Page:Gillespies Beach Beginnings • Alexander (2010).pdf/31



Anecdote says that Laurence Sullivan met his wife-to-be, Margaret Vaughan, at Okarito, probably because it has been reported elsewhere that the marriage licence was taken out there at the local police station. There are no reports of Margaret’s occupation either in Australia or elsewhere. At 40 years of age she had obviously been self-supporting both in Australia and later in New Zealand so presumably she would have worked as a domestic or possibly a barmaid.

The notice of the marriage appeared in the West Coast Times on 8.7.1870 as follows:

''Marriage - Sullivan - Vaughan, on 27th June at the bride’s residence, Mikonui Beach, by the Rev. J.A. Goutenoire, Lawrence Sullivan, County Limerick, Ireland, to Margaret Vaughan, County Clare, Ireland. (Home papers please copy.)''

A copy of the marriage certificate has been sighted. The newly-weds Made their home at Gillespie’s Beach and Mary Sullivan, the oldest of Laurence’s eight children was born the following year.

In an interview with Michael Sullivan, youngest son of Laurence, as reported in The Weekly News in September, 1959, it was stated incorrectly that his father had married a Julia O’Connor. At the time of the interview Mick was in his mid-seventies and either suffered a senior moment or was misreported. This error was repeated in Barbara Harper’s Petticoat Pioneers and also in the centennial album published by the Westland County in 1976. My source is the genealogical chart left to me by Sister M. Lawrence but more importantly the marriage certificate and also the headstone in the Hokitika cemetery. I doubt that Laurence is buried with the wrong woman.