The voyage continues with Mary Lutge (nee Bonner) - Peter's wife

Having spent last Thursday at a study course on Irish records, it's a good time to share my findings to date about our matriarch, Mary Bonner.  Again there are many variations to the spelling of the name including Bonnor, Boner and Bonar.  Maybe we should just call her Mary B!

Over the last year, I've been working with our Lutge cousin, Karen, on our family story.  We had Mary B's marriage and death registrations.  Based on these, we thought that Mary B was born in the late 1840s in County Donegal, Ireland and came to Australia in the early 1860s.  Our next stage was to find out about Mary B's birth family and voyage to Australia.

A few weeks ago, we were sitting in a coffee shop, laptop between us and looking at the new information AncestryDNA provides called "Genetic Communities".  We've both tested with AncestryDNA and the strongest "Genetic Community" I belong to is the one formed around Donegal highlighting Mary B.  

We then had one of those breakthroughs that keep you going in the family history search....

On 18 September 1863, Catherine Sweeny paid an immigration deposit for Mary Bonar, aged 15, and Sarah Sweeny, aged 22, to come from County Donegal to NSW.  "Our Mary B's" mother was Mary Sweeney.  Could Catherine be an aunt here in Sydney and Sarah an aunt that Mary was travelling with from Ireland?

State Records Authority of New South Wales; Kingswood New South Wales, Australia; Persons on bounty ships (Agent's Immigrant Lists); Series: 5316; Reel: 2139

Over the next few hours, all the dots had connected and there's a much fuller story to tell.....

Mary Boner, aged 15, and Sarah Sweeny, aged 22, arrived in Sydney on 05 December 1863 on board the Hotspur.

State Records Authority of New South Wales; Kingswood New South Wales, Australia; Persons on bounty ships (Agent's Immigrant Lists); Series: 5316; Reel: 2139

On 07 December 1863, an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald showed the Catherine Sweeney had paid the immigration deposit for Mary Boner.  

Advertising (1863, December 7). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved May 28, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1309025

It seemed highly likely that both Mary's were the same person-

• Mary Boner who arrived in 1863 aged 15 was born about 1848 in County Donegal.
• Mary Bonner's marriage and death registrations indicate a birth date about 1847 in County Donegal. 

A bit of "blue skying" and DNA gave me the connection between Mary B and Sarah Sweeney.....

• The "most likely" Sarah Sweeney married Henry Smith in 1868 in Sydney (NSW Marriage Registration 1083/1868).
• Sarah Smith (nee Sweeney) died on 25 May 1919 at Randwick, NSW.

Bingo, Sarah Sweeney was in another Ancestry tree!

Then the confirmation, a DNA match with a descendant of Sarah Sweeney.  "KS" shown below is Sarah and Henry Smith's great-grandson.  

After much research, we're reasonably confident that Mary's mother, Mary Sweeney, was the sister of Catherine and Sarah. Dominic Sweeney and Ellen Doogan or Dugan were their parents. We know that Mary and Sarah were from Gweedore, the same small area in County Donegal. If this is the case, KS is my 3rd cousin twice removed. 

More research is needed to verify the family relationships back in County Donegal...maybe a trip there!

The NSW Immigration Deposit Journals and Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists show that Mary and Sarah come from the same "townland" and their priest is from the Middletown Catholic Parish.  County Donegal is about 3% the size of Tasmania and consists of 2700 townlands.  

My current thinking is that Mary and Sarah came from the area of County Donegal highlighted in these maps.  Their voyage to Sydney would have been around 80 days.

On their arrival Mary and Sarah where taken to the Immigration Depot at Hyde Park which we know as Hyde Park Barracks in Macquarie Street, Sydney.

http://collection.hht.net.au/firsthhtpictures/picturerecord.jsp?recno=32630

While Catherine Sweeney paid the immigration deposits for Mary and Sarah, they were part of a "government-assisted passage scheme that operated for forty years from the late 1840s bringing thousands of females to the colony - the wives and children of convicts, women and girls form the workhouses of Britain and young women seeking new prospects.  On arriving in Sydney, they were lodged at the depot until they were reunited with their families or their services hired out from the ground floor of the main (dormitory) buildings."  Unless Catherine had arranged employment for Mary and Sarah privately, they could "be hired on Monday next, the 14th instant, between the hours of 1 and 4 o'clock pm".

Advertising (1863, December 10). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 8. Retrieved May 28, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13085900

The Hiring Room at the Female Immigration Depot, where newly arrived immigrant women were offered for employment. Published in the Australian Town and Country Journal, 19 July 1879. State Library of NSW TN83A

Mary and Sarah worked as domestic servants in Cumberland Street, The Rocks, Sydney.  It was here that Mary met Peter Benson Lutge, a stevedore from Denmark, who had been in Sydney since 25 May 1862.  Ten months after Mary arrived in Sydney, she married Peter Benson on 19 October 1864 at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney.

Mary and Peter Benson Lutge continued to live in Cumberland Street after their marriage.  For a short time in the early 1870s, Peter was the licencee of the Dumbarton Castle Hotel in Kent Street, The Rocks.  By 1875, he was out of the hotel game and living in Princes Street, The Rocks.

In the mid 1880s, Peter, Mary and their 10 young children moved to "Military Road, St Leonards" - around Mosman.

The family of Peter Benson Lutge and Mary Lutge (nee Bonner)

Peter and Mary continued to live in the area.  Peter and Richard Moran had a stevedoring partnership that operated from around Mosman Bay.

On 25 June 1889, Mary Lutge (nee Bonner) died, aged 42 at her home in "Military Road St Leonards" from "brights disease of kidneys".  Peter and Mary were married for almost 25 years.  Mary was buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Gore Hill, St Leonards on 27 June 1889.

Less than a year later on 1 May 1890, Peter died at his home in "Military Road, Mossman Bay, North Shore" from "valvular disease of the heart and broncho pneumonia".  Peter was buried with Mary on 19 May 1890 at the Catholic Cemetery in Gore Hill.  

Peter and Mary were survived by their 10 children.