The Birth of My Nan, Kathleen.

Here is the most wonderful portrait of my beautiful Nan, Kathleen, taken on her 18th birthday.

And here she is in August 2013, just two months shy of her 90th birthday, pictured with some ugly mug she picked up at the Bardwell Park RSL in Sydney.

We had a few ups and downs in our relationship, but we always managed to work our way through them. I loved her so much and miss her today just as much as when we had to say goodbye almost 12 years ago.

As the title of this post states, it is just a quick glimpse of Nan’s story, in particular, her birth. It was the information contained in a copy of her birth certificate that piqued my interest.

Just before we get to what that was, here are the main players mentioned above.

My Nan, about two years old.

Nan’s parents, my great-grandparents, Kathleen Theresa Raymond née Ashton and Joseph Raymond.

And the witness listed, E M Sullivan, my great-grandmother’s older sister, Ethel Marzell Sullivan née Ashton.

Back to the birth certificate, I have been aware for a while that my great-grandparents were living at 29 Darling Street in Glebe at the time Nan was born. It was an old Victorian terrace, built in 1890, that actually still stands today.

I have included the photos of the courtyard at the rear, as I have a couple of photos from Nan’s collection that were taken in that courtyard, back in the 1920s.

The first is of my nan and her mum, Kathleen, obviously not long after her birth, and the second is of an unidentified young boy, either a Raymond or Ashton relative, I’m presuming.

You can tell they were taken in front of the same wall, as the two small black holes to the right of the window match perfectly in both photos. You can even see the nail in the wall above the boy where the dustpan and brush are hanging behind Nan and her Mum.

Now to the detail that initially caught my interest, the address listed where Nan was actually born, 128 Glebe Road, Glebe. I had never seen this before or even heard anyone mention it. So I went searching.

Amazingly, this building is still standing today as well. Not that you can tell from the latest Google Maps image. It is now known as Glebe Point Road.

November 2009 is when the building was last visible.

Next, I struck gold when I found the house mentioned on the Glebe Society website. An organisation set up in 1969 to preserve the heritage of Glebe and the surrounding area. https://glebesociety.org.au/about/about-the-glebe-society/

The house is known as “Calmar”. It was designed by Edmund Blacket in 1863 for Mr Edward Offord Heywood of the Sydney Mint. https://glebesociety.org.au/blue-plaque-21-calmar-128-glebe-point-road/

According to the Society, Edmund Blacket is one of New South Wales most loved nineteenth-century architects. He is primarily known as a church architect; he designed over 50 churches in his career. Not only did he design several other famous homes in the Glebe area, such as “Bidura” in 1857, but he also designed the Glebe Island Abattoirs and the main building at the University of Sydney, the Great Hall and the quadrangle. https://glebesociety.org.au/blue-plaque-21-calmar-128-glebe-point-road/

Tiled Gallery 1

The Society also had a photo of Calmar taken in 1970, originally sourced from the City of Sydney website.

This is where Nan was born, 47 years before this photo was taken. The question now is, why was she born here and not in a hospital or her parents’ house?

Like always, Trove provided the answer, and the key to unlocking the information was the name of the nurse listed on the birth certificate. Nurse McMahon, who assisted Dr Conolly in delivering Nan on the day.

The answer was in a birth notice printed in August 1915.

So it was a private hospital. That makes sense. According to the Dictionary of Sydney, Nurses’ Private Hospitals surged in popularity during the 1910s and 1920s. There are thought to be a couple of reasons why. At the time, public hospitals were seen as institutions solely for the use of those who were destitute; going to a private hospital removed that heavy social stigma. Additionally, nurse-run facilities offered those who thought themselves at a different social rung to the destitute, clean, comfortable and respectable care. https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/hospitals

How is that? From that one birth notice, all our historical marks are hit. The name of the nurse, the name of the house and the street address all confirmed and matched to the information on Nan’s birth certificate. How lucky!

The Glebe Society even had some information on Nurse McMahon and her family. She was actually Mrs Levina Hannah McMahon, née Blackman. She and her husband, Michael Burns McMahon, ran the private hospital across several sites in the Glebe area from 1899 to 1926, when they retired and moved to Balmain. https://www.glebesociety.org.au/documents/bulletins/2019_06.pdf

It turns out that not only was Hannah known as Nurse McMahon, but her daughter, Alice, went by that title as well. Alice obtained her nursing registration in 1911 and worked alongside her mother until 1926. Alice didn’t marry until she was sixty years of age, so there is no way to be certain if it was Hannah or Alice who delivered Nan.

I did, however, find them both in Ancestry.com.au, and thanks to a very generous user named Jennifer Mullin, I can show you photos of Hannah, Michael and their daughter, Alice.

How incredible is that? One of those two women, maybe both were at my nan, Kathleen’s birth. They knew my great-grandmother, Kathleen and took care of her and Nan when she was first born.

I know if Nan were still with us, she would be over the moon to learn these facts about her birth and to see these two faces; she would be stunned. What a find!

To finish off this Quick Glimpse, I went looking to see if my great-grandparents might have put a birth notice in the newspapers announcing Nan’s arrival; alas, nothing appears in the search results in Trove.

I did, however, find a notice for another birth just four days before Nan at Nurse McMahon’s private hospital. It was printed on the day of Nan’s birth, announcing that Mr and Mrs C. C. Egan from Katoomba had a son.

I also managed to find the Egan family on Ancestry.com.au. I know firing on all cylinders today. It doesn’t happen like that often.

Mr & Mrs C. C. Egan were Cosmas Christopher Egan and his wife, Mary Margaret O’Brien. Their son, born on the 30th, at Nurse McMahon’s hospital, was John Joseph Egan.

From the little I have read, he seems to have led a very full and worthwhile life. John had a very distinguished career in the Air Force during World War Two. Here is a short piece from his Ancestry account.

I know Nan would have loved learning about John, and the fact that he was born in the same place as her, only a few days before her, and also with Hannah and Alice’s assistance.

What a Quick Glimpse! I hope you have enjoyed reading a little of my nan, Kathleen’s, life as much as I have in researching it.