Elizabeth Welsh - EDNEY Family Project

Elizabeth Welsh

Summary information

Name	Elizabeth Welsh
Date of birth	28 February 1834
Place of birth	Dundee, Scotland
Died	8 September 1913
Place of death	Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
Mother	Elizabeth Laing
Father	John Welsh
Siblings	Mary Welsh Barbara Welsh
Spouse	James Brown Edney
Date of marriage	31 May 1852
Place of marriage	St. John's Cross Church, Tay Street, Dundee, Scotland
Children	Martha Simpson Edney Elizabeth Webster Edney James Welsh Edney Mary Welsh Edney Barbara Robertson Edney David Edney III William Murray Edney Alexander Chalmers Edney Helen Douglas Edney John Robertson (Jack) Edney Jesse Anderson Edney George Harrison Edney I Walter Scott Edney
Occupation	-

Other information

In the early 1850s, James Brown ("JB") Edney met and married Elizabeth, and promptly produced their first child, Martha Simpson Edney. Two further children followed: Elizabeth Webster Edney and James Welsh Edney. Like their parents, James and Elizabeth saw the death of many children, with Elizabeth and then Martha dying in 1857 and 1858.

The family may have been nomadic for a period, with Elizabeth Webster Edney’s birth being recorded in Glennock, and her death in Forfar, Fife, but the family was back in Dundee by 1857. Recorded addresses for the family in Scotland are:

7 April 1855	Brownlies Court - 20 Cathcrt St Greenock
29 January 1857	31 Hunter St Dundee
20 July 1857	40 Hawkhill Dundee
28 April 1858	29 Hunter St Dundee

It was at this time that the family received word from JB's father in Australia. John Robertson Edney had completed his convict sentence, purchased a property in Wagga Wagga, and was to pay for his wife to travel to Australia to join him. James and Elizabeth decided to accompany James’ mother to Australia, with their now only child, James Welsh Edney.

John Robertson paid a remittance of 15 pounds to bring his wife Elizabeth out from Scotland, while JB paid 15 pounds for himself, his wife and son to accompany Elizabeth. They traveled on board the Caribou, leaving Liverpool on 7 July 1859 and arriving in Sydney on 4 October 1859. Elizabeth gave birth to another child, Mary Welsh Edney, on the voyage.

The Caribou carried about 370 passenger. The Edneys were among the minorty on board, with the majority of passengers being roman catholic, could not read or write, had no relations already in Australia, and were being transported as part of the Irish Donegal Relief Fund. The Edneys were literate, and presbyterian.

In Australia, the family moved onto the Wagga Wagga property purchased by John Robertson (later called Mount Edney Farm). By 1959, the family ran a saw pit on the property.

James and Elizabeth has another nine children after they settled in Wagga Wagga, with the youngest, Walter, being born in 1880 when Elizabeth was 46.