Our Family's History

A Christmas Alphabet Challenge

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Merry Xmas everyone
AAlice Armstrong 1862-1859 – Mum’s beloved Granny Hamilton
BBroughton Road, Strathfield – our childhood home
CConvict – Nathaniel Simon Smith 1815-1891
DDorrigo – where Bert Watson met Kath Ashdown and the rest is our history.
EEllen, Eleanor, Emily, Ella, Eliza – so many E names among the women in the family.
FFamily is what its all about!
GGrafton – when we drove out the front gate the car automatically turned north heading to the Clarence, to Copmanhurst, to Fine Flower.
HTed, Bill and John Hamilton – 3 generations of grandfathers
IInverness-shire – the home of many of our highlander ancestors
JJesse Hilder (1850-1898) – Nana Watson’s grandfather
KEdward Keighley of Farsley, Yorkshire – Kristy’s 3xgreat grandfather.
LLidcombe – Mum’s childhood home; and always open house and Nana and Pa’s.
MMary Orpen of Manningtree, Essex married Samuel Welham in 1808.
N“There is a rock pool in a glen, beyond Narara’s sands” – Henry Kendall
Dad always slowed down when we got to this spot on the road to Gosford, usually for one of us to be sick.
OEdwin Alfred Oliver – Oliver’s 3xgreat grandfather
PPhemister – the Scottish Highlands, the Jacobite Rebellion and Culloden
QCatherine Quinn, our 4xGreat Grandmother, was only 15 when she married Laurence English in Tipperary.
RRoche Abbey in South Yorkshire the former home of our 18xgreat grandfather, Richard Fitzturgis. Turgis is a norse name meaning “hostage of Thor”.
SMemories of Xmas at Shemara, our holiday house at Long Jetty.
T8a Talbot Road, Guildford – the first home Dad built for us.
UJoseph Upton 1852-1925 was a Mast Maker from the East End docklands of London.
VVan Diemen’s Land – I’m still trying to to confirm if Richard Watson was born there. He is elusive!
WThe Welhams of Essex came to New South Wales in 1841, and settled around Newcastle.
XXmas was never just Christmas, it was Dad’s birthday!
YYulgilbar – the castle on the Clarence. Remember sitting on the lions?!
ZThomas Zuber, and his 3 children are our double cousins, being related to us through both our Hilder and our Sheather families.

6 responses to “A Christmas Alphabet Challenge”

  1. Lindsay David Watson Avatar
    Lindsay David Watson

    Lovely memories.

    Alas it makes me quite sad. What happened to that country & world of our youth?

    Paradise Lost.

    😢😢😢

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Christine Harris Avatar
      Christine Harris

      It is still there. It lives in our memories. ❤

      Like

      Reply
  2. Christine Harris Avatar
    Christine Harris

    And that is why I’m doing this!!

    Like

    Reply
  3. Nick Watson Avatar
    Nick Watson

    Fun post Tina. Would you say as a generalisation our Scottish ancestry is predominantly Inverness Shire? And who was the Jacobite at Culloden??

    Like

    Reply
    1. Christine Harris Avatar
      Christine Harris

      Hi Nick, my maternal grandmother was Adelaide Phemister. Her ancestry was all Highlands and predominantly Inverness. Her grandfather used to walk – yes walk – from Nairn to Kingussie (look it up on a map) to court her grandmother.
      If you drive north towards Inverness, you will drive right along the main street of Kingussie. And these people were staunch Jacobites. If you look to the right after you get through the village you will see the ruins of Ruthven Barracks. The story is that the Jacobites razed it rather than allowing it to fall into the hands of the English.
      So far I don’t have specific names for Jacobites in the family, but in this part of the country you would not have survived long if you were not. But Addie’s grandmother was a Grant and the Grants were a very different kettle of fish – fighting for both sides.
      Scottish research from the 17th and 18th century is only easy by comparison to Irish research!!! I have a long way to go. 🙂

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      Reply
      1. Nick Watson Avatar
        Nick Watson

        That is a 5-6hr hike, fair play! Very interesting history indeed, Culloden is a small detour off that walk too

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● About Me

For years now, more than 4 decades in fact, I have been gathering information about our family. There’s so much information it is completely overwhelming and, although I share bits and pieces with you from time to time, most of it goes un-noticed and un-loved.

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