Unfortunately, I have very little information to add about Mary Anne other than what can be gleaned from records of births, deaths and marriages (which I am still in the process of gathering). I have no idea of her personality, or her temperament, or her quality of life. I do know that for some years before she died she was diagnosed as having Bright’s disease, which is now known to be a form of auto-immune condition causing chronic inflammation of the kidneys. She would probably have experienced considerable abdominal pain, swelling in her ankles and legs, breathlessness and fatigue.
Tragically, Mary Anne died on the 30th June 1888 as a result a stroke which had occurred some months before her death. She was just 39 years old having borne seven children in a period of 13 years.
Her husband David was left to look after the young family alone and it is quite likely that our great grandmother (Mary Jane Jones), being around 12 years of age at that time, was called upon to play a big role in helping to raise the younger children. The older brothers John (aged about 18 years) and Evan(aged 15 years) would most likely have been working in the mines at this stage .
We also know very little about David other than that he was a blacksmith and worked in the mines, presumably near Lambton, New Lambton, Jesmond or possibly Waratah.
At some time after his wife died, David returned to Wales with the four youngest children although I can’t find evidence for exactly when they went of how. We know this because his younger daughters, Rachel (Rachael) Anne, Margaret Ellen and Sarah Elizabeth, all of whom were born in Australia and were young girls when their mother died, were later married in Wales, raised families there and, except for Rachel who returned to Australia, died there. The Welsh census record for 1911 shows that the third son, Thomas Abel Jones who was a baby when the family left Wales, was living as a boarder in the same house in Rhymney (remember this is pronounced “Rumny”) where Rachel and her husband and children were living.
I believe that David died in Rhymney in 1899, but I don’t have a primary source for this at the moment.