Durants, Tunnellers, and what connections?

I've had a phone call and a couple of emails from Sue Baker Wilson, who is doing some research on a group called the New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Company.   These men were often engineers who were used in the First World War to undermine the enemy lines and other subversive jobs.   

She rang because there seems to be a connection with one of the Tunnellers to people connected to our family, the Durants.  Emily Durant married Arthur Joyce, and was thus my grandmother's sister-in-law.  Her sister was Alice Durant.   You can see a very small amount about them here.

Sue wrote: 

I have been searching for information. A Paperspast article, refs below, refers to Mrs Durant, Leeston, who was a widow of W Harding and who married Thomas W. Durant. A 1917 In Memoriam inserted by ‘her loving daughters, Ada and Nellie’ refers to her as Alice Durant. It would appear that Alice was stepmother to the tunneller I am researching, W M Durant and possibly the person shown on your website.

Tunneller officer William Durant’s family are linked to Leeston & Christchurch. A Star, 12 Feb 1907 article notes that The mining scholarship for the West Coast has been won this year by Mr W M Durant, eldest son of Mr T W Durant, formerly of Leeston and Christchurch.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XXII, Issue 3838, 4 October 1916, Page 2

This article tells us that The death occurred at the residence of her son in-law, Mr G, H. Jones, Selwyn Street, Leeston, on Sunday night, of Mrs Durant, relict of tbe late Mr Thomas Durant, formerly of Sumner and St. Albans, and for many years a prominent Leeston business man.
There is no mention in the obituary of Durant senior's first family, if this is the same Thomas Durant, father to Lieut Durant. I cannot find any obituary to a Thomas Durant. Mrs Alice Durant, was remembered by her daughters Ada Jones (Mrs George Henry Jones) of Leeston and Nellie (Rackely). G H Jones  died in England 1931. He had had a carrying business operating between Leeston and ChCh before going back to settle in England. A report says he was twice married and at the time of his death a couple of sons were still in Leeston. One of these son’s, Albert Edward died in 1945. At that time, some of his son’s still resided in Leeston.

W M Durant’s name does not appear on the Leeston war memorial.

Lieut Durant’s wife and children are buried together in Arundel cemetery, Strathalian County, Canterbury. Robert died 22 Dec 1968. According to the Timaru District Council cemetery database Jessie died after her son 15 Dec 1977, which differs from the 1975 info you have found. Margaret Ralston (Audrey) Durant died 10 August 2006. Attached grave pic.

It doesn’t look like there were any offspring for any of William Durant’s children.

If you find any family links to either Durant or Jones, I would be interested in knowing more.

 

I haven't had time so far to dig into this further, but if any other member of the family knows something about them, I'd be interested to hear.   

Crowl Family Photos (again)

I'm posting these photos in order, partly, to protect them. I feel they're fairly vulnerable to damage, so want to preserve them as best I can.


This photo is either of Reg or Frank (my uncle and father respectively). It was taken at the [J.W.] Gorsuch studio, 48 Junction Rd, Upper Holloway. A note on Flickr.com says: John Willliam Gorsuch was based at 48 Junction Road, Holloway, Islington from 1891 - 1911. He apparently gambled away earnings from studios at horse races around the country.


This is my grandmother, Karolina Brock again - or, as my uncle (or father) has written on the back: Mother (Mrs K.T.Crowl)


Frank and Reg again; probably Frank is the one on the right.



This is Uncle Will, according to the back of the photo. Presumably that means this is the gent with the extravagant name of William Thackeray Brock. The written 'signature' at the bottom says, Wykeham - the studio was The Wykeham Studios Ltd, 165 Victoria Street, SW1, and also at 133 Streatham High Road, SW161, and 67 Balham High Road, SW12. (The link to Wykeham Studios may only be temporary - it goes to a eBay page where someone is selling an old photo also produced by Wykeham.)

