My great-grandmother, Margaret Gersbach (nee Killion) died at her home, 19 Northumberland Street Stanmore...the fourth victim of the Spanish Flu Pandemic in our Killion family. Margaret was 57. Her cause of death is shown as "chronic bronchitis, pneumonic influenza and heart failure". She's suffered from influenza for 10 days. Margaret is buried at Rookwood Catholic Cemetery.
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| Margaret Gersbach (nee Killion) about 1915 |
What a sad time it was for the family with the death of the three daughters and a grandson of John Killion and Jane Feeney in under three months. John was 59 when he died in 1864 leaving Jane with their five young children. He died at the family's home on the North Shore, Port Macquarie from "asthma" and all the children suffered from bronchial issues.
My grandmother, Essie, was just short of her twenty eight birthday when her mother died. In April, she'd seen her brother, Frank, die in the family home and her aunt, Rose Porter (Killion), die in her home at Glebe. Essie remained very close to Rose's daughters, Cissie and Dattie, until her death in 1965. Three weeks earlier, her other aunt, Mary Jane Newton (nee Killion) had died in her home at Surry Hills. Essie was planning her 9 August marriage to Jim Woodlands at the time. There wasn't much discussed about this time in our family. I'm told that, as a carry over of those sad times, Essie carried her own cutlery when she went out for many years!
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| Margaret Essie Gersbach about 1915 |
Contact with distant cousins who are interested in family history can bring wonderful surprises! Imagine my excitement to find that a granddaughter of Margaret's brother, Thomas, had this photo taken about the time of Margaret's 1885 marriage to Frank Gersbach (snr). It's inscribed "Aunty Maggie and Uncle Frank".
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Aunty Maggie and Uncle Frank" about 1885 - priceless!
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