February 2012
9 posts
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Love in Time of War
On 9 November 1916, Charles Victor Barratt (my great grandfather - pictured above) boarded the ship “Argyllshire” and departed Fremantle as a soldier in the Australian Military Forces. He left behind his family, his friends, his country and the life he knew. He also left behind his sweetheart, Matilda Maria Crampton (my great grandmother).
Throughout the time he was away fighting, the couple...
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The Girl Next Door
In 1935, my grandfather packed up his family and moved from Tasmania to Melbourne in hope for a better life. They found a home in Richmond and in the same year my father joined the Militia. He worked through the day and did training of an evening.
In 1937 a family of three boys and one girl moved into the house next door. The house was a terris house with a brick wall joining the two together.
...
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Oceans Apart
My grandfather, James Johnson, thought that the lady he was dating was too old for him. So he went to England to visit some relatives, hoping she would forget him. After a while James began to feel the cold in England and decided it was time time go home to Australia. Agnes Hurlston, the lady he had left behind, got wind of this and was waiting at the docks for him. The photo above is of them on...
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The things you do for love
My great grandparents in England were Luther Isaacs and Emily Williams. They were married in Oldland, Gloucestershire in 1894, and later on had two sons, one of whom was my Pop who later came to Australia. From the stories I’ve been told, Luther and Emily had quite different personalities.
Luther was a bit of a man’s man. His father was one of the Kingswood miners, who were a tough...
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"My dearly beloved Betsey..."
Held in the East Sussex Record office is a letter written by my four-times great grandfather, John William Gibson Batcheler, to his wife and my four-times great grandmother, Elizabeth Batcheler (nee French).
Dated 4th Oct, 1831 at Cowes, the letter reads in part: “…so that I shall come home quite empty in purse but exceedingly full of love - you know not how much I want to see you. I...
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Share the Love
In preparation for Valentine’s Day next week, we want to hear your ancestors’ Love stories! Do you have a love story from your family tree that you would like to share? Perhaps a relationship that survived despite challenges, a forbidden love or just a good old tale of romance? Simply click on Submit Your Story on the right hand side of the page and tell us your love story.
If you have any photos...
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The £10 Pom
My grandfather Cecil (shown in the photo above) made no secret that he was a “10 Pound Pom” and that he came here in the 1920’s. He only went back for a couple of visits in the late 70’s and early 80’s at the insistence of my grandmother. He never spoke about England, his childhood, his parents or anyone else for that matter. The only thing he ever said was”Oh...
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January 2012
9 posts
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Family Secrets
I grew up not knowing anything about my father’s family. He told us he was an orphan, although he admitted to having two sisters whom he said had been sent to America and he had lost contact with them. Then over a cup of coffee I mentioned this to a friend who had an Ancestry.com.au subscription. She decided to have a look for me.
We discovered that dad was a man of many secrets. He told us he...
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The Story of James Dawson
James Dawson, my great great great grandfather, was born in London in 1813. On the 31st January 1829 he was charged with feloniously stealing a bag containing twelve pence in monies, the property of Henry Fulford. In the process book which gives details of progress of trials and sentences passed, he is described as a labourer and was sentenced for larceny.
On the shipping convict indent of the...
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The Parker Family Convicts
On 7th January 1835 John Parker Senior, Ambrose Parker, John Parker Junior and John Broxup were before the Lancaster Quarter Session for breaking into a warehouse stealing eight pieces of cotton. All four were sentenced to transportation. John Snr. received 7 years and Ambrose & John Jnr., 14 years. They were living at Burnley and employed in the cotton industry as weavers and cotton carder.
...
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Mathew Dalton - The Sugar Thief
I grew up in Sydney and vividly recall the celebration for the bi-centenary of the discovery of Sydney (Botany Bay) by Captain Cook and at that time I recall asking my grandparents if they thought we may have convict ancestors. The answer was “Absolutely not”.
But when I started researching my family history, I found out that we did indeed have convicts in the family. My paternal gr gr...
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Thomas Reeves (1820 – 1899)
Thomas Reeves was born on 29 Feb 1820 in Calne, Wiltshire, England.
On 11 Aug 1838, aged 18, Thomas was convicted for stealing sheep and sentenced to 10 years transportation. After a year on the Hulk “Leviathan”, Thomas left Plymouth on the vessel “Mangles” on 27 Nov 1839, arriving in New South Wales on the 27 Apr 1840. You can see a copy of Thomas’ Convict Indent below.
On 18 May 1840,...
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Family Mystery Solved
My grandmother Annie Maria Unwin was born in Virginia America. I have the USA census record from 1860 - shown above. My father said the family (mother, father, 2 boys and 2 year old twin girls) escaped from the Civil War by being smuggled out in a “potato boat”. That would have been 1862 or 1863 depending on which month the census was taken, as the twins were 3 months old in that....
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Grandfather's Hidden Cousins
The UK Census records can inadvertently reveal secrets.
As far as the descendants of Samuel Drew (the eloping chappie) knew, there were very few living close relatives back in Cornwall. This was true enough, as Samuel’s only known living brother had left Cornwall for London and, later, Hampshire quite early in life and was quite unlucky with his children, only one of three surviving...
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Another Secretive Great Grandfather
Samuel Drew wasn’t the only great-grandfather to cause me some grief. The death certificate of John Henry Tucker (Esquire) states that his father was James Tucker (Gentleman) and that his mother was Hester Jacques Hermand. All very grand, and this myth has been perpetuated throughout the family over the years. The reality was quite different.
The 1841 UK Census has James Tucker a...
December 2011
8 posts
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Elopement
I had searched the UK records, without success, for the marriage of my great grandfather Samuel Drew to Jane Harris. My father, uncle, aunt could throw no light on the matter. Great grandfather’s stepmother had written in the family “register” that “Samuel Drew left for a ferran land 7th April 1867”. The ship leaving that day for America was the North American, and on...
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Family Secrets
We released new research recently that reveals that New Zealand trumps Australia in the celebrity stakes, as 16% of Kiwis are able to lay claim to someone famous. However, Aussies should not fear as we are twice as likely as New Zealanders to be related to ‘convict royalty’, with almost one in five of Australians having a link to a convicted criminal or convict.
2,000 Australian and New Zealand...
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Long Lost Family
I am 73 years old and all my life I have had to say “Oh my father died in the war, I have no family on that side”. My father was English and had enlisted in the Australian Army and my mother was Scottish, so my sister and I had no relatives here in Australia.
Last year, I put my children’s names and birth dates on a family tree on Ancestry.com.au. My husband who died 36 years ago...
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I have hit a brick wall with my family history...
When you encounter an obstacle, such as an inability to find an official registration (like a birth, death or marriage record), you need to start thinking laterally.
Apart from the official registration process, there may also be records of a religious nature, such as those kept by a church documenting marriages and christenings. Employment records can also contain details of birth dates and...
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How do I search for databases on Ancestry.com.au?
As a lot of you know, there are an enormous number of databases on Ancestry.com.au. And, given the complex nature of ‘search,’ you might never come across some of the buried treasures within by using only the standard search interface. So how do you find these gems?
Go to the Search page and click on the link to the Card Catalogue to the right of the search box or select Card Catalogue from...