Barbara Frances & Mary Ellen McGuigan - Goulburn, NSW
Posted by: 
Tuena
S 34° 44.629 E 149° 45.337
55H E 752270 N 6151906
Barbara Frances & Mary Ellen McGuigan were sisters who were accidentally drowned on 26 February 1949 aged 10 & 12 years respectively.
Waymark Code: WMWPAK
Location: New South Wales, Australia
Date Posted: 09/25/2017
Views: 2
Their grave is red granite & is in first class condition. The headstone is an engraved book with a verse which reflected their life, being:
Lovely & pleasant in their lives
in their death they were not divided
Their death was reported in the Narrandera Argus and Riverina Advertiser on 4 March 1949 as:
Two sisters drowned near Yass
Two sisters from Goulburn were drowned in the Murrumbidgee River,
near Yass, on Saturday. They were Mary Ellen McGuigan, 12, and Barbara Frances McGuigan, 10. They had been holidaying with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. M. C. McGuigan, and an uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Alec Brown, at Good Hope, a pleasure resort about 10 miles from Yass. On Saturday the party hired a motor boat and went to Taemas Bridge, where they pulled in for a picnic. The two men and two girls went swimming below Cavan Homestead. The men came out of the water and soon afterwards noticed the girls in difficulties. Brown went to help Mary but was seized with a cramp and could not bring her in. She was in the water about 15 minutes before she was brought ashore. She sank several times. In the meantime Barbara had disappeared.
The newspaper article is reproduced in Trove Digitised Newspapers, National Library of Australia, the website listed below.
The sisters' grave is in Goulburn Cemetery.
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