2020: A trying year for all of us on four different continents.
As always, Angie, our family guardian Angel, wishes us a happy and healthy new year.
Ray in Sydney in Australia
Donald in Greensboro, Georgia
January 2020 The five Heyes engine drivers
Here is a photo of the chapel at Bendigo Cemetery, where the Heyes men were buried.
This article recounted part of the story of the ancestors of my wife through my mother-in-law Nancy Lenton. In particular it is about George Heyes and his four sons who grew up in the famous Victorian gold mining town of Bendigo in the mid to late 1800s. A common theme for the five men was that they were all licensed drivers of stationary engines used in the mines and crushers.
The major causes of death in the mines were tunnel collapses, foul air and industrial-type accidents, but there was also silicosis of the lungs caused by dust. The tragic end result was that the father George (1832-1900) and two of the four sons, George Henry (1861-1910) and William Valentine (1873-1913) died from silicosis. George Henry had three children who after his death were adopted by his three sisters, a mystery that took me many years to crack.
February 2020 Gravestones Part 2
This article drew on interesting gravestones, commencing with this imposing mausoleum of Patrick Joseph Healy. Next was a poignant memorial to children of the Friend family, then the ornate gravestone of my wife’s ancestor Walter Joseph Lenton. This was followed by the award for the most poetic inscription for Philip Hogan (the great great grandfather of reader Brian Harrison), comprising part of an Alexander Pope elegy. The article concluded with the plaque of Norbert Carlon in a remote part of the NSW Blue Mountains, followed by the even more remote grave of the famous adventurer Sir Ernest Shackleton on South Georgia Island in the Antarctic.
March 2020 Results of Ray’s DNA search.
Here is St Mary’s (Anglican) Church at Carisbrook on the Isle of Wight.
This article summarised groundbreaking aspects of the DNA analysis for Ray, tracing back his ancestors a further century than previously known, the most significant aspect being that Ray’s ancestors emanated from the Isle of Wight, followed by settlement at Mottisfont in the county of Hampshire (where Jerrems Hill is situated). Descendants then settled in Willingham (the earliest previously located ancestors) in the county of Lincolnshire and then Gainsborough.
April 2020 Laurel Gray Part 3.
Here is an enthusiastic welcoming committee which have dressed up to welcome Laurel and Laurie Gray.
This article continued the trials and tribulations of Laurie and Laurel (nee Jerrems) as pioneering missionaries in New Guinea in the 1960s, concentrating on their experiences on patrols.
Amusing anecdotes included the fact that the natives insisted that the robust Laurie crossed the bush bridges last, and the occasion when Laurie baptised over one hundred natives, only to find that he had a name left over, so he had missed someone. He had to go back to the 45th native and re-baptise the subsequent natives to remove the discrepancy.
The article concluded with an account of Warren Jerrems (our Editor’s brother) scoring a hole in one at a Florida golf course.
May 2020 Burragorang Valley Part 1.
Burragorang Valley is a remote valley in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, its major early feature being that due to the cliffs which surrounded it, it was only accessible by pack horse trails for 50 years after it was first settled. The article began with this dramatic photo of my father on a retired racehorse, then progressed to an account of my Uncle Bill’s picturesque paintings of the Valley (he married Violet Jerrems) highlighting the cliffs surrounding the Valley. A rough road into the Valley was constructed in 1870, followed by a better road in 1901, however it was still dangerous in places because Patrick Carlon was killed when his truck rolled over a cliff.
June 2020 Burragorang Valley Part 2.
This article continued the story of Burragorang Valley, commencing with this photo of my father driving a buggy (with my mother on the opposite side), with typical high cliffs in the background. The Valley settlers were expert horsemen, however severe droughts, huge floods (particularly the 1870 flood) and numerous drownings) highlighted the risks involved in settling in the Valley. Stock were driven to market at Camden or (in the case of pigs) to Wentworth Falls. The settlers’ food was very basic and their early huts rudimentary. Aboriginal cave engravings at Red Hand Rock were notable.
July 2020 Lenton soldiers in the First World War.
This is a photo of the typical rough Gallipoli terrain where James Henry Lenton died.
This article traced the deaths of my wife’s distant relatives James Henry Lenton who died at Gallipoli in 1915 in a little-known aspect of the Gallipoli campaign, followed by Charles Joseph Lenton who served at Gallipoli but died in the Battle of Mouquet Farm in France. Finally, Charles William Lenton died in the quagmire of the Battle of Passchendaele, his death being recorded at the famous Menin Gate Memorial.
On a less sombre note the article concluded with a photo of our Editor Donald and his wife Sharon on the steps of their new house in Georgia.
August 2020 Burragorang Valley Part 3.
This article continued the story of Burragorang Valley, which was later flooded by Warragamba Dam, featuring this photo of a child playing in the Wollondilly River against the backdrop of the typical cliffs which lined the Valley. Several anecdotes from my father included the story about a horse named “Buck” which despite its name could not succeed in bucking him off, and a celebrated city dandy who was bucked into a muddy paddock. Settlers devised a number of home remedies for ailments, relying heavily on lashings of rum, a prominent home remedy exponent for 40 years being Bernard Carlon (known as “Doc Carlon”). Midwives were also popular. Occasional room letting by settlers in the early 1900s was followed by the establishment of guest houses. Also early in the 1900s cedar-getting in the nearby mountainous Kowmung River was a lucrative source of income.
September 2020. Anita Margaret Healy.
Patrick Joseph Healy had an extensive family, one of whom (Ambrose Marquette Healy) married Annie Letitia Jerrems. This article recounted some of the experiences of Stuyvesant Peabody and his wife Anita Margaret Healy (pictured above with her two sons), including house burglaries, dog shows, and (most importantly) entertaining the famous American aviatrix Amelia Earhart.
October 2020.Ships used by the Healy family.
Below is an illustration of the First Class dining saloon of the Lusitania.
Patrick’s family made frequent use of the passenger liners plying between the United States and Europe, starting modestly with the clipper “Staghound” in 1852, followed later in the 19th Century and in the 20th Century by such famous ships as the Carpathia, Lusitania, Mauretania, Aquitania, Majestic and the huge Queen Mary. Finally, the groundbreaking Conte di Savoia was described.
November 2020. Construction of Cox’s Road.
This is a photo of the view from Govetts Leap in the NSW Blue Mountains.
This article described the construction of the first road over the Blue Mountains west of Sydney by a team of convicts and free men supervised by William Cox.
The work was extremely difficult, and, in the section of road over the Blue Mountains the food supplied by the Government was poor. An attraction for the convicts was that they knew they would be pardoned and given a grant of land when the work was completed. In an amazing coincidence one of the convicts was Patrick Hanrahan, a great great grandfather of reader Brian Harrison. Patrick duly received the grant and never looked back.
The article concluded at Mount York on the western scarp of the Blue Mountains.
A Jerrems Family Toast to a Happy New Year
Florida Family in Pensacola Area Toasting
Left to Right: Didier (Susan’s Husband),Jacqueline & Olivia, Warren and Mia’s daughters, Warren and Mia, Vanessa (Susan and Didier’s Daughter).
