St Anthonys Convent – pupils 1897-1925

Sketch of St Anthony’s Convent of Mercy, Coolgardie 1913

Earlier this year you may recall, we were fortunate in being granted access to the admission records for St Anthony’s Convent In Coolgardie. Because of the privacy laws of the Catholic Church records we were given permission to access up to 1925, which fortunately for us is the pertinent period for the town. The archives people were most helpful and even scanned the books for us which were all lodged in Perth. I had quite resigned myself to making the trip to do the copying so I was very grateful for their assistance.

I had at first thought that the records would be for both the day pupils who lived locally and for the borders. However after doing searches for some names of pupils who are known to have attended, I find that the records only cover day pupils. However, this is still a most valuable social and family history record.

The majority of the records have the following information on each child:

Surname and Christian name – Date of Admission – Date of Birth – Address – Where Born – Last School Attended – Parents names – Parents Occupation – Religion – Reason and date left – Next school.

There are a total of 718 entries, with a few children mentioned twice if they moved away from town and then returned. It is fascinating to see large families of 9-10 children all starting school at different times. Sometimes moving back and forwards from the Government school perhaps as the parents income fluctuated.

I noticed when entering the information and checking it again the Births for WA that often the children were resisted with their ‘known’ name so Elizabeth was entered as Bessie, William was entered as Willie. These names are easy to see what the correct name may be but others were not as clear such as ‘Otto’ for Oswald and ‘Nellie’ for Isabella. I have endeavored to look up the full name if the place of birth is given if at all possible.

As with all such records, either the parents gave the wrong information or the school entered it incorrectly. Where I have not been able to find the correct entry I have left the details as they appear in the original register. There are a few that we have been unable to read and these have been identified with a ‘?’ after the name.

There are some sad entries such as Len and William Reynolds, who were transferred to an orphanage. John and May Richmond who were both first born in a separate set of twins to the same parents and who both lot their sister before they started school. Poor little Sydney Maguire, who was neglected and then was sent to an orphanage. There was one boy expelled and one child who died.

First Admission was in 1897 and most of the first children born in early 1890’s. Out of the 718 entries 242 are listed as being born in Coolgardie. It wasn’t until 1905 that a child, born in Coolgardie was enrolled. The biggest families were, nine of children of Bernard Joseph Frank and James Murray with ten children.

The last admission we have is in July 1925. As always if you have any corrections that can be made do let me know. You can email:- research@outbackfamilyhistory.com.au

St Anthony’s Convent Coolgardie

The following is a list of the names with Date of birth, the full record is transcribed on the OFH web site:

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Moya Sharp

Owner at Outback Family History

My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

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