Andrews, Straker & Tracy Families
of  Dorset, York, Galway and Victoria
modified 4 March 2023

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Thomas Andrews and Elizabeth Haskell of Verwood, Dorset; farm workers
John & James Andrews, farm workers, poachers, convicts, transported to Tasmania, Victorian pioneers.
Biddy Tracy, Irish orphan from Galway, immigrant, pioneer mother.
James Andrews & Elizabeth Straker, farmer, orchardist, early Brighton citizens.
John Straker, Yorkshireman, early Melbourne farmer and Mary Boyd, Irish orphan, immigrant.
  • Link to the Haskell Family Page
  • Andrews in Wikipedia
  • Valuable assistance 

  • Pedigree

    Thomas Andrews & Elizabeth Haskell

    The earliest record of my Andrews ancestors is the marriage of Thomas Andrews to Elizabeth Haskell in Horton, Dorset, in 1788. The parish register notes that they were both "of Woodlands", an adjacent hamlet. Later the family lived in Verwood and Romford.. This area of Dorset boarders Wiltshire and Hampshire. The occupations mentioned are gardener, farmer, ploughman, farm labourer and later brick maker. Elizabeth's family came from Cranborne, nearby

    Today Horton and Woodlands are little more than intersections on country roads with a few scattered houses. Verwood has seen rapid growth this century, following the arrival of the railway, and is a sizable town. Cranborne still looks somewhat as it may have in the late 1800’s. Cranborne is the site of a monastery, founded in 980 and said to be the oldest in the England. The countryside is gently rolling hills; and the villages are a few hours walk away. Dorset has, over the years, been occupied by the Britons, Celts, Romans, Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Danes, Vikings and Normans, etc. I guess we are a blend of all of these.

    The Andrews name is common in the UK and is derived from the apostle Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. Andrews (and Anderson) usually mean the son of Andrew. There are thousands of Andrews marriages and christenings in parish records back to the 1500s. Several Andrews families feature in the Verwood area however I have difficulty identifing the parents of Thomas.

    (A possibility mentioned to me is  "......Thomas Andrews baptised Gussage 10-11-1754 to a Thomas and Mary Andrews.". thanks Rita, Sept 2007)

    Elizabeth's parents were Joseph Haskell & Elizabeth Amey. The Haskell name has a 500 year history in Dorset. The Haskell Family Society holds annual reunions in Cranborne and the society's Co-Patron is the Hon. Lord Cranborne.

    The Cranborne parish records show three baptisms to a Thomas and Elizabeth Andrews. Joseph born in 1797, John Andrews in 1801 and James Andrews in 1803. The Horton parish shows William, son of Thomas & Elizabeth, baptized in 1789. A daughter Elizabeth was born in 1793 at Wimborne St. Giles, a nearby village.

    Joseph, Elizabeth, and following generations, stayed in Dorset farming and brick making. Joseph Andrews married Sarah Cutler. Some family hyphenated their name to Cutler-Andrews and later some dropped the "Andrews". The early census records show many Cutler family members in the area.

    Thomas and the three boys found themselves in trouble with the law. The process records from the Dorchester Gaol show Joseph serving three months in 1824 for poaching, James three months in 1825 for stealing potatoes and Thomas three months for burglary. Each time the Rev. Henry Donne, the vicar at Cranborne, committed them. In 1826 John and James were sentenced to seven years transportation for stealing two stocks of bees. Their behaviour was described as rather disorderly and they were put on board a captivity hulk at Devonport, England.


    Thomas Andrews
    Verwood links
    Council
    Verwood Historical society
    Cranborne Links
    Cranborne Wikipedia
    Verwood Wikipedia


    John & James ANDREWS

     John and James Andrews were transported aboard the Bengal Merchant to Van Diemen’s Land (now known as Tasmania) in 1828. The convict records from Tasmania show John stole two bags of wheat rather than the two stocks of bees. James’ record shows that he also had a bastard child(!). It added they belonged to a "Gang of Thieves". At about this time Captain Henry Miller, of the 40th Regiment, was also in VDL. He was a g.g.great grandfather of Jeni Andrews.
    Bengal Merchant (?)

