Changing Names
28 February 2024
Both of my Mum’s grandmothers were called Sarah Jane and, in A Story of Love and Loss I have already written about the background of Sarah Jane Thompson who married Arthur Butler and gave birth to my grandfather Arthur Francis Butler. The odd love story of her parents, James Thompson & Margaret Duckworth involved some name changing, because James and Margaret never married so Margaret simply adopted the name Thompson after coming to Australia to start her new life
As this was before the days of online records Mum sent for copies of the records. The Children’s Register was the record of children taken into care in the latter part of the 19th Century. In those days even though the intent of the law was to help children whose parent’s were not able to care for them, the terminology used seems strange to our modern ears. Children were “charged with being neglected” as though it was some sort of crime of their own making, but for researchers prepared to overlook the outdated language these old records hold a wealth of information. The Act was revised in 1887 to separate young offenders from neglected children.
The Neglected and Criminal Children’s Act 1864 (1864 – 1888)
The Neglected and Criminal Children’s Act 1864 (No.216) was the first piece of Victorian legislation to define situations where children might be removed from their parents. The Act provided for the establishment of industrial schools for ‘neglected’ children and reformatory schools for convicted juveniles. Superintendents and matrons were to be appointed and provision was made for inspection and reporting. Most industrial schools established in Victoria under the new act were government-run, however the legislation also provided for the creation of privately run industrial schools. Three private industrial schools were established: St Joseph’s Industrial School for Catholic girls in Geelong, the Convent of the Good Shepherd in Abbotsford, and the Sandhurst Industrial School (Spencer, 2023, p.61). Prior to 1864 convicted children could, under the Criminal Law (Infants) Act 13 Vic., No.21 1849, be assigned by the Supreme Court to persons willing to undertake their ‘maintenance and education’. When the 1864 Act came into being, 463 children were transferred from the care of the Superintendent of the Immigrants’ Aid Society to the newly-established government schools, reported the Secretary of the Department for Neglected Children and Reformatory Schools in 1891. further details can be found here_1874_ChildrensReg.jpg)
The Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) holds copies of records relating to three Delise children; Sarah Jane, aged 9, Elizabeth Louisa, nearly 7 and John Evans Delise, just a couple of weeks short of his 5th birthday. They were taken into care on the 31st of July 1874, 3 years after the death of their mother. Their father George A Delise is in Sandhurst Hospital. There is no indication of a second brother but the notes on all 3 of these records mention a sister Harriet living in Echuca. There is also a statement that “the proper name of these children is DESRIZ”.
With this new spelling of the surname it became possible to find a marriage certificate for Adolphus DESREZ and Mary Evans in Melbourne in 1852.
During the next few years as I became involved with helping Mum to trace more members of her family we discovered birth registrations in various country towns between Melbourne and Echuca, not only for the three youngest children, but also 3 older brothers and another sister. The older brothers all used the surname DERRIS in later life, but when 16 year old Mary Ann married Charles Rosenow in 1876 her name was transcribed as DESRY. This is a common mis-transcription of George Adolphus’s name too because the old style “z” on the end often looks like a “y”. Harriet was harder to trace because, even though Civil Registration of Births, Deaths & Marriages started in Victoria in 1853, her birth does not appear to have been registered, but eventually we found a marriage for a Harriet DAVIES (sometimes transcribed as DAVIS or DARUS) to William Brown in Hay New South Wales. After William’s death Harriet married Richard Johnson and her death registration shows her parents as George A & Mary
So Nana’s family story was “almost” accurate – apart from a few extra brother’s and sisters. Which is more than can be said for the marriage certificate of Sarah Jane. Possibly as a ten year old when she was taken into care she didn’t know the names of her parents. So when she married Andrew Wilson in 1900, George became Joseph, and Mary was given the name of her sister Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s death certificate in 1938 shows her father’s correct name, but perhaps her family found that out later.
