Outback Family History reader Meryl Watson has kindly shared these wonderful photographs and stories from her family history.
My great-grandmother Edith Rose May nee HOWELL, married John Louis McGinniss aged 22yrs from Huon Tasmania on the 15th February 1890 in Franklin, Huon, Tasmania. John Louis was a widower with one daughter when they married. Edith was from Ballarat Victoria and was 20yrs old and a teacher at the local Glen Huon school.
John Louis and Edith’s marriage certificate.
Edith moved to WA to join her husband and taught at the Kununalling school on and off in between pregnancies. Sometime around 1911, a few years after the death of her daughter Dorothy, and apparently unhappy with her life at Kununalling, Edith left taking only the two youngest children with her. For a few years, she taught at Nalyeening and Koojan before returning briefly to Tasmania and then moving to Victoria. She remarried in 1930 after John Louis’ death.
Edith McGinniss teacher at Kununalling in the 1890s;
John Louis (he was always known in the family by both names, never just “John”) ran a horse and coach transport business. One of his services was carrying passengers between Kununalling and Coolgardie for Cobb & Co, he also transported wood to the mines from the timber-cutters out in the scrub and returned with their food and supplies; he also carried mail for Cobb & Co. Not a lot more is known by the family about John Louis’ Kununalling days, other than that he was a strong man physically and that he was well thought of for his horsemanship. My grandfather, his eldest son Bertrand, drove coaches for his father after leaving school, he was still slight of build, and in wild weather, his father would strap him into his seat in case the horses were spooked and reared. He was the driver mentioned in the story of “The Entombed Miner” by Tom Austen – the accident in 1907 when the Bonnievale mine flooded, trapping a miner in a small air-pocket for 10 days.
Following is a paragraph from the book: “Out in that other world, on the surface, the afternoon coach returning south from Carbine to Coolgardie was half an hour late because of the weather. Driver Bertram McGuinness [sic] was struck by the way the clouds came in low and black and fast – you could just about put your hand out and grab it all….when we approached the township, the water on the track was half up the horse’s legs”. (They spelled his name wrong, but I guess he got his 15 minutes of fame).
Sometime after his wife left John Louis McGinniss exchanged the cartage business for farming. Some of his McGinniss descendants still farm in the Merredin area”
After Edith left, John Louis moved the rest of the McGinniss family to the Hines Hill/Merredin area, exchanging the cartage business for farming. Some of his McGinniss descendants still farm in the Merredin area.
Coolgardie Miner 24 June 1901, page 2
In the above accident in which Edith was involved, it was while she was in the early stage of pregnancy with her child MERTON LOUIS McGinniss.
Dorothy McGinniss early 1900s – I don’t know how old she was when this was taken but she died in 1906 aged 9 years 9 months.
Little Dorothy, (Rosina Dorothy Grace), McGinniss died on the 15th March 1906 at the Government Hospital Coolgardie. She was 9yrs old and a schoolgirl. She died from Infantile Remittent Fever and a Pulmonary Embolism which she had suffered from for 10 days. Father John Louis McGinniss, Mother: Edith Rose nee HOWELL. She is buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Coolgardie Cemetery, she has no headstone.
John Louis McGinniss of Kununalling
The children of the McGinniss family
Rosina Margareta Jane McGinniss – from John Louis’s first marriage.
Bertrand Wellington Rhys McGinniss born Franklin Tasmania 1890
Frank Wenvoe Wynne McGinniss born Tasmania1892 (Died at the Somme in 1916)
Dorothy Grace McGinniss b 23 Jun1896 (on Dorothy’s death certificate it say she was born in Coolgardie but no registration can be found) However the following birth notice would fit in with her age:
Herbert John Huon McGinniss (registered as McGuinness) born Coolgardie WA1899
MERTON LOUIS McGinniss born Coolgardie WA 1902
Ruby Jane McGinniss born Coolgardie WA 1904
Jacques Patrick McGinniss born 1907 WA
Moya Sharp
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