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As Told By Helen Frew.
MARGARET DUNDON and the WRIGHT FAMILY
I am a Dundon descendant through the daughters in the families, so the surnames have changed with every marriage.
Margaret Dundon, my great-grandmother, was the second child and elder daughter of John and Johanna. Margaret was born in Melbourne in 1857. She was 22 when Johanna died in October 1879 and she was still 22 when she married in March 1880, so her birthday is after 17 March and before 19 October. She married Thomas Wright about 5 months after her mother died. They were married on St Patricks Day, 17 March 1880 at St Davids Church of England, Arthur Street, Surry Hills. Margaret was living in Campbell Street, Surry Hills and Thomas was living in Kippax Street, Surry Hills before their marriage.
Thomas was from an Irish Protestant family. His father, George Alexander Wright was born in Londonderry about 1825 and married Elizabeth Davis in 1848, also in Londonderry. They emigrated from Ireland after 1851 (birth of their first son, George Alexander) and before the birth of their third son, Andrew, in Brisbane in 1855, so they may have emigrated directly to Brisbane. Their second son, William, was born in 1852, in either Ireland or Brisbane. The family had moved to Sydney before November 1857 when Thomas was born (25 November). By the end of January 1858 the family had moved down the coast to Kiama, as Thomas' birth was registered in Kiama on 2 February 1858. George Alexander (snr.) was a carpenter and was involved with the south coast timber industry. By July 1861 the family was living in Moruya, where their youngest son, another William, was born. Tragedy struck the family in Moruya in October 1863, when the youngest son was burnt to death aged 2.
The eldest son, George Alexander, stayed on the south coast as a saw-miller and married Teresa Nilson in 1879 at Moruya. They had 13 children, 3 of whom died in infancy. I have been unable to trace the movements of the second son, William (b.1852). Andrew and Thomas returned to Sydney before their marriages.
The family home of Thomas and Margaret Wright was at 36 Day Street, Marrickville, where their first child, Elizabeth Ethel (my grandmother) was born on 15 June 1881. Thomas had a wine and spirits and grocery business in Marrickville. The other children in the family were Thomas Douglas (b.1883), George Alexander Gordon (b.1885, d.1886 aged 17 months, from broncho-pneumonia), Ruby Williamima (b.1887, d.1888 aged 1 year, from diphtheria), Albert Sidney, known as Sid (b.1889), Katie Vera, known as Vera (b.1891, d.1925 from complications during childbirth), Alice Eileen, known as Eileen (b.1894), Eva (b.1896). Their last child, an unnamed male was born and died in 1899.
Thomas' father, George Alexander Wright died on 20 October 1887 and is buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery, Rookwood.
Their eldest son, Thomas Douglas, never married, and was a school teacher at Dumbleton (Beverly Hills) school until he retired to look after his aged parents. Both Margaret and Thomas died at Thomas Douglas' home - 197 Forest Road, Arncliffe. Margaret died on 1 March 1943 after suffering from chronic myocarditis and chronic arteriosclerosis over a period of 2� years, and is buried in the Church of England Cemetery, Rookwood. Thomas died on 23 December 1942 and was cremated at Woronora Crematorium.
The Hill family
Margaret's eldest daughter, my grandmother, Elizabeth Ethel Wright, married Archibald Harry Hill on 16 April 1904 at Christ Church, Bexley. Their family home was at 44 Monomeeth Street, Bexley.
The Hill family was English and came from Wiltshire. Archibald was the eldest of the seven children of Tom Hill (b.1856 in Calne) and Hannah (Annie) Kirby (b.1851 in Highworth). Tom and Annie were married in Swindon in 1878. Archibald and his younger brother Francis were both born in Swindon (1879 and 1880). The young family arrived in Australia August 1883 aboard the "Cardigan Castle" and another 5 children were born in Sydney. The family home was at Mckenzie Street, Waverley.
Tom and Annie Hill both died at the home of their eldest living daughter, Bessie, at 26 Abercorn Street, Bexley. Tom died on 13 July 1926, and Annie on 5 October 1934.They are both buried in the Church of England Cemetery, Woronora.
Elizabeth and Archibald Hill had two daughters. The elder, Winifred Ethel (1907-1977) married Walter Stroud in 1935; they had one daughter, Jan (b.1936) who married Frank Gorrel; Jan and Frank have 2 daughters, Susan and Anne. Anne has broken the chain of daughters with a son and daughter, Peter and Natasha (Elliot). The Stroud family home was at 1 Edmund Street, Beverly Hills, just off Stoney Creek Road and right behind the primary school, just a block from King Georges Road.
Elizabeth Hill died on 31 August 1956 and Archibald on 11 March 1957. Their ashes are in Woronora Rose Garden.
The Corthorn family
The younger Hill daughter, Mollie Jeanne (my mother) married Rex Corthorn in 1942 and I am the only child in that family. My parents moved away from the Bexley/Arncliffe area (about 1946) where most of my mother's family lived, and our family home was at 11 Whitehaven Road, Northmead, a few miles up the Windsor Road north of Parramatta. In 1960 my parents and I moved to Melbourne. I have 3 children, all born in Melbourne, Christine (b.1966), Andrew (b.1970) and Pamela (b.1973). I have one grand-daughter, Jacqueline Louise Pryor, born to Andrew and Danielle in January 1998.
The Corthorn family has been traced back to Cornelius Corthorn in the late 1600s in March, Cambridgeshire. My great-grandfather, Charles Corthorn, emigrated to Australia around 1858. His brother?s family emigrated to South America, and there is now a large branch of the Corthorn family in South America, especially Chile.
	
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