Catherine was born the third child to Thomas Baird Hannah and Jane (Jeanie) Jack. She was born on the 11th December 1894 at 120 Foucart Street, Balmain.
Three months after the birth of Catherine, their father was tragically drowned while prawnfishing off the rocks near the Gordon Street wharf in Rozelle Bay. Although there were other family members around, for six years Jeanie would have struggled to keep her little family together. Eventually, in 1900 and with the bubonic plague closing in on Balmain, Jeanie packed up her family and travelled back to her hometown of Hamilton, Scotland.
Charles Burns Jnr, Catherine’s cousin, writes of the time around her departure as follows:
‘It was during the bubonic plague and when we got there we were told that that part of Balmain was to be quarantined, but this did not happen till two days after. I carried Agnes who was about 3 years old aboard the ship, and didn’t she play up on the way over. The youngest Cathie got thrown out of her Bunk and broke her collarbone.”
Hamilton was a major coal mining town in the early 1900’s. Just south east of Glasgow, most of it’s population was either involved in, or dependant on the industry. In March 1901 when the census was taken, the family were living at 45 Muir Street, along with Jeanie’s parents and 21 other people. The building must have been typical of the tenement style dwellings built to accommodate the mine workers. Unfortunately most of the buildings that stood there in the early part of the 20th century have now been demolished to make way for widening of the road.
On the census returns, Jeanie recorded her occupation as “washerwoman”, surely a hard, thankless and tiresome task in a town and family of coalminers. The children were all recorded as scholars.
In 1901 Jeanie remarried to William Linton in Hamilton. A daughter Janet (Jessie) was born to the couple on the 7th June 1905.
Catherine’s mother died on Sunday the 3rd of July, 1910 at 45 Muir Street, Hamilton. Catherine was 15 years old at the time.
In the 1911 census, the children are shown to be still living at the same address with their 46 year old step father. No occupation was shown for Catherine, so perhaps she had taken on the role of house keeper for the family. Catherine later moved to 114 Gairbraid Street, a tenement block in Glasgow since demolished. She probably moved to Glasgow (where she was a munitions factory worker) during the first world war.
While the war stilled raged around Europe, Catherine married James Donnelly on 31st December 1917. The marriage took place “According to the forms of the Roman Catholic Church” at St. Charles Chapel, Glasgow. James is shown as an ironturner, probably also involved in the war effort. He was aged 22, the same as Catherine.
James’ parent’s are given as Daniel Donnelly (Gasworker), and Beatrice Donnelly (m.s. Logue)
The couple were to have four children:- Daniel (1918), James (1921), Thomas (1922), and Jean (1924).
On the 28th March 1928, Catherine’s husband James died suddenly of “acute dilation of the stomach”, and heart failure.
Catherine continued to live in the Maryhill district of Glasgow. Her children grew up and had families around the Glasgow area.
On the 15th July 1955, Catherine died in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow at the age of 60. Her cause of death hypertension and cerebral hemorrhage.
Last updated April 2017 (Bruce Hannah)
