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Sydney and his twin sister, Clara, were born in December 1905. They were reportedly premature[1], and died aged 1 day[2].
Melinda ("Linda") Elvina Smith was born in Tasmania in 1874 to Harlettee Louisa (nee Groombridge) and William Henry Smith.
Linda had married her sister's widower, William Henry Gavin, in 1891. The couple had one son, William Charles Robert Gavin, and then divorced around 1897.
Linda and her siblings apparently believed that their father had been using an alias and his true name was "Robert David Stapleton"[1]. While records from early in her life give her maiden name as "Smith" and her father's name as "William Henry Smith", from around the time of her divorce onwards, Linda typically gave "Stapleton" as her maiden name, and "Robert David Stapleton" as her father's name.
At the time the twins were born, Linda was divorced and using the surname Stapleton.
The father of the twins was not recorded at the time of their births, and initially their births were registered under the surname "Stapleton".
After their mother married James Patrick Walsh in 1911, their birth and death registrations were amended in 1912 to list Walsh as their father. It is unclear if he was actually their biological parent.
The same modification was made to the birth registration of their older sister, Doris. She was born in 1903 to Linda and an unrecorded father, and Walsh was added in 1912.
The namesakes of the twins appear to be their half-uncle and half-aunt, Sydney Groombridge Turner (1883-1970) and Clarabelle Victoria Turner (1886-1889).
A family story says there was no money to bury the twins and so an undertaker friend arranged to sneak the bodies into the coffin of a stranger[1].
However, the Springvale Botanical Cemetery does have a record of burial for the twins; they were interred in a public grave on 13 December 1905[3][4].
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