| Notes |
- Maria had three children before she married Thomas Beck. All threewere registered in the surname of "Weeks". Although unlikely, thesecond and third born children, Arthur and Emily, could well have beenthe children of Thomas, because they all remained close together.Family stories have it that Thomas and Maria split up late in life.After marriage, Thomas worked on the construction of the Railway Linefrom Nyngan to Bourke. Thomas was a "Driver". ie. as the rail lineswere laid in place, Thomas drove the horse drawn waggons of steelrails, sleepers and crushed blue metal (and water), for the nextstage, as far along the newly laid track as had been completed. Thomasand Maria stayed on at Bourke for a couple of years after thecompletion of the railway. Two children, Charles and Annie, were neverregistered, as far as official records go, because there is no recordanywhere of their birth. But family members are certain that they werechildren of Thomas and Maria, because they remember their own parentsspeaking of both as uncle and aunt. They also contend that Charles wasthe eldest of all the Beck children. They say he moved to Queenslandbut did not marry. There is room in the years, between the registeredbirths, for Charles and Annie to have been born. The family had movedto the Sydney suburb of Gordon, sometime before 1891, because Williamwas born there. They remained at Gordon - or at least Maria did. Anniedid not marry and she stayed on at the same address, after Maria andThomas died, until some time after 1950 which was the last time hername appeared on the Electoral Roll at the Gordon address. She diedabout five years later. The family of Maria's first born child, Frank,apparently had little to do with the Beck families, particularly thegrandchildren born after the end of the first world war . Some membersof the Beck family say that Frank did keep in touch with his mother.Frank did not leave Boorowa until he retired around 1920. It isunlikely that the Beck family ever returned to the Boorowa area.Frank may not even have met his mother until late in life if at all.These notes were recorded in visits to senior members of the family in1990/2 and at a "Weeks" family reunion in Brisbane in 1994.Conjecture, of course, but Arthur, who was born after Frank, obviouslystayed with Maria and Thomas, because he married at Liverpool underthe surname "Beck", even though he was officially registered as Arthur" Weeks". On the other hand Emily, born after Arthur, married underher registered name of Emily Elizabeth Weeks. on the CommonwealthElectorial Roll 1901 Maria and her family were living in DrumesqueStreet Gordon and only a few doors away were Emily and her family.This would indicate that Emily also remained with Maria and Thomas asa child of the marriage and was with them (or at least with Maria)from birth until the family moved from Bourke to Gordon around the1890's. This seems to be confirmed by her marriage to John ThomasBromley at Gordon in 1894. NOTE;- The photo of Maria, was sent bygrandson Leslie Cook, from his home in England. Louisa was Leslie'smother and she and her husband moved to England soon after marriage.Judging by the place of registrations of the birth of their childrenThomas must have applied, and been accepted, for work on theconstruction of the Nyngan to Bourke railway line, (a distance of 200+ kms.) soon after they married. Construction began about that timeand Charles would have been born about 1876. The first registeredchild was Matilda in 1878 and this registration was at Forbes. Thatdoes not mean Matilda was born at Forbes, but registered there. Therewas no Registrar at Nyngan so Forbes was probably the nearest at thattime. The same applies to George who was registered at Dubbo. TheRailways Department set up a new town half way between Nyngan andBourke and it was there where the families of the workers weresettled. It was called Byrock. At one time there were 5.000 peopleliving at Byrock. Today there are 25 and only a few remnants of thesettlement remain. The railway was completed in 1885. While most oftheir children, up to that time, were probably born at Byrock, theirregistration birthplaces are listed as Forbes, Dubbo and Bourke. Theseregistrations were obviously made by mail or, by some method asorganised by the Railways Department, remembering that with so manypeople living at Byrock, some method of registration would have had tohave been organised by the Railways Department. The family must havesettled in Bourke for a few years after the work ended, because, for atime Thomas was a compositor on the Bourke local newspaper " TheAustralian " for a while, before returning to the employ of the NSWRailways. Thomas, and family, must have moved to the Sydney suburb ofGordon, between when Clara died at Bourke in 1889 and when William wasborn at Gordon in 1891. At Gordon Thomas at first is described as afettler and later as an Assistant Stationmaster.
|
Our Family
1845 - 1929 (84 years)