    Convicts, on arrival in Van Diemen’s Land, were assigned to settlers as labourers. John was sent to Mr Parramore at Ross as a ploughman. James was sent as a farm labourer to a Mr Batman at Ben Lomond. The same John Batman, seven years later, was involved in the settlement on the banks of the Yarra that was to become Melbourne.

    If convicts misbehaved they were sent to the road gangs, further problems and they were sent to the gaol at Macquarie Harbour or later Port Arthur. John and James had almost perfect records, unlike many others, and on the 1st March 1834 completed their sentences. They appeared to have stayed on in VDL for the next five years. They may have worked as gardeners for the Fentons. Michael Fenton, and his brothers, were well known property owners of New Norfolk, north of Hobart.

    Shipping records show several Andrews moving from VDL to Victoria in 1839 and 1840. James and John took land for market gardens at Brighton at this time. James married Margaret Harrigan and John married Bridget (Biddy) Tracy both young Irish immigrants. At about the same time Dendy and his group settled in Brighton, however there seems no connection. J.B.Were, who later founded the prominent stockbroking firm of the same name, was a neighbour.

    Margaret Harrigan died of consumption in 1858 having no children. In 1859 James married Clara Maple and went on to head a large family. He established market gardens in the Dandenong/Keysborough/Bangholme area. A grandson went on to be the first mayor of the City of Dandenong.

    John and Bridget were married at St Francis Church Melbourne on the 18th December 1841 by Father Geoghegan. The town of Melbourne had only been settled six or seven years at this stage and Brighton would have been a long  journey from the city. John's farm of 17 acres was on the corner of Nepean Highway and North Road. Bridget was Catholic as were the children, however John is said to have resisted conversion until his deathbed. Father, later Bishop, Patrick Geoghegan is remembered for saying the first Catholic mass in Melbourne in 1839. The original timber church was replaced with the present building some years later.

    Gold was discovered in the early 1850s and the population of Melbourne exploded. John appears to have been a successful gardener in Brighton and purchased a dairy property at Eumemmering (now Hallam) near Dandenong in about 1854. John and Bridget moved to the Eumemmering place with some of their grown children. John died there in 1879 and in 1881 his son Thomas was appointed administrator of the estate. Bridget died there in 1890 having raised eight children.

    It was suggested that the family had various properties and were comfortable; however much of this was lost in the financial and property crash of the 1890s. The Brighton property may have been leased out for some years. Of the five sons three married daughters of another Brighton resident, John Straker. He too married an Irish immigrant girl, Mary Boyd.

    Convict in Australia via Wikipedia






    St Francis
    St Francis


    John & Bridget  Andrews Grave, Brighton Cemetery
    John & Bridget
          Andrews gravestone

    Clara Maple & James Andrews
    James Andrews & Clara
          Maple

    (can anybody help with photos of others..)

    The children of John & Bridget
     
     

    Thomas John Andrews, married to Mary-Ann Straker, lived in Bent St Brighton and may have worked for the railways.

    John Joseph Andrews was a coal miner. He was the informant of John Andrews’ death in 1879. He died in a mining accident at Coal Creek, Korumburra in 1896. He was severely injured by a coal skip weighing 14 cwt. It was being taken down a grade of 1 in 10 at the time.

    James William Andrews, the third son, and our ancestor  married the third Straker daughter, Elizabeth Frances Straker. See below for detail.

    Mary Ann Andrews married John Kelly. Their grand daughter, Mary Chapman, remembered well the Hallam property and Auntie Liz from her childhood. The Biddy Tracy Story, provides the best information we have on the Tracy family. It came from the recollections of Marie Carson, also of this line

    Elizabeth, ‘Auntie Liz’, second daughter of John and Bridget, lived on at the Hallam (Eumemmering) place until the 1930’s. She never married. The property, a dairy farm, near present Hallam hotel, is now part of an industrial estate. She died Oct. 1934. The pamphlet "A small farm at Hallam: The Andrews 1854 - 1934" by the City of Berwick details her life. Link to Online Version.  Google title if link lost.

    Jane Ellen did not survive infancy

    Francis Michael Andrews married Margaret Straker in 1883. He and his sister (Elizabeth) purchased the property in Hallam’s road from his father (possibly John's estate). In around 1886 he owned 23 cows, horses and drays, and made 50lbs of butter a week. Harold Hubble is from this line as is Louis Andrews of Granite Rock (near Bairnsdale Vic). Louis suggested that four Straker daughters married members of the Andrews family. He recalls spending happy times in his childhood at the Hallam property with ‘Auntie Liz’. He says that the name Louis comes from a family rumour of association with the French royal family. He says that, contrary to the history books, these stories say that the young Louis escaped France during the revolution. Another child was dressed in his clothes and the young Louis escaped to England.
     
