ON April 24, 1856, Anastasia Maher was born on the goldfields of Bendigo to a long-suffering mother and a hard-drinking father.
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Exactly 160 years later, more than 40 of her descendants and relatives gathered at the Bendigo Botanic Gardens to meet and establish their places within the family tree, some coming from as far away as the United States.
The reunion was born from the genealogy work of Lyndal Simmonds, Anastasia Maher’s great-great-granddaughter, who began researching her ancestor’s life some five years ago after finding her death certificate.
Ms Simmonds’ relatives brought their own photos and stories to flesh out the family tree.
They also placed a plaque on her grave, which had remained unmarked.
Ms Simmonds said she felt her great-great-grandmother was a “staunch feminist”, maintaining her family name and pushing on in the face of adversity.
“She was capable of standing on her own two feet, she did what she needed to do to survive in that era,” Ms Simmonds said.
Mrs Maher had a hard life; at the age of 14 she fell pregnant, the father rumoured to be her sister’s husband, and was kicked out of home.
At the age of 16 she took up with a much older man, 60-year-old Samuel Wright, but she refused to put up with his beatings, and she and her daughter moved in with a friend and her husband.
This enraged Mr Wright and in August 1872 he attacked Mrs Maher with his mining pick, hitting her and a man who came to her aid in the head several times.
Luckily Mrs Maher and her rescuer survived, but Mr Wright was hanged for his crime.
Mrs Maher had another 12 children and was rumoured to have been a sex worker, although Ms Simmonds said she had not been able to confidently confirm nor deny this claim.
She was capable of standing on her own two feet, she did what she needed to do to survive in that era.
- Lyndal Simmonds
Ms Simmonds said the paternity of Mrs Maher’s children was complicated and paperwork documented she was married to a few different men, which she believed was a cover-up to legitimise her children and carry on her maiden name of Maher.
Her only official marriage was to James Wang Ah Ling, with whom she had Samuel Horace Maher, Ms Simmonds’ great-grandfather.
She died from skin cancer at 69 in January 1926 and was buried in Bendigo cemetery.
Samuel Maher was the grandfather of Bendigo man Tom Maher, who has also done substantial research on his family’s history and contributed information to the book Ms Simmonds is writing on her intriguing great-great-grandmother.
Much of the research has been done online and through the Bendigo library, the Bendigo Cemetery Trust and the Golden Dragon Museum.