MARY WALTON FENNER (neeThomas) (parents from Wales) born in Australia (c1852-1939)

Written by G-G-daughter Insun Sony Mustapha:

My G-G-mother Mary Walton Thomas (later Mary Fenner) was the second of two girls born to a Welsh couple -- Mare Jane Davies and Thomas Thomas -- who migrated to Australia from Wales. Thomas was described as a carpenter but in Australia, he was for years engrossed in gold fossicking (hunting). He often went to the goldfields, leaving his wife Mary Jane and daughter Mary Walton behind, probably in Thebarton most of the time. As fate had it, Mary also married a gold fossicker, a German migrant Johannes Fenner (my g-g-father). Mary was again left behind a lot by Johannes. In fact we believe it was Mary's enterprising nature that kept the family going by managing a family-owned hotel, by taking up dress-making and making sweets to raise eight children.

There is a lot we don't know about Mary but the little we know shows a woman hardened by the rigours of bringing up a large family at a time when life was a daily struggle. Yet, Mary was remarkable in that her greatest asset was her love for poetry and the magic of the written word. She was quick and clever with her words but a hard life embittered her, especially towards towards the end of her life. She lost her youngest son, Thomas Richard to a friendly fire in Moquet farm, France, in WWI. She also outlived 5 of her 8 children. More later.....