Proud Yorta Yorta Woman Lauren O'Dwyer - A Future Political Equal to William Cooper?- Part 2 — Dark Emu Exposed

Nov 10

Nov 10 Proud Yorta Yorta Woman Lauren O'Dwyer - A Future Political Equal to William Cooper?- Part 2

As we described in our previous Part 1 post all the men in Lauren O’Dwyer’s maternal Hay family line can trace their ancestry directly back to a Robert Hay who was born in Scotland in 1774.

We could find no record of any of these ‘Hay’ men describing themselves, or being described by others, as Aboriginal or Yorta Yorta.

In this post we discuss the genealogical research that we have undertaken to determine the ancestry of all the women who married these ‘Hay’ men. If one or more of these women were of Aboriginal descent, then Lauren O’Dwyer would be correct to claim Aboriginal descent for herself.

She would in fact have a right to claim Yorta Yorta kinship with the legendary William Cooper.

**Figure 1 - Yorta Yorta Aboriginal man and activist,** **William Cooper**

Unfortunately for Lauren O’Dwyer however, our investigations show that none of these seven women appear to have any Aboriginal ancestry.

However, it is still too early for us to say with certainty that the ALP Candidate Lauren O’Dwyer has no Yorta Yorta ancestry, as we still need to investigate her father’s family tree and his ancestry.

But we can say that, on her mother’s side of the family tree, there appears to be no Aboriginal ancestry that we could find - Lauren O’Dwyer does not appear to be of maternal Yorta Yorta descent.

**Figure 2 - Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews with the ALP candidate for the seat of Richmond, proud Yorta Yorta woman, Lauren O’Dwyer.**

The following women that we have investigated, in chronological order of their births in Figure 3, were the wives of the seven men named Hay in the maternal line of Lauren O’Dywer:

Marie Hopper [Hazelwood] - born 1796 on Norfolk Island
Ann Banks aka Farrel (Farrell) - born 10 January 1815 in Hobart, Tasmania
Clara Jones - born 1861 in Victoria
Eliza McCashney - born 1861 in Victoria
Ruby Frances Smith - born 1889 in Blackwood, Victoria
Isobel Beryl Bolan - born 1916 in Carlton, Victoria (illegitimate birth) : Lauren’s great-grandmother
Marie Norma Berry - born 1940 in Cohuna, Victoria

**Figure 3 - The alleged ‘HAY’ family branch of Denise Joy Hay, mother of claimed Yorta Yorta Aboriginal woman, Lauren O’Dwyer. This branch is alleged to show the Hay men and their wives**. *Source: publicly available records*

The records show that the first 5 women, starting from the top of this list, all come from families that trace their ancestry back to England, Scotland, Ireland and even British America (old US colonies).

Nowhere in the records could we find that there were any Aboriginal, let alone any Yorta Yorta, ancestors in any of these five extended families.

Similarly for, the seventh candidate, Marie Norma Berry, whose ancestors descended from immigrants from England, Scotland and Denmark. We found no Aboriginal people, let alone Yorta Yorta people, in her line of the family.

We have detailed the family trees for these six women (Numbers 1 to 5 and 7 above) below in our Further Reading Section below.

Candidate number 6, Isobel Beryl Bolan, however is more interesting, and her ancestry deserves our closer attention.

Isobel Beryl Bolan - Lauren O’Dwyer’s great-grandmother born in Carlton, Victoria in 1916 as an illegitimate birth.

Many of our readers have shown great interest in our Dark Emu Exposed investigation into the alleged Yorta Yorta ancestry of Lauren O’Dwyer.

We have received a number of messages from informants who allege that they know the ‘story’ surrounding the claims made by Lauren O’Dwyer as to her alleged Aboriginality.

A common, alleged story that we have received goes along the lines of,

In the Echuca community in the 1960 and 70’s there was family talk that Denise Hay [Lauren O’Dwyer’s mother] had a grandmother who, the gossip said, “had a bit of black in her.” The alleged gossip also relayed that this grandmother was believed to be illegitimate, and the father was an unknown Aboriginal man. Our informants allege that this is the basis of the Hay family perhaps believing that they are of Yorta Yorta Aboriginal descent.

