “I know her!” Aside from the weird looks I get from my companions, what I mean to say is that I have some personal knowledge or research that brings the person commemorated on the headstone to life. They are no longer merely a name with a dash between two dates. They are people who can be remembered for the lives that they lived, and not just represented by a cold, mute stone.
This featured headstone is for a family from Docker’s Plains, the patriarch of which seemed to have remarkable longevity.
Byrne family headstone – Copyright: Conversations With Grandma
Alice Byrne, nee Murphy was the first in the family to pass away. Her burial is not recorded in cemetery records as cemetery records for this period have not survived. Alice was born in Tipperary (probably around Templederry where her children were born) in Ireland to Thomas and Joanna Murphy. Her death did not make the newspapers so her death certificate and the headstone bearing her name are perhaps the only tangible reminders of her life.
At the funeral of Alice’s husband Patrick it
was reported that 36 vehicles (wagons, buggies, etc) and 70 horsemen passed through Wangaratta following the cortege. Newspaper reports of his death don’t hint at why this farmer was so well respected, instead focusing on his age, with reports varying between 102 and 104 years. If this age is correct, Patrick was up to 30 years older than his wife and it is likely that Alice was not his first wife.
Long Life.— Mr Patrick Byrne, father ofthe Messrs Byrnes farmers, Docker’s Plains, died on last Thursday, at the extreme age of one hundred and two years. The old gentleman who, in appearance did not look much more than seventy, had nearly all his faculties about him to the last, and was in the habit until very recently of walking to Wangaratta and back to his residence at Docker’s Plains, a distance of some seven miles, almost every week with the greatest ease. He also took a keen interest in all local and parliamentary matters, and read the speeches of our legislators with great avidity. He was a native of the county of Tipperary, and by no means a rigid teetotaller.
Little Alice Byrne was the next family member to be remembered on the headstone, although she had died several months before her grandfather. She was a daughter of Alice and Patrick’s son William and his wife Johanna McCormick and was only two years and four months old at the time of her death.
Death. — We are sorry to have to record the death of Mr Edmund Byrnes, farmer, Docker’s Plains, which happened at his farm, Estcourt, last Monday morning, at the age of 73. Mr Byrnes was a very old resident of Estcourt, but before settling at the latter place had been engaged mining at the Three Mile Creek, Beechworth, from 1855 to 1858. He was of a very genial disposition, and a general favorite with everyone. He leaves a widow [Catherine Murphy]
and two daughters.
Edmond/Edmund is a problematic person. His reported age at death puts his birth year around 1814. This would put Patrick’s wife Alice at around 14 or 15 years at the time of Edmond’s birth. Although Alice is recorded on Edmond’s death certificate as his mother, it seems more likely that she was his step-mother, or her own age at death was under-reported. A birth year of around 1814 would also make Edmond 49 years old when he married Catherine Murphy in 1863 and more than 20 years older than his wife. This is not unheard of, but perhaps lends some weight to Catherine being Edmond’s second wife. Edmond was a successful farmer who left a substantial estate consisting of over £1,000 worth of real estate and £260 worth of personal estate to his wife Catherine.
Catherine Byrne, nee Murphy, was a daughter of Peter Murphy and Mary Malone. She left two daughters, Alice Gertrude who married John Eugene Evans, and Mary Teresa who married John Mitchell Richards.
Byrne family grave – Copyright- Conversations With Grandma
The Patrick Byrne on this headstone is my great-great grandfather. I researched my Byrne family from 2006 through 2008. My cold calls to living relatives who I’d never met, were led by “Did you know you have an ancestor who lived to 103?” Edmond, the one named on the headstone, fooled us all.
Here’s the story in a nutshell. Emigration agents could not approve applicants aged over 49 for assisted passage. Consequently, Patrick, who was about 60, put his age back to 46. This called for his wife Alice for most of his seven children – who ranged from about 38 to 14 – also to understate their ages.
Edmond was Patrick and Alice’s eldest. When they settled at Dockers Plains, his parents lived with him and his two eldest sisters, Catherine and Honora. Then, when the girls got married, and when Edmond himself married, Patrick, by then a widower, continued to live with Edmond.
When Patrick died on 17 June 1874, Edmond, the informant on his father’s death registration, testified that his father died aged 103.
Three district newspapers gave his age as 102, 103, and 104. There was no doubt in my mind that Edmond was the informant in each case. Despite the fact that a man living 103 years in 1874 bordered on the absurd, we all wanted to believe it, including me! There was only one person who I knew was sceptical was his grandson, Bill O’Callaghan, a former mayor of Wangaratta.
Edmond’s ruse was exposed when I received an email from Ireland that the resting place of Patrick’s parents had been located in the Clogher graveyard. This place sits atop a small hill about one mile north of Clonoulty – our Byrne family’s home parish. It shows that Parick’s father, Edmond, died on Jun 5 1828 aged 68, and that his mother died on Dec 19 1836 aged 79. These dates imply that Edmond was born in about 1760 and Alice, three years earlier in 1757.
Now, let’s do the sums. If Patrick died in 1874 aged 103, then he was born in 1871 when his father was 11 and his mother 14. Further, we know that Patrick had at least four siblings born before him: Anastasia (Donovan), Catherine (Hayes), Martin, and Thomas.
So why wasn’t the 103 on the headstone exposed by others in the family?
The headstone was commissioned some time around 1900 by Edmond’s two daughters after the death of their mother in 1898. The girls no doubt grew up with the legend that their grandfather lived to 103. Of Patrick’s two children still alive when the headstone was erected, John, who was in his last years, and William, who was still sprightly. Perhaps William took the view that what done is done, and allowed the headstone, paid for by his nieces, to stand unedited.
BTW, Anastasia, Catherine, and Thomas all emigrated to Victoria – the latter by way of Sydney. Martin, being the eldest son, retained the right to work the farm on the Srahaverrella Townland. The headstone on the Clogher graveyard was paid for by his youngest (known) sibling, Judith, who remained in Ireland.
Hi Michael,
I have seen misrepresented ages in relation to immigration before, so it makes perfect sense. The immigration agents must have been particularly gullible, or possibly turned a blind eye as they were getting the value of all the Byrne children immigrating.
The link back home to Ireland is wonderful and rather the clincher.
So do you think Patrick was born late 1790s, and Alice about 1800? Patrick did claim Alice was 60 years old when she died and that they had married in 1818, which does not tally with the births of Edmond or Catherine allegedly occuring before 1818.
Your info illustrates how family stories become twisted into “fact” and are so difficult to move. It’s so important to debunk these myths, so thank you for doing that so well. I can leave your comment here for all to see, or I can update the post with your info, giving you credit of course. Let me know what you think.
My grandmother was a Byrne of Dockers Plain
Hi Barbara,
What was your grandmother’s name? This Byrne family was quite large and several of the branches lived at Docker’s Plains.