Orphan Number: 5656

Orphan:	Catherine WILKINS
Mother:	SIMPSON, Sarah M
Father:	WILKINS, John
Mother's ship:	Mooltan
Father's ship:	Mooltan
Age when admitted:	3yrs
Date admitted:	Feb 1862
Date discharged:
Institutions(s):	Queens Orphan School
Discharged to:
Remarks:	mother deserted - refused admission to Queens Orphan School
References:	SWD26/5, 27

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You can claim this Orphan here

Claimed by Margaret Wilkins-Russell. You can send a message to Margaret Wilkins-Russell by email here

Margaret Wilkins-Russell wrote:

Catherine Wilkins was the sister of my maternal great-grandmother, Elizabeth Sarah Wilkins (aka Eliza/Elizabeth Maud/Maud E). Catherine was born on 17 November 1858 in Hobart to John Thomas Wilkins and Sarah Simpson. In 1862 Catherine's mother deserted the family and her father, John, requested that Catherine (then aged 3) and her two siblings, James (8) and Elizabeth (6), be placed in the care of the Queen's Orphan School. However, this request was refused.

Two years later, in 1864, Catherine's brother, James, was drowned (aged 10) at Barnes Bay, Bruny. In January 1865 Catherine's father, John, sailed to Sydney with Elizabeth (then aged 9), where they remained until their deaths. No record has been found to indicate that Catherine accompanied her father and sister to Sydney, however she obviously moved at some stage because she married Frederick Newman in Sydney in 1881.  By this time, however, Catherine had changed her name to "Ethel Katherine".

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