Author: Public Record Office Victoria
In December of 2011 researcher Jacquie Browne found clues within a Ward Register that would eventually lead to the unearthing of a wealth of records related to her immediate and extended family.
Jacquie Browne’s grandmother was Beatrice Hughes who married James McMahon in 1920 in Kerang Victoria.
Beatrice and James had 3 daughters, Kathleen, Margaret and Irene. Irene, the youngest, was Jacquie’s Mother.
Beatrice Hughes passed away in 1951 aged 59, having never known her birth family. Her youngest daughter, Irene McMahon Keown, began researching her mother’s birth family but died in 1981, aged 50, leaving the mystery unsolved.
Jacquie continued the research and in January 2012 discovered Beatrice’s birth family, finally solving the 120 year old mystery.
What began with the hope of finding at least one elderly relative to bring to the next reunion resulted in Jacquie discovering Beatrice Hughes had at least six other siblings and that Beatrice’s mother, Emma Jane Watson, was one of twelve children.
Jacquie’s research at PROV has so far unearthed over 36 wills and probates, 12 ward registers, 8 inquests, several Licensee records and a long lost family made up of hundreds of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th cousins.
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