Family history is a tricky business. It's expensive, it's time-consuming and it's not always satisfying. But once you get a taste for it, it is just so easy to get hooked. You only have to explore the number of different genealogical sites on the internet to see that I am right.
Usually, when tracing family history, you realise that a good deal of the people who fill the branches on your tree were not royalty nor famous but merely simple people who worked hard for a living. In Australia, a good deal of my ancestors were folk of the land who toiled away to eke out a life for themselves and their families. They were generally, not rich nor well educated but they laid the foundations for a long line of descendants to research! Usually, the most striking thing about having an Anglo-Australian heritage is finding what Jack Thompson referred to as 'Australian royalty'....that is, convict blood. And it is fair to say that my tree has its share. As well, you often realise exactly what mixed heritage you really do have.....British, Irish and possibly aboriginal are not unheard of.
My research over the last twenty years has brought me far. But there is one branch that always seems to end in a full stop....the Gilbert branch. What is so special about this branch is that it seems that they did have a little bit of fame. The first Australian Gilberts, it appears were on the ship Enterprize, when it docked in Port Phillip Bay to establish the first white settlement of Melbourne town.
History, via John Fawkner's diaries have detailed many aspects of life at this time and has documented solid evidence about James and Mary Gilbert including the birth of their son who was the first white child born in Melbourne. Mary, as the only woman on the ship is noted as being the first woman to land there and her involvement in Melbourne's history has been immortalised in a statue of her erected at the Fitzroy Gardens.
I, like quite a few others, are descended from James and Mary. Not, indeed, from her son John but from another son, Charles who was born a few years later. This has been established through comparisons with John's and Charles' marriage certificates and the exact details that they both gave.
The Melbourne history books seem to lose track of James and Mary a few years after Melbourne was established. This is sad, given that they both played such an interesting role in the birth of one of Australia's largest cities. Only a few family historians, like myself, are aware of another child being born to them and we descendants also seem to be the few who have continued our search of this incredibly interesting family.
And so, thanks to the help of another researcher, the death certificate of Mary Gilbert has now been found! There is little doubt that this is the same Mary.....the maiden name, place of residence and husband and sons' names all match. After twenty years of chasing the Gilberts, I finally have more information to add to their branch. What we do know, from her death certificate is that Mary was a Scotch lady. She did indeed have sons John and Charles but there are two more sons listed. We know that she married James Gilbert in Tasmania when she was 18, before setting across the Tasman on the Enterprize. We also know that in her lifetime, she lived in two different countries (Scotland and Australia) and in three different states (Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales).
After mentionings of her in Melbourne history dried up, it appears that Mary and her husband moved on. Perhaps she worked the land, perhaps she chased gold or perhaps she continued servant work, which was her reason for being on the Enterprize in the first place. It certainly appears, however that she followed her sons in their movements across the east coast of Australia.
Mary Gilbert was a fascinating woman who contributed much to the history of this country. What a pity, she seems to have been lost somewhere along the way. It is only now that we can put an ending to the story of this fascinating lady. Now, if only we could establish what happened to her husband James.......!!!!
