This picture was taken outside “Sunnyside” c 1868. She would have been about twenty years old.
Johanna Louisa Fanning was born in 1848 at Bulla in Victoria.
She married William Frederick Dell on the 17th Nov, 1884. She was 36, although the marriage certificate says 27, and he was also 27.
They were married in St Francis’ Catholic Church, Melbourne.
On her marriage record Johanna signed her name using the more English “Joanna”.
William Dell was born in Berkshire, England about 1857. His being English did not please Johanna’s Irish father and it is said that Johanna was cut out of the will because she chose to marry an Englishman. She was the only child not to receive property from her parents.
On her marriage certificate her occupation is given as “Hotel Keeper” and address as Bulla. I wonder what hotel she was working at or managing.
Family stories have them owning a pub in Richmond. In 1888 on her daughter’s death certificate she is again listed as a hotel keeper.
From the years 1909 to her death in 1923, she lived at 145 Surrey Rd, South Yarra, Melbourne and her occupation was described as “Home Duties”.
Her sister, Mary Skehan of Monegetta, left Johanna 50 pounds in her will in 1900.
Joanna was 74 when she died.
She had a very sad life, in that her only two children died as infants.
William Frederick Dell died after only two weeks on 28 Dec, 1887. His parents’ address at this time was the Norfolk Hotel in Flinders Lane, Melbourne.
Joanna Louise Dell was born at South Yarra, but died after five months, at Bulla, on 3 Dec 1888.
William Dell died in Richmond in 1939 aged 81.
On the census forms he is listed as a Gentleman in 1884, a Hotel Keeper in 1888 and from 1909 to 1924 as a Cook.
In 1936 he was living at 7 Claremont St, Sth Yarra, Melbourne.
Joanna and William Frederick Dell are buried with their two children, in the Melbourne General Cemetery, in the Catholic section, but not in the Fanning plot.