The emails keep coming

Even though this blog may have had a bit of a hiatus, the emails from people connected to the family keep coming. I received one from Mark Hannagan's daughter, Rebecca, back in February, and one from Adele McKersey in late May.
Adele wrote:
I have been in contact with Colleen O'Rourke who I discovered had a match to my Grandfather Charles John Francis Hannagan. Today I received an impressive lot of certificates from which she kindly sent to me in the UK related to relevant marriages of my family and also the address of your blogspot.

I was looking at the family tree as there is a lot I don't know about my my Mother's family.I noticed you don't have my brother Kevin who is two years younger than me on your tree and also a lot of the next generation. If you are interested I can send you the missing names .. just let me know.

I've written to Adele to say Yes, I'd love to hear some more about this part of the family. Her mother was a Hazel Hannagan, who was the daughter of Charles Hannagan Snr (as opposed to my grandfather, who was also a Charles Hannagan). Her grandfather was Francis Hannagan, who was born in Ireland, in 1825. And he's the son of a William Hannagan, whose birth year we're not sure of, but it must be sometime around the late 1700s and early 1800s.

The family on this side is rather complicated - Francis had two wives, and Charles appears to have had three - with children all over the place from these unions. No wonder there are so many Hannagans!

This is a bit strange...

Still catching up on emails that have information in them that I haven't yet posted here.
Nola Marshall wrote to me back in March about this rather strange situation in the family.

I am fascinated by the thought that Francis Hannagan had two families at the same time. Do you know if Catherine was in Melbourne with him in the 1850s? I have found him on the 1856 Electoral Roll living in a house off Little Lonsdale Street. Occupation Tailor. As you are aware three children were born in Australia, the mother being Mary Ann Kearns (Cairns). Another daughter was born in NZ just prior to Catherine having her last child. It begs belief that the women did not know of each others existence. Do you have any family knowledge of how this arrangement worked?

There are several photos of Martin John and Frank Hannagan and the tailoring business in Mt Gambier at the following sight.

Google Mt Gambier Library and Click on Photographic section. Type in Hannagan and the relevant photos should come up. [The first time I tried this I got two pages of photos; today I can only get four.]

My mother was Nola Rita Hannagan, youngest daughter of William Francis Hannagan, born 17th Feb 1883 and Aileen Todd.

William Francis Hannagan (1860) and Frances Hargreaves settled in Victoria.

William had a tailoring business in Brighton and his son William took over the business after his fathers' death in 1918.

The Musical Hannagans

Here's something almost totally irrelevant. While searching the Web to see if I could by chance find anything more about William Hannagan, I came across this oddity.

Hannagan, Margaret, and Clandillon, Seamus. [Annagain, Maigread Ni, agus Clanndioluin, Seamus]. Londub An Cairn, being Songs of the Irish Gaels, in Staff and Sol-Fa, with English Metrical Translations. Oxford U. Press, Humphrey Milford 1927. 1st. VG. 75 songs, most from family of Hannagan (West Waterford). 3 volumes in one, as published.

It was listed in the Lewis Becker catalogue of collection.

75 songs mostly from the family of Hannagan? So we're a musical lot from way back...

Another bit of the tree

A couple of days ago I received an email from a Hannagan in Australia. The writer's name is Nola Marshall, and she says:

I recently found your homepage for Hannagan.
I am a descendant of the Australian Hannagans.
My Grandfather was William Francis Hannagan, brother of Martin John Hannagan. I have information and photos of this side of the family if you are interested.

This bit of the family is a little confusing - at least at this point. William and Martin were the sons of Francis Hannagan (born in 1825) and his second wife, Mary (nee Cairns). On the family tree as it currently stands, I have two William Hannagans - I suspect they may be the same person, and we've got the information a bit confused. It isn't entirely unusual for people in the Victorian period to give two children the same name, if the first died very young. However, I don't have any evidence for this, as yet.

We'll keep you informed when I hear back from Nola.