The Bakers of Tumut

 

Edith Baker of Tumut married my uncle John Mackinder (or McKinder) on 14 March 1942 in Sydney.  He was born in Bradford 19 December 1899, second eldest son of James Mackinder and Julia.  John had previously been married to Kate in Liverpool England in 1922 and they had at least one son – Jackie born about 1924.  Kate died about 1934.  When and why John moved to Australia I don’t know, but when my mother (John’s sister) came to Australia in 1980 we made some attempts to track him down with no success.  It was only when I met Jan Gregory of Tamworth on the Internet in the late 90s that we found record of him.  Jan is the world-wide expert on the “Mackinder” name and pointed me directly to John’s wedding certificate.  From this we see that he married Edith Baker aged 35, born Tumut, with parents Thomas Baker, deceased, Blacksmith and Easter Allatt.  Given that Tumut is not far from Canberra, that there are quite a few “Bakers” in Tumut in the phone directory, and that Edith was our only Australian genealogical connection, I decided to do what I could to research the Tumut Baker genealogy.  Here is a link to John and Edith’s marriage certificate .

 

A search of the NSW marriage records for male “Baker” “Tumut” gave the attached, which shows Thomas and Esther (sic) being married  in 1885.  Click here for the NSW marriage certificate. It carries a disappointing minimum of information

Searching for “Baker Tumut Deaths” gives this list which shows Easter Baker dying in 1936. 

Here is Easter Baker's Death Certificate . This gives us a great deal of info re her and her family.

 

I cannot find Easter’s birth record in NSW, nor Joseph and Sarah’s marriage.  So I had a look in the UK’s FreeBMD searching for Joseph Allatt marriage and found it in Wakefield in 1852 to Sarah Himsworth. 

 

Turning to the Bakers.  Searching Tumut Baker deaths gives this list and the only Thomas death in about the right year is 19205/1938.  This date lines up with “deceased” for Thomas on Edith’s 1942 marriage certificate.  So this is quite likely Easter’s husband.  Note the parents are George and Ann

 

Searching for Thomas’ and Easter’s children gives this list of Baker Tumut births , and there are nine – Frederick L b 1886, Herbert W b 1888, Elsie B b 1890, Walter N b 1892, Edgar b 1894, Eva b 1897, Guy b 1901 and Charles b 1903.  All these line up with the siblings listed on Easter's death certificateEdith b 1907 does not appear because the cutoff in the NSW online records is 1905. Ina addition, Doris was born as the last child in 1909

 

Most of the rest of the Baker Tumut births were George and Ann’s, that is the previous generation.  These are George G 1859 – 1914(?), Charles T 1860 – 1870(?), Thomas 1861 – 1936, Male b 1862, Gaultier b 1865, Henry b 1867 m 1929, Male b 1869.  This leaves only Thomas and Louisa’s two girls in 1886 and 1887 (no male descendants) and Charles and Ann’s Charles ( 1862) and George T (1865) who could have had Baker descendants.  The deaths dates ascribed to George and Ann’s children are taken/guessed at from the Baker Tumut deaths list .  There are two other “George and Ann” children – John T d 1861 and Thomas d 1861.  Neither seem to appear in the “births” list so it is a puzzle as to how or where or if they fit.

 

Searching for George and Ann’s marriage in Tumut we get only one – George and Ann Gelling in 1858.  About the right time – the first son was born in 1859.  It looks like Ann Baker nee Gelling died in 7330/1910 per the Baker Tumut Deaths list .   Her parents were given as William and Mary.

 

So click here for the Baker Family Tree

 

Finally, Googling “Baker Tumut” came up with an interesting result.  It took me to http://www.ourbounty.com/bounty/genealogy/dat116.html#7 the extract from which is here.  It turns out that Edith Mary Purcell who married Edgar Joseph Baker (Edith’s brother) was directly descended from William Purcell who was Bligh’s carpenter on the Bounty and made the “longboat” journey with him.  The line was :

William b ? d 1834 > Charles b 1813 d 1891 Adelong > Charles b 1845 Boorowa d 1915 Wondalga > Charles John Purcell b 1869 Adelong d 1950

 

Click here for the Purcell Family Tree

Edgar and Edith married 1915 at Adelong and had four children – Lyle (who married Joan Frost and had Teona Ann and Evelyn Joan), Ian, Gordon (who married Gwen), and Jean who married Douglas Mann.

 

Gordon Baker and Gwen (nee unknown) had nine children – Frederick, Kenneth, Trevor, Malcolm, Valerie, Raymond, Jennifer, Christopher and Rosemary (these details from the “Bounty” site).  Some of these are listed as still living.  So there must be many Baker descendants from this line alone .

 

Joseph Allatt married Sarah in 1852 in Wakefield Yorkshire, and came to Australia in 1853, arriving Melbourne in the Marion Moore. They initially stayed in Geelong then moved to Tumut. Their children and descendants can be fairly easily traced in and from Tumut

Click here for the Allatt Family tree

So -- click for the outline Baker tree and also the outline Allatt tree both in pdf form

Here is a list of more than 20 Bakers from the White pages of the phone directory

 

Mike Dinn

Canberra

21 January 2004