Hamilton

My Great Grandmother, Emily Maud Mary Butler, was born at Geroge Street Newtown, Sydney, to parents William Butler and Margaret Hennessy on the 3rd March 1885. Her parents were William Butler and Margaret Hennessey; at the time of Emily’s birth William was 22 and Margaret 26.

William Butler was born 1862 at Windsor, NSW, Margaret was born 1858 at Kurrajong (near Windsor). The couple married at Petersham, Sydney, on the 24th February 1883.

I cannot write much about my Butler ancestors at the moment as Mum says her grandfather’s family were all quite old when she was a little girl. She has told me that they did live around Rookwood in Sydney and William’s brother Thomas was a gravedigger at the cemetery there.

William Butler, at the time of his marriage was working as a brickmaker and later served in the Bushmens Contingent with the newly formed Australian Regiment in the Boer War in South Africa in 1899-1901. He had a whistle that the infantrymen used and that is now in the possession of my cousin. William Butler’s army uniform and medals from his Boer War service were eventually donated by his family to the Australian War Memorial Museum in Canberra. He worked in his later years at a tannery in Chatswood.

The historic town of Windsor, NSW Australia.

The NSW Bushmens Contingent: served in the Transvaal Boer War.

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My maternal grandmother, Dorothy Flyght, was born to William Alfred Flyght and Emily Butler on July 8th 1912.

William Flyght was born in Brooklyn New York in 1883 to Hannah Matilda Johnson and Hugo Flyght. Hannah and Hugo were born and married in Orebro, Sweden, and emigrated to America in 1883. Hannah was the daughter of a Baptist Minister in Sweden. Orebro in Sweden is famous for it’s shoe making industry. When Hannah and Hugo arrived in America and settled in New York Hugo made his living as a shoe maker.

To put things in their correct order my great grandfather was actually born Alfred William Flyght but for reasons I will outline later he changed the order of his names.

His siblings were: (apart from Mary who was born in Sweden, all the children were born in Brooklyn, New York).

Mary, John, Erik, Axel, Annie, Gus, George, Anna (Hannah), Sarah (Sadie), Emeline, Russell, Irene, Mabel and Ellen.

My great grandfather William signed up with the US Navy at the age of 16. He would not have been accepted so he raised his age to 18. He arrived in Sydney Australia on his ship as part of the US Navy’s ‘Goodwill’ Fleet voyage around the Pacific of 1907. Like several of his fleetmates he went AWOL in Sydney and never returned to either his ship, or the US. It was on this visit to Sydney that he met my great grandmother, Emily Butler, and she was obviously his reason to stay in Sydney. He and Emily married in Sydney in 1908. To avoid capture by the authorities, and deportation as well as court martial, he changed his first name from ‘Alfred’ to ‘William’. Thereafter he lived the rest of his life as ‘William Alfred Flyght’.

William and Emily settled in Willoughby, a suburb north of Sydney. They had four children:

Dorothy - my grandmother (died April 1978 in Manly); Clarence (Clarrie - died 1979); Alfred (Alfie - died 1972); Madeline (Madge - died 1995 at Tweed Heads).

William spent the rest of his life in Australia as a gardener/handyman. Sadly, he spent his entire adult life in Australia constantly ‘looking over his shoulder’ for fear of being caught and deported for his going AWOL in 1907. He never registered his name on the electoral roll for this reason.

He died at his home in Willoughby in 1963 and is buried at Northern Suburbs Cemetery in North Ryde.

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