Isabella Purcell (1875-1936)

#52ancestors

Isabella had a lot of things in common with her husband, James Bennett. They each had an Irish father. Their fathers died when James and Isabella were less than six years old, and their mothers later remarried. This meant that the two of them grew up in families with half-siblings. And sadly, they both experienced the death of siblings at a young age.

James was a miner, and he and Isabella lived in the mining town of Sebastopol, Victoria.

Isabella and James themselves had the heartache of having to bury two of their children. Their first-born, Charles, died after his clothes caught fire.

Death of Charles Bennett 1895

Eighteen months later, in 1896, their second child was killed when he was kicked by a horse.

Death of Ernest Bennett 1896

Within a few years James and Isabella left Victoria with their third son, Walter. The deep gold reefs of Boulder, Western Australia, had been discovered.