Arklow marriage 1860 - Samuel Plummer and Eliza Fitzhenry

We've moved up the East coast for this one:

Marriage solemnised at the Parish Church in the Parish of Arklow, in the County of Wicklow
February 29th 1860
Samuel Plummer bachelor of full age, a shopkeeper
Residence (Looks like Limerick)
Father Wm. W. Plummer a farmer

Eliza Fitzhenry spinster of full age
Residence Arklow
Father Wm. Fitzhenry a shopkeeper

Married in the Parish Church according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the United Church of England and Ireland by license
Both parties signed
Witnesses: Wm. Heath and John Plummer

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Sidney and the snake - a South African tale....

Wendy Rutter sent us a newspaper cutting from the "The Mercury" (Hobart, Tasmania) from Tuesday 8th April 1913. We're not sure whether it was a slow news day to have to fill the paper with a story about a man encountering a snake.... in South Africa ... you can come to your own conclusions!
The Sidney Fitzhenry mentioned in the story is very likely to be Sidney Cawood Fitzhenry, son of John Arthur and Kate Fitzhenry and brother of Daisy Aletta Fitzhenry, the WW1 nurse.

Anyway, here is the whole article on the anniversary of its publication.

SOUTH AFRICAN NOTES
(From Our Exchanges)
Mr. Sidney Fitzhenry had rather a strange experience with a snake one day lately, records the Jansenville paper. He was driving with a cart and a pair of horses to the graals, when he saw a big cobra crossing the road. He pulled up the horses, jumped out and attacked it with stones, whereat the snake turned on him. He got quickly out of the way, and the snake quietly went and coiled up under the horses, with its head up “ready to strike”. He was afraid to move the horses, fearing that the snake might attack them, when, to his surprise and consternation, the snake quietly climbed up into the cart and started to make itself comfortable on the seat. Now, whether the snake picked up the reins to drive, or just what did happen, is not quite clear, but it is a fact that the horses started off with only the cobra as driver. Mr. Fitzhenry ran to their heads, and, after bringing them to a standstill, spanned out, keeping one eye on his passenger all the time. After the horses had been secured, he attacked the snake again, and managed to kill it. – This story is vouched for as being absolutely true.

Perhaps someone who speaks Afrikaans can translate "graals" for us. The best meaning I have come across so far is corral or animal enclosure.

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Waterford marriage 1867 - Samuel Foster and Elizabeth Fitzhenry

The wonderful Bev Kronk has sent me details of four more Irish marriages.

(That's one a night for the next four nights, you lucky people. Except for tomorrow night, when we bring you a South African news story on the anniversary of its publication in 1913.)

1867
Registrar's District of Waterford
Marriage solemnised at the Wesleyan Chapel in the Parish of Trinity Within, in the City of Waterford
September 18th 1867
Samuel Foster bachelor of full age, a farmer
Residence Tonduff, Parish of Abbeyleix, Queens County
Father William Foster (deceased) a farmer

Elizabeth Fitzhenry spinster of full age
Residence The Mall, Parish of Trinity Cathedral, Waterford
Father Samuel Fitzhenry (deceased) a "valuator"

Married in the above Registered Building according to the Usages of the Wesleyan Methodist Church by license
Both parties signed
Witnesses: Richard Boate and Frances Jane Fitzhenry

(Abbeyleix is about 65 miles north of the city of Waterford and can be found on Googlemaps.)

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Captain Joseph Miles Fitzhenry of Kentucky 1825 -1907

This tale comes with permission from Mr Richard van Pelt who runs the Van Pelt Heritage website. This traces the Van Pelt name worldwide, and the Fitzhenry and Van Pelt names coincide in Arkansas.

Joseph Miles Fitzhenry was born in Kentucky in 1825. His father, Edward Fitzhenry, was born in Ireland and his mother was Julia Ann Jarboe whose family from France were some of the first settlers of the Maryland Colony.

