Australia Day Blog Challenge: Climbing Your Family’s Gum Tree
I do love a good geneameme, so when Shauna Hicks posted her Australia Day post recently, which ended up being a revisit of an Australia Day Blog Challenge that was created by fellow Aussie geneablogger, Pauleen Cass a number of years ago, which apparently I missed … the challenge was on!!
Pauleen says …
“The geneameme is to test whether your family is ridgey-didge and to show us how Australia runs in your veins, without any flag-waving and tattoo-wearing. Shout it out, be proud and make everyone wish they lived in this wide brown land of ours.”
1. My first ancestor to arrive in Australia was …
Ok, if we count “what’s yours is mine” when you get married – Mr Lonetester’s convict, John Warby, who was given a free ticket to Australia in 1792, is my earliest ancestor. You can read more about him here. However ‘my’ own first ancestor would be Isaac and Simeon Richardson. They are two brothers who were labourers from Kent, and were sentenced to death for their part in local riots, however thanks to the local townsfolk, their life was spared, and instead they were transported to Van Diemen’s Land (for more click here). But my first non-convict ancestor was my Randell family from Devon to South Australia in 1837 (click for more details). Based on my Randell family, i’m 6th generation Australian.
2. I have Australian Royalty (tell us who, how many and which Fleet they arrived with) …
OK, I don’t have any first, second or even third fleet convicts, but I do have Australian Royalty.
Isaac RICHARDSON, transported 1831, Lord Lyndoch
Simeon RICHARDSON, transported 1831, Lord Lyndoch
William COSGROVE (still not 100% proven, but seems highly likely)
So that was my direct lot now on to Mr Lonetester’s gang of Australian Royalty …
John WARBY, transported 1792, Pitt
Sarah BENTLEY, transported 1795-06, Indispensible
Isaac DOWSE, transported 1802-03, Glatton
Esther Jane JENNER, transported 1807, Sydney Cove
Alexander MACDONALD, transported 1812-13, Fortune
Elizabeth SYMONS, transported 1814, Broxbornebury
James LAYTON, transported 1814-15, Marquis of Wellington
Charles BILLING, transported 1835, Norfolk
Frederick POINTON, transported 1836-37, Sarah
Henry POINTON, transported 1836-37, Sarah
Charles KERSLAKE, transported 1837, Moffatt
Sarah Jane BROWN, transported 1838-39, Majestic
Thomas POINTON, transported 1840, Lady Raffles
Isobel CUTHBERT, transported 1844, Margaret
Louisa WRIGHT, transported 1844-45, Garland Grove
James DODD, transported 1852-53, Oriental Queen
For more on all of these, head on over to this post.
3. I’m an Aussie mongrel, my ancestors came to Oz from…
Mostly England and Ireland, but there is also some German, Dutch and Finnish mixed in there.
4. Did any of your ancestors arrive under their own financial steam?
Pretty sure most of them made their own way here. Though see Q2 for the convicts who got a free ticket here, but then there’s also my great grandpa who was a seaman and jumped ship in Queensland!
5. How many ancestors came as singles?
You know , I’ve never actually counted! I will do that someday .. just not today
6. How many came as couples?
As above … I haven’t counted.
7. How many came as family groups?
I definitely know that some came out as families – such as my Hannaford’s and Randell’s from Devon, and the Phillips family from Cornwall. But people think travelling for a day or so on a plane with kids now is hard! Try 3 months in a ship!! I can’t even begin to imagine.
8. Did one person lead the way and others follow?
Hmmm … I know that happened with a family that went from Cornwall, England to the US. The dad went first, and was followed by his wife and kids later. But no-one comes to mind that came to Australia.
9. What’s the longest journey they took to get here?
For this one I need to go to Mr Lonetester’s family history again, as he has one that takes the cake! His William Kennard Elphick and his wife Susanna Elphick (nee Elliot), sailed on the ‘Plantar’ ship from London to South Australia in 171 days (25 November 1838 – 15 May 1839). Yes, that’s nearly SIX MONTHS!! Why did it take so long? Well thanks to a diary that a fellow passenger kept, and it’s been preserved … but with a mutiny, a lost crew, captain missing a key port and then almost running out of food, almost running aground … and so it goes on. Anything that could happen on a voyage, DID happen on this one. For more about it you can read my original post here. And the State Library of South Australia have digitised the original, and made it available online, which is viewable here.
10. Did anyone make a two-step emigration via another place?
Not that I know of.
11. Which state(s)/colony did your ancestors arrive?
Mine were pretty much all South Australian immigrants, apart from the convict brothers who went (and by went, I mean sent) to Tasmania.
12. Did they settle and remain in one state/colony?
Most of my reli’s came to South Australia, and certainly the greater portion of them stayed. A few of the wider then went off to different states, but my direct reli’s stayed!
13. Did they stay in one town or move around?
If we’re talking about my direct family – they settled in the Adelaide Hills, stayed there, and family (including myself) still live in the vicinity.
