The Unknown Rae Mystery

[Whiskeyboi]

Found this section navigating through the forum and firstly i would like to say i feel quite at home here.

Having said that i pose a challenge that is quite impossible, someone many have tried to identify and failed.

Unknown Rae has no data, no paper trail no nothing but if anyone has any need for a tough challenge here is what i know lol

Unknown is the Mother of Jessie Donohoe(Rae). Jessie was born 1838, no exact date of birth and it is said she was born in Yarras. The Australian BDM does not have Jessie Rae's birth certificate on file. She died 29th October 1907 in Walcha NSW. Jessie Rae does have her death registered. On it her father is listed as Thomas Wreay and her mother is listed as Unknown.
Jessie supposedly married Patrick Donohoe, no marriage was registered but she used his name, this is evident in various newspaper articles and is buried with him in Walcha.
According to family rumours and suspicions, Unknown is said to be a Full-Blooded Aboriginal most likely of the Biripi tribe (based on location and aboriginal borders where her daughter Jessie was born)
Before Jessie met Patrick Donohoe she was with a bloke named Henry Sutton and they had one child together, Charles Sutton. This is information i recieved from the Port Macquarie Family History Unit in relation to Charles Sutton's Baptism.

"We do have information given to us that there was a son born to Jessie and Henry Sutton called Charles Sutton: “ to Henry and Tappy, half caste, (Jessie Wreay, Rae, Ray) about 1854” He was apparently baptized “16 August 1864, by Rev F.R. Kemp of St Thomas Church Port Macquarie” but it is not listed in the old parish registers."

For those not Australian or are not familiar with terms used in Australia, half caste is a disgusting term used in reference to a person who has one white parent and one aboriginal one.

Many have tried to solve this over the years and no one has been able to identify unknown, so id be very suprised if anything turned up. Its classified impossible lol

Cheers, John

[Lesley Robertson]

What information is there about Thomas Wreay? His dates, locations, etc may provide clues. Did he have other children, for example? Was he born in Oz?

Wreay/Rae is frequently a scottish name - when looking for Jessie's records don't forget that while Jessie was a name in its own right, it was also used as a nickname for Janet (and Janet for Jean)...

[christanel]

According to a tree on ancestry he was married 3 times as well as having the relationship with Jessie. He had children with all 3 women and Jessie. However the tree has him married the same year to 2 of the women! That is when I left it for a while.
Thomas Rae C1812 Edinburgh, died 17 feb 1882 Walcha NSW

Christina

Added:- In the NSW Convict Ship Muster Rolls it says he arrived 1830 on the Marquis of Huntley but convicted in Edinburgh 1834, given 14 years. Trying to work this out.

[Lesley Robertson]

I thought that he was Jessie's father?

[christanel]

Hi Lesley
You are correct of course. I should have finished my sentence with the words "as well as having the relationship with Jessie's mother."

Christina

[Whiskeyboi]

What information is there about Thomas Wreay? His dates, locations, etc may provide clues. Did he have other children, for example? Was he born in Oz?

I forgot to put his info in lol. Christanel did put the information here i was supposed to. Additional information i have not mentioned is that im in a group page on facebook called Roper Descendants (Eliza Jane Donohoe + William Henry Roper) and they have some old photo's that have been passed down and some (including a young Eliza) do look partly aboriginal in appearance. There was story passed down to that Jessie Rae claimed to be a Moari Princess, but many have said it was an attempt to conceal her Aboriginality

[Dundee10]

This is information i recieved from the Port Macquarie Family History Unit in relation to Charles Sutton's Baptism.

"We do have information given to us that there was a son born to Jessie and Henry Sutton called Charles Sutton: “ to Henry and Tappy, half caste, (Jessie Wreay, Rae, Ray) about 1854” He was apparently baptized “16 August 1864, by Rev F.R. Kemp of St Thomas Church Port Macquarie” but it is not listed in the old parish registers."

I see that they transcribed the registers of St Thomas with baptisms being 1824-1864. If Charles Henry's baptism does not appear in their transcription then they have obviously made an error somewhere in the process because the baptism is recorded.

The registers are still with the church and have been microfilmed and indexed by the LDS.

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XTZ1-Q6T

https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/131029

This film cannot be distributed and the LDS have discontinued their copy service so you would probably need to contact the church directly to ask if it is possible to get a high quality photo of the page as I doubt that they would have access to an overhead scanner.

https://www.graftoncathedral.org.au/

I would want to see the original writing to decipher both the place of residence and the mother’s name as I think both are incorrect.

[ShaneNSW]

Hi whiskeyboi, Thomas Rae is my ancestor he is 3x great grandfather. Iam descended from Thomas and his Wife Isabella Neil his second wife. He was scottish as was isabella .My mother was adotped but we did know the names of her real parents .It is my maternal grandmothers line, her name was Ann isabell rae.I have Thomas having 4 Wifes/Mistresses one is aboriginal.

[ShaneNSW]

He was born in scotland