This illegitimate woman would thus be the great-grandmother of Lauren O’Dwyer and the alleged unknown Aboriginal Yorta Yorta man would thus be the great-grandfather of Lauren’s mother Denise and thus, the great-great grandfather of Lauren herself.

We speculate that when Lauren O’Dwyer tells The Age newspaper that she,

‘describes herself as a proud Yorta Yorta woman, tracing her ancestry to her great-grandfather,’

she may perhaps be in error. Lauren O’Dwyer does not reveal the name of this man, but if the ‘gossip’ is correct, he most likely is her mother’s great-grandfather and thus Lauren’s great-great-grandfather.

For in fact we have found some corroborating evidence for this alleged family oral history - the ‘legend of the illegitimate ancestor.’ Our research has determined that the records do indeed show that Lauren O’Dwyer’s great-grandmother was born in Carlton, Victoria in 1916 and was an illegitimate birth.

The name of this illegitimate child is believed to be, Isobel Beryl Bolan.

Could she be the illegitimate daughter of some unknown Aboriginal Yorta Yorta man? And, could this man provide the Yorta Yorta ancestry that Lauren O’Dwyer is claiming?

A photograph purporting to be Isobel Beryl Hay (nee Bolan) in her later life has been obtained and is shown in Figure 4. We do not know the identities of the other people in the photograph, but we welcome any input from our readers if they know their identities.

Figure 4 - An undated photograph of one of the Hay family gatherings (?) where the woman on the left is believed to be Isobel Beryl Hay (*nee* Bolan). This photograph was most likely from the 1970s or early 80s. *Source: Photograph supplied by Ancestry user Jayme Holdroyd who originally shared this on 21 May 2010.*
***Editor’s Note:*** in normal circumstances a person’s life is private and discussions regarding their birth out-of-wedlock is a totally private matter. However, when a family member becomes a public figure they, by necessity, have to allow themselves and their family to be open to scrutiny at times, especially when the public figure relies on family facts to further their own careers in the government and public service. Thus, given that Lauren O’Dwyer’s claims that she, ‘is of Yorta Yorta Aboriginal descent by her great-grandfather’ (*The Age), this entitles us, we believe, to confirm this claim one way or the other as a matter of public interest - hence our necessity to delve into all parts of her family history.*

From the publicly available records we have been able to construct an alleged family history for Isobel Beryl Hay (nee Bolan)

Isobel Beryl Bolan is believed to be the illegitimate child of Bertha Ethel Elizabeth Vaughan and Edward Edis.

Her mother Bertha Ethel was married to William Henry Bolan on 19 February 1912 in Yarraville, Victoria.

William enlisted in the Army and went into Camp in August 1914 (WWI). On his return in 1916 he found that his wife was pregnant. She gave the name of the father as Teddie Edis.

Edward Edis denied that he was the father; however, we speculate that, given that Bertha Ethel used a nickname for Edward and was unlikely to give a false name when confronted, coupled with the fact that a year later Edward married another woman, it is likely that he denied the affair to avoid humiliation and/or condemnation both in the community and with his intended bride.

Also, by denying the child was his, he wasn’t responsible financially.

This scenario is based on our reading of the Divorce Papers: Bolan v Bolan + Eddis [Edis], excerpts of which produce below. The court granted the divorce on the grounds of adultery, thus implying the Edward Edis was most likely the father of the child.

**Figures 5a,b&c - Excerpts from the 1916 divorce proceedings for Bertha Ethel Elizabeth Vaughan and her husband William Henry Bolan.** *Source: Victorian Divorce Records, 1860-1940 for Bolan v Bolan +Eddis 1916*

The divorce was granted (Figure 6) and Bertha Ethel Bolan found herself as a single mum with an illegitimate child, Isobel Beryl Bolan. The records suggest that this illegitimate child was Lauren O’Dwyer’s great-grandmother.

