Hi Leslie - Ann, Kerry. I think Cecily on the list will be able to tell a similar story of Connolly children leaving B/worth and going back to Ireland to school for some years. I can't recall the years, maybe Cecily can help out here. As for my family and why I asked if anyone knew why children were in the homeland. - I received an extract from a Diary. This marvellous Diary tells that Martha Crawford was in the USA in 1867. Timewise this confirms that a daughter (#3) was born there, the whereabouts of this birth has always been a mystery. Her death certificate said birth was in USA but family was not the informant so I hesitated to accept it as I could never confirm it. Mum was back in Chiltern in early 1868. Since writing to the list last night about schools I have found out that the child born in 1867 was still in the US in 1870 with grandparents in New Hampshire and birth was given as Connecticut. My ideas on this are - It seemed to be some sort of 'tradition' that the family left the eldest child with grandparents. Years ago someone from US list told me this happened there in the past. I guess it happened in lots of places. This was repeated in the next generation of Crawfords; grandparents took on the parenting roll for their first grandson for 16 years while his mum and dad went on to have another 8 children. They were all in the same state for most of that time, not worlds apart. However, this could say something about what families did. A theory put forward to me by a family member was that she was sick and had been left with a cousin in a special school in New York. How would mum know this child was "sick" in 1867, when she was such a small baby. Another thought is that she was taught music there...many of the family were music teachers, but we certainly had music teachers here in Australia. Child #3 1867, was a very good pianist later in life - photo in some sort of 'uniform', music sheets signed by conductors etc. top piano, etc. Again, mum wouldn't know child was musical after the birth in 1867. Sort of kills both these theories. The child was (?still) in USA in 1876, and I have her shipping to Australia that year. Father made the trip to bring her home. Had she been there that long, and if so why. This child eventually attended a private school in Melbourne (obviously a boarder as mum and dad in the northeast) and achieved good marks - have her report - so given her music and her scholastic records I don't think "backwards" comes in here. I've read on a death certificate of a daughter (#2) that she spent 10 years in the US. Born in Beechworth in 1857. She was still in Australia in 1863. She was there in 1867 with Martha Crawford but nothing found that she had been brought home to Australia. She was here for sure in the late 1870s busy buying land, and shortly afterwards married, so the time for leaving her there was also in 1867. WHY? No proof, but it has been written that she too attended school in Melbourne. 4. Last night I asked about the school in Chiltern only to check on one daughter (#1) of the family and see if she was in Australia in 1867. Daughter #1 eventually moved to the US to live with 5 kids leaving husband here, and ended up living in the same home father had grown up in. That's another story. Everything has a reason I guess, but strange from this angle. Thanks to those who have put forward some ideas, it's got the brain going. Denise ----- Original Message ----- From: "Leslie-Ann O'Donnell" <leslie_ann28@hotmail.com> To: <AUS-VIC-HIGH-COUNTRY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 9:18 PM Subject: Re: [HC] Query on children of the 1800s > Denise I'm not sure if this is relevant, I've been keeping the sketchiest > watch on the list in recent months as work has devoured most of my time > and can't find your theory... but the three eldest O'Donnell boys > including my g grandfather were sent back to Ireland to school; not to a > school anywhere near where Michael and Margaret were from (around > Limerick) but Dublin to a then v. new public school which today churns out > a large proportion of Ireland's Rugby players. It doesn't seem to have > been a case of sending back to the family so much as sending them back > specifically for the education on offer. As far as I can make out their > return coincided with Margaret becoming unwell... Robert was certainly a > pupil at Beechworth Grammar after they returned. > > Leslie-Ann > > >>I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has discovered that a >>child/children of a family >was either left behind in the homeland or sent >>there/back perhaps. >>I would be keen to see a discussion on this if any of you have found >>this - I would like to hear some other reasons why this would happen. > Denise > > _________________________________________________________________ > Express yourself with cool new emoticons > http://www.msn.co.uk/specials/myemo >