Charles McDermott

Charles McDermott is my great grandfather, and he was born around 1840 in the townland of Drumerkeane, County Leitrim, on the edge of Carrigallen town.  He identified as being from Carrigallen. On the birth certificate of his daughter my grandmother, Annie Bernadine McDermott, in Queensland, Australia, in 1886, he gives his birthplace as Carrigallen, Leitrim, Ireland. 

His parents were Patrick McDermott and Annie O’Rourke, who were farmers in Drumerkeane. 

In the Griffiths Valuation for Leitrim of 1857 a Patrick McDermott is listed as leasing 31 acres of land in Drumerkeane.  There were two houses on this land one in which Patrick and his family resided and one which he rented to John Rosemond.  This could well be where Charles was born and raised. 

Charles had at least four siblings and may have had six. Patrick who became a priest and went to Manchester, Isabella and Catherine who followed Charles to Australia, and another sister, possibly named Mary, who went to New Zealand and married and was known to my grandmother as Mrs Armstrong. My grandmother also indicated that her father had two other brothers, John who also went to New Zealand and Denis who went to America. I haven’t been able to independently confirm the existence of John and Denis. 

 A Charles McDermott aged 22 arrived in March 1859 aboard the ‘Abner Stetson’ which had sailed from Liverpool. Charles’ occupation on the passenger list is labourer and his nationality as Irish. While there is a discrepancy between the year of birth based on his age on Abner Stetson passenger list i.e., 1837 and that based on the birth registration details of two of his daughters which indicates it was around 1840, it is close enough to suggest it is likely to be the same person. The details such as age included in the passenger lists of the ships were probably hurriedly taken down and prone to error. 

Upon arriving in Australia Charles initially tried his hand at gold mining in both Victoria and New Zealand, it was gold that probably drew him to migrating to Australia. However, by the early 1880’s Charles was working for a fellow Leitrim man who may have been a relative, Michael McDermott. He worked for Michael on the construction of railway lines in Victoria and Queensland. 

In December 1882 he married Annie Walsh, in Beechworth a gold mining town in North East Victoria, Australia. Annie had been born and raised in a Stanley a small village just outside of Beechworth. There was major railway construction occurring around Beechworth at this time and this is likely to be the reason Charles came to the area. 

Charles was 42 at the time of his marriage and Annie was 27. Charles and Annie had four daughters Ellen born 1883, Mary (May) born 1885, Annie born 1886, and Margaret. Margaret died a few months after she was born in Ocotober188. Her mother Annie died a few days after Margaret's birth from complications arising from the birth. Only two of the daughters Annie and Mary (May) lived into adulthood and only Annie had children. Annie was brought up by her maternal grandmother Bridget Walsh, while May was brought up by Charles’ sister Isabella, who had married Patrick Kelly in Melbourne, Australia in 1884  and was 28 at the time of her marriage.   

My grandmother made no mention of her father being involved in her upbring. It is not clear what became of Charles after the death of his wife in 1887. My grandmother believed he died around 1894 but I haven’t been able to confirm this.