Theme: Overlooked.

When I first started investigating my maternal grandparents’ line, it was known that my Great Grandparents Edwin Hunt and Margaret Morgan and their large family had emigrated to Australia from Berkshire in 1879, and that he had two sisters Elizabeth and Mary Anne who had emigrated earlier. A third sister Emma and a brother Reuben remained behind in England.

Over the years, and particularly once internet searching became available, the various lines were investigated and recorded. It was fortunate that the 1841 Census showed Reuben, at that time aged 17, living with his parents and siblings – otherwise his existence may have been doubted, as he cannot be traced further.

So matters rested for many years. Edwin and Margaret had 5 children born between 1820 and 1837 …. with gaps of several years between most of them. Perhaps that is why the gap between two of the sisters went unremarked (1829 and 1833).

But a few years ago, a cousin directly descended from Mary Anne did think to check, and with increased access to death records discovered there had been another sister, named Zebra, born in 1831 and died aged 2 in 1834. As was customary in those times, the deaths of little children were rarely if ever spoken about.

Her name may have been a contraction of Zipporah, a popular name at the time. A distant cousin born in 1843 was named Zilla(h), and the fourth child of Edwin’s sister Mary Anne was named Lizzie Zebra, born 1863 – indeed it was while searching for a source of her name Zebra that the 2-year-old was discovered.