Beatrice Mary TATE

GEDCOM Note

BIOGRAPHY: Beatrice Mary Tate (known as Mary) was the youngest of the 6 children to Alfred and Mary Tate, born in Smith St., Chelsea, London at 3am. She was approaching her 4th birthday when the family reached Australia in 1886, and was brought up in High St., Carlton, being baptized at Carlton Baptist Church in August 1896. She was married at the age of 22 to Robert Luke, whose family came from the Penrith area, at a time when her parents were running a Guest House in Katoomba. Robert Luke's occupation is uncertain (possibly farming), but the family never seemed very affluent. From before the 1920s they had a house and some land on the Windsor Road at Eastern Creek (near Rooty Hill) - a place for many Christmas and Easter family gatherings, which included family photo opportunities. By the 1950s contact with my family was sporadic, and memories are not strong, although my father corresponded over the years without passing much on to me in later life. Some stories included: * One of the girls (Mary (Lizzie), I think) was unhappy in marriage and committed suicide by putting her head in a gas oven. * David was mentally challenged and spent time in a Home. There was most contact with Hilda and her husband, "Robo", and Nell - Dad was still in contact when she died in 1988, as Nell Flood (second marriage) and had been involved in a motel in Mudgee NSW. Mary was still at Eastern Creek in 1953, thinking of herself as "the woman who lived in the shoe". Date of death of Mary unknown - her husband pre-deceased her by some time