Join me on my Cemetery Searching expedition for the 2023 A to Z Blog Challenge. I’ll be re-visiting some cemeteries and preparing for a wish list of others. Some family members will be mentioned but I also have an interest in German family graves as well as those of people born in Co Clare Ireland.
TOWNSVILLE, QUEENSLAND.
Belgian Gardens Cemetery
My maternal uncle is buried in this cemetery. He died young from peritonitis.
Other family members are also buried there including my great-uncle John Joseph McSHERRY and his family. I don’t have a photo of their graves.
A list of burials in this cemetery can be found here. https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0025/8386/Belgian-Gardens-Cemetery-Records.pdf
West End Cemetery, Townsville, Queensland
This is Townsville’s oldest cemetery and has many interesting burials and gravestones and I’ve photographed a number of memorials include places of birth. I’ll start with some family memorials before sharing some others that caught my eye.
Townsville is in our tropical zone and as such is susceptible to cyclones. You can read my own experience of a Townsville cyclone here. https://cassmobfamilyhistory.com/2013/02/02/fab-feb-photo-collage-2-feb-cats-kittens-maggie-cyclones/ Much more fortunate than poor Mrs Currie.
Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery, Toowoomba, Queensland
This cemetery is an epicentre for graves of family and my German interests. Today I’m restricting myself to just one memorial.
As you can see the sandstone on the memorial has been worn by wind and weather. It rmembers Mark GAVAN, a convict exile from Clifden in Co Galway, his wife Ann nee CONRY or CONROY, and their daughter Annie. Mark and Annie were the parents of one of the boys who drowned on Jimbour which I wrote about under J. The other reason that this memorial is interesting is because it mentions Annie’s brother Peter CONROY. His death is mentioned in the newspaper but his name does not appear in the death indexes nor have I found him in the inquest indexes.
Family history across the seas 
Sad when we find our ancestors grave areas overgrown with weeds
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Very true but more likely when families are so scattered.
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Such a sad end for Mrs Currie and a difficult experience for her grandson.
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Very difficult for the lad.
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Although, of course, one is grateful for news stories explaining what happened, they always make me enormously sad. I suppose it’s the drama of the current moment, for visiting gravesites feels quite different to me – peaceful and removed.
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That’s true Deborah. When we visit there is a tranquility and while we may feel a little sad, the impact comes when e know the back story.
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Another fascinating series of stories behind your ancestors’/relatives’ graves. Cyclones are indeed a serious force of nature and so sad about Mrs. Currie’s traumatic death. Her hand-pointing-up stone is a common motif on older gravestones here in the US.
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Interesting that it’s a common motif in older US stones…I don’t recall seeing it here often.
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