Family history, what a wild wide it can be when we dig into the history books and look at where our ancestors had been, you learn new things about those you knew very little about, sometimes you learn more about those you did know.
There are a number of Deniliquin families who have been around a century, some perhaps had relatives who were around the day the story of the town began.
People come and people go, some families live out a portion of their story in Deniliquin and then move on, some are remembered and some are forgotten, waiting for someone wanting to look back at that story.
Early in October 2025, we got asked by a member of the Mayne family for help to find information on previous generations of the family, it was told to them that there was a memorial in the hospital to Iris Mayne who died in 1920, and they wanted to see it.
A memorial was found at the hospital, but it was made for Arthur Llewellyn in honour of Katie Llewellyn who had died in 1894.
The Mayne family history has been looked at by a number of people; a podcast was even done about George William Mayne (senior) but there were still some blanks in the story, one we’ll get to later on.
Complicating any search is the fact that the family name was recorded as Main, Maine and Mayne.
We continued to try and help the Mayne’s by searching for the history of George William Mayne, he was born in 1880 in Victoria, he married Alice Gorey in Deniliquin in 1908, and they brought into the world, Alice Lucy Mayne, George William Mayne, Myrtle Annie Mayne, Iris May Mayne, Elsie Evelyn May and Lindsay John Mayne.
Iris Mayne as written earlier had died in 1920, the surviving Mayne children were educated in Wanganella and participated in many of the local events as well as the Deniliquin Show.
A photo of Elsie Mayne is in the ‘100 Years of Education in North Deniliquin’ book thanks to a school photo that was taken on December 17, 1926.
In 1927, the family was still in Wanganella, Alice Lucy Mayne married Harold Munro that year and newspaper article about the wedding said that the Mayne family lived at ‘White Lodge’ in Wanganella.
The family left the area sometime in 1927 and they had seemingly done so without George senior.
It was reported that Mrs. Mayne, Elsie and Lindsay returned to Wanganella for a holiday in December 1927.
George Mayne (Senior) from 1927 seemingly vanished from history; we know that the Mayne’s split by 1929 as George was sought after as he owed money to Alice; at the time he was last believed to have been at North Boonoke Station which is near Deniliquin.
From 1931 to 1933, annulment proceedings between George and Alice were ongoing, it is unknown if George Mayne contested the annulment or not.
Alice (Gorey) Mayne married Arthur Fairweather in Temora in 1933, George (Junior) married Myrene Simpson in 1934, Mrytle married Harry Salt in 1932, Elsie married William Williams in 1934, and Lindsay married Bridget Mary Dillion in 1944.
The family members ended up living in places like Temora, Parkes, Haberfield, Cronulla and Ashfield.
Some Ancestry users have recorded George Mayne (Senior) as dying in Footscray, others have George as living in Leichhardt from c1946 to c1958, but no definitive proof has been found.
The reason why the Leichhardt George is a question mark is because that George is spelt as George William Maine, but it could easily have been a typo in the electoral roll.
At present, there is no George Mayne death notice or burial site location recorded online, not unusual but he had to have gone somewhere.
Hopefully one day, we’ll find out the answer.
Deni History 