In 1848 he married a cousin Rose Ann Jarboe and they had a total of 10 children. Their daughter Minnie Corinth Fitzhenry was born in April of 1862 when Capt. Fitzhenry was at the Battle of Shiloh near Corinth, Mississippi. A family story says that during the battle his horse was shot out from under him and his saber slashed his leg.

As Kentucky was already occupied by Union troops and his house and property were confiscated, Capt. Fitzhenry resigned his commission and returned to Kentucky to rescue his wife and child. He was captured and taken to Fort Delaware. After a prisoner exchange in April of 1863, he was able to return to Kentucky and later moved his family to Arkansas

In Morrilton, Arkansas, he built the Catholic Convent, some business houses, and many of the finest residences. He was the owner and proprietor of the Fitzhenry House Hotel. His daughter Minnie Corinth was 19 years old when she married James Alexander Van Pelt, a hardware store owner, tin smith, and inventor. A year later (1882), Herbert Newton Van Pelt was born. Sadly, Minnie Corinth died at only 23, leaving 3 year old Herbert to be raised by the Fitzhenrys.

The picture of the Fitzhenry House hotel is reproduced with Mr Van Pelt's permission, and a larger version of the picture is on his website.

The picture of the Fitzhenry House Hotel & Boarding House was taken about 1886. In the center of the porch is young Herbert Newton Van Pelt standing between his grandparents, Capt. Joseph Miles Fitzhenry and Rose Ann (Jarboe) Fitzhenry. The building was torn down sometime after Capt. Fitzhenry died in 1907. Herbert moved to the fine home of his uncle, Dan Fones, in Little Rock, Arkansas.

If you have any further information about the Van Pelts anywhere in the world, please email Mr Richard Van Pelt

If you have any more information about Captain Fitzhenry or the Jarboe family, please contact us!

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Wiliam Fitzhenry and Mary Cronin

When Dave Paddington from Australia asked us about his forebears William Fitzhenry and Mary Cronin, I thought that we had found a link between the Australian and Welsh branches of this family.

No such luck. It looks like we have two William Fitzhenry - Mary Cronin couples!

Not only has Dave added some colour to this family history, but he's also sent some wonderful old photos.
This is the one of William in his Sunday best, but there are also photos of Mary Cronin, and their daughters Alice and Emily. I'm putting these on the new website.



Dave writes

William Fitzhenry came out to Australia on his own and headed for the goldfields in Victoria. His first known address was Woods Point where Princess Alexandra Mining Company were mining. He had shares in the company and from his photo attached you can see he didn't look like the type to get his hands dirty. He then moved to Melbourne where he met Mary Cronin. They owned several hotels in the South Yarra / St Kilda area of Melbourne.

They had 5 Children:

Ellen Mary Fitzhenry ( My Great Grandmother )
William Edward Fitzhenry
Alice Maud Fitzhenry
John Thomas Fitzhenry
Catherine Fitzhenry

I have a whole lot of other information and newspaper articles featuring William if you want to add extra to your blog. Stuff like him being charged with assault over a card game; fined for selling liquor on a Sunday etc....

and we said "yes please!" so hopefully we will hear more about William's exploits.

Dave would like to hear from anybody related to William and Mary and can be contacted be sending a message to the Blog which we will forward.

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Website database - up and running again

Dear All
We're back on line again.

Over 3300 individuals for you to peruse - but no-one born after 1910. I thought it better to keep the privacy levels high until I'd got the hang of this.
Do you think that we should have a cut-off date of 1930, a bit like the publicly available US census returns, with the "living" flag enabled for anyone without a definitive death date?
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

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Fourth result in the Fitz(-)henry DNA study

Yes, the fourth result is in, and he's not a match to any of the previous three testees.

So with two of the previously tested men being genetically from the same family and two having different patterns, it's starting to look like there are distinct "fingerprints" for the different branches.

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Temporary suspension of new website

Dear All
Due to a hitch in the system, I've taken the database off air temporarily until it's fixed.
Thanks to all those who applied for an account and are already sending in their corrections!