14. Do you have any First Australians in your tree?
Not that I’ve found so far.
15. Were any self-employed?
I think most of them were self-employed actually.
16. What occupations or industries did your earliest ancestors work in?
Farmers, Orchardists, Flour-millers, River-boat builders and captains, Fruit market sellers. That’s the ones that comes to mind at present …
17. Does anyone in the family still follow that occupation?
I have a cousin who is a 5th generation apple orcharder in the Adelaide Hills! So that’s seriously awesome.
18. Did any of your ancestors leave Australia and go “home”?
Not that I’ve found so far!
There were a few more questions in Pauleen’s original post, but that was about current stuff, not my ancestors, so I opted to leave those out for now. So that’s a little about some of my Australian ancestors …
Clearly there are some bits I need to do more research on – so I’ll add that to the to-do list, and I’ll get to it one day.
3 Responses to “Australia Day Blog Challenge: Climbing Your Family’s Gum Tree”
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Hi Ms Lonetester. That is quite a challenge. I have most of the information. It is just a matter of putting it together. My ancestors arrived in SA from 1838 to 1877 and I am between 2nd and 5th generation South Australian. I will send it back to you but will probably post on my personal Facebook and on one or two genealogy-specific Facebook pages as well.
1. My first ancestor to arrive in Australia was …
My 3xggf Johann Georg Kuchel and his wife Anna Dorothea (nee Seiffert) came to South Australia with their 3 sons on the Prince George, from Hamburg 8 July 1838, via Plymouth 23 to 31 July, which arrived at Holdfast Bay 18 November 1838 & Port Adelaide, South Australia two to three days later. He travelled with Pastor Kavel and was one of the Old Lutherans from Prussia, escaping to escape religious persecution for not wishing to join the Union Church established by the King. Johann Georg and two sons were vine dressers, the third son was an agricultural labourer. They came from Langmeil, Züllichau-Schwiebus, Frankfurt, Brandenburg.
2. I have no Australian Royalty (tell us who, how many and which Fleet they arrived with) …
No convicts.
3. I’m an Aussie mongrel, my ancestors came to Oz from…
Prussia and Austria-Hungary – more specifically from Brandenburg, Poznan and Silesia in Prussia and Bohemia (now Czechia). Silesia was part of Poland until Frederick the Great took it over in 1742; Poznan was part of Poland until the Second Partition in 1795.
4. Did any of your ancestors arrive under their own financial steam?
Not known, but the Old Lutherans were assisted by George Fife Angas on the condition that they worked for him for a year.
5. How many ancestors came as singles?
My ggf, Gustav Nicksch, arrived in Keppel Bay, Queensland as a single man on the Fritz Reuter in 1877. It is not known how my ggf Johann Christian Mann arrived in South Australia around 1846.
6. How many came as couples?
None
7. How many came as family groups?
All the rest:
• Kuchels in 1838,
• Klenkes in 1838,
• Gallasches in 1839,
• Bradtkes in 1845,
• Hirtes in 1847,
• Riedels in 1862 and
• Wolfs in 1877.
8. Did one person lead the way and others follow?
Not known.
9. What’s the longest journey they took to get here?
The Heerjeebhoy Rustomjee Patel, carrying the Bradtkes, took 150 days in 1845. Voyages ranged from 109 days to 150 days and were generally shorter in later years. The mean and median is 128 days. However, they had to first get to the port of departure.
10. Did anyone make a two-step emigration via another place?
No.
11. Which state(s)/colony did your ancestors arrive?
All South Australia, except my 2xggf Gustav Nicksch, who arrived in Keppel Bay, Queensland but was very soon in South Australia.
12. Did they settle and remain in one state/colony?
All settled in South Australia.
13. Did they stay in one town or move around?
Once they reached South Australia, my ancestors’ moves were generally made as they sought land to farm. In general, Mum’s side moved to Hahndorf and then Murray Bridge and Dad’s side went via the Barossa Valley to Point Pass, then Sherlock and Murray Bridge.
14. Do you have any First Australians in your tree?
No.
15. Were any self-employed?
All became farmers in Australia. My ggf Riedel was a stonemason.
16. What occupations or industries did your earliest ancestors work in?
On passenger lists, they are variously described as farmer, villager, vine dresser, blacksmith, shoemaker and weaver.
17. Does anyone in the family still follow that occupation?
My brothers include a teacher, a musician/composer, a number of accountants and a surveyor. My sisters were generally involved with home duties, although one ran a B and B, another a post office and another was a teacher before marriage. Following generations include farmers, vineyard workers, electricians, motor mechanics and a wide range of city occupations.
18. Did any of your ancestors leave Australia and go “home”?
No
Great stories Alona…I should follow your example and claim a share of Peter’s royalty 😉 I agree six months at sea must have been horrendous. One of mine was en route for close to six months but with none of the drama your voyage suffered.
Thanks for joining in and sharing your stories.