This month I am participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge where I will endeavour to post on this blog each day. It’s my first attempt at the challenge, I hope that I have the stamina to complete it.
I will be going through the Curry forenames in my surname study database from A-Z and, as per the event schedule, will share some of the articles I have found on Trove relating to Currys. For problem letters like X and Q I may resort to Google.
I need to spend more time researching Beatrice Jane Curry as some of the dates cited in articles written about her after she became a centenarian do not tally with what I can find in the sources I have consulted. That, after marrying at 33 , she had 23 children the latest when she was over 60 seems amazing.
I have found a very well sourced tree on Ancestry that indicates Beatrice was actually born in 1850 and arrived in South Australia on a later voyage of the Martin Luther in 1852. So she was probably only 90 years of age when she died in 1940.
1937 ‘MY 100 Christmas DAYS…’, The Australian Women’s Weekly (1933 – 1982), 11 December, p. 2. , viewed 01 Apr 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52256508
1937 ‘Medal a Surprise To Mrs. Curry’,News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 – 1954), 12 May, p. 5. , viewed 01 Apr 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130928478
1939 ‘102 Candles in Her Birthday Cake Tomorrow’, The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 – 1954), 15 April, p. 2. , viewed 01 Apr 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55750029
1940 ‘DEATH OF MRS. B. J. CURRY’,Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 – 1954), 1 August, p. 12. , viewed 01 Apr 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92395125
CurryAus 
They didn’t much count the birthdays in those days so even if she was 90 she was fab! Those were tough days and bred tough women! Yeah, I can’t get my mind around 23 kids hahaha.
Some of my ancestors’ siblings went to Australia and as I read bloggers posts from there I wonder if their ancestors knew mine. It is a small world after all.
I am looking forward to reading the rest of your a-z challenge posts.
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Poor Beatrice – 24 children with 4 sets of twins and the last at age 60? I’m amazed she made it to 95 or 100. But she had to be tough to do it in the first place.
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I was so pleased when I found that Ancestry tree where everything was laid out and sourced. I wanted to believe that Beatrice was a centenarian but the evidence I found was telling a different story.
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Wow! That’s a lot of kids! And the last one at 60+ is amazing! Talk about a full life. 🙂
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Hmmm She seems to have been a teller of very tall tales indeed. The indexes do not indicate so many children. https://www.genealogysa.org.au/index.php?option=com_search&Itemid=32 . Interestingly the children born to John Patrick Curry and Beatrice Maude Theresa Jane STEWART indicate Beatrice also went with the surname Moore. It would be interesting to unravel that tree 🙂 I was surprised that Curry was not so common a surname looking at the birth indexes for SA. Regards Anne
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Oh and no Curry twins indicated on the SA indexes let alone 4 pairs. She only indicates South Australia as a residence so I assume children were not born and registered elsewhere.
You can’t believe everything you read in the papers 😉
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24 children!! Wow!! she must be really healthy and fit to live so long. It’s so interesting to read about her.
Visiting from A to Z Challenge
Pam’s Unconventional Alliance Team
A Whimsical Medley
Twinkle Eyed Traveller
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23*
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When you do that research, please find out how they lit 102 candles before the first 30 melted into the cake. HA!
Visiting from AtoZ
Wendy at Jollett Etc.
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I managed to do 90 candles for my grandmother on a relatively small cake but the effect was like a vapourisation of candles – definitely a whoosh effect
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Alternative title : Beatrice brags and boasts 😀 I liked the phrase “an entertaining conversationalist”
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Did Beatrice see Trove and online records in the future?
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No I don’t think she expected to get caught out. Looking at Trove she enjoyed being feted as an early colonist about 1928. The tale probably grew like Topsy and couldn’t be retracted. She seemed to enjoy attending the gatherings of early pioneers and as the ” oldest” pioneer there was nobody with the memory to contradict her.
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What a remarkable woman. Thank you for sharing this about her.
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Hard to believe her story. Intgeeresting though
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23 CHILDREN! And so many twins! How on earth did she live so long????? And how did she not lose her temper??? Yes I would give her a medal too!!!!!!
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Hi — really enjoyed meeting Beatrice Curry through the A to Z Challenge, as I love doing family history research. Perhaps Beatrice helped to raise other children that weren’t her biological children, but who counted in her heart as her own? That could easily account for having a child at 60.
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I like Julia’s idea of fostered children. I had a more grim notion of miscarriages. Amazine story nevertheless.
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I think the birthday accuracy was often a bit dodgy but she still did well…a good example of needing to check sources.
Hope your Curry “cousin bait” is productive.
@cassmob from
Family History Across The Seas
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The site stats have spiked significantly Pauleen. I’m calling it “name bait” ie for unrelated connections.
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Good luck!!
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