ETHEL PART OF ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY

Ethel Page, a young white woman, was part of the Aboriginal community long before she met Jimmy Governor.
She spent her first eight years in the Kempsey district on the NSW North Coast where there was, and still is, a large Aboriginal population.
She may have met her future husband, Frank Brown, there.
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The mother of Francis "Frank" Joseph Brown had died in 1883, aged 39, when he was 6.
His next eldest brother, John, was 9 and the one after him, Richard, 11.
Their father, Thomas Brown, was about 46.
They appear to have had relatives in the Kempsey area and Frank and his brothers may have been sent to stay with them.
When Ethel's family left the district in 1890, he would have been 13.
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Ethel Page was born at Gladstone, a town in the area, on 4 February 1882.
At the time her parents were living at Summer Island on the west bank of the Macleay River.
When they married, on 30 April 1881, they were living on the other side of the river at Kinchela Creek.
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Alternatively, Ethel and Frank may have met in Gulgong.
Frank Brown's father had grown up near Aruluen, another goldfield, so he may have gone to Gulgong in connection with gold.
Another possibility is that they met in the Wollongong district where Ethel and her parents appear to have moved seeking anonimity after Jimmy Governor was hanged.
They may have been assisted to do this by Retta Dixon, the Baptist missionary who supported Ethel and ministered to Jimmy while he was in Darlinghurst Gaol.
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Frank Joseph Brown renounced his Catholic faith when he married Ethel Governor in St Michael's Church of England at Wollongong on 23 November 1901.
As recently as 60 years ago, Catholics were not allowed to even attend weddings at churches other that Catholic.
Marrying outside the Catholic Church would have meant automatic excommunication.

HANNAH (ANNIE) NICHOLSON

(Annie) Hannah Nicholson was born at 'Kiora' near Broulee in 1844.
'Kiora' was a farming property owned by John Hawdon who was granted the land on the north bank of the Moruya River in 1831.
He had arrived in the colony of New South Wales from England in 1828.
In 1839 he was one of two magistrates at the court established that year at Broulee.
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The supply of convict labour to farmers stopped in 1840, and as a result, local white settlers began to employ more Aboriginal people, particularly as house servants.
When Hannah Nicholson married Thomas Golden/Goulding Brown in 1858 at the age of 14, her occupation was 'house servant' and her place of residence, Broulee.
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Annie Brown died on 19 October 1883, aged 39, of inflammation of the lungs.
According to her husband, Thomas Brown, her father was Charles Nicholson, a sheep overseer.
Thomas did not know the name of Annie's mother.
At the time of Annie's death at Tomakin, north of Broulee, nine of her 11 children were living.
The youngest was Francis "Frank" Joseph Brown, aged 6.

T G BROWN BORN AT BOURKE?

The baptismal record for Thomas Golden/Goulding reveals he was born at Bourke, in the far west of New South Wales.
He was baptised as 'Thomas Brown' in the Roman Catholic rite at Araluen, a gold mining town near Braidwood, on 25 February 1855.
This took place three-and-a-half years before his marriage in the Roman Catholic Church at Braidwood, St Bede's, to Hannah (Annie) Nicholson.
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Thomas's baptismal record says he was a labourer living at Braidwood at the time of his baptism, and that his father was Patrick Brown and his mother 'a native Black'.
His birthdate was given as 'about the year 1839'.
Other records suggest it was actually 1837.
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The settlement of Bourke began in 1835 when the colonial surveyor, Thomas Mitchell, built a small stockade there called 'Fort Bourke' during his visit to the area.
The only way Thomas's father, Patrick Brown, a convict, could have been there was if he had been assigned to Mitchell's party, or to one of the earliest settlers in the area.
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The word 'Bourke' may have been confused with the name of Patrick Brown's new partner, Catherine Rourke.

