A chance comment in an 1895 North Cheshire newspaper has led to the discovery of a previously unknown Cockitt family link with Australia.

The story starts with Olive Augusta Cockitt who married Thomas Boothby Fowler at Chorlton-on-Medlock in March 1870. She died in March 1897 and in her will she left her jewellery to her grand-daughter, Marjorie Matley Muir. This combination of names was interesting. Firstly Olive Augusta Fowler had been a lady's maid to Sarah Jane Matley of the Hodge, Broadbottom, Cheshire from at least 1881 to 1895. Secondly the obituary of Sarah Jane in the North Cheshire Herald of 9 February 1895 mentioned that in her final illness she had been attended by "Dr Muir of Manchester". Was there a connection?

From the GRO Indexes it was possible to deduce that Olive Augusta's daughter Lizzie Ann Boothby Fowler married William Charles C Muir in the December quarter of 1890. But was he a doctor?  Amazingly, the 1902 edition of the Medical Directory turned up "Wm Chas Crawford Muir jun", an 1885 graduate of Glasgow University now practising medicine in Yarram Yarram, South Gippsland, Victoria! There was, of course, no firm evidence of any connection with Lizzie Ann Fowler, but the initials, the dates and the country of study were right, so could this be the missing doctor?

According to a 1915 Australian Medical Directory William Charles Crawford Muir was then resident in Richmond, Victoria. The 1921 to 1985 state Death Index listed the death of Wm Chas Crawford Muir in Melbourne in 1935, aged 72. But there was no sign of Lizzie Ann Boothby Muir, and so still no positive connection between the Dr Muir of Victoria and the Dr Muir of Manchester. A search of the death index for anyone with Matley as a Christian name, however, produced Marjorie Matley Bruce, the daughter of William C Muir and Lizzie Ann Fowler who died at Prahran in 1975, aged 84!

From A Roll of the Graduates of the University of Glasgow (London, 1898) I discovered that Dr Muir worked first in London, then Blackburn, then Hyde, Cheshire, the neighbouring town to Broadbottom and The Hodge. As the Roll was completed in February 1898 and included Dr Muir's first two Australian addresses - Portarlington and Surrey Hills, Melbourne - it was possible to deduce that the move to Australia took place some time between February 1896 and February 1898. Turning to the Victorian Electoral Rolls, I found William C C MUIR, physician, on the Roll of Victorian Voters at the Federal Referendum, 1899 in Alberton. In 1903 the roll for the Division of Flinders listed at Yarram Yarram Wm Chas Crawford Muir and "Liza Ann" Muir. The 1912 Richmond Central roll had her correctly as Lizzie Ann Muir living with her husband at 377 Church Street.  Lizzie Ann MUIR's death finally turned up in NSW, registered at Woollahra in 1943. Here at last was confirmation that Lizzie Ann Boothby Fowler had married the doctor who had attended Sarah Jane Matley in Broadbottom.