Searching for MG is a slow process of sifting through records and waiting for DNA matches to appear.

One day someone will take a DNA test that magically unlocks the mystery.

I’m not the type to sit quietly waiting, doing nothing, so while I wait for that magical DNA match I’m running a magnifying glass over the lives of the Collman and Weston families in New South Wales in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

I say ‘families’ because the truth of the matter is that two Collman brothers married two Weston sisters – which ultimately means that without some particularly significant DNA matches coming along, it’s a little hard to be certain which of the two marriages I’m from… although at this moment in time my hot money is on Thomas Collman and Augusta Weston.

In an earlier post about Thomas and Augusta (see my Edna series), I mentioned a certain ‘something’ that separated Thomas and Augusta in the early 1900s. I still have no idea what the ‘something’ was, but it was BIG enough that Augusta lived her life in Sydney, meanwhile Thomas had moved north to live in the town of Casino.

Today I thought I might drill down into the life of Thomas Collman in Casino, which incidentally (or coincidentally) is just a hop, skip and jump from where the Willocks lived in Mallanganee, making it all the more likely that this Mr Collman is in my direct line.

The earliest mentions of TW, or ‘Tom’ Collman in Casino are references to him being an Insurance Agent living and working out of Jordan’s or Tattersall’s hotels in late 1905. He’s also named in the local cricket team that year – newspapers documented his not-so-great performances with the bat but he did take a few handy catches.

By 1906 Tom wasn’t getting any better at his cricket but he was beginning to put runs on the board in the broader community:

In 1908 Tom Collman gave evidence to the licensing board in support of the licence for the Tabulam Hotel. Tabulam is within a spit of Mallanganee – you have to pass through Mallanganee to get there from Casino.

At the same pace that Tom became involved in his local community, his involvement in local cricket grew. The involvement spilled over into other sports as well. When he wasn’t playing cricket, he was playing billiards and even the odd game of football.

Meanwhile, back in Sydney, Tom Collman junior was being installed in his local branch of the Grand Lodge of New South Wales. Involvement in the Freemasons, Friendly Societies or Oddfellows – all calling themselves Lodges – was a very common thing to do in the day… and it seems it’s still a very common thing to do in the present day. Incidentally (or coincidentally) the Willock brothers were involved in the Mallanganee Lodge as well.

At about this moment in history, a young lady named Willock whose parents lived in Mallanganee was having a tryst with a young man named Collman – perhaps in Sydney, or in Casino, Mallanganee or Tabulam -and on the last day of August 1909 my grandmother would be born in Sydney.

But back to Tom Collman senior…

By the outbreak of war in 1915, Tom Collman’s life was firmly entrenched in the local community of Casino. He tried to enlist in the war effort but at his age, it was never going to happen. With his stock experience, the best he could hope for was some kind of involvement through the horses that the soldiers would ride into battle.

And I suppose… if a man couldn’t find his way to France to join the war, a man could at least grow some fine French beans!

Tom Collman senior died in Casino in 1929, incidentally (or coincidentally) at the very hospital where his involvement in the local community began.

I’m no closer, or am I?