My Maternal Grandmother's family
My Grandmother Merlve Joyce Edith Bisdee was born to George John Bisdee and Daisy Younger.
George was born in the Upper Swan area of Perth in 1876 and he was baptised on Christmas day in 1877. His parents were Edgar and Louisa Bisdee. Edgar and Louisa had a large family with George being one of 13 children! There is a 29 year span between the first born child Emma and the last born Clara. George was just 7 years old when his sister Emma died in 1884 at the age of 27 and his brother Henry the same year at the age of 22. It would have been hard having your siblings die while you are so young, his sister Clara died just two years later when he was 10 years old. Death took a backseat for a few years before claiming his sister Selena when George was 27 and his brother Sylvester a year later.
1907 was the year George John's father Edgar died at the age of 80 in a home for men. George was 31. Then 3 years later after Edgar's death, was the death of Louisa, George's mother. George was living in Boulder at this time and his occupation was listed as Miner. This is where he met the love of his life, Daisy Younger. Daisy and George married in 1911 in Boulder. George and Daisy went on to have 8 children through the years, including my grandmother Merlve.
George lived a colourful life, one that made it to print several times over. I have enclosed in my blog articles several newspaper clippings about his endeavours. He had been arrested for stealing milk, bankruptcy and he was arrested for avoidance to debtors. George John had also been accused of burning down a house and he had been written up in the paper for brawling. Several articles listed in the Kalgoorlie Miner of both George and Daisy selling household items ( in detailed lists) in auctions and also of Daisy selling her house on Hay St in 1937, where she was listed as proprietor. I had found an article that I can not locate at this time or remember where I saved it, but I read that John Younger had bought the house for Daisy while she was married to George John and I believe he had a mistrust of her husband ( as many newspapers have seemed shown he has a bad nature, plus some of the unfavourable stories I have been told about him) and did not want the house in his name.
I have collected a lot of electoral roll records for George in a lot of different locations as he was always moving around to avoid debt collectors. After the birth of his daughter Gwendoline at age 51, George moved his family back to Perth in the Karragullen region and was listed as a overseer. In the 1936 electoral roll, George John was listed as a Miner and living on 5th road in Armadale while his wife Daisy was still listed in Karragullen. Between a Western Australian PO City Directory recording George John in Mundaring in 1941 and the electoral roll for 1943 George and his family had moved to Kalgoorlie in the house on Brownhill road where he would live the rest of his life with his family. George John died on 2nd September 1960 aged 82 and is buried at Kalgoorlie–Boulder cemetery, Western Australia.
Edgar Bisdee was born on 13th of May 1827 in Banwell Somerset England. ( here I would just like to interject that I have used a website that compares DNA to ancient DNA that has been found and I have a match with the Cheddar Man that was found in Cheddar Gorge just 11 kilometres from Banwell, I think it is probably safe to assume that his line being the closest to the area is probably the safest to say is the line that is related. ) He was one of 5 children born to James and Harriet Bisdee. The first piece of information I have found for Edgar, he was 14 in 1841 and the census conducted at the time states the family were living in Wick St Lawrence in the Weston Super-Mare district.
The next piece of information I have found, was in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly gazette on the 6th of April 1848 in the Somerset Spring Sessions section. The newspaper had wrote "James Bisdee and Edgar Bisdee, for stealing thirteen fowls, the property of Joseph Hewlett: also four fowls of Eliza Lawrence; also , a sheep of Thomas Castle.". For a fuller detailed account of the conviction and transportation of Edgar and his father James, have a search in the blog section of my family history using the category search of "Bisdee"
So Edgar was tried, convicted and transported to Australia arriving on October 14 1851. only a short three years later he was granted a conditional pardon and was free to marry. Edgar had met Louisa Whittington a local early settler farmers daughter and they were soon married. It seems it may have been a shotgun wedding as their daughter Ellen was born two months after their June wedding in 1854.
Edgar and Louisa had 13 children in their turbulent marriage with plenty of documentation of drunkenness and abusing his wife Louisa. There have been prison visitor logs I have found on trove for when Edgar had been locked up in Fremantle Prison one time was for a very serious crime, of shooting at a neighbour when he was coming to check on his Edgar's wife after hearing her getting beaten in 1886. Edgar served a year for that crime. It is unknown if Louisa had left Edgar but the 1906 Australian Electoral roll had placed them both living in Upper Swan and then in 1907 when Edgar had died, he was living in the Claremont old mans home and was buried in Karracutta in Perth WA. Louisa had died 3 years after Edgar and was buried with her family, the Whittingtons in Beverley Western Australia.