Jo

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New look website!

After several weeks of playing about with some new software, the new look FitzhenryDNA website is now up and running.

What's new?
The home page is still the same at present, but just below the page heading is a link to the new Fitz(-)henry database.

The database is the new bit.

Do tell us, why is this a good thing Jo?

• With over 4200 people on it (ok... there's bound to be a few duplicates), this was too big a number to write individual pages for, and I was painfully aware that there was information that people were sending me that just wasn't being shared...
  
  
• Using the The Next Generation software, everytime I update someone (or a family) in my master Family Historian database, I can do the same on the website.
  
  
• And you can suggest updates, corrections, stories, photos - in fact anything to be added to a family or individual person. Each person's page on the database has a "Suggest" tab above that person's details. You type in your suggestions, and it automatically comes to my inbox!
  
  
• There's a way of searching all the variants of a surname at one go, but I haven't get this bit running yet, so Fitz(-)henry is there in all its glorious variations...

What are the limitations?

• There's no details for anyone born after 1910 - not even an acknowledgement that they exist! I may review this cut off date if it looks like it's too prohibitive, but I thought it better to have too much privacy rather than Google finding and making personal information available.
  
  
• The casual browser (username: user, password: password) can only see the birth, marriage and death information. If you want some more flesh on the bones, you have to sign up for a user account - click here to apply for one (in the left hand column).

• It's going to need all the photos transferring and linking separately, and a fair bit of tweaking with the layout to make it look lovely.
  
  
• At present if I haven't entered a definite death date for someone in the database, the website still thinks the person is alive - I'm going to have to go through and sort that out too...
  

I'm going to leave all of the existing pages on the website for the time being, until I know that all of the information is transferred.
The DNA study part of the website will be updated in due course.

Hope you like it - let me know what you think.

And lastly, a big plug for Darrin and his "The Next Generation" software - the amount of personal support I've had from this man over the past few weeks has been amazing. Unreservedly recommended for anyone who wants to put their genealogy database on the web.

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Fitzhenry...Fitzharris?

Ann Furtado has sent me oodles of stuff which she has gleaned over the decades in her search for her Wexford Fitzhenry ancestors and for which I am very grateful.

She has also reminded me that I should really be looking into some of the Fitzharris lines as the surnames Fitzhenry and Fitzharris were often used interchangeably. Some previous correspondents have also raised this issue.

So if any Fitzharrises out there have an inkling that they might once have been a Fitzhenry... then drop us a line. This means that the Fitz(-)henry one name study eventually may have to be enlarged to include the Fitzharris surname but for now I would rather keep them separate, as just doing Fitzhenry is enough to fill all my time at present!

If there is a Fitzharris family history society or one-name study that I haven't found, please get in touch and hopefully we can collaborate.

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The Chelsea Pensioner records - Daniel Fitzhenry

The third of this series is about Daniel Fitzhenry, a lad from Liverpool, Lancashire. Daniel enlisted in the Kings Royal Rifles in 1894 aged 19, having already served in the local militia.
His next of kin were his father Edward Fitzhenry and brothers Edward and James, all of No. 3 court 5 House, Bolton Street Liverpool.

Daniel seems to have had a more chequered military career than our other two Fitzhenrys. He was docked one to two weeks pay for various misdemeanors on an intermittent basis, and then in 1898 was convicted at a Court Martial of desertion, fined 84 days pay and had all his previous service discounted.
This Court Martial appears to have taken place when he was stationed in South Africa.

More about Daniel:
Daniel was the son of Edward Fitzhenry, a coppersmith and Eleanor Behan.
Edward was born in Liverpool of Irish parentage and Eleanor were from Ireland.
Daniel was born in 1874 in Liverpool and his siblings were John Richard (1868), James (1872) and Matthew (1876).
Eleanor died in 1881 and in 1884 Edward married again to Delia O'Keeffe.
Daniel was a carter before he joined the army and when he left it, he went north to Scotland. The 1901 census finds him in Glasgow, married to Mary, a native of that city.

