Digging Around My Family Tree
Murder in the Family
Arthur Coulton (1869-1889)
Finding lawbreakers or criminals in your family tree is an interesting experience. For many years finding a convict was something that could cause scandal, embarrassment or denial. It is now considered a genealogical rite of passage and having a First Fleeter is colonial royalty.
But what if the crime was murder? I have often been amused by the subjects of WDYTYA whose first response is to leap to the defence of their ancestor and proclaim their innocence, that they are the victim of a miscarriage of justice or mistaken identity. They find it hard to admit that someone with their DNA could be a flawed individual who made some terrible decisions in their life.
It is one of the great traps of family research that we hope our ancestors have our values and act with impeccable moral judgement. It can be confronting to admit our forebears have human weaknesses, that they are a product of their environment, shaped by their upbringing and the times in which they lived.
I had one such experience when I found this story on Trove:
The victim, John Patrick Keenahan (1853-1888), is my wife’s 1st cousin 4x removed. I had not known much about him before this discovery, but knew his father John Keenahan (1824-1895) had come to Australia from Kings County, Ireland as a young man and married Margaret Cunningham (my wife’s maiden name) in 1851 and raised a family of eleven children. John Keenahan Snr became a successful farmer in the Singleton area and is memorialised in a beautiful stained glass window in the Singleton Roman Catholic Church:
My next discovery on Trove provided some additional details about the murder:
It is mentioned in the report above that “the sympathy of the public is entirely with Coulton” but it didn’t prevent a verdict of manslaughter. While he was in prison a petition was collected for a pardon and his release:
In another twist of fate, that may or may not have contributed to his decision to kill John Keenahan, Arthur Coulton was suffering from consumption (tuberculosis) and died from it in Tamworth Gaol on 22 March 1889 after serving six months of his 34 month sentence. It seems he spent the whole time in the prison infirmary receiving treatment for his tuberculosis:
Murder is a tragedy for everyone involved but I cannot imagine how Margaret lived through this ordeal. Not only did she lose her husband and son within a few months, she was pregnant with John Keenahan’s child (David John Keenahan 1888-1943) while her daughter Elizabeth also carried his child.
The tragedy did not end there:
Elizabeth’s baby to John Keenahan (William Coulton b.1888) did not survive his first year
Elizabeth married David Burnet in 1898 and in 1901 had a son named Arthur William Coulton Burnet. Arthur Burnet died in 1919 at 18 years old. I do not yet know the circumstances of his death.
David John Keenahan, Margaret’s son to John Keenahan, lived to 55yo but lived a life of crime and had a number of stretches in gaol.
In the end they are our ancestors and we cannot change the life they lived by revision, omission or denial. Following their trail, wherever it leads, can sometimes provide a rich and interesting story - more complicated than it might appear at first.