14 Children

 As it is Women’s History Month and was International Women’s Day this week, I thought I would share stories about a couple of my more prolific female ancestors.  My first subject is Caroline Rideout, another will follow in a week or so.

Caroline was the eighth of nine know children of James Rideout and Caroline Bennett. Caroline was born 4 April 1844 in Menangle near Camden, New South Wales, Australia.  Her parents had arrived in Australia six years earlier and I have written about them previously.  Her oldest surviving sister, Martha, married when Caroline was just 2 years old.

Caroline’s siblings were: Martha, who died in England in infancy; William; Jasper John Bennet, I don’t know why he got all the middle names; Martha, who married in 1846; Mary, who died in infancy; John; Charlotte, who died in infancy; James and Henry.  I share DNA with descendants of Martha, James and Henry.

Caroline would have grown up in a big extended migrant family with lots of older siblings and cousins.  She was fortunate that she did not know the extreme poverty her family lived in prior to leaving England.

Caroline Rideout married young.  She married William Jenkins on 7 August 1860, age 16.  William was 21.  They married in Camden, NSW and they lived at Spring Creek, near Camden.  Caroline gave birth to her first child 10 months later, my ancestor Louisa Jane Jenkins, born 13 May 1861.

William Jenkins worked as a farmer, following in his father’s footsteps.  William Jenkins senior had taken up farming after receiving his ticket of leave and marrying a young Irish convict.

William and Caroline’s next child was unnamed and sadly died shortly after birth.  She then went on to have another 12 children over the next 24 years, taking the total to 14. Her last child was born in 1886 when she was 42.

Caroline and William’s children were Louisa Jane; the unnamed child; William James; John Bennett, who died in a riding accident leaving four young children; Caroline Eliza who died in childhood; Minnie Emily, who died the same year as Caroline Eliza; Arthur Daniel; Sylvester Reuben; Minnie Emily, named after her dead sister; Thomas Edwin; Charles Hercules; Ada Maude; Leslie Rockland; and Ralph Rudolph, who died as a baby.  I share DNA with descendants of Arthur, Sylvester, Ada and Leslie.

Caroline became a grandmother at 46 when my great grandfather was born in 1890.

William Jenkins died in 1908 at Werombi, NSW, leaving Caroline a widow.

Caroline died on 12 May 1915, age 71, at her brother’s house at The Oaks, not far from where she was born.  

I found an 1890 picture of the Post Office at The Oaks on Wikipedia.  Perhaps some of the people are members of the Jenkins and Rideout families.

Caroline’s life might not seem adventurous, she lived her whole life in the same small area that looks like it might not have changed much since she lived there.  However, she would have had a full and busy life, giving birth to and raising 14 children, as well as helping out on the family farm. 

It is often a challenge to find out much about the women whose role was primarily domestic: raising children and running a household.  I hope that by sharing this story it sheds a bit of light on a woman whose main role in life was to be a mother and wife.

Notes on lineage: Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith > John Henry Smith > Louisa Jane Jenkins > Caroline Rideout