    History books say Louis XVI, with his family, tried to escape France in 1791. They were recaptured and he was guillotined in 1793. His son Louis XVII (the Dauphin) died in prison in 1795 aged 10. DNA testing reported in Time Magazine 1st May 2000 confirms this.

    Frances Sarah (Aunt Fanny), also unmarried, may have lived with, at times, with Elizabeth. She was a tayloress by profession; she traveled and reputedly enjoyed a full social life She also lived in Bay Street Brighton. Later she helped raise the children of John Kelly and Mary Ann Kelly (Andrews) and also the children of John Andrews Kelly.
     
    Louis Bernard Andrews, the youngest son, was a coach builder and wheelwright in Footscray during the 1880s. His marital status is unknown. Contact was lost and the family feels he went to the goldfields of  West Australia and also South Africa. His death was reported from Woodanilling, WA in 1924.
        




    Biddy Tracy

    The family of Bridget Tracy  lived in the counties of Offaly (Kings) and Galway in Ireland. The town of Ballinasloe is also mentioned. Bridget was orphaned when her parents, John and Ellen, died of typhus. She lived in a convent and with "Aunt Ellen" prior to immigrating. She arrived in Victoria on the ship ‘England’ in July 1841. How she met John Andrews is not known.
     
    From a text on Irish names I noted the name Tracy has spelling variations, Trassy, Treacy and Tracey. It may have originated from O’Treasaigh. A map shows the name coming from an area of Galway near the border with Offaly. Griffith valuations, a land tax list from the mid 1800's shows fourteen Trac(e)ys in the area
    The following is the text of a letter written by Marie Carson relating old family stories..

    These stories were told by Biddy Tracy Andrews to her children and later retold by Auntie Liz Andrews to my mother Mary Theresa (Kelly) McInnes Dempsey.

    She had written the notes down about 1950 while her memory was reasonably good. They are rather interesting because the throw some light on the life and times of Biddy Tracy who was later to become the wife of John Andrews.

    Over a hundred years ago Biddy was the youngest of a family of three girls and one boy living with their parents in the town of Galway. The father was a shipping clerk employed by the Galway Shipping Co. The mother devoted her life to her husband and children. They were not endowed with wealth but lived as comfortable as was possible in those times in Ireland.

    Then one day their lives were to be completely changed. A storm brought a tremendous shoal of fish upon the shores of Galway Bay. The people were unable to clear the fish fast enough and, as the story goes, the fish began to decay and that in turn caused an outbreak of typhus. Biddy’s parents caught the typhus and died with within hours of each other. The children survived it but soon after the family broke up. The only son took over as a son who was old enough had the power to do in those days in Ireland. He sold up the home and went to sea. The girls were sent into the care of aunts.

    Biddy was sent off to an Aunt Ellen who had a small farm. There was much work to attend to on the farm. Biddy’s special job, or one of them, was to keep the sow away from the goose that was sitting on eggs. While the goose was sitting on the eggs everything was all right so Biddy lost interest in the gooses eggs and went off picking flowers in the meadow. Then she remembered the goose, she ran back just in time to see the sow eating the last egg.

    Poor Biddy was frightened of what Aunt Ellen would do to her. Although evening was approaching she ran and got her bonnet and shawl, which they wore in those days, and ran as far as she could from the farm and Aunt Ellen. Night came on, she still ran on not knowing where she was going. At last, exhausted, she stumbled and fell among a flock of sheep. In the early hours of the morning she was found by the shepherd fast asleep among the sheep. This is where this story ends unfortunately we never know what happened to her when she was returned to Aunt Ellen.

    The other story is some years later. Biddy had been sent to live at a convent. Her brother had come back from his seafaring to visit Biddy in the convent a few times but after that she never heard of him again. She wasn't happy in the convent, life was hard. They had to carry all their water in pails from some distance for washing and other purposes. The other girls in the convent would always think out ways and means of getting out of work and put it all on to Biddy.

