6. Annie Everard

I've always been partial to Annie Everard...perhaps it was her name, or the sorrow that I felt as I discovered each of the deaths of three of her four little girls.Her life just seemed to be particularly sad, and I wish that I had a photograph of her to put a face to her memory.

Annie Everard was born on April 2, 1863, some seven years after the birth of her brother, Thomas. It states on her birth certificate(above) however, that a brother named Ignatius had died prior to Annie's birth, and even though no records exist of his birth or death, both events would have taken place during this seven year period.

Annie spent her whole life in Warrnambool...she was born there, married there and died there. Like her two elder sisters, Elizabeth and Mary Ann, she married quite young, and at 18 required the consent of her father John Everard.
On June 27, 1881, at Timor Street, Warrnambool, Baptist minister Charles Pickering married Annie Everard and 28 year old English-born William Sparks. William's occupation was 'groom', and Annie had no profession, obviously living at home with her parents.
Over a year later, on October 10, 1882, Annie gave birth to the first of four daughters, and named her Elizabeth Jane Sparks. Annie herself registered the birth, stating that her husband was a 29 year old Ostler (someone who worked with horses) from England, and she was an 18 year old Warrnambool native. No doctor or midwife had attended the birth, just her own mother, Mrs Everard.

In 1882, Mary Ann Maria was born, and she was followed by Florence Mabel Ann in 1888 and Annie Beatrice in 1892. Incredibly, only one of these babies survived- eldest daughter, Elizabeth Jane. Annie lost her other babies aged 10 weeks, 11 weeks and 18 months.

There is confusion over the death certificate of the first baby to die on October 2, 1886. William Sparks, her father, registered the death, and gave conflicting information re. her name and age. He stated that his daughter's name was Jane Elizabeth Sparks and that she was 1 year and 6 months old.There was no child registered by this name...first born daughter was named Elizabeth Jane, and she was the only one NOT to die in infancy. Similarly, for a baby to be 18 months old in October of 1886, she must have been born in April of 1885. Mary Ann Maria was the baby born in 1885, and also named as having died on the birth certificates of her sisters Florence and Annie, as well as her mother Annie's death certificate.
The cause of death registered for Mary Ann Maria's demise was "congenital debility and bronchitis", the latter having afflicted her for nine months.

Daughter Florence Mabel Ann Sparks died died on June 15, 1888, in Koroit Street, Warrnambool. She was ten weeks old, and succumbed to bronchitis after suffering from the affliction for four days.

Final child Annie Beatrice Sparks died on May 7, 1892, in Koroit Street, aged 11 weeks. Again the cause was bronchitis, of four days duration.Like her sisters before her, Annie Beatrice was buried in the Warrnambool Cemetery.In the latter two burials, John Everard was recorded as being a witness...whether this was John Everard Senior or Junior, I do not know.

I have never before come across the condition 'bronchitis' being so fatal in a family over a period of years...usually it is common to see an outbreak disease like whooping cough, diphtheria or measles proving devastating to a family's children over one short period of time...bronchitis claimed the lives of three babies over six years.

Annie Everard Sparks died of influenza and pneumonia of seven days duration on July 30, 1895. She was just 34 years old, and surviving her was her daughter Elizabeth Jane, who was almost 13, and her husband William. William Sparks registered his wife's death, and proved himself still confused when it came to the names of his daughters...he named Annie's children as "Jane Elizabeth 11; Anna Maria dead; Mabel Jane dead and Annie Jane dead."