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Random other stuff - the Battle for Quebec

If you have access to the fantastic BBC iPlayer, you may want to spend a pleasant hour watching a new documentary about the Seven Years War, and in particular the British - French conflict in "Nouvelle France" which led to the British capture of Quebec in 1759.

It's not a conflict that I had any real knowledge of, but the British victory and subsequent takeover of that part of Canada meant that British people were needed to populate it - hence the Irish resettlement programme which led to some of our Fitzhenry families finding their way there.

Here's the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rl8xq/Battle_for_North_America/

It should work until next Monday.

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The Chelsea Pensioner records - Charles Fitzhenry

Document two of this three part series relates to Charles Fitz-Henry.

Charles was born in St Pancras Middlesex (the north London part of Middlesex). He enlisted for the Royal Inniskilling Fusilliers in Armagh (Northern Ireland) in February 1883 aged 19.
He was a gasfitter when he enlisted for a period of "seven years before the colours".
Charles was 5 foot 5 and a half inches tall and auburn haired. He was Church of England.

By 1885 he had been promoted to the rank of drummer, in June 1896 to Lt Corporal and finally in February 1898 to Corporal. In January 1890, having served exactly seven years in the regular army he was discharged into the Army reserve, where he served from another five years. During the time in the regular army he had two periods of Home Service, and served in the Strait Settlement 1884-85 (what is now Singapore, Malaysia and Borneo) and in South Africa from 1885-1889.
His habits were temperate and his conduct was good, according to his commanding officers.
His next of kin was his father John Thomas Fitz-Henry of 2 Wilson Street Grays Inn Road

More about about Charles:
Charles was the son of John Thomas Fitz-Henry and Sarah Fenner. He and his two older siblings were all baptised on 17 January 1864 at St Bartholomew's church, Grays Inn Road. In what appears to be a mild rebuke by the curate, the dates of birth for each of the children were given in the margin on the register (November 1853 for Emily Fitz-Henry, March 1856 for John William Fitz-Henry and January 1862 for Charles Fitz-Henry.)

Charles married Harriett Rebecca Streete in 1891 (after his discharge from the regular army) and they had daughters Annie in 1892 and Emily in 1896 and sons Charles John in 1903 and Dennis in 1913. In the 1891 census, his occupation was "Government viewer of small arms" so even after he left the army, he continued to have an interest in military matters.

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The Chelsea Pensioner records - Caleb Robert Fitzhenry

The documents from the War Office series 97 have just been digitised on Findmypast. They relate to men pensioned out of the British Army. They did not have to be resident at the Chelsea Hospital to qualify for a pension - most were "out-pensioners".

There are three Fitzhenrys in this series (so far - not all the series is digitised yet). Here's the first one from a family that I don't think we have featured so far.

Caleb Robert Fitzhenry was a native of Killyward, County Donegal. He signed up for the Royal Irish Rifles on the 23rd May 1894 in Dublin at the age of 19 and 11 months. At the time he was a grocer's assistant.

However he only spent 260 days in the Queen's service, buying himself out in February 1895. All the time was spent on "home service", first in Newry and then in England in Chichester and Brighton.. A note underneath the discharge date "Certified that the sum of £12 has been refunded to Mr J L Fitzhenry on account of purchase money of discharge of Pvt C R Fitzhenry" Belfast 12.11.1900

His next of kin was named as his father Robert Fitzhenry of 34 Denny Street, Tralee, County Kerry and it listed his brothers as William, Samuel, John and Walter.

His medical record was unremarkable - he had one hospitalisation for blisters on his foot caused by his boots. At the time of discharge, his officers noted that his "Habits were regular, and his conduct was good"

So why did Caleb qualify for a pension (short service, no active duty, no chronic illness or disability), and why did his family get his discharge purchase money refunded 5 years after he left the army? More importantly, what had happened to Caleb that he couldn't receive it himself?