    Then came the time when she heard of immigration to Australia. As they were in need of domestic servants in Australia she made up her mind to immigrate. As the story goes one sister came with her. The elder sister married and may have gone to America.

    Biddy and her sister, (although there is no record of a sister on the shipping list (see below*) landed in Port Melbourne after six months voyage. Biddy, it was said had many memories of that trip. One of them was the story of one of her cabin mates Mary Ann Slack. The captain came in to the cabin to see if everything was shipshape. But Mary-Ann was lackadaisical. The captain roared at her and said "She was Slack by name and slack by nature." Her name appears on the shipping list with Biddy’s.

    It was said Biddy always recalled there were English, Irish and Scottish girls on board the ‘England’, all coming to make a new life in Australia even though it did mean hard work for them.

    The records of the ‘England’, also list as immigrants, Ellen Curley with her husband Thomas and children John 4, Biddy 18 months and Ann 7. Letters from Edna Chandler of Picola, a descendant of Ann says that Ann was Ann Tracy, daughter of Ellen and John Tracy. She added that Ellen Curley might be the Aunt Ellen mentioned above. It may well be that Ann was included in the Curley family group to ensure her passage as an assisted immigrant. The Curley family settled as gardeners in the Brighton area. See email below re Curley. See shipping records, note Curley seems misspelt as Codley

    ---------------
    The following is part of an email from  ANNE ELIZABETH TRACY (Gaffy). A remote chance of a connection but worth noting...

    We are looking for the family of ANNE ELIZABETH TRACY who was born on May 8th, 1817 .  Her family originally came from Glostershire, England--then went to Leinster and after being on the wrong side of Cromwell , in the 1600, they were sent to Connaught, Ireland. Ann married a man named Thomas Gaffy and they raised 10 children in the town of Ballygar in the County of Galway.  Thomas died in 1865 and Ann and her 10 children all came to California, USA.  She died in 1902 in San Francisco.

    Some distant DNA matches may support this suggestion

    Link to TracyClan.com for further research


    Tracey





    Curley Grave, Brighton
    Curley Grave Brighton
    The Curley Grave at Brighton cemetery.
    Note the Pierce Hanrahan gravestone in the background.
    This is the other Hanrahan family living in the area and not related to our Hanrahan line

    John Straker & Mary Boyd

    John Straker, born 1815 in York, is not listed as an assisted immigrant or convict. He may have been a sealer or whaler but I can find no records of how or why he came to Australia. Another possibility is a name change to hide a convict past.
    His death certificate lists his parents as John and Ellen(Eleanor). The international genealogical index (IGI) lists the christening of a John Straker at about the right time to a William and Elizabeth (Linton) at St Crux, York.
    Another John Straker from York was transported to VDL in 1842. The name is uncommon and often misspelt i.e.. Striker, Stroker, Staker, Stricker.

    Mary Ann Agnes Boyd, born 1822 in Dublin, arrived on the ship John Bull in 1840. Her parents were Patrick Boyd, a coachman, and Catherine. She married John Straker in St James Church on 11th August 1840.

    They lived, I'm told, on the corner of Nepean Highway (Arthur's Seat Road) and Centre Road. This is opposite St Finbar’s Catholic Church. The story goes that John was involved in the construction of the church and that Mary wrote the order for the bricks. His occupations are listed as storekeeper, farmer and ‘Gentleman’. In 1872 he had 97 acres in Warren Road. Mordialloc and was reputed to be involved in the South Melbourne market. Mary died in 1870 and John in 1889. Both are buried in Brighton cemetery under a common headstone.

    The book "Thomas Bent - Bent by name bent by nature", tells the life story of Tommy Bent a politician and property speculator from Brighton. It notes John Straker as a significant partner in one of Bent's infamous land deals. Michael Cannon repeats this story in "The Land Boomers". Bent, then the Minister for Railways, arranged for the Railways Department to pay Straker and a Mr Vickery 20,000 pounds to remove a gravel hill from their land in Kensington. The "History of Brighton" mentions John as a potato farmer.

    The will of John Straker shows his address as 85 Cecil Street. South Melbourne and late of North Road, Elsternwick. The executors were James Andrews (son-in-law) and the Honourable Thomas Bent. He left an estate of about 966 pounds divided among his children. Eleanor, the unmarried daughter, received the furniture as well. His will mentioned his share in the estates "Thornley" and "Barwick". The probate papers showed him having no real estate.