LINKS TO FOLEY, DIXON, DONOVAN FAMILIES

Yesterday I found a family tree on a Facebook page called 'Donovan Mob'.
This revealed that Ethel and Frank Brown are related by marriage to the current day well known Aboriginal Foley, Dixon and Donovan families.
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One of Frank's older brothers, Patrick (named after his Irish grandfather), married Elizabeth Marshall, housemaid, on 3-8-1878 at Broulee on the NSW South Coast under Roman Catholic rites.
Elizabeth Marshall was a granddaughter of John Marshall and Aboriginal woman Bridget (Biddy) Donovan.
Patrick Brown was the first child of Thomas Goulding/Golden Brown and Hanna (Annie) Nicholson.
He was born at Reidsdale in the Braidwood district on 17-6-1859 and was 18 years older than his youngest brother, Francis (Frank) who married Ethel Governor.
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After having three children at Broulee, Patrick and Elizabeth headed north, having two more children at Nambucca Heads, another at Macksville and three at Kempsey.
The first at Kempsey was in 1898.
Their last child, born 1904, was named 'Ethel', possibly after Patrick's brother's Frank's wife, Ethel (nee Governor nee Page).
The girl died two years later.
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Most of the research for this Donovan family tree has been done by Cathy Dunn, a NSW South Coast professional genealogist.
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Here is the link DONOVAN MOB

THE PARSON(S) FAMILY

The Parson(s) family, associated with Ethel Governor, appears to be an old NSW South Coast Aboriginal family.
When Ethel married Frank Brown at the South Coast town of Wollongong in 1901, one of the witnesses was Henry Parsons.
Then Ethel's first daughter, Thelma Violet, married a George Parson in 1918 at the South Coast town of Moruya.
She married under the name 'Violet Governor', not Violet Brown.
The Parsons couple had four children, Cyril, Ethel, Robert and Ruth.
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A report I found on the web about the significance of the Biamanga & Gulaga mountains of the NSW South Coast, published by the Aboriginal Cultural Association and others,claims that an Englishman, Samuel Parsons had a son Daniel with a Wandanian woman called Sally.
He may have been the forebear of the Parsons associated with Frank and Ethel Brown.
The report also contains a photo of a Cronjy Parsons ('Sonnoboy') as a member of The Leaf Band at Lake Wallaga in 1922.
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In 1873, a Henry Parsons married Dorcas Stumbles at Wollongong.
In 1877, they had a child, Henry M Parsons.
Either may have been the witness of Frank Brown b.1878 at his wedding to Ethel Governor in 1901.
However, it seems it may have been the younger Henry who named his first child, a girl born in 1902, Ethel.

THOMAS 'DAVID' GIVNEY PAGE

Another of Ethel's brothers, Thomas 'David' Givney Page, shared a close friendship with Aboriginal people.

David Page

A descendent of his who has given me permission to use his photo on my blog tells me Aboriginal people taught him how to divine water.
David Page used to spend a lot of time in the bush prospecting for gold so this was a very handy skill for him to have.

He married a lady of Irish descent from Milton on the NSW South Coast, moved to Sydney where he lived near Ethel and their mother on the northern beaches while working in a garage, then back to the South Coast near Nowra.

WILLIAM PAGE & ELIZABETH COOLEY

Ethel was not the only member of her family to have an Aboriginal marriage partner.
Her younger brother, William (Willy) Page, married an Aboriginal woman, Elizabeth Jane Cooley.
In 1922, Willy, a labourer, and Elizabeth, domestic duties, were living at Ulladulla while his sister, Ethel and her husband, Frank Brown, labourer, were living at Milton.
Both Milton and Ulladulla are on the NSW South Coast.
[Source: 1922 Electoral Roll Milton Ulladulla Districts]
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In January 1918, a white woman carried out to sea by a rip at Seven Mile Beach (on NSW South Coast) was saved by a local Aboriginal man, [Thomas] Coolie.
The local newspaper, the Illawarra Mercury, reported that he had come from an Aboriginal camp, over half a mile away.
He went out beyond the surf with a rope to rescue the woman in waters known to be infested with sharks.
It was intended to strongly recommend him for the Royal Humane Society's medal.
The Parents' and Citizens' Association was also taking steps to have him generously rewarded.
Mrs Hinton, the woman whose life he saved, came from the inland town of Dubbo.
[Source: Study of South Coast Aboriginals by Michael Organ, University of Wollongong, 1993.]
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The word 'coolie' was used as a label for indentured workers from India brought to New South Wales, and also for Chinese working on the goldfields.