Figure 6 - Excerpt of the granted divorce of Bertha Ethel Bolan based on her adultery with Edward Edis [Eddis] that produced the illegitimate child, Isobel Beryl Bolan, the great-grandmother of Lauren O’Dwyer. *Source: Victorian Divorce Records, 1860-1940 for BolanvBolan +Eddis 1916*

The man of Mystery - Edward Edis. Was he Yorta Yorta?

So, for our informants to be correct in their belief that the ‘gossip’ around the community was that the father of the illegitimate baby was in fact an Aboriginal Yorta Yorta man, who had provided the “bit of black in her”, this Edward Edis [Eddis] would then need to be shown to be of Aboriginal descent himself.

If the records show that Edward Edis was of Aboriginal descent, then our research would support ALP candidate Lauren O’Dwyer in any claim she made that she was of Aboriginal descent by this man.

Unfortunately for O’Dwyer, our research shows that this Edward Edis was not Aboriginal - his ancestry goes back to England when his grandparents John (Edward) and Martha Edis arrived as farm-worker immigrants in 1853.

**Figure 7 - John Edward Edis (date unknown) grandfather of mystery man Edward Elis who sired the illegitimate Isobel Beryl Bolan**. *Source: Ancestry user Judy Guest originally shared this on 30 Nov 2020*
*Our Research file here*

**Figure 8 - Martha Edis (date unknown) grandmother of mystery man Edward Elis who sired the illegitimate Isobel Beryl Bolan.** *Source: Ancestry user Judy Guest originally shared this on 30 Nov 2020*
*Our Research File here*

We illustrate in Figure 9 the alleged family tree of the illegitimate Isobel Beryl Bolan, and how she and her father, the supposedly Aboriginal man Edward John Edis, fits into the family tree of Lauren O’Dwyer. Readers will see that the paternal ancestry of the Edis family goes back to England and provides no Aboriginality (we will investigate the maternal lines below).

**Figure 9 - Alleged Family Tree for Edward Edis [Eddis], believed to be the father of the illegitimate Isobel Beryl Bolan, Lauren O’Dwyer’s great-grandmother.** *Source: publicly available records*

To confirm that there is no Aboriginal Yorta Yorta descent in Isobel Beryl Bolan’s ancestry, via her mother Bertha Ethyl Elizabeth Bolan, we have constructed her family tree and see that both her parents, James Vaughan and Ann Salmon Cox were born in England (Figure 10 and our research file here).

**Figure 10** - **Alleged Family Tree for Bertha Ethel Elizabeth Vaughan , the mother of the illegitimate Isobel Beryl Bolan, Lauren O’Dwyer’s great-grandmother.** *Source: publicly available records*

There appears to be no Aboriginal, let alone Yorta Yorta, ancestry anywhere in these branches of Lauren O’Dwyer’s family tree.

Given thatThe Age newspaper reported that,

There are two Aboriginal corporations on Yorta Yorta land that can affirm people’s Aboriginal ancestry through “papers”: the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation and Njernda Aboriginal Corporation. O’Dwyer’s papers confirming her Aboriginality are from the latter.

Bianca Hall reporter, The Age, 4 November 2022

perhaps now is the time for the Njernda CEO, Tracey Dillon, to provide some details of the “papers” that they are relying on to confirm that Lauren O’Dwyer is of genuine Yorta Yorta descent?

Given the importance of the proposed, publicly funded career that O’Dwyer is embarking on as a State MP, it is very important that the voters of Richmond and Victoria can feel confident that they are really voting for a genuine Yorta Yorta woman.

Notwithstanding this request of the CEO of Njernda, our research team at Dark Emu Exposed will continue our investigations into Lauren O’Dwyer’s family tree on her fathers side to see if we can find any evidence to support her claim of Yorta Yorta Aboriginality.

We will detail this work in our coming posts.