    Elizabeth Straker married James William Andrews. Margaret and Mary Ann Straker married brothers of James, Francis Michael and John Thomas Andrews. All three raised large families.

    Eleanor Straker never married and traveled the world. In her later years she lived with her sister Elizabeth Andrews and nieces Elizabeth Grace and Cecily Blanche (Andrews) Nind. She left her estate to various charities and the nieces.

    James Straker married Joanna Lewis in 1873. A family of four boys and three girls followed. Their youngest daughter, Kathleen Cecilia, is the grandmother of Rose Batty of Phillip Island. Rose provided much of the Straker information


    John Straker



    from The Argus, 16 July 1856..

    HIGHWAY ROBBERY.

    At the District Court yesterday Samuel Simms and John Bycott were charged with highway robbery on the Brighton-road in 1852. Mr. H. Stephen appeared for the prisoners.

    John Straker stated that he was a Store keeper, residing at Brighton. In the summer of 1852 he was going from Melbourne to Brighton, riding at an easy pace. When about three-quarters of a mile from Mr. O'Neil's, at Brighton, he saw some horses tied to the trees off the road, and some men were standing near them. He imagined that they were shooting, as they were walking about in the scrub, and carrying  guns. As he drew abreast of them, two men sprang out from the trees, one on each side of him. They each presented a gun at him, and called on him to stand. He stood still, and they then ordered him to go into the bush. He went towards the bush, and one of the men said that if he attempted to run away he would blow his brains out. He said that he was not going away, and that he had nothing for them. They said that they had been waiting for him a long time. He asked which way he was to go, and they pointed to the wattles. They made him tie his horse to a wattle-tree, and took him to where some sixteen or seven- teen people were sitting down. They searched him, and took away about twenty-three shillings. Could not swear to either of the two prisoners, but Simms resembled one of the two men who stopped him, and was of the same build as one of them. He had on a drab indiarubber coat and faded manilla hat........



    Text of and email from Paul Straker ..cannot tell if this is our family but maybe...

    Hi! Folks.
     
    I do not know if this will be of any interest to you, However my family name is Straker, and  came from Beverley East Yorkshire, On the West Wall of St Mary's Church Beverley is a plaque in memory of Daniel Straker 1657. He was a  Danish Mercenary Soldier of Officer rank in the Army Of "William of Orange", and was killed by an enlisted soldier, who in turn was executed for killing an Officer.

     As Straker is an unusual name we have been looking for Folks of that name, and have found that we seem to have distant relatives in the York, Newcastle-on-Tyne area's ( Strakers had a lot of Coal Mines in the Newcastle area ) some of the relations we have found now live in Canada & the USA and came from that area of England.
     
    Strakers went to the West Indies and had a lot of plantations in that area. Most of my forebears went to sea either with the whaling fleet, Deep Sea Fishermen & Just Plain Old Fashion Pirates!  In the Bristol area there are some Strakers  we know that they came from the North of England, ( Kingston upon Hull,& the Tyne Side area). With all My Best Wishes Paul Straker




    Straker Graves, Brighton

    Straker
          Gravestone at Brighton Cemetery, Victoria


     Johanna
          Straker



    James Andrews & Elizabeth Straker


    James William Andrews, the third son of John & Bridget Andrews seems to have stayed on at the Brighton property when the other members of the family moved to Eumemmering. His address is shown as Point Nepean Road, Brighton and occupation noted as gardener, orchardist and fruit grower. He married the third Straker daughter, Elizabeth Frances Straker. They raised a family of three girls and two boys.

    James died of pneumonia and heart failure in 1908 aged about 63 years and is buried in Boroondara Cemetery, Kew. Elizabeth moved, at some stage, to St Kilda, and then East Malvern. The two daughters, Cecily Blanche and Elizabeth Grace lived  with her. Her unmarried sister Eleanor Straker also lived with them. Elizabeth died in 1932 and is also buried at Boroondara.

    The children of James & Elizabeth..

    Mabel Agnes, born 1875 died 1915, was a dressmaker and witnessed the wedding of Albert & Mary Ann Hanrahan. Unmarried ?

