Ellen Garrity was the daughter of Charles Garrity and Ann Synot, and was baptised in Hobart on 11 February 1828. Charles was a private in the Royal Staff Corp on the HMAS The Chapman which arrived in Hobart on 11 October 1826. His wife Ann was also on the ship and gave birth to Ellen's older brother John on route.

I don't know, yet, what happened to Charles and Ann but all three of their children, John, Ellen, and William were admitted to the orphanage. All the ages of the children at the time of admittance line up with independent sources.

Ellen married James Green in Geelong in 1852, had six children, the second youngest being Alice, my great grandmother. Ellen died in Melbourne on 28 December 1905 (the same year that her brother William died) and was buried in the Boroondara Cemetery in Kew.

Twice, a convict (Robert Whitney) sought permission to marry the 19 year old free woman Ellen Garrity in 1848. Her response? The record shows: "the woman refused to marry Irish." She had spirit!

The father's name was not John. I don't have to rely on Ellen's baptismal entry which gives her father's name. Ellen's brother John was admitted by direct order of Lt Gov George Arthur in a memorandum in which he states that John's (and hence Ellen's) father was Charles Garrity, former soldier in the Royal Staff Corps. (See more details under John). The listing of the ship America is also an error made in admission.

Ellen Garrity is my great great grandmother.