Annie
(1859-1895)
Strain – Collins – Brice
When I first saw my great grandmother’s
name it was recorded as Annie Collins.
She was listed as the mother of Mary May Brice. I soon discovered she was the daughter of
Mary Collins, the widow of Henry Collins.
For many years that’s all I knew. She was the mother of 2 children, Mary and
Frank, and had died aged 35.
This is her story.
Annie was born on July 31st 1859
at 2 Parson Street in Glasgow, she was the first child of John Strain and his
new wife Mary McCormack who was from Sligo in Ireland. They had been married on October 22, 1858 at
St. Mungo’s Catholic church, which was also in Parson Street. Annie was recorded as Ann on her birth
certificate.
John had been married before, and had two
surviving children from that marriage, his first wife having died in childbirth
in December 1856. He was listed as Carter.
By 1861 John Strain had moved his family to
23 Parliamentary Road in Glasgow, and Annie soon had a little sister, Helen,
born on 2nd of March.
But work must have been hard for John
Strain, because the family moved within a year to Edinburgh. John was now a Mason’s labourer and on the 18th
of July at 1am little Helen died from Croup, which she had been suffering from
for 7 days.
The family were living in Stevenlaw’s Close
in Cowgate, Edinburgh. The area was
described “a poor, often overcrowded
slum area” and nicknamed “Little Ireland[i]”
But in 1863 on the day before the anniversary of little Helen’s death,
Annie’s mother gave birth to a son, William.
The family were still living in Stevenlaw’s Close and on the 30th
of August little William was baptised at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.
By early 1865 the family were back in Glasgow. John was still a Mason’s labourer, and they
were living at 136 High Street and here on March 19th little William
died after suffering from Bronchitis for 8 days.
Sometime during the next 12 months John Strain took his wife and little
Annie, aged about 7 to Australia.
When Annie entered hospital in 1895 she listed that she had arrived in
Australia on the ship Sam Laing. I have
never been able to find any ship with that name, but on the 24th of
July 1865 the Samarang left Glasgow and arrived in Brisbane on November the 13th. There was no one with the surname of Strain
on board but there was a family who’s first names and ages matched Annie’s
family.
John Strong - 41
Mary Strong - 30
Ann Strong - 7
I have no proof that this is John Strain
and his family, but then I have not been able to find this Strong family
anywhere else. If it is John Strain, why
did they travel under another name? When John, on his death certificate it says
he was in Queensland from 1865 for 4 years and that he and Mary had a daughter
there, called Mary, but I have not been able to find any record of her birth or
of John Strain working there.
But on the 18th of April 1870 at
Bikham, near Murrurundi in the Upper Hunter area of New South Wales Mary Strain
gave birth to a son, William. John was
listed as being a labourer.
But like Scotland, John Strain found the
need to move around Australia for work.
By 1872 the family was living in Wangaratta in Victoria, and here John’s
life started to go more badly.
In August a Mary Warren took John to Court
for assault. She claimed that John had “struck her three times with his fist, and
also kicked her on the head, tearing her earrings and hair out”. However, John told the judge that when he
came home from work he found Mrs Warren in his house “intoxicated, and singing improper songs”. He merely turned her out, but did not strike
her. The case was dismissed.[ii]
But alas John Strain was in Court within 6
months and this time Annie had to front the judge and defend her father.
Annie had gone down to the local Railroad
camp to see Henry Chambers and ask for money for his board and lodgings. Chambers had told Annie that she was to send
her father down and that he would beat him for his money. When John Strain arrived at the camp he had
with him a stick, which he hit Chambers with.
The Judge found John Strain guilty, but he was only fined a shilling.
A few months later on June 22nd
Annie got another sister, Catherine Helen, who was baptized at St. Patrick’s
Catholic Church in Wangaratta on the 10th of August.
But again death was to come to the family,
but this time it was Annie’s father.
John Strain had been suffering from Paralysis for 3 months but was still
out working as a labourer for the railways where he suffered from 4 days of
sunstroke, finally dying on January 8th, 1874 in the hospital at
Wangaratta. He was buried in the local cemetery
on the following day but with no religious service.
Annie was now 13 and a half and had to help
her Mum support her 3 younger siblings. Mary Strain did this by running a
Boarding house at North Wangaratta, but again death was around and on May 16th
little Catharine Helen died from congestion of the brain after 3 weeks and was
buried the next day, and like her father, with no religious ceremony.
Life was hard for the family and Mary
Strain was taken to Court in November of that year for £5 11s 8d for butcher’s meat she had obtained but had not been able
to pay for.[iii]
The above may explain why Mary Strain and
her 3 remaining children suddenly turned up in Traralgon, about 270 kms south
of Wangaratta a year later.
