Or did she? Family legend can be wrong. Gertrude, born April 1860, moved to the area from Hawke’s Bay in 1862 and lived there until her widowed mother remarried and took the family back to Sydney. (For details see my query today re Captain Richard Burgess.)

There is no record of her death, and if her body was not recovered that could be why. (And I can’t find her in the NSW records, where her younger half-sister shows up marrying, having children, dying.)

At the Canterbury Museum, in a file called Lyllelton Times Death Notices Index, re 1866 a researcher has recorded "Burgess, Nov 14, daughter of Mr Burgess, Rangiora swamp, aged 18 months, drowned in creek", and a few days later, "Burgess, William Charles Burgess, aged 17 months, drowned in creek adjoining Ohoka Swamp". 1851 – 1869 contains no other Burgesses. (The drowning of Captain Richard Plummer Burgess was mentioned in the main news with the shipwreck itself, not the section called Town and Country where deaths mainly were reported.)
At the public library in the Lyttelton Times fiches I found that these two children are actually the same child, a boy, no relation, the child of Mr Burgess, not late Captain, etc etc.)
However, the Times gives us the inquest into the death of the child, and this is a good indicator of the kind of record there should be for little Gertrude, assuming she drowned – but where?

The first report is very brief. The next report gets 13 lines and reads: CHILD DROWNED. – On Wednesday evening last about 6p.m. a child of eighteen months old, the daughter of Mr. Burgess, Rangiora Swamp, was accidentally drowned. Mrs. Burgess had left the child outside while she went into the house. She was not absent more than a minute, but when she returned the child was missing, and on looking into the creek, she discovered it floating on its back. It was immediately taken out and every means used to restore animation, but without avail. An inquest will be held this day before Dr Dudley, the coroner for the district.

The inquest takes 22 lines, and reads:
Inquest. – On Saturday last an inquest was held at Ohoka Swamp, before Dr. Dudley, coroner for the district, on the body of William Charles Burgess, aged seventeen months, who was accidentally drowned in an adjoining creek on the 15th inst. Mr. Robert Jargoe was chosen foreman of the jury. From the evidence adduced it appeared that Mrs. Burgess, who was in the garden with the child, had occasion to go to the fowl-house, leaving the child in the garden, but closing the gate, which led to the creek. She was not absent above two minutes, when on returning she missed the child, and on looking for it found it floating in the creek a few yards distant from the garden gate. The gate being closed, the child must have made its way through a slip panel adjoining. When found it had the appearance of not being quite dead; every means was used to restore it, but without avail. A verdict of "Accidentally drowned" was returned.

So: a death of this kind would normally get two if not three newspaper entries, and little Gertrude Hannah Burgess just isn’t there, or anywhere else apparently.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Migs Eder