The next cluster of stories that will be appearing here are mainly concerned with members of my paternal grandfathers family line. The line is comprised the Friend and Brown families and those that married into them, including Crago and Apps. Details on these two family groups, and the members who are most likely to be discussed... Continue Reading →
The Story of ‘Myrtle Vale’ – Part 1
The story of the Friend family in New South Wales has been well told in the pages of Barbara Hufton & Enid Friend’s family history publication ‘Remembering Friends’. For that reason, the particular details of the family’s arrival and temporary place of settlement in the new colony need not be reproduced here. This is a... Continue Reading →
Luck Tree Added
The Luck Family Tree, which also includes members of the Hilder and Bateup families, has been published to the website. Click the link above or find it in the menu under ‘Family Trees’.
‘Butcher Dick’ and Son; Dalton’s Butcher and Builder
This story discusses the lives of my maternal 2x great-grandfather, Henry Richard Alchin (1861-1942), and his son, my great-grandfather, Harold Gordon Alchin (1888-1986). Henry Richard Alchin (born 1861 in Gunning), and his family were long time Dalton residents. Henry Richard married Ellen Pollard in 1884, a daughter to Benjamin Pollard; one of his twenty-six children... Continue Reading →
Fred Alchin at War: Two-up on Tarakan
I was always told that after my Pop, Frederick Otho Alchin (1917-1998) returned from active service during the Second World War, he had a desire to never go anywhere too far from home again. I don’t think that being a soldier defined him as a person but it certainly influenced his identity. Like most returned... Continue Reading →
Grave distribution: the limited geography of ancestor burials
During my family history research project, I have investigated the lives and movements of over 100 of my direct ancestors in New South Wales. Surprisingly the geographic range that these families have covered in the past 190 years is not overly extensive. All of my ancestors in Australia began their new lives after arriving in... Continue Reading →
Husband of 2, Father of 26; Benjamin Pollard and his remarkable women
When Benjamin Pollard died in 1915 at ‘Sunrise View’ near Dalton, New South Wales, he had recorded a remarkable statistic; fathering 26 children. Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact only one of the 26 children died in infancy; even with a serious diphtheria outbreak in the area which claimed many young victims in the... Continue Reading →
The Convict and the Orphan
During my family research project a number of convict ancestors were discovered. Five were discovered in all; one of which belongs to this (my maternal grandfathers) line of my family ancestry. The others belong to the Whittington/Noakes Line (a post on those four convicts can be found here). Below is a quick snapshot of the Alchin/Wheatley... Continue Reading →
Shaw & O’Donnell – an interfaith marriage that divides a family
The phrase, “beyond the ministration of the Christian ministry”, used in reference to Shaw family by the Methodist Newspaper in 1892, may be an adept description of two periods of young Ann Shaw’s life. Ann Shaw, my 3x great-grandmother, and the subject of this story, was five years old when she arrived in Australia with... Continue Reading →
Three Wheatleys
In family history research, you often come across the problem of having multiple descendants of the same name. That almost no longer existent custom of naming the first son (or at least one son) after the father. This was the case for the descendants of my maternal grandfather (Frederick Otho Alchin). His mother was the... Continue Reading →
County of King