It was here on July 27, 1875 that Mary gave
birth to another daughter, Margaret (Maggie) but was listed as the wife of a
Henry Collins. On Margaret’s birth certificate it says that Henry
Collins married Annie’s mother back in Wangaratta in August 1874, but as she
was still being sued in November that year in Wangaratta as “Mrs J. Strain”, this
was not true. Henry Collins was 12 years
younger than his ”wife”.
The family remained in Traralgon and on
January 27th, 1877 Mary Collins gave birth to another daughter,
Bridget. But Bridget only lived for 3
months, dying of Typhoid fever on the 22nd of April.
Annie’s family had seen so much suffering,
she had witnessed the deaths of 2 siblings in Scotland, now in Australia, the
death of her father, and two sisters.
The new Collins family moved to South
Australia, and on May 20th 1878 at Millicent Annie got another
brother, Henry. But again death was to
follow, not the new born Henry, but his father, who died 11 days later of
Typhoid fever.
The locals of Millicent felt very sorry for
Annie’s mother, and on June 1st locals there got together to have a
concert in aid of raising money for the poor family. But life continued to be a struggle and on
February 11, 1879 Annie’s mother was taken to Court for failing to pay bills
for food. Mary Collins stated that she
was struggling to survive and was receiving relief from the Destitute Board
which was just 4 shillings a week.[iv]
Annie was now 20 years old. On April 24,
1880 she gave birth to a daughter, Ellen, to a storekeeper named Sydney
Martin. On Ellen’s birth certificate
Annie’s surname is Collins. The informant on the certificate was Mary Collins,
grandmother of Ellen. Mary made the mark
of an “X” beside her name
The family was on the move again.
Annie’s poor little baby would only live
for 11 months before dying at the Portland Estate, near Port Adelaide. She died on March 24th, 1881. Annie’s mother by this time was living in a
house in College Street, Port Adelaide.
Late in 1881 Annie was godmother to a
little baby called Albert, son of her mother and a Peter Jay. He was baptized at the Catholic Church in
Port Adelaide on October 29th, 1881.
But little Albert Jay, like so many of
Annie’s other brothers and sisters, was to die young. On the 5th of November aged only 3
months little Albert died, but he is listed as being the son of Henry Collins,
not of Peter Jay.
Annie continued to live with her mother and
brothers and sisters in Port Adelaide and it was in Portland Ward area of there
that she gave birth to Mary May Brice on April 1st, 1887. The father was listed as Frederick Brice, a Carpenter,
and Annie was listed as his wife.
It was over 2 years before Annie and
Frederick had their daughter baptized at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Port Adelaide,
on August 28, 1889. A Mary Collins stood
as godmother, but I am not sure if this is Annie’s mother or her sister.
Over the next few years the family moved
around Port Adelaide, College Place, Leadenhall Street and Cannon Street, and
it was here Annie’s mother died on the 1st of December 1891 in Port
Adelaide. So now Annie was the head of her
family.
On the 23rd of January 1894 Annie
enrolled her daughter Mary in the local school at Port Adelaide, giving her
address as Dale Street and stating that she was the Housekeeper. According to the Port Adelaide assessment
books, William Collins was renting a 3 room house here since 1892, and was to
continue to do so up till 1898.
On March 19th of 1894 Annie gave
birth to a son, Frank Adolph. On the
Birth certificate the father was listed as Frederick Brice, a Carpenter of Port
Adelaide, and Annie was the informant. Frank
Adolph was baptized at the Catholic Church in Port Adelaide, which was across
the road in Dale Street from where Annie and her family lived. His godparents were his mother’s brother and
sister, William and Mary.
I have never been able to find any more
about Frederick Brice, and part of me thinks that he may have been a carpenter
on a ship, and that is why he only appears on his children’s birth certificates
and baptism forms.
Annie was now 35 and had led a very full
life, and had witnessed so many deaths around her.
On the 16th of February 1895
Annie was admitted to Royal Adelaide Hospital. Annie had been brought to the
hospital by a Dr. Way and was suffering from Carcinoma Uteri. On February 20th
Dr. Way performed an operation on her cervix to remove a carcinoma. Annie was there for just on another 15 days
being discharged on March 7th because her health had improved.
7 months later on the 5th of
October Annie died.
Her death certificate stating the cause of
death was Carcinoma Cevait Uteri.
It said she was the widow of Frank Brice, a
contractor.
She was buried at Cheltenham Cemetery the
following day.
Her life was very short but very full, and
her children were only 7 and 1 when she died but her children grew up and had
families of their own and it is through those families that Annie lives on.
Annie Strain (1859 – 1895)
|
Mary May Brice (1887 – 1937)
|
Alan Louis Brady (1916 – 1995)
|
Kevin Reginald Brady (1961 –