Other information that may relate to Caleb.
In the 1880 Donegal Town Street directory, a Robert Fitzhenry is listed under the merchants and traders section as variously a hide and leather merchant, a boot and shoe merchant, a woollen draper and a haberdasher. Perhaps this is Caleb's father before the family moved to Tralee.

In the International Genealogical Index (IGI) there is the birth of
Foster Caleb Fitzhenry
born 24 May 1874 in Donegal, Ireland
to Robert Fitzhenry and Catherine Laird
Batch number C701559, Year 1874, Source call number 0255901)
If this is our man (an it seems highly likely despite the extra name Foster), then he enlisted the day before his twentieth birthday.

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The Fitzhenrys of St Paul's parish, Ontario.

From the book
The story of St. Paul's Parish, Toronto. Commemorating the centenary of the first parish church in the Archdiocese of Toronto (1922)
By the Reverend Edward Kelly (1875-1937)

This is a photo of Father Thomas W. Fitzhenry who was priest to the parish of St Pauls from 1852-58. At this time he would have been 33-39 years old - this photo looks like it was taken much later in in this man's life.

In 1851 Father Fitzhenry was responsible for founding a school in St Pauls which was actually held in the church building itself. In 1853, he had a three roomed school built in the parish.


This rather beautiful young woman is "Miss J M Fitzhenry" of the League of the Sacred Heart" (page 263). Julia Mary Fitzhenry was born in 1869, and by the time the book was published in 1922 had already "gone to her reward".

At the end of the book is a subscription list for the erection of the new church building in 1887. Miss Fitzhenry and Miss Gorman were collecting in Mill Street. This may be a coincidence, but a Mrs Gorman (widow) and her two teenage daughters were part of Father Thomas' and William Fitzhenry's household in the 1861 census.
Mrs Fitzhenry (the widowed Mary Fitzhenry nee Riordan) lived on Front Street and had contributed $18.



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More about the Toronto Fitzhenry family

After I posted about the family of William Thomas Fitzhenry the distiller and Mary Riodan of Toronto, Bill Fitzhenry got in touch.

He is a direct descendant of Thomas and Mary (their great-grandson). We have found the following additional information.
In the 1861 census, in River Street (west side) in the district of St David, Toronto.
Thomas Fitzhenry, aged 40, single, a clergyman.
He was a Catholic, born in Ireland, as were all the rest of the household.
William Fitzhenry aged 21, single, a distiller.
It doesn't give the relationship between Thomas and William.

The other members of the household were a male servant, a widowed female housekeeper and two teenage girls who were at school (presumably daughters of the housekeeper).
They all lived in a two story frame house and had 1 horse, 9 cows and 34 pigs.
The nature of business was described as distilling, and $1200 was invested in the York Street distillery in St Edmunds ward at a return of $400 per annum.
(I wish all censuses had such an interesting array of household information!)

We found mention of both the Reverend Thomas Fitzhenry, and the family of William and Mary in the book
The Story of St. Paul's parish, Toronto : commemorating the centenary of the first parish church in the archdiocese of Toronto (1922)
Rev. Edward Kelly

In the spring of 1852 the Reverend Thomas Fitzhenry came
to St. Paul s, and was in charge for over six years. During his
term of office much was done for the betterment of the parish.
This priest was an ardent apostle of temperance and was
known as the Father Mathew of Canada. In December, 1854
a new organ was installed, and about the same time the first
parish school was built on the corner of Power and Queen
streets.

A charge of a serious nature having been made against a
brother priest, and the Bishop being absent in Europe at that
time, Father Fitzhenry wrote to an older priest in another
diocese for counsel. The charge having been laid before the
Bishop of Hamilton and the Administrator of Toronto diocese,
the Very Reverend J. M. Soulerin, it was found, after a minute
examination of all the evidence, to be a most cruel and ground
less libel. Bishop de Charbonnel on his return wished Father
Fitzhenry to take all the responsibility for the unfortunate
affair, which he strenuously refused to do. He acted in good
faith, he said, and no one was more pleased than he that there
were no grounds for the charges. The outcome was that he
was deprived of his parish.

