Josephine Rollinson

1866 - 1910  (43 år)

• Navn	Josephine Rollinson
  Født	30 okt. 1866	South Australia, Australien
  	Aldinga
  Køn	Kvinde
  Død	1 jun. 1910	New South Wales, Australien
  	Little Bay
  Begravet	New South Wales, Australien
  	Coast Hospital Cemetry, Little Bay
  Person-ID	I85683	My Family Genealogy | Familen Ravnholdt & Hansen
  Sidst ændret	1 aug. 2018

  
  

  Familie	Hans Johannes Trules Nissen,   f. 31 mar. 1872, Fredericia-, Elbo Herred, Vejle Amt, Danmark ,   d. 17 mar. 1941, New South Wales, Australien  (Alder 68 år)
  Gift	16 dec. 1895	South Australia, Australien
  	Adresse: J Horskins Cottage Royal Av and Gillies St. Adelaide
  Børn	1. Hans Rollinson Nissen,   f. 27 sep. 1896, South Australia, Australien ,   d. 4 apr. 1956, New South Wales, Australien  (Alder 59 år)   2. Frederikke Josephine Nissen,   f. 6 maj 1898, South Australia, Australien ,   d. 22 jun. 1984, Queensland, Australien  (Alder 86 år)   3. Martin George Nissen,   f. 3 feb. 1900, South Australia, Australien ,   d. 6 jan. 1960, Queensland, Australien  (Alder 59 år)   4. Rolf Boisen Nissen,   f. 2 aug. 1902, New South Wales, Australien ,   d. 28 aug. 1976, Queensland, Australien  (Alder 74 år)   5. Theodora Josephine Nissen,   f. 29 okt. 1904, New South Wales, Australien ,   d. 3 jul. 1979, New South Wales, Australien  (Alder 74 år)   6. Colin Curlewis Nissen,   f. 16 jul. 1907, New South Wales, Australien ,   d. 28 sep. 1982, Queensland, Australien  (Alder 75 år)   7. Norwood Oscar Hartley,   f. 8 sep. 1909, New South Wales, Australien ,   d. 22 dec. 1996, New South Wales, Australien  (Alder 87 år)
  Sidst ændret	23 sep. 2022
  Familie-ID	F24116	Gruppeskema  |  Familietavle

  
  

• Notater

  Josephine had attended Adelaide University in 1885 and 1886. She is listed in the 1886 yearbook under ‘Students not studying for a degree’. Hans used to tell the family that she was a doctor, though her son, Christian, knew nothing of that story. Regrettably, Adelaide University hasn't put its old records onto computer and the card records of academic results only start at 1890. Josephine’s first marriage had been to Horace Edgar Walter Byerlee who was born on 12 April 1863 in Manoora, SA. The marriage date cannot be found and perhaps they were never legally married. They had two sons: Christian Joseph Byerlee born 10 January 1889 and Angus Gunn Byerlee born 4 March 1891. Josephine had some connection with the Gunn family. Hans gives her mother’s maiden name as Gunn on her death certificate (though this does not seem to agree with other information available). It was the middle name of her son, Angus. An Angus Gunn was one of the witnesses at the wedding of Harry and Josephine. The famous Gunn was Sir William of the wool industry. Horace Byerlee had financial troubles and died in California. Josephine’s grandson, Alex Caldwell, spoke of her (Josephine's) childhood and life-long friendship with Ethel Turner, author of “Seven Little Australians”. [Born Ethel Sibyl Turner at Doncaster in Yorkshire, England on January 24, 1872, Ethel arrived in Australia with her parents when she was eight years of age. In 1896 she married (later, Judge) Herbert Raine Curlewis and moved to the harbour-side suburb of Mosman, in Warringa (sic) Rd, her home until she died in 1958.]   One story is that Josephine actually wrote “Seven Little Australians” which Ethel Turner edited and published under her own name. This is possible, though “Seven Little Australians” was published in Sydney in 1894 and Josephine did not come to Sydney till after 1900. She was certainly a writer as her son, Christian, remembered taking articles she had written to a newspaper office in Sydney by ferry when he was about 12. It is interesting that Josephine’s sixth child with Harry was called Colin Curlewis. One grandson has the story that Josephine was related to Judge Curlewis. Christian worked for him for a while as an office boy. It is not totally clear what happened to Harry and Josephine’s children after Josephine’s death. It would have been difficult at the time for a man to care for seven young children – and Harry was not the kind of man to have undertaken that task willingly. In those days the women did all the washing, ironing and cooking so, if a mother died, the tradition of those times would have been for the extended family to help look after the children. However, it seems their oldest son, Hans Rollinson, went to a boy’s home in Mittagong for a time. He was 13 when his mother died. Freda, who had just turned 12, is reported to have hated her father for deserting the children when their mother died. Freda spoke about being looked after by an aunt Dora. However Harry’s sister, Dora, had died in 1902 so it was possibly his sister Magdalene’s oldest daughter, Dora, who looked after her for a while. Freda also talked of “the Sisters”, and was able to recite the Rosary; therefore, presumably, at some stage she was sent to a Catholic orphanage. Freda had a note recording her attendance at the public school in Raymond Terrace in 1911 when she was in fifth class. Martin seems to have been sent to a Boys Home in the Newcastle area, and possibly Rolf was as well, though they too may have been sent to relatives for a while. His children state that Rolf was still fairly young when he went to North Queensland to stay with his half-brothers. In his army records Martin says he was a State Boy till 17 years of age. He gave his permanent address as care of Mrs Kathleen Gulliver, Millers Forest, via Maitland. Josie and Colin were sent to Adelaide under the care of a family called Trudinger – almost certainly the family of August and Clara Trudinger who lived in Norwood, SA. They were a missionary family who had thirteen children and had come to Australia from Germany via England. Clara had been one of the witnesses at the wedding of Harry and Josephine. After some time in Adelaide Josie and Colin returned to NSW to live with two maiden aunts in the Ebenezer, Pitt Town area. So far it has not been possible to trace who these ‘aunts’ might have been but they were on the Rollinson side of the family. The youngest child, Norwood, was possibly cared for by the nurse who later fostered him. The family lost all contact with Norwood thereafter. Christian and Angus, who were living in North Queensland, may have been involved in caring for some of the children because later Freda was their housekeeper and most of the family eventually moved to North Queensland. Martin travelled there to work in 1917. Harry kept some contact with his family in South Australia because he was the godfather to his sister Annie’s daughter, Susan Madge Summers, who was born on 16 April 1912 in Adelaide. However, it seems that he never tried to make any contact with his children and they knew nothing about him when they grew up. His second wife, Flo, would not have been willing to take the children under her wing. Martin put his father down as ‘deceased’ in his army records in 1917 and Freda did the same when she married in 1923.