Joseph George Westby Walker “West” COMBER

Joseph George Westby Walker “West” COMBER  was a man of many names.

He had his birth registered in Tamworth as Joseph W COMBER on Friday, 4^th April 1862, at Tambar Springs in Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia.[[i], [ii], [iii], [iv], [v], [vi]–[vii]]

His parents were Edward COMBER, son of James Robert Comber and Elizabeth Lowe, who was born on 20 Dec 1820 in Spitalfields, London, England. Edward died on 31 Jul 1900 in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia (in Armidale Hospital).

Edward married Elizabeth MACKAY on 21 Jul 1851 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (Parish of St Philip, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia – Banns – William Cowper). Elizabeth Mackay was the daughter of Edward Mackay and Ann Taylor, and was born on 07 Mar 1831 in Strahan, Tasmania, Australia (Macquarie Harbour, Van Diemen’s Land). She died on 18 May 1880 in Bundella, New South Wales, Australia.

While Elizabeth was born in Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), she and her sisters went through many adventures before returning to Australian shores, when Elizabeth and her sister Sarah Emilia arrived in 1850 onboard the ship JOHN KNOX as Irish Famine Orphans.

Elizabeth married Edward, and Sarah appears to have been a partner to a man named Westby WALKER who was born in Preston, Lancashire. He was a Doctor of Medicine in Lancashire. He was known to have been the Postmaster at Sofala, at the Goldfields on the Turon River, and he eventually was recognised as a Medical Doctor in New South Wales.

It is that relationship (that of Sarah with Westby Walker) that leads to Elizabeth and Edward naming one of their sons with a name that included “Westby Walker” in it!  There is a hypothesis in the family that Dr Westby Walker actually delivered the baby known as Joseph in the Birth Register.

Not much is known about the childhood of Joseph, but he married Anna Maria Chilvers.

It is a family anecdote that they were married on 14 Dec 1881 in Quirindi, New South Wales, Australia. However, there is another story that there was no marriage, and there is no registration in the NSW Registry.

Anna Maria Chilvers was born in 1852 in Parramatta. She and Allen Hildreth were married in Mudgee on 21 Aug 1874, and there were no known children of the marriage… however, an advertisement appeared in an 1884 newspaper for “Mrs A Hildreth to contact her daughter” which may have been a ploy to get a response from her!

This timeline fits what is known at this time:

1. Anna Maria Chilvers marries Allen Hildreth in 1874
2. Anna Maria and Joseph “run off” together and are ostensibly married in 1881
3. Ellen (Nellie) born 1883
4. Thomas Edward (Ted) born 1884
5. The newspaper article of 1884 requesting Mrs Hildreth to contact her daughter
6. George Westby born 1886
7. Rosalie (Sis) born 1887
8. James Henry (Jim) born 1889
9. Dorothy (Dollie) born 1891
10. John William (Jack) born 1893
11. Lillian Elizabeth (Lovie) born 1895

One of the names (or name changes!) for Joseph was Joseph’s adoption of the name George. Edward and Elizabeth had 14 children, one of whom was George William Comber who was born and died in 1867, only living for 8 days. There is a family story that Joseph ‘appropriated’ George’s name to honor him.

Another name change was his use of the name Joseph Westby COMBER, which is a legitimate representation of his Registration name.[[viii]]

However, Joseph also went by the name of Westby Wilkins COMBER.[6] This may be a mistranscription of his Registration name.

Also used was the name Joseph George Westby Walker West. Family anecdotes say that Joseph used the nickname “West” within his family and social circles.

Joseph is thought to have died in Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, on 15^th July 1945, at the age of 83.[2, [ix]] However, the parents shown in the Death Registration do not reflect Edward and Elizabeth, but rather George and Sarah.

However, because he used so many different names, it is possible he actually died in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia, on 9^th July 1946, at the age of 84, though no Death Registration has yet been found.

Sources:

[i]                LDS Records, ComberEdward1820.FTW.

[ii]                Ancestry.com, “Public Member Trees [database on-line].”, Ancestry.com, Public Member Trees (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006;), www.ancestry.com.au, Database online.

[iii]               NSW Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages, NSW – BDM Registry (GPO Box 30, SYDNEY NSW 2001, NSW Department of Justice), www.bdm.nsw.gov.au, Birth – COMBER,  JOSEPH W  – 13799/1862  – EDWARD – ELIZABETH – TAMWORTH.

[iv]               NSW Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages, NSW – BDM Registry (GPO Box 30, SYDNEY NSW 2001, NSW Department of Justice), www.bdm.nsw.gov.au, Birth – COMBER,  GEORGE  – 8812/1867 –  EDWARD – ELIZABETH – COONABARABRAN.

[v]                NSW Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages, NSW – BDM Registry (GPO Box 30, SYDNEY NSW 2001, NSW Department of Justice), www.bdm.nsw.gov.au, Birth – COMBER,  George  – 8812/1867  – Edward – Elizabeth – Dubbo.

[vi]               Email Source – Horton, Lesley, Lesley knows George Westby Walker Comber as WESTBY WILKINS COMBER.    However, Lesley also refers to the fact that her grandmother, Lillian Elizabeth Comber DUCE, and her mother, Thelma, refer to him as GEORGE WESTBY WALKER COMBER.

[vii]               Ancestry.com, Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com, Record for George W Comber. http://search.ancestry.com.au/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=AusDeathIndex&h=4326452&indiv=try.

[viii]              Studsrod, Sonia, A Genealogy Report For SONIA STUDSROD, Generation of Grandparents.

[ix]               NSW Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages, NSW – BDM Registry (GPO Box 30, SYDNEY NSW 2001, NSW Department of Justice), www.bdm.nsw.gov.au, Death – 15961/1945  – COMBER – GEORGE WESTBY WALKER – GEORGE – SARAH – COONABARABRAN.