From Kingston, to which place he went on leaving St. Paul s,
Father Fitzhenry wrote to Bishop de Charbonnel that his de
parture from Toronto might cause temporary opposition to the
Bishop on the part of the congregation of St. Paul s, but he
hoped that they will have that spirit of obedience which they
are bound to render to their First Pastor, and nothing would
give him more pleasure than to hear that they would yield to
his successor the same submission that they had given to him
during his incumbency. Father Fitzhenry considered that
he had been unjustly treated, and in a short time returned
to Toronto, where for some years he dwelt, leading a most
exemplary life. He afterwards went to the diocese of Milwaukee,
where he took up the work of the ministry again.

The Reverend Thomas Fitzhenry was formerly a member of the
Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and was ordained August 29, 1847, and
was for a time assistant at St. Hyacinthe. He came to St. Paul s in
the spring of 1852, remaining in charge until June, 1858.

On the departure of Father Fitzhenry, the people of St.
Paul's received as their pastor the Reverend John Walsh, who
remained but a few months. There was much disorder on the
part of some who resented the dismissal of Father Fitzhenry.

This would explain why, even though he was not actively in charge of a parish, the Rev Fitzhenry was living in Toronto during the 1861 census. Although what this temperate man thought of his relative's distilling business is not recorded!

And there we lost him until I was trawling the excellent Findagrave website last night. I'm sure that I've found the same man buried in the Calvary Cemetery Milwaukee. Here's a picture of his rather splendid monument, and the inscription reads:

Rev Thomas W Fitzhenry
Born County Wexford
Jan 28 1819
Ordained at St Hyacinth Can
Aug 28 1845
Died at Oak Creek
Dec 29 1890

Which neatly gives County Wexford as the origin for this family group.

Link to the full text of The Story of St. Paul's parish, Toronto on the Canadian Libraries section of the Internet Archive.

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George Ormond Fitzhenry (1879-1970) - artist

This landscape done in pastels recently came up on eBay. It is the work of George Ormond Fitzhenry who although born in Wisconsin, migrated to California and majored in still life and paintings of the region.

George was born to Robert and Catherine ("Katie") Fitzhenry in Wisconsin, the oldest of three children. The 1880 US census shows Robert and Katie running a fruit and confectionery shop in Fond Du Lac along with Robert's brother Thomas. Robert and Thomas gave their birthplace as New York, the sons of Irish immigrants. Katie was born in Wisconsin.
George's brothers were Winfred (born 1883) and Leo (born 1885).
Robert died sometime between the 1880 US census and the 1895 Wisconsin state census.

George was married to Mary, a German woman who immigrated with her parents in early childhood. They moved to Los Angeles in 1921 and lived in this region for the rest of their lives.

As yet I haven't found any record for Robert and Thomas before the 1880 US census, but logic says that they should be there with their Irish parents in the 1870 US census - if anyone has found them please let me know.

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Marriage Announcement Melbourne Sept 1865

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An entry of interest to Fitzhenry researchers was located in the Australian paper the Melbourne 'Argus' dated 7th September 1865.

MARRIAGES
On the 6th instance, at St John's Melbourne, by the Reverend John Barlow, William Fitzhenry, son of John Fitzhenry Esq., Oulartwick, County Wexford, Ireland, to Louisa daughter of J.Coward Esq., Moro, Wiltshire England. No cards. Home papers please copy.

An Australian Literary Legacy - William E Fitzhenry

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As some of you may know, my Fitzhenry line had strong conections to both the printing-and in later years-journalism industries. Consequently, when I come across any Fitzhenry with similar links, I am immediately curious (well, if I'm truely honest, hopeful!). Thus it was with great interest that I came across a passing reference to W.E.Fitzhenry a writer who had been printed in the iconic Australian journal 'The Bulletin'. Unable to locate much online, I decided to take advantage of my recent short trip to the nation'a capitol, Canberra, to see what was available at the National Library. Despite being buoyed with the promise of a book of biographical information, the thin 'volume' I actually received was made up of just two small newspaper cuttings - so admit to some disappointment. However, I did have enough to discover where he fits into the "World of Fitzhenry".

