52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks | Week 16 – Storms
#52Ancestors
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| Believed to be Annie McKinlay and her brother John McKinlay |
Anne McKinlay was the younger sister of my gr-gr-grandfather John McKinlay, and one of 10 children of Joseph and Margaret (nee Stevenson) McKinlay of Ayrshire, Scotland. It is well documented in the research of several of my cousins that four brothers, including John, from this family emigrated – three to Australia and one to New Zealand – with quite a lot of detail of their lives discovered and captured. So I turned my attention to looking into the lives of the other six siblings. Surprisingly, what I discovered is that Anne also emigrated to Australia.
Anne was born in 1865 in Monkton, Ayrshire. She appears as a 5 year old scholar in the 1871 Scottish Census with her parents and six siblings, living on Content Street in St Quivox. Ten years later, the 1881 census suggests that she is working as a servant in the household of Janet Cowan, Hotel Keeper, 2 Carrick Street, Ayr, while her parents and several siblings continue to reside just across the River Ayr on Content Street, St. Quivox. No-one matching Annie is found in the 1891 census. However, in the 1901 census, there is an Anne Head of the right age and birthplace, living in the same area of Ayr as Anne grew up in. The household on Elba Street includes Anne Head, a widow aged 35 years, born in Prestwick and her three children, ages 12, 10, and 8 years old all listed as having been born in Queensland, Australia. Did she really go to Australia and then come back to Scotland? And why?
On 4 December 1886, Anne, at the age of 20 years, set out from Ayr on a bleak and rainy night bound for London. In her diary, she reports the train journey as comfortable and describes Mr Cowan (perhaps a relative of her former employer) checking on her several times during the trip. She arrived in London early on Saturday morning and was met by her sister Mary. They spent Saturday and Sunday together, organizing Anne’s papers and boxes for the voyage to Australia and farewelling ‘all the old friends’. On Monday morning the sisters caught the train 6 hours southwest to Plymouth, where they found lodgings and spent several more days preparing for Annie’s departure, including a medical review and packing sufficient items for the voyage. On Thursday 9 December, after a sad farewell with Mary, Anne boarded the ‘Eastminster’, a three-masted sailing vessel. Finally, a week later, on Thursday 17 December, the ‘Eastminster’ set sail for Australia under the stewardship of Captain Rees. Three months later, on 19 March, 1887, the ‘Eastminster’ arrived in Hervey Bay and anchored in the dark in the mouth of the Mary River. On 21 March 1887 the passengers alighted in Maryborough and were taken to the immigrant depot while they waited to secure employment.
In 1888, Anne married John William Head. A daughter, Annie Louisa Head was born the same year, a son James Henry Head in 1891, and a second daughter Nellie in January 1893. At the end of January 1893, a tropical cyclone off the coast from Yeppoon influenced the development of an East Coast Low that brought torrential rainfall to southeast Queensland, causing flooding that is documented as one of the worst floods in Queensland’s history. The Mary River rose significantly causing widespread flooding across Maryborough, peaking at 12.27 metres on 5 February. Significant portions of the city were completely inundated. On 7 February, as the flood waters were starting to fall, Anne’s husband John was helping to wash out the second floor of the Grand Hotel (corner of March and Wharf Streets). The flood waters were still level with the second floor (about 14 or 15 feet deep) and John jumped out of second story window into the water to get into a boat. He then stood in the boat, guiding it along the wall of the hotel in order to reach another man who wished to get into the boat. John lost his balance and fell back into the water. He went under the water and did not resurface. There was a strong current and the boat drifted to the opposite side of the road. He was unable to be rescued and his drowned body was found two days later not far from where he was last seen. In the reports of John’s death, he is described as a gardener and well-respected in the community. An inquest into the drowning ruled his death accidental.
Anne suddenly found herself with three children under the age of five years and no husband. The townspeople rallied and a collection was taken up, resulting in Anne receiving the sum of £25/-/6, for which she gave public thanks by way of a notice in the Maryborough Chronicle in April 1893. Her plight also came before the Flood Relief Fund in March, however, it is unclear if she ultimately received any benefits. Despite the support of her community and having three brothers well-established in the colony and potentially able to offer assistance to their sister and her children, she returned to Scotland. The specific timing and circumstances of the return remain unknown, however, by 1901, Anne is living back in the same area of Ayr as she grew up in, along with her three children, and working as a laundress.
In March 1921, Anne’s daughter Annie Louisa emigrated to Canada in search of employment as a domestic servant. In September, Anne and Nelly joined her in Toronto, Ontario. Anne died in Toronto in 1945, having had a very different life than that which she likely imagined when she boarded the Eastminster in 1887; a life that was significantly changed by the fateful events following the very significant rainstorms in Maryborough (Queensland) in 1893.
