John Wood & Bridget McShane

John Wood

b. 1841 Denbydale, West Yorkshire, eldest son of Charles Wood and Anne Turton
arrived in Australia on February 13th 1858 on the ship Norfolk
m. Bridget McShane on 20 July 1865 at Sandhurst (now Bendigo) Victoria
d. 6th January 1917, Pyramid Hill, Victoria

OCCUPATION(S)

Woodyard worker (in Geelong)
Carrier (in Sandhurst & Echuca)
Farmer (in Durham Ox)

John's Obituary
Photograph source : family collection

Bridget McShane

b. 1843 Strathbane, Tyrone Ireland, daughter of
John McShane and Bridget Googe

arrived Australia on the Africa.

m. John Wood on 20th July 1865 at Sandhurst
(now Bendigo) Victoria
d. 13th November 1901 Pyramid Hill, Victoria

OCCUPATION(S) maid

Bridget's Obituary
photograph source : family collection

John Wood was the eldest son of Charles Wood and Anne Turton.
John came to Australia in 1858 with his paternal Aunt Mary Wood
and her husband (her own first cousin) James Wood.

Also travelling with James and Mary were John's brother and sister,
Anne Amelia (aged 17) and Thomas Turton(14);
and James's nephews - James (16) and Benjamin Wood (18).

Initially, John and Thomas Turton Wood worked at the woodyard
in Little Ryie St Geelong;

Bridget McShane, John's wife, was the sister of Phillip McShane,
who sponsored her out to Australia. Their father John McShane
was listed on the sponsorship documents as living at Strathbane Bog.

Phillip was a cab propietor and lived in Little Ryrie St Geelong.
Phillip was married to Mary-Anne McCabe, and their sons
later became well-known footballers with the Geelong Football Club

John and Bridget married at the Wesleyian Parsonage in Sandhurst,
now Bendigo. They had seven children,
Emily, Charles, Lily (Mary Jane), Elizabeth (Lizzy), Caroline,
Charlotte (Lottie), & James Berty

The birth certificate of Caroline (b. 1875) says that
she was born in Gertrude St, Ashby on March 25th 1875.
One year later (20 March 1876), the following advertisement
appeared in the Geelong Advertiser :

TUESDAY 21ST MARCH AT 12 O'CLOCK
COTTAGE & LAND, GERTRUDE ST
W.F. Ducker & Co. are instructed by Mr John Wood, in consequence
of his leaving Geelong, to sell by auction, on the premises, Gertrude St
on Tuesday 21st at 12 o'clock his four roomed weather board cottage,
with a large stable shed and hay house.
Also adjoining spare building allotment, now used as a garden.
The land has a frontage in Gertrude St of 66ft, by depth of 132 ft
The whole will be sold in one lot. Title perfect, terms liberal.

Sometime in the late 1870's, early 1880, John and his family,
with a loan from his uncle-in-law James Wood,
took up a selection at Durham Ox, near Pyramid Hill

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