Here is my first installment
I have been doing my family tree for some time now with 6000+ people in my tree, but there is some of my family that remains rather a mystery to me.
My great great grandfather is Robert Thornton Lightfoot. b.1853 Liverpool UK - d.04/03/1933 Texas QLD, Australia. He is burried in Texas QLD, has no headstone and it is not known which grave he is in. No one ever put up a stone for him.. i have recently found out only 1 of his kids turned up to the burial and no one else. That kid was my great grandad.
Robert Lightfoot spent some of his time in Glen innes and Inverell. He married Sarah Annie Clara Dawson 1873 Wellingrove, glen Innes, NSW, Australia. No known death date. Assumed by family to be c 1900. Robert was 40 and she was 20 when they married. I suspect he was married before.
Sarah is the grandaughter of the notorious Peter Byron and Eliza Fitzsimmons.
Robert and Sarah had 4 children, the eldest 2 - sons, were born in glen innes/ inverell.. I assume in Wellingrove. One birth cert says inverell other says glen innes..
Now they first had Robert Thornton Charles Lightfoot in 1894 they then had my great grandad George Edward Thornton Lightfoot. 03/11/1895
Around this time is when the mystery begins. Family legend has it that something really bad happened in a pub down in Inverell and that the family were forced to get out of town. I am told it was something very bad. But I do not know what. They Changed there names to Roberts mothers maiden name, Thornton.
Because of this, they moved here to QLD, Having there Daughter Jessie Rachel Ann Lightfoot Thornton 18/10/1898 and Albert Graham John Thornton 20 Sep 1902 - 11/11/1945. (by this time the lightfoot name was gone completely.) It appears they only changed the childrens names but not there own.
I don't have any idea as to what could have taken place to the extent it would have them run out of town and there name changed.
Also. The daughter Jessie. She married a Francis Thomas Slatter. The Slatters were already in the family via sarahs sister Mary Alice Dawson who married a Frederick James slatter.
Jessie and Francis had 3 sons. Francis was 7 years her senior. One night around 1929/1930 - A man came in the night and she left with him.
I know they were living in Allora QLD.
After she left, she never saw her kids again, never saw her husband again. I do think she saw my great grandad as my grandma was named after her and often asked about her and was not allowed to talk about Jessie.
So there is no known death, burial or reason for her leaving. People have been searching for her since she left. We have been told by those closer to her that she was beaten by her husband a lot. and we think that is why she left, the other story is that she was pregnant with her 4th child and left. We do not know who came to the door. She was seen in 1930 in december, when she was in the company of a Leslie Devereaux, who was wanted for theft of sulky wheels and personal posessions worth 6pound. It says in gazette that he was in Jessies company and she was wanted for dessertion. Her fathers death certificate states that she was alive at time of his death 04/03/1933.
I know where they went to school, but i just wanna find her final resting place. I dont care what she did, i just wanna find her grave.
I have decided that I need to know every part of her life so I can learn about her and figure her out
This photo is Sarah Lightfoot(nee dawson) and Robert Lightfoot with their eldest son, Robert Thornton Charles Lightfoot. Who later became Robert Thornton
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