    Albert William was born 1879, well educated, possibly attended Xavier College, Kew, Melbourne. He went on to work as a clerk and auctioneer. He married Mary-Ann Hanrahan in 1910 at St. Mary's St. Kilda East. The marriage was not happy and they divorced in 1924 leaving Mary-Ann to care for the seven children. See the Hanrahan page for more detail

    Albert married Lucy Maud Pill later that year and a child, Lucy Mabel, soon followed. Lucy Pill was the daughter John Pill, a fisherman from Portland. She gave her occupation as ‘domestic’ and had worked with families around Melbourne as a childcare nurse. At some stage Albert worked for the real estate firm of A.E. Lillie and was said to be "the best auctioneer in Melbourne."

    Lucy and her daughter soon moved back to Portland to live with her family when things did not work out with Albert. This would have been around the start of the great depression and mass unemployment. Albert was thought to have worked "on the roads" around Foster in Gippsland. These were the days of the ‘susso’ or sustenance, the then government arrangements to work on public projects,  for a very modest wage.

    In December 1932 his address was Havelock, a small town near Maryborough in country Victoria. That year Albert issue a caveat on the process of settling his mothers will. The entire estate, valued at about 4000 pounds was going to the daughters. This included two modest houses (700 & 800 pounds) and a parcel of securities. The caveat was removed in 1933 after a settlement of, we think, several hundred pounds. In 1933 his address was 32 Gordon Grove, Malvern. He was  in a boarding house in St Vincent's Place, Albert Park in the early 1950’s. The place was sold up or his health was deteriorating and the family was contacted. He was moved to the Home of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Northcote, a nursing home, prior to his death in 1953. There had been no contact with his first family in the intervening years.

    Cecily Blanche born in 1880 was also a dressmaker. In 1916 she married a Charles Henry Nind. He had joined the AIF in Feb. 1916 and was killed in action in France 1917. There were no children and she did not remarry. She and Elizabeth Grace lived with their mother in Malvern and moved to Glen Iris after their mothers death. She died in 1959.

    James Straker Andrews, born in 1881, spent his early years as a seaman around the coast. He married Margaret Egan in about 1905 and following her premature death he married Mary Ann Chartres in 1911. Two children, Kevin and  Nellie followed.

    Elizabeth Grace born 1883, a teacher and dressmaker. She did not marry and died 1963.


    James Andrews








    Acknowledgments

    The famous Gainsborough painting titled Mr & Mrs Andrews is held in the National Gallery in London.
    Check the Wikipedia link for more info
    Cannot link this family with ours but still trying...


    Gainsborough

    Acknowledgements

    Much of this research has come from Hilary Burden, Gwendoline Rogers, June Brown, Damian Smith , Marie Carson, Mary Chapman, Lola Marsh, Harold Hubble, Edna Chandler, Rosemary (Andrews) Morison,  Keith Bennett and many others.
    Thank  you for your assistance




    Interesting Email Extracts

    Hi
    I am a descendent of the Ferretts of Verwood who owned the pottery for years. I think too that I might be connected to your family tree.
    I have a George Andrews and a Mary Elizabeth Andrews on my Ferrett family tree who were brother and sister, George married Kitty/Kate ferrett who was born in 1857 and had a son Walter Harry Cutler Andrews, and Thomas and Mary married Frederick Ferrett in 1884. Their parents were Joseph and Elizabeth. Apparently Joseph and Elizabeths memorial stone also bears an inscription to Kitty or Kate. I've been studying your family tree and I think that that Joseph and Elizabeth could have been the son and daughter in law of Joseph and Sarah Cutler. Would you be able to shed any light on this? Also are they related do you know to the Andrews that currently own the butchers shop in Verwood?



    My maiden name was Straker and I am doing some research into our side of the family tree.  From what I can see so far there seem to be three groups of Strakers in England and we belong to the London ones that lived around Islington.  My Grandfather, Frederick Charles, came to Australia in the early 1900's via India and one of his brothers, Robert, went to Canada where there is now another group of Strakers. 
     
    What really excited me was the fact that your Straker ancestor lived just down the road from my Head (my Mothers side) relative in Brighton.  They bought land to farm bounded by North Road and Hodder Street which is just up from where you say John Straker lived.  William and Sarah Head were Methodists and built the first Methodist church so I suppose the opposing religions would be one reason why there was no intermarriage. They lived there from 1839 and had a large family.  Ferntree Gully Road used to be called Heads Road.