William Ernest Fitzhenry was born in 1902 in Waterloo, a suburb of Sydney to Alfred Ernest Fitzhenry and Florence Marion Graham. He was the second of four boys the others being Edward, Walter, and Francis all four born between 1901 and 1904.
Although I can find many references to letters both to and from William to various authors and members of the literary and public spheres, I was unable to locate anything more illuminating than the obituary written by his friend and collegue J.E. Webb, published some 7 days after the sudden passing of William or Bill as he was known.


Source: The Bulletin 13 February 1957

W.E.Fitzhenry

"Bill Fitz Henry is dead!" Towards the end of last week this thought was in the minds of hundreds, thousands of writers and artists: and to one and all, from Dame Mary Gilmore in years his oldest friend, to the latest recruit to the black-and white brotherhood, it brought grateful memories of good companionship, steady encouragement and help where help was needed, and a sense of personal loss.
No Australian has ever had a larger body of literary acquaintances, and when success came the way of novelist or poet Fitz Henry rejoiced in his quiet fashion. But to those who were struggling he was always the guide, philosopher and friend.
"Bill" to publishers, librarians and the like, as well as to the host of Bulletin contributors, Fitz Henry was always "Willie" to old-stagers on the staff. They saw in him a certain boyishness which he retained to the end, though it was never of the boisterous kind.
My own acquaintance with him began in 1920, when Willie, already three years on the paper, was approaching manhood. Short of stature and sparing of words, he gazed critically at the newcomer, who had unwisely been introduced as the Wild man from the West, obviously telling himself that if the mild-looking specimen facing him was the best the West could do in the way of wild men it must be over-rated. But once he was convinced that the stranger wouldn't let the Bulletin down, Willie thawed, and we became the best of friends.
In the line of office duty, Fitz Henry was the secretary to three Bulletin editors, and no editor ever had a better one. He could be trusted to do anything that came within the compass of his job, from conciliating a caller who had to be turned away, perhaps because the paper was going to press, to looking up a needed reference, however difficult the task - a knack placed at the service not only of the chief and his associates, but of countless contributors, no matter how remote or obscure. And he had an astonishing memory, particularly for racy events in the lives of those who have figured in the Australian literature of his time. Recognition of this fact led to his being granted a Commonwealth fellowship so that the unequalled lore he had accumulated might be preserved in a book. He was not destined to see it published.
Like all healthy-minded men who have led full lives, Fitz Henry was not given to harbouring vain regrets or musing on the manner of his passing. He died at his desk, in the office which, from boy to man, he had served for forty years; and that is how he would have wished to die."


Bill Fitz Henry had married in 1924, Sylvia May Goodwin. He was the father to three children Shirley, Mark and Owen, though sadly Mark predeceased his father in 1945. Bill's death notice whilst mentioning his children, did not refer to Sylvia. He was buried at the Church of England Cemetery French's Forest, and so appears to have been Protestant.
In an article in The Canberra Times dated 7 April 1983 The National Library of Australia announced the acquisition of "a number of papers by a former Bulletin writer and author, the late W.E.(Bill) Fitz Henry. The papers include an uncompleted history of the Bulletin 1800-1900, and the four volumes of "The Gentle Bohemian" and other essays." Although the library had attempted to acquire these papers in 1957 they were unavailable until 1983.

But for the historically minded (and isn't that all of us??) just where does Bill fit into the FitzHenry world-wide jigsaw?? Well once again the trail runs directly back to our London based couple, Michael and Anastasia Fitzhenry. As we know from previous posts their son Patrick migrated to NSW, where he married Sarah Phillips. This couple had a large family, and it was their youngest son, Alfred Ernest, who was Bill's father.

So once again, a Fitz Henry descendant has achieved a level of success and influence that his antecedents would no doubt be proud of.

