Finding the Lewis Morton connection

Meredith Bowman July 2022

An example of the difficulty of finding women’s lineage.

I am especially interested in the female history.  Despite this being obvious I want to restate the following.

All genealogy/ ancestry  is essentially male based,  The male line flows through the generations following those boys/men who share the same surname. The women are easily lost as they marry, change their surnames and join their husbands’ family trees.

I have been quite impressed with some of the almost forgotten female forbears in our lineage. The names of Sarah Lewis, Eliza Jane Lindo, Frances Moyle, Lucy Anne Morton, Mary Moyle will become more familiar as you read on. All the Moyle girls could be in this line up.

They have been powerful women, mothers and community leaders. And fine people. But easily lost in the male line records. There would be many many more!

Here is a story of re-finding a line of women ancestors.

 Ian Longmire a first cousin, was a family historian . He died in 2008.

His daughter, Sue Longmire, has carefully organised Ian’s family history notes and she found there was a female relative buried in a church in Echunga . She knew the town was quite close to where we live in Willunga. This woman was my/our great great grandmother. Our grandmother Lucy’s grandmother. Her name was …Sara Lewis .

My husband and I drove to Echunga and found the Anglican Church at the top of the hill. It was a moving experience. A pretty church. An interesting graveyard with a couple of dozen graves. It is well cared for . The graves are well spaced.  And there is a pepper tree covering several graves.

At first I couldn’t see any Sara Lewis grave and suddenly I noticed a small box like headstone near the pepper tree. . It could have contained ashes but no it is the headstone of Sara Lewis’s grave.

It says

          Loving   Memory   of

Sara Lewis

Who died 25^th April

1897

There is an open book on the top of the headstone and on the open  pages is written

“Blessed are the Pure in Heart         

For they shall see God”

(This is found in Matthew 5 verse 8 and is one of the Beatitudes.)

What is our connection with  Sara Lewis?

Echunga was the home of Thomas Morton and his son James Morton. The Mortons owned several allotments in Echunga

James Morton married Lucy Lewis. (Whose parents were Robert and Sarah Lewis)  and their daughter Lucy Morton was our grandmother .

Lucy Morton married Walter Lindo Moyle

The lineage following the maternal line is confusing because they often name daughters after their mothers.

At the risk or reiterating…

My understanding is this

She was a strong woman .  A community leader. She walked on regular occasions to Adelaide from Echunga.  She had “business dealings” to attend to.  Her photo showed how fit her body was. I will include a transcript about her from the local paper. It is evidence of her fitness and strength and determination and kindness.

 25 APRIL 1897 • Echunga, South Australia, Australia

Echunga, April 29.—In the death of Mrs. R. Lewis, which occurred at Echunga last Sunday, another of the colony’s pioneers has passed away. With her husband (the late Mr. Robert Lewis) she arrived in the colony 57 years ago in the ship Sir William Mitchell. After a few years’ residence in Adelaide they removed to Echunga in 1849, where Mr. Lewis entered into the business of a blacksmith. Communication with the city was so difficult in the early days that Mrs. Lewis had frequently to walk to Adelaide through the bush, a distance of 21 miles, transact her business and return, walking the whole distance. Of her nine children six are living. There are 55 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. Mr. Peter Lewis, of Kanmantoo, Mr. Stephen Lewis, of Jamestown, and Mr. David Lewis, of Broken Hill, are sons. The daughters are Mrs. McKnight, of Kalgoorlie, W.A., Mrs. James Moreton, of Snowtown, and Mrs. J. Meadowcroft, of Wentworth, N.S.W. The deceased was in her 84th year, having been born in Bristol in 1813. Despite her advanced age she was wonderfully active, and enjoyed the best of health up till within a few days of her death. She also enjoyed the highest esteem of all who knew her. The interment took place last Tuesday in the St. Mary’s churchyard, when many relatives and old acquaintances were present. The Rev. John Warren, of Mount Barker, was the officiating clergyman.

Her daughter was Mary Moyle.  (Born in 1911 in Helensville NZ and died in Adelaide in  2001aged 89)

Her daughter Meredith Bowman (cest moi) married Wayne Anthoney

Born in Clare in 1942   and Cathrine  Parker born in Semaphore in 1951 and married  Jason Croughan

Later, I remembered attending a  Lewis family reunion in Echunga in the 1980s.  I went with my mother Mary Parker and A Aileen Giles .  There were Mortons and Stancliffs and Bodgers and hundreds of relatives.

I was being polite taking Mum and making small talk with many.

It was a very busy time in my life and how I wish now that I’d absorbed and made more of the opportunities to meet and understand the lineage of many relatives.

Certainly the Sara Lewis grave would have been attended to and the organisers made sure the writing was legible. There were many Lewis descendants present.

I recalled the name of the historian who organised this gathering.  It was Glenys Savage.  I found her on Facebook and have made contact with her several times since. She has recorded the Morton family histories on Brothers Keeper.

She has helped me understand where the Stancliff and other Morton cousins fit into the family tree.