Gene-Allergy: It’s a contagious disease, but we love it.

 

I'll just make room for my medals. The second one this week, and the third one this month. The medals are for “Nan of the Week” for helping with the history homework and other stuff.

Just so happens our granddaughter, Ariah  in Year 6 had to do a story about “10-pound poms”. I was unavailable. But when in doubt, search Nan's blog.

My daughter and granddaughter found a story about James Edward Cassidy leaving England, Lancashire, for Sydney in 1927. He was the widower of Amelia Duckworth, my mother in laws mother. James worked for the local Hat Manufacturer in Bury Lancashire, before and after the war. So, the local paper in Bury did a story celebrating/ lamenting his departure to Australia in post-war times. He was leaving his two young daughters behind until he was set up.

He arrived in Sydney, gained a job at Henderson's Hat Company, met the boss's daughter and married her.

Another story on the blog told of his two daughters, Winifred and Patricia, traveling to Australia to rejoin their father. The girls, aged nine and six, were supervised on board ship by a stewardess and travelled unaccompanied. They arrived on the SS Orsova after six weeks at sea in 1929.

Secondly, my grandson Oliver in Year Four was writing letters to Governor Arthur Phillip during his history lesson. He was asking for leniency on behalf of an unknown first fleeter who stole a couple of cookies. I surprised him with the fact that he had two first fleeters in his background. One was noted convict John Small from the “Charlotte”, and secondly Mary Parker who arrived on the “Penrhyn”, who eventually became his wife. As I'd recently been looking at convict resources, I was able to immediately call up details of John's crime and Mary's misdemeanor.

“Did you know, Oliver, John's crime was much worse than stealing a few cookies?” Normally I'd say that convicts only stole because they were hungry, but John Small was the equivalent of Ned Kelly. He was a highway robber, and incidentally Oliver had just studied Ned Kelly in a recent school project too. (He’s not a relative)

Extract from ConvictRecords.com.au for John Small

Mary Parker was convicted of burglary or housebreaking and there was a long list of items stolen from her employer.

Extract from ConvictRecords.com.au for Mary Small nee Parker

Both were transported for seven years. In this case crime does pay.

After marrying in Sydney, they had seven children between 1789 and 1804. They got their Tickets of Leave and the family flourished after they were given land at Ryde, New South Wales. They were quite affluent. The Fellowship of the Small Family Record book is testimony to their ability to breed and establish themselves all over NSW in farming and even as a policeman.  Oliver quickly requested the information as he was going to email his teacher.

 

I resisted telling him about another convict relative he has- let’s say Charles Dickens might have used him for the characters of Oliver Twist- “you got to pick a pocket or two.” Or should that be locks?

One day his response might be “My ancestors did WHAT?”

Finally, my second eldest granddaughter resorted to the blog to research her great-grandmother, who she wanted to cite as an inspirational woman in her family while applying for a university scholarship. Marlene Jewel Kelf my mother was a woman before her time when she gained her degree in the 1950s with a scholarship in between working, studying at night, marriage, and motherhood times 2.

Mum on her graduation day

Genealogists get a lot of flak but we have our purpose. I’m off to find my polish and celebrate my award-winning victory!