The death register of St John The Evangelist Westminster

Lesley had noted a cluster of Fitzhenry deaths in the register of the church of St John the Evangelist, Westminster in the 1820s and 1830s. This is one of the London parishes that has now been digitised by Ancestry from the collections held by the London Metropolitan Archives.

Here are the deaths - all children:
20th April 1825 - An infant of Annastatia Fitzhenry - abode Pye Street. No ceremony performed.

25th March 1833 - William Fitzhenry N. aged 11 months - abode 15 Chapter Street., ceremony performed by J Hughes, curate.

3rd July 1834 - James Fitzhenry H.D. aged 4 months - abode 15 Chapter Street - ceremony performed by J Hughes, curate.

17th November 1834 - Michael Fitzhenry H.D. aged 7 years - abode 15 Chapter Street, ceremony by John Jennings, Rector.

27th June 1836 - Mary Fitzhenry H.D. aged 8 months - abode 15 Chapter Street, ceremony performed by J Hughes, curate.

We think these are all children of Michael Fitzhenry and Anastasia Welch.
Here's our working (as they say on the exam papers...)

We have baptism records for Michael Fitzhenry (born 17 Feb 1828) and James Fitzhenry (born 2 March 1834) which match the age at death for these two children.

Mary would have been born in November 1835 - we have a Margaret Fitzhenry born 29 October 1835. Perhaps a clerical error, especially as Michael and Anastasia had a daughter Mary Ann born 1830 who was still very much alive at the 1841 census.

We haven't got a birth/baptism recorded for William, but his birth would have been around April 1832. This fits nicely between Mary Ann born 3 October 1830 and James born in March 1834.

So that accounts for all the children who lived at 15 Chapter Street and who were not mentioned in the 1841 census when the family were living at Silver Street in the parish of St George Bloomsbury.

But what of the "infant of Annastatia Fitzhenry" of Pye Street buried April 1825?
This is a tricky one as Michael and Anastasia weren't married until November 1825 and the first child that we had a baptism record for was Patrick born April 1826. This implies that Anastasia was already 3 months pregnant with Patrick when she and Michael were married at St Mary's Lambeth, the parish in which her sister Ann Sullivan (nee Welch) lived.

Me and Lesley have batted this one about and come up with a couple of theories.
1. Michael and Anastasia were married in Ireland in a Roman Catholic ceremony. When they came to England, they may have found that their Catholic marriage was not considered legal. Anastasia had a stillborn child and gave the Church of England priest of St John the Evangelist her "married" name for the child's burial. As they had already said to this parish that they were married, they had to chose another parish for banns and marriage, so chose her sister's parish to have the Church of England ceremony to make their marriage legal in English law.

2. Michael and Anastasia were betrothed, Anastasia fell pregnant and they planned to get married to make everything legitimate. Apparently getting pregnant out of wedlock was no great shame as long as you were married before the baby arrived. Perhaps something prevented them getting married when they planned, perhaps the baby was premature. But anyway, Anastasia had to bury her stillborn child and as they were living in the parish of St John the Evangelist, she gave a "married" name to ensure that her baby would not be entered as "baseborn" in the burial register. A few months later she found herself pregnant again, but could not risk having the marriage ceremony in the parish of St John as the parish priest had been told that she was already married. Hence they married at St Mary's Lambeth.

The addresses - Pye Street and Chapter Street - still exist in Westminster today. With the family living there, this would explain why subsequent baptisms of the Fitzhenry children were held at the Catholic chapel of St Mary's Westminster.

As for the notations "N" and "H.D." after the children's names in the register, I have no idea what they mean. They do not seem to follow a set pattern with other entries in the register. A third notation was "D". Very few had no notation at all. If anyone know what these abbreviations signified, I'd be very grateful to know.

Source Citation: London Metropolitan Archives, Saint John The Evangelist: Smith Square, Westminster, Transcript of Burials, 1825 Jan-1825 Dec, DL/t Item, 091/039

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