I am revisiting this blog post I wrote in 2009. It's a great story and I think it bears repeating. It's in 4 parts. This is part 1 (with photos added)
Many years ago I decided to try to find evidence of a rather poignant
and mysterious family story, one told to me by my Grandmother. The story
was about my Grandmother's mother's family.
Family lore told the tale of how my great-great grandfather William
Stephen Stead's wife, Sarah, (no surname known) died in childbirth on
her way from England to Australia, and how William then turned around
and came back to England with 2 of his 4 children, leaving two behind in
Australia. The time period was given as around 1868.
Over time the family in England lost touch with the family in Australia.
Grandma always said that it was two little boys left behind, and that
one died while the other lived, married and raised a family in
Australia.
I wanted to know more. But how would I research this?
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| Sarah Elvery Stead 1836-1867 |
My Grandmother had a
CDV (Carte de Visite)
taken circa mid 1860s of a young woman. Grandma said her mother had
given it to her and told her it was the only picture she had of her
mother who died in Australia. On the back was written
"Your mother Sarah Stead"
The only other item that Grandma had was a letter written by her sister
Lily which gave some details. This letter from Lillian Simpson,
granddaughter of William Stephen Stead, written in 1964, stated
"Since then they found out that Grandfather had married twice - would
I let them know of any children of that marriage. I told them there
were two sons and one daughter, all deceased, and I never knew the
second wife. Grandma [Sarah Elvery] died four days after they arrived in
Australia. When my mother [Sarah Jane Stead] was only four years old,
Grandfather came back to England, leaving Uncles William and Edward out
there, and brought back mother and Uncle Charles with him."
Grandma had one other item of interest - a letter from her niece, the
step-daughter of her sister Lillian. Pansy, the step-daughter said in
her letter:
"Great-grandma's name, was, I think, Stead. I don't know if you know
that in 1867 Great-Grandfather Stead [William Stephen] sailed to
Australia. His wife died soon after. He left two sons out there - Edward
was one. I don't know the other one's name. He brought Grandma Simpson
[Sarah Jane Stead] and Uncle Charlie Stead back. Daisy and Ethel were
from the two sons left in Australia so I know they were cousins, and
they visited mum in Enfield."
And so I began my hunt for poor Sarah. Remember this was many years ago -
back in 1995 before Internet Genealogy was in full swing, long before
ships passenger lists or vital records or other genealogy databases were
online.
So I began my search with a posting to an Australian newsgroup, titled
"Stead in Australia". No responses. I tried again, this time calling my
post "Looking for Stead" Still zero replies.
It was then I decided that I needed to grab readers' attention with my
post title. I re-sent the original post but this time I called it
"Abandoned in Australia".
This brought a tremendous response. Over a dozen helpful Australians
writing to say they would go on a hunt for my missing
great-great-grandmother Sarah Stead and her children.
See all 4 parts in the series
Abandoned in Australia
I was curious. I wanted to know more about Rachel. Why was her husband in the Home for Incurables? It was established in Hamilton Ontario in 1890 as St. Peter’s Home for Incurables and cared for patients suffering from dementia or other chronic ailments.
I discovered more secrets including an alias that Robert used when he married Olive. I learned much more about his three wives (Jessie Cathie Elliot, Cecilia Wallace, and Olive May Peer) and the children they bore with Robert. 
