This is the document that David Walter sent to me in 2017, containing the family history of Sarah Sproule, then Mrs Hugh Keys, granddaughter of Armour Sproule and Ann Given. As you can see it is a typewritten transcript of a letter, supposedly sent to Mrs Hugh Keys in her home in Australia in about 1900. There is no provenance for this 1900 letter, we don't know where it came from. However, I knew immediately that the information it contained had indeed been sent to Sarah Sproule, and that she had definitely recieved it. The reason was that the information contained in the 1900 letter was largely the same information that had appeared in her newspaper obituary when she died in 1919. The obituary authenticated the 1900 letter.
Robyn Ritchie had sent me a copy of this lovely obituary of Mrs Hugh Keys from Trove a couple of years earlier - thanks Robyn.(See below) However, I very much doubted the family background in the obituary, especially this section begins,
"Mrs. Hugh Keys, was a native of Drumbulkin, County Fermanagh"
To be honest I didn't look much further, as Sarah Sproule was definitely was not a native of Drumbulcan. How could her family not know that? Sarah Sproule was born on 18 Nov 1838, in Mullaghabane, Dromore, County Tyrone, the daughter of James Sproule of Mullaghabane and Ann Blayney. (Dromore Church record) I assumed that the rest of the newspaper obituary was also fantasy.
And then I got the 1900 letter, with the family history that had been written by Rev Edwards and Charles Cooper. This not only validated the letter, but the letter also validated the obituary! And the 1900 letter also explained why her family thought she was from Drumbulcan when they had written her obituary. In the 1900 letter there is a title which begins her family history and this title is,
"The Genealogy of Mrs Hugh Keys of Drumbulkin, County Fermanagh, Ireland."
She was indeed 'Mrs Hugh Keys of Drumbulkin' as she had married Hugh Keys, a farmer from Drumbulcan, Derryvullan, Fermanagh. (1831-1893) That was her last home in Ireland. However, she was originally Sarah Sproule of Mullaghabane. The confusion was explained.
Now this letter also heads the reader in the right direction for the family of Ann Given and Ann Blayney, but the detail of those families is not actually accurate. We will look at those in the next posts.
The Letter to Mrs Hugh Keys, Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia
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| The 1900 Letter to Mrs Hugh Keys, Sarah Sproule of Mullaghabane. |
The Obituary of Mrs Hugh Keys
Sarah Keys died on 27 May 1919 and her Obituary appeard the following day in the Bundaberg Mail. I have given just the lovely beginning here, transcribed by Robyn Ritchie, well worth a read! The rest of the obit gives the family history and it contains some incorrect information, so I won't include it here. |
Bundaberg Mail, 28 May 1919, p.4 |
Mrs. Keys was a fine old soul, possessed of the stamina that was so directly a feature of the pioneers that paved the way for the present day generation, and to who’s sterling qualities a wilderness was transformed into a land of rich productiveness. The deceased lady had been ailing for several weeks and had taken up her residence with her second eldest daughter, Mrs. Erikson, of East Bundaberg. But until then, despite her upwards of four score years, she had resided in her own little home in West Bundaberg, enjoying good health and activity.
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