Burnett Born and Bred

Following the Flocks

Most of James McNamara's twelve children were born in the last half of the nineteenth century on the vast sheep and cattle runs that sprawled across Queensland's Darling Downs and South Burnett Region.

Their birth certificates bear the names of some of the Colony's most influential pastoral holdings. Barambah, Burrandowan, Auburn, Mondure and Tarong were at one time home to the family.

The children's mother Mary Ann Fuller also has claim to a famous birthplace, Battle in the English County of Sussex, scene of one of the major turning points in English history, the Battle of Hastings, 14th October 1066.

Family details can be accessed via the Birth Certificate links opposite.

Pitt Street Sydney 1841

Birth Certificates have been located for every member of the family except James McNamara Senior. When interviewed on his one hundredth birthday, "Old James" clearly recalled being told Mary Anne Barry had given birth to him in Pitt Street, Sydney on the 9th August 1841.

 

While no Baptismal or Birth Certificate has ever been located to confirm the claim, the 100 year old James was said to have possessed an extraordinary memory.

It was thought that his parents John MacNamara and Mary Anne Barry might have sought refuge at the New South Wales Benevolent Society Asylum, 454 Pitt Street Sydney around 1840. A search of Mitchell Library records has proved inconclusive.

The Sydney Chronicle reported an incident, 26 August 1848 where the ten year old son of Poultry vendor John Macnamara, a resident on Parramatta Road, had two chickens taken from him without payment. No connection can be made with them and the McNamara family.

Mysterious Mary Anne Barry

Locating records for any members of the McNamara family in New South Wales prior to 1850 would mark a major breakthrough in solving the mystery of Mary Anne Barry.

The identity of the midwife Mrs McNamara, present at the birth of William McNamara at East Swamp Toowoomba in the 1878 has not been discovered. Could the only witness to this birth have been the mysterious Mary Anne Barry or even the wife of a sibling of James McNamara Senior.

 

William's Baptismal record shows Mary Anne McNamara and John Connell as sponsors. The Connell connection with the family has so far not been established.

John McNamara alias John Barry

Other births that family researchers have found intriguing are those of John Barry McNamara who married Ellen Lee at Rolleston, Queensland in 1872.

McNamara used the Barry alias for most of his life. His dual identity was noted on his Death Certificate and some of his children's Birth Certificates as was noted by District Registrar.

He briefly reverted to McNamara in 1887 but was always known as John Barry in Blackall Queensland. Again, making any conclusive connection between him and James McNamara and the possibility of them being brothers has proved fruitless.

The clue to solving the mystery of Mary Anne Barry may be concealed in his marriage Certificate and the Death Certificate of Mary MacNamara who died at Pullenvale, Quensland, 2 December 1894.
 

Barry Birth Certificates

Francis BARRY (1874)
Margaret Ann BARRY (1876)
Patrick BARRY (1878)
William BARRY (1880)
Mary BARRY (1885)
Michael BARRY (1887)