Find Living Relatives

Looking for Dawn Elizabeth Backhouse born 1938 Sydney New South Wales. Married Albert Arthur Hawkins in 1955. Address at time of marriage Royal North Shore Hospital St Leonards NSW. Sister of John Backhouse born 1937.

I am hoping to reunite a brother and sister who were separated at a very young age.

I have already checked the usual on-line resources, and added the name to my tree. I know there is one other tree with the name and I am in contact with that tree owner.

By putting this request on a GR board, there is a chance the thread maycome up on an internet search so it is worth a try.

Hello Aunty Sherlock,
Have you tried the electoral rolls for NSW?
Good luck in your search.
Patricia.

Thank you Patricia. Your suggestion is spot on and quite reasonable.

However the spanner in the works here is that you need to know which electoral region of NSW to search. I suppose there is the option of starting with the A volumes and progressing through to the Zs but.............

I have actually taken a look at the number of volumes involved. I have access to them in my State Library. Some are bound into books and others and available on microfiche.

There are also about two billion Hawkins types abounding the residences of New South Wales.

I appreciate your good wishes.

Hello

I was wondering if you thought about the white pages

there is only one A A Hawkins listed maybe you could send a letter to see if it is the same one or a family connection that may know something about Dawn.

and there are a few D E Hawkins also listed in NSW you could try them as well.

There is this listing in NSW BMD for the death of at William Hawkins no mothers name listed and no district could this be their son?, its the only one for father Albert Arthur to 1980

20778/1974 HAWKINS WILLIAM HENRY GARNETT ALBERT ARTHUR

and there is this 1936 NSW Electoral Roll

Name: Albert Arthur Hawkins
Gender: Male
Electoral Year: 1936
State: New South Wales
District: Riverina
Subdistrict: Jerilderie

this Albert was listed as a laborer.

Thank you blackduck. I have almost exhausted things to search from in this quest.

If Albert Arthur Hawkins was in the 1936 electoral roll he had to be more than 21 years old. Which means in a very rough calculation he would have been born in 1915. At time of marriage in 1955 he would have been 40 years old. Not impossible for a 40 year old to marry a 17 year old.

ooooh I have just noticed the death of William Hawkins. Hold on a minute I need to check something.

Hmmm I have William Henry Garnet Hawkins as the father of Albert Arthur Hawkins. Is it possible he would have lived until 1974. I have Constance Mountford Russell as William Henry Garnet Hawkins wife.

I need to recheck my information and see if I can cross check that information.

Hi Helen, Thank you. Another piece of the puzzle in place. The other rellies are buried in the Rookwood and Botany Cemeteries. Checked out a few more cemeteries but somehow never reached the W end of the alphabet.

I wonder if it is worth checking the Worona District electoral rolls, as Patricia suggested. Now I know what electoral district it will make it easier. Pessimistic me says probably not because these deaths were 40 years ago. That is the problem with the female lines, they tend to remarry, or revert to their birth names.

I really appreciate your time and effort. I am researching this family from the present day back to 1810. Currently working on both ends at the same time. And neither end is proving very amenable.

Perhaps I have a few more spanners for the works

This is the death registration for Constance

Registration No: 59812/1973
Surname: HAWKINS
First name: CONSTANCE MOUNTFORD
Father Name: CHARLES EDWARD
Mothers Name: SUSANNAH SARAH F
District: KOGARAH


Marriage for William & Constance

Registration No: 12065/1935
Grooms Surname: HAWKINS
Grooms First name: William H G
Brides Surname: RUSSELL
Brides First Name: Constance M
District: ROCKDALE

Rockdale and Kogarah are in the same area of Sydney.

If William was married in 1935 and Albert Arthur Hawkins was on the Electoral Roll in 1936 then perhaps there are two or more Albert Arthur Hawkins.

The Albert Arthur Hawkins on the Roll could possibly be Williams brother and not his son, perhaps Albert Arthur who married Dawn was named after his uncle.