James Bisdee
George was born in the Upper Swan area of Perth in 1876 and he was baptised on Christmas day in 1877. His parents were Edgar and Louisa Bisdee. Edgar and Louisa had a large family with George being one of 13 children! There is a 29 year span between the first born child Emma and the last born Clara. George was just 7 years old when his sister Emma died in 1884 at the age of 27 and his brother Henry the same year at the age of 22. It would have been hard having your siblings die while you are so young, his sister Clara died just two years later when he was 10 years old. Death took a backseat for a few years before claiming his sister Selena when George was 27 and his brother Sylvester a year later.
1907 was the year George John's father Edgar died at the age of 80 in a home for men. George was 31. Then 3 years later after Edgar's death, was the death of Louisa, George's mother. George was living in Boulder at this time and his occupation was listed as Miner. This is where he met the love of his life, Daisy Younger. Daisy and George married in 1911 in Boulder. George and Daisy went on to have 8 children through the years, including my grandmother Merlve.
George lived a colourful life, one that made it to print several times over. I have enclosed in my blog articles several newspaper clippings about his endeavours. He had been arrested for stealing milk, bankruptcy and he was arrested for avoidance to debtors. George John had also been accused of burning down a house and he had been written up in the paper for brawling. Several articles listed in the Kalgoorlie Miner of both George and Daisy selling household items ( in detailed lists) in auctions and also of Daisy selling her house on Hay St in 1937, where she was listed as proprietor. I had found an article that I can not locate at this time or remember where I saved it, but I read that John Younger had bought the house for Daisy while she was married to George John and I believe he had a mistrust of her husband ( as many newspapers have seemed shown he has a bad nature, plus some of the unfavourable stories I have been told about him) and did not want the house in his name.
I have collected a lot of electoral roll records for George in a lot of different locations as he was always moving around to avoid debt collectors. After the birth of his daughter Gwendoline at age 51, George moved his family back to Perth in the Karragullen region and was listed as a overseer. In the 1936 electoral roll, George John was listed as a Miner and living on 5th road in Armadale while his wife Daisy was still listed in Karragullen. Between a Western Australian PO City Directory recording George John in Mundaring in 1941 and the electoral roll for 1943 George and his family had moved to Kalgoorlie in the house on Brownhill road where he would live the rest of his life with his family. George John died on 2nd September 1960 aged 82 and is buried at Kalgoorlie–Boulder cemetery, Western Australia.
Edgar Bisdee was born on 13th of May 1827 in Banwell Somerset England. ( here I would just like to interject that I have used a website that compares DNA to ancient DNA that has been found and I have a match with the Cheddar Man that was found in Cheddar Gorge just 11 kilometres from Banwell, I think it is probably safe to assume that his line being the closest to the area is probably the safest to say is the line that is related. ) He was one of 5 children born to James and Harriet Bisdee. The first piece of information I have found for Edgar, he was 14 in 1841 and the census conducted at the time states the family were living in Wick St Lawrence in the Weston Super-Mare district.
The next piece of information I have found, was in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly gazette on the 6th of April 1848 in the Somerset Spring Sessions section. The newspaper had wrote "James Bisdee and Edgar Bisdee, for stealing thirteen fowls, the property of Joseph Hewlett: also four fowls of Eliza Lawrence; also , a sheep of Thomas Castle.". For a fuller detailed account of the conviction and transportation of Edgar and his father James, have a search in the blog section of my family history using the category search of "Bisdee"
So Edgar was tried, convicted and transported to Australia arriving on October 14 1851. only a short three years later he was granted a conditional pardon and was free to marry. Edgar had met Louisa Whittington a local early settler farmers daughter and they were soon married. It seems it may have been a shotgun wedding as their daughter Ellen was born two months after their June wedding in 1854.
Edgar and Louisa had 13 children in their turbulent marriage with plenty of documentation of drunkenness and abusing his wife Louisa. There have been prison visitor logs I have found on trove for when Edgar had been locked up in Fremantle Prison one time was for a very serious crime, of shooting at a neighbour when he was coming to check on his Edgar's wife after hearing her getting beaten in 1886. Edgar served a year for that crime. It is unknown if Louisa had left Edgar but the 1906 Australian Electoral roll had placed them both living in Upper Swan and then in 1907 when Edgar had died, he was living in the Claremont old mans home and was buried in Karracutta in Perth WA. Louisa had died 3 years after Edgar and was buried with her family, the Whittingtons in Beverley Western Australia.
James Bisdee