Collingwood Tully - breaking down a brick wall

When sorting through a pile of papers to put into folders I rediscovered a family tree for the Tully family that had been prepared by another family member many years ago.

Part of the Tully family tree

Louisa Lord (1833-1866) was a daughter of Simeon Lord (1810-1892) whose father, also Simeon, had come to Australia as a convict in 1791. Louisa was born in Tasmania and on 16 August 1860 she married William Alcock Tully (1830-1905).  William was born in Dublin, Ireland and after completing a BA at Trinity College he came to Tasmania in 1852 where he worked as a surveyor in the Survey Department until 1863 when he and his family transferred to Queensland. William Alcock Tully eventually became Surveyor General of Queensland. Louisa and William had three children - Collingwood (b. 1861), Kate Alexandra Mary Tully (1863-1935) and Louisa Blanche Tully (1865-1866). Louisa died on 26 February 1866, two months before her daughter, Louisa Blanche died on 11 April.

I had investigated this part of the family before but although Collingwood is an unusual first name I had never been able to find information about him. I decided to give it another go. The 'went to America' was a clue and as we now have access to American records in our copy of Ancestry.com I did a search, but without success. The comment 'no good' was also interesting. It would help if I knew who had prepared the tree to determine what this judgement might really mean. There was a similar comment for another person on the tree.

First the name, Collingwood. A note on the family tree stated that William's father was a Captain Tully who had served with Admiral Collingwood. The website of the Royal Navy Museum provides a biography of Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood (1748-1810) who succeeded Lord Nelson as Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1805. I have not been able to locate information about Captain Tully in the Navy except that the Griffiths Valuations 1853 enter the letters RN after his name. When searching for our Collingwood Tully I also found another Collingwood Tully, around the same age in the UK, so the name might have been part of the family naming pattern in the nineteenth century.

What happened to Collingwood? We know that he was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 18 September 1861 and that he would have moved with his parents to Queensland in 1863. The family was living at Holmedale, Milton in 1865 and 1866 when his younger sister was born and died. I could find out nothing else about him until I came across, in Trove, a report of a court case concerning the dissolution of the partnership of the Lord Bros in 1925 (Courier Mail 23 May 1925). Among the names mentioned as beneficiaries of the wills of AP Lord and Simeon Lord was a Collingwood Herbert Tully. Locating this second name was essential to uncovering the story of Collingwood Tully.

Back to Ancesty.com for a search for Collingwood Herbert Tully in America. No success with Collingwood but the name Herbert C Tully kept appearing in US Census records.

Sources for Collingwood Tully in Ancestry.com

This Herbert C Tully was born in Australia. In fact the 1920 Census gives place of birth as Tasmania, Australia. The birth place for his father and mother were given as Ireland and Australia, except for one year when his mother's birth place was given as England. The dates for year of birth also indicated that this was almost certainly Collingwood Tully.

From the census foms we learn that he arrived in the USA in 1885 when he was 24 - why he left Australia we do not know - and he was naturalised as a US citizen in 1917. When the 1900 census was taken he was living as a border at Dayton Illinois where he was a farmer. In 1910 his address was Washington, Indiana and he had a wife, Mary, and two daughters, Wilma and Mary. Checking the marriage records for Indiana showed that on 21 November 1900 Mary E Esworthy married Herbert C Tully. In 1910 his occupation was still connected with farming while in 1920 it was connected to the rail road shop. Unfortunately the writing in both these sections is unclear. In 1930 Collingwood was listed as retired. In 1920 the family was living at 60 North Dearborn Street, Indianapolis.The Indianapolis City directories confirm that the family was living at this address in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Herbert C Tully died in Indianapolis in August 1943 and was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery (Plot: Sec: 60, Lot: 488) on 10 August 1943.

So, once I discovered that Collingwood Tully had a second name which he used in preference to his first name plus the information that he had left Australia for the United States, it was possible to uncover at least part of the story of Collingwood Herbert Tully.