    Hi Peter,
    Many thanks, and apologies for taking so long to get back. I'm a
    writer, and constant deadlines keep me away from my real interests too
    often........
    My tree isn't in chart form as yet, so apologies for the lack of
    formatting. Here's what I have on Bridget Mary Curley, daughter of
    Thomas & Ellen.

    Bridget Mary Curley b. 1839 Galway m. George MAC CURRIE b. Melb.
    ~1844
    Issue
    1. George Thomas (1872) m. Ida ?? (lived Sydney)
    2. Vincent (no details at all)
    3. Catherine (1873) m. Albert VINES
    4. Ellen (1876) m. Alfred GEORGE
    5. Bernard William (1877) m. Daisy ?? (an English war bride)
    6. Michael Austin (1879) died aged 12 days
    7. John Henry (Jack) (1880) Prahran m. Mary Frances KOELIN
    8. Mary Ann (1883) m. Robert JAMIESON

    As yet I've been unable to find a marriage date for Bridget and George.
    There's also no clue so far as to when and where George died. My aunt,
    Catherine 's daughter, told me many years ago that "George was a
    no-hoper; a swagman who was never at home, and when he did come home it was only to
    take money". It seems likely that everybody was relieved when he went.

    My aunt said that Bridget Mary had a"tough, difficult life". My father
    remembered Bridget ( he was 6) as "a little old lady in a black dress
    wearing a bonnet". My father was the only (surviving) son of Catherine
    & George

    Do you want more details about the above people?
    Regards,
    Kate



    Dear All, I have found your fabulous web site through Genseek - Convicts etc.,   Haven't read it all, but you have produced a wonderful document.   My interest is the reference to one family living opposite St. Finbars Catholic Church - corner of Point Nepean Road and Centre Road, Brighton, but which corner?  This is the area where I grew up and at one stage there was a Garage - shops etc., and houses which were not very old compared with others nearby - this was the north-west corner.  (these shops etc. have all been demolished for the widening of the Nepean Highway)  It is an eerie feeling that these people you are writing about, walked around the same area.   Wouldn't we love to meet them now and have a chat and a cup of tea!!!!!
     
    Another convict story I have been following is of Samual Pyers (Active) and Sarah Johnson (Britannia 11).   One family of their descendants, who are friends of mine, lived on the Point Nepean Road, East Brighton, close to Centre Road.
     
    I am always very interested and grateful to have access to these wonderful tales posted on the 'net'.    
     
    My congratulations, regards, Valma



    Greetings,

    My grandfather's name was William Andrews of Capetown South Africa and
    his dd was in 1972 and was born in Capetown in 1892. My great
    grandfather came to South Africa in 1871 from Australia and his name was James
    William Andrews. I do not know his db or dd. My grandmother told me
    that my grandfather had a direct ancestor from Tasmania who belonged to a
    famous gang of thieves.

    Do you have any ancestors that moved to South Africa around 1871?

    Was there any other Andrews in the gang of thieves that you might know
    of other then James or John?

    My grandmother has a record of my great grandfather arrival to Durban
    SA from Australia in 1871.

    My parents moved to New York City from Johannesburg SA in 1960 and I
    was born in 1964 IN New York - USA.

    Thank You

    Peter Andrews



    I have just come across your Andrews site and see Elizabeth Amey and your reference to Horton With Woodlands and also the Cutler name..
     
    My GG Grandmother was Catharine Amey, she had a son Elijah Louis in 1808 in Horton with Woodlands, no father was listed.
     
    She must have been born c1790 but I have failed to find any other trace of her except her marriage in 1820 to John Frampton also in Horton with Woodlands and both were from Woodlands.
     
    Later in 1831 Elijah married Hannah Cutler in Horton with Woodlands, he listed Thomas Amey as his father?
    Elijah move to Poole and finally to Upham Hampshire.
     
    The Haskell name has cropped up many times in Amey trees but with no direct links yet to my tree.
    Dorset OPC has suggested that Catharine could have been baptized Elizabeth but used Catharine.
     
    Horton is such a small area but I have yet to make any links
     
    Love to hear your thoughts on this.
     
    Carolyn Amey