Courbarron - Hopkins
Mildred Gertrude Courbarron was born at Waverley NSW in 1889 to Irish girl Mary Morrissey and Augustus James Hamilton-Courbarron (known as James). Her exact day of birth is unknown at this stage as her parents failed to officially register her birth. One reason for this may have been because Mildred, and her brother James born 2 years later, were both born before their parents marriage. Unusual for the time but not entirely uncommon.
Mildred began school at Waverley before completing her education at Waverley Ladies College at age 15. Her early years were spent living at Waverley before the family moved to Bondi where they nicknamed their new house ‘St Ernans’: it was named after the home, St Ernans, in Ireland in which her paternal grandmother Mary Hamilton was born. The house at Bondi was a terraced house typical of the period and it looked nothing at all like the original St Ernans House.
Mildred’s father, Augustus J H Courbarron, was a sea captain who had charge of a ship which saw him visit many countries around the world. He was rarely at home but during the times he was in Sydney he was remembered as a fond father.
Mildred had three siblings:
James - born 1891
Mary Ellen (Molly) - born 1897
Frederick - born 1900
Upon the death of her father in 1904, it appears that Mildred travelled with her mother Mary to northern NSW where her mother had family. This area, Kempsey, appears to be where Mildred met her future husband Patrick Hopkins given that Kempsey is the same region as his birthplace of Bellingen. Mildred and Patrick were married at Bellingen in the Catholic Church in 1908. In 1909 their first child, a son named Vincent, was born but died soon after birth.
Patrick and Mildred travelled around northern NSW as Patrick sought employment as a logger in the timber industry, eventually settling further south in the Sydney suburb of Paddington. In the 1920’s they moved to a house in Chatswood where they lived until their deaths.
Patrick died from a coronary aged 57 in 1946, Mildred died after a stroke in 1963. They are buried together at Northern Suburbs Cemetery, North Ryde Sydney.
Copyright 2007-2008 by Hamilton Family History. All rights reserved.Popularity: 17% [?]
