A visit to the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) in North Melbourne to review shipping passenger lists. My search and request for documents had been mainly for M Teaguer  – with an expectation that they were for Maude Teaguer my great-great aunt – and for the Teaguers who travelled from Singapore to Fremantle in 1901-1902.

The first one reviewed was actually for a different M Teaguer. The Passengers’ List for the voyage of the Ormonde from Melbourne to Brisbane on 29 January 1921 has a “Miss M Teaguer”, who is a nurse, 26, single, “English”, and travelling to Sydney. The age of 26 suggests a 1895 birth.

Who is this Miss M Teaguer? If she is related, she can only really be a daughter of Edward and Gertrude Teaguer, who married in March 1895. One other – remote – possibility is that M Teaguer is a daughter of Edward and the shadowy Mrs A Teager said to have been Edward’s wife in 1893 on his prison record. I have no other candidates at this stage

Going into this I had one, possibly two, references to a child of Edward and Gertrude Teaguer. One is in 1896, about 16 months after their marriage. The other reference is from 1901 when a Mr and Mrs Teaguer and infant travelled from Singapore to Fremantle. If this is the same child, he/she would have been about 5 years old. However, a record for a 25-year-old Mrs Teaguer and infant travelling to Singapore in October 1903 noted that the infant was male. Gertrude Teaguer would have been 28-29 in 1903. So, two children?

The records for the other Miss M Teaguer for the 1910s and 1920s do fit in with what I know about Maude Teaguer. She travelled between Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth in her mid-20s and mid-30s. Maude was born Catherine Maud(e) Hiah, but styled herself Maude Teaguer throughout her adult life.