Susan McIntosh & Goodsir Millar ...
Susan McIntosh was born circa 1846 in Edinburgh and was the second child of Robert and Grace McIntosh. Along with her parents, sister, and brother, she arrived in Australia aboard the Lord Stanley in 1854. Upon the family’s arrival and settling in the Blanket Flat / Eganstown area, Susan would have attended the school there.
In 1868, and not long before her parents moved to Mt. Egerton in 1869, Susan married Goodsir Millar. Goodsir was a Scottish pioneer gold miner of the area and was among many thousands who washed alluvial gold in the creeks and gullies in the surrounding ranges.
Susan McIntosh
Goodsir Millar
Goodsir and Susan had eleven children – John, Isabella, Margaret, Georgina, Grace Binning, Susan Mary-Ann, Goodsir Edward, Robert, Mary-Ann, Andrew, and Elizabeth Agnes – most of who were born on the Eganstown or Bald Hill goldfields.
Susan, who was known widely as ‘Granny’, became one of the busiest midwives in the district, and attended the births of around 1,000 babies for a confinement fee of 30 shillings. This would also include helping out with the milking of any cows, cooking, and washing while she was in attendance.
Goodsir died at the young age of 45 in 1887, the same year that his youngest daughter Elizabeth was born. Susan passed away in 1925 in Daylesford, at the age of 79. It is not known at this stage where they are buried, but it would be fair to assume it would have been at either the Daylesford or Eganstown cemeteries.
Will and Codicil of Susan Millar
(Click to enlarge image)
To view the full Descendant Chart for Goodsir Millar and Susan McIntosh, which provides more information about their children, please click here.
Sources:
The Egertonian: Kith and Kin of our Clan Davidson - written by Gail Chambers and Lydia Davidson 1995 (edited by Gail Erwood 2021)
VPRO Probate Files, Will and Codicil of Susan Millar No. 202/561 - VPRS 7591/P2/715