Grahame Thom’s Ancestors

Error on the internet

Mary Ann Reilly

On several family history websites many people have recorded that their ancestor Mary Ann Ferris, said to have died in 1893 in Paddington, Sydney NSW, is the widow of James Ferris. This in incorrect, see relevant images below.

This woman’s husband was THOMAS Ferris.  See her death notice below in the Sydney Morning Herald on 10 January 1893. This Mary Anne Ferris was the daughter of Joseph & Mary Ann SALMON, as recorded in the online NSW Deaths Index, and married THOMAS Ferris in 1854.  

James Ferris died 2 February 1881 at Tomki, NSW.  Mary Anne Reilley/Turnbull/Ferris was born about 1810 and would have been about about 83 in 1893 not 62 as shown in the death notice. 

Our Mary Ann Reilly was probably born in Ireland. She first married Ralph Turnbull in 1829 at Portland Head.  After Ralph died in 1840, Mary Ann married James Ferris in 1844 at Parramatta. Sometime after 1866 the James Ferris family moved north to the Grafton area. James died in 1881 at Tomki, NSW. Despite extensive research we have not found when and where Mary Ann Ferris (formerly Turnbull, nee Reilly) died, although one reference suggested she died in Grafton

From ancestry an incorrect tree