This is possibly the death of the first Albert Arthur from 1936 Roll or it could be your Albert who married Dawn or someone else. I think either way a copy or transcript would be the only way to know for sure

Death Albert Arthur HAWKINS

Registration No; 201100/1979
Surname: HAWKINS
First Name: Albert Arthur
Fathers name: Samuel
Mothers name: Rose
District: None recorded

this is another death 1921

Registration No; 16480/1921
Surname: Hawkins
First Name: Albert A E
Fathers Name: James
Mothers Name; Ann
District: ROCKDALE

and burial listed in Woronora cemetery

Surname: HAWKINS Type: Burial
First Name: ALBERT Other Names: A E
Date of Death: 17/10/1921 ?
Location Section Position
Anglican SECTION 2 0658

A few more things to prove or disprove.

It is also possible that the informant on Williams Death only thought his father was Arthur Albert, again either way you really need some transcripts or certificates to verify the information.

Good Luck with the search.

Thank you for your input. I can see there is more to this than I thought. I need to go through all the information and draw myself a brainstorm chart to fit the details.

about the Constance Mountford Russell
who died in 1973
and married William Henry Garnett Hawkins in 1935

this could help a bit with the timeline

34106/1899 birth
RUSSELL CONSTANCE M
father CHARLES E
mother SUSANNAH S F
REDFERN


I am afraid that I am not following the sequences here properly ... but I wonder whether possibly WHG Hawkins might be this one

15171/1901 birth
HAWKINS WILLIAM H
father blank
mother ADA
NEWTOWN

and possibly his father's name was Albert Arthur but not Hawkins for example ... possibly Garnett even ... only one death, Albert E Garnett, 1896, born 1884, so that doesn't work ...

Hi Chrissie, Beginning to wonder if we are related to Alf Garnett from Til Death Us Do Part fame. Didn't he travel to Australia at some stage or was that his missus. Silly man anyway and you are probably far too young to remember.

Thanks for the information. Newtown is the place name and fits the district where these people lived. In fact Dawn's mother was born in Newtown NSW. Now isn't that a strange coincidence, or what?!

looking back I see you must have the Hawkins Backhouse marriage certificate

not to put it here in case of living but you do have Albert Hawkins' parents' names from that certificate ?

by the way I think when blackduck first posted this death

20778/1974
HAWKINS WILLIAM HENRY GARNETT
father ALBERT ARTHUR

she was thinking maybe this was a child of Hawkins and Backhouse ... when access to recent births and marriages is limited sometimes a trace of a couple can be found if they sadly had a child who died young and whose death will appear in more recent death records

but in this case that death seems to have turned out to be the death of a William Hawkins more likely born around 1900

Hi Chrissiex, Yes I do have the Hawkins Backhouse marriage certificate. The only uncertainty about living or deceased on the certificate are Dawn Backhouse and Albert Hawkins.

I don't suppose it will matter if I confirm the answer to your query. The father of Albert Arthur is given as William Henry Garnet Hawkins. The mother of Albert is Constance Mountford Russell.

The mother and father of Dawn are given and are correct. I will not put them here but if it makes any difference and anyone wishes to know PM me.

For some reason I only applied for a partial transcription. The witnesses, minister,and comments are missing as are some of the details about the groom.

Update. We have had word from Oz adoption sources that they might have a lead in this search. We have our fingers crossed very tightly.

Hi All, We have received information which solves the mystery and answers our questions. Still waiting for more information which I will post when I receive the details.

After four years of searching it is strange to know we have come to the end of the search. What needs doing now is filling in the blanks and drawing together the whole story.

Death Albert Arthur HAWKINS

Registration No; 201100/1979
Surname: HAWKINS
First Name: Albert Arthur
Fathers name: Samuel
Mothers name: Rose
District: None recorded

This is not the death of AA Hawkins concerned in this search.

Our AA Hawkins parents were of course Constance and William.

I now know from a living relative that the AA Hawkins who married Dawn Backhouse was alive in the early 1990s. We are still working to put all of this together. The story involves at least two adoptions and foster parents.