Caroline Brown

Caroline was born in the waterside district of Kirkdale Liverpool to Irish parents.She met George Wailey, a seaman originally from Cork, but who had settled in Liverpool in the 1850's They got married in St James/ Saint Alexander's around the 1860's. Their first child, a daughter Geraldine died in 1868. From the age of 36 until she was 44 or 45, she gave birth to five sons, George (1870) John (1871) William Patrick (1874) Francis James (1876) and Henry (1878/79). George died, thrown overboard in a gale, in 1887. The boys were then, 17, 15, 13, 11, and 8. Twenty five years later, the 1911 census finds her living on Brisbane street, in the same waterside district. There is an eleven year old girl with her in the house.This is her youngest son's daughter, Catherine born in 1900. Caroline's occupation at the age of 77 is given as 'a knocker upper' She died in 1919 just after the Great War. She was 85. She is buried in Ford Cemetary.

George Wailey

George Wailey was born in Cork, Ireland in 1832. At the height of the Famine, his family took ship to New York. Whether he could not settle in the States is not known but George came to Liverpool aboard another ship around 1850.He stayed going away to sea all his life. He married Caroline Brown in Liverpool in the 1850's then in his mid 20's. Their first child Geraldine died in 1868.He and Caroline then went on to produce five sons, all born in Liverpool. George was born in 1870, John in 1872, William Patrick in 1874 (decorated at the battle of the Transvaal in 1902), Francis James in 1876 and the youngest, Henry in 1879.They lived in waterside Kirkdale just up the road from the Canada dock, the main timber dock of the north end of the city. Apart from Francis James who was a house painter, all the sons were either seamen or dockers.George died in 1887,at the age of 55 when he was washed overboard from the deck of a small cargo ship in the Celtic sea off the coast of Somerset His death is recorded in Ireland, Civil Registration Deaths Index, 1864-1958 DEATH, BURIAL, CEMETERY & OBITUARIESand in the UK, Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths at Sea, 1844-1890