Mary Ann COOK [3736]

  General Notes:

It would appear that Mary Ann had an illegitimate child in 1881, Charlotte. It is possible the father's name was John Clark, as this is the name that Charlotte gave on her marriage certificate as her own and her father. Later that year, 1881, Mary Ann married a widower, William Best, who was 40 years old at the time of the marriage and Mary Ann was 19. William's first wife, Virtue Williams had died in South Australia in about 1867.

Mary Ann had 11 children under the name of Best, but the father's name was never recorded on any of the births, so I suspect that the marriage to William Best may have been to legitimise her previous issue and that William may not have stayed around for long as Mary Ann's next child was born in 1884 with no father named.

I have found an obituary for Edward Kelly which states he arrived in Nhill in 1884 so it is possible that Edward Kelly was the father of most or all of these children. William Best seems to have died in Mt Gambier in 1912, however, Mary Ann married her second husband, Edward Kelly (appears as Edward George Wooley Kelly) at Bordertown, SA in 1910.

Children from Ada May down were baptised at Nhill with the surname of Kelly and the fathers name was given as Gustavus Adolphus William James Herbert Edward Kelly, or Edward Kelly. This would seem to prove that Edward Kelly was the biological father of the 11 children after Charlotte.

Mary had a relationship with someone.

Mary next married William BEST [6922] [MRIN: 2179] on 14 Nov 1881 in Sandford, Vic, Australia.³⁸⁷⁶ (William BEST [6922] was born about 1840 in , Dorset, England, christened on 15 Mar 1840 in Sturminster-Marshall, Dorset, England ³⁸⁷⁷ and died in 1912 in Mount Gambier, SA, Australia.)

Mary next married Edward George Wooley KELLY [6923] [MRIN: 2180] on 4 Jun 1910 in Bordertown, SA, Australia. (Edward George Wooley KELLY [6923] was born about 1855, died on 25 Dec 1925 in Nhill, Vic, Australia and was buried on 26 Dec 1925 in Nhill, Vic, Australia.)