Christina ANDERSON ROME (1866-1909)

Introduction

We are missing a photograph of Christina ANDERSON ROME (1866-1909). Between 1891 and 1900 David Paterson McCrae ROME took wife Christina from her family environment and birthplace in Williamstown, Victoria, Australia with their baby son to settle in Renfrewshire, Scotland, David’s homeland. There are no photographs of this lovely woman in any of the family shoe boxes. We’d love to find one.

Birth

Christina ANDERSON ROME (1866-1909) was the third child born to Peter ANDERSON (Mariner) and his wife Euphemia (nee RAMSAY) on 4 February 1866.  According to her birth record she was born at “Stoney (with an ‘e’) Creek, Williamstown”, Victoria, Australia.   She was the only child of Peter and Euphemia to have “Stoney Creek” identified as her birthplace in Williamstown.  The birth records of her sisters Euphemia (b. 1862), Powelena (b.1863), and brothers Andreas (b.1868) and Robert (b.1870) simply say Williamstown.

Further research revealed that a section of Williamstown Road was once called ‘Stony Creek’ which is probably where the family or midwife lived.  It was also an area where a terrible murder took place in 1848.*

Marriage

Christina married a 27yo Scot from Ayrshire, Scotland, David Paterson McCrae ROME, in Williamstown on 18 April 1891.  David was born in Kilmarnock, on 2 December 1864.  There is a record of him being an outward passenger, with his brother Robert, on the ship Sorata in 1886, destined for Sydney.   I have no details of David’s occupation or why he and his brother came to Australia.  Most of the passengers on the Sorata seemed to be young single men.

Children

David and Christina’s first baby, David George ROME was born on 4 February 1892 in Footscray, a neighbouring suburb to Williamstown. Between 1892 and 1900 David took Christina back to his homeland, Scotland where they had two more children, Dollina in 1900 and John in 1905.  Both children were born in Renfrewshire, around 15 miles south-west of Glasgow.  John, unfortunately, died in infancy in April 1907 aged one year.

Death

Christina was only 43yrs when she died in 1909. Sadly, no photograph of her can be found.

Her Sister

My G Grandmother, Powelena (photo below) was Christina’s sister

*Stony Creek

Stony Creek flows from Melbourne’s Western suburbs into the Yarra River near Newport and was an early site for basalt quarrying from the 1850s to the 1880s. Basalt was popular in the construction of many of Melbourne’s old buildings and for ship ballast.  From the 1870s to 1880s the area was brimming with industries – noxious industries – including woollen mills, meat preserving works, glue factories, canning works, smelting and concrete works and sewerage works.  Stony Creek became a toxic drain for waste products.

It had the gruesome name ‘Murderer’sCreek’ in earlier days after a grisly murder in April 1848.  The body of Matthew Luck was found with his throat slashed by local Williamstown publican, Walter Butler ” … at the part of the Williamstown Road called the Stoney Creek”.  The body was lying 10 yards from the road. Matthew Luck had run out of luck that fateful night.