Family Matters - 8. Branching out with the Family Tree
Richard and Mary Ann Goninan (the Gwithian branch) had nine surviving children. To date contact had been made with descendants of seven of these offspring leaving just the descendants of Ann and John yet to be tracked down. We already knew that Ann married Thomas Williams at Gwithian Parish Church on the 17th November 1835 and at the time of the 1851 census there were seven children at home – John, Elizabeth, Henry, Mary Anna, William, Richard and James. This was just about as far as my information went. Imagine my delight therefore to be contacted by Jan Gladwin who lives Australia and is descended from
Mary Anna, one of the daughters of Ann and Thomas.
Jan had done extensive research which shows that Mary Anna married William Gribble on the 17th December 1864 at Roskear Church in Cornwall. William and Mary with their three eldest children left for Australia from Plymouth on the 27th June 1870, arriving in Melbourne on the 28th September. They had ten children and their first born, Elizabeth Mary, lived to be a 101.
The Gribbles and the Goninans must have been very close. William Gribble’s sister, Elizabeth, became, in 1881, the second wife of William Henry Goninan senior following the death of his first wife, Grace. In the very same year, William Henry Goninan junior married Elizabeth’s younger sister, Caroline. Thus William Henry junior’s step-mother was also his sister-in-law. Confusion as always reigned over the spelling of the Goninan surname with William Henry senior being recorded on his marriage certificate as Goninan and William Henry junior being recorded as Goninon.
I have also had two other interesting contacts – Jeannette Francis who lives in Penzance. Her husband is descended from Jennifer Goninan, daughter of William and Grace Goninan and sister to their daughter Grace. Grace married her cousin, William Henry Goninan senior (see above). I have also heard from Kerry Adrichem who lives in Western Australia and is descended from Elizabeth Goninan and Thomas Wallis (the St Just Branch).