(B191) 18th Dec 1868. Holborn. London.
(D191) 24th Feb 1940. Charleville. Queensland. Australia.
Occupation :- General Labourer.
Partner. (533) Mary ?
(B533) 1867. Ireland.
(D533) ?. ?
Occupation :- Shirt Machinist.
(P217) ?. ?
Footnote :- On census night 1881 John, also known as Jack, was away from his family at the Barnes Home and Industrial School in Heaton Norris, Lancashire. See attachment (A 005a). These schools were in the main, places where young boys and girls, who had been caught doing minor felonies, were sent, in a hope that it would reform them and help to give them a trade. I now believe that he was still in England in 1901 and maybe married For there was a John Cairness of the right age and a Mary Cairness living in at Smiths model Lodging House. 9, 11, 13 & 15, School Lane, Rochdale, Lancashire. See attachment (A 005b). Cairness is one of the names used for Curness in the 1881 census. He is only named as John on the records I have found but I have been told that he was called John Benjamin after his father. The same source indicates that he was working on a sheep station in Australia and that he died in a strike but in 2005 I found that he died of natural causes, see his death certificate. I have also found reference of him at a burial in Western Australia in 1914, which mentions him as a J. B. Curness. See attachment (A 005c). Later information from the Australian census, shows that he had been in New South Wales as well as Queensland after he left Western Australia.