RootsChat.Com

Dear Christine
      Lovely to hear from you.  Things like this always happen when I am packing my bags to go overseas!   I'd be delighted to swap notes with you.  I have a booklet written by Joy Shepherd in 2002.  She quotes some wonderful letters written by Barbara Ann Donkin (Mrs Turner) to her brother William in Australia.  Apparently William wasn't a good correspondent!!  I think you will find that Barbara Ann and William were siblings of your James.  Yes, I did know about Rosina Wardle - she also lived in New Zealand for a while. 
      I'll be back home in mid July.  How can we find out each other's email addresses?  My name is Jennifer Willmott and I'm pretty sure if you searched that, ignoring all the ones in Britain and America, you might find my address.  I'd love to know if you have any thoughts about Sam the Patriarch.  I have a few ideas I'd love to discuss with you.  Isn't Rothbury a beautiful place?   I know why so many people migrated in the 1800's but I've never understood why William came to Australia at almost the same time as two of his brothers went to Canada.
      Looking forward to hearing from you,    Marama.

Dear Victoria
     Yes, Thomas was Frank's younger brother!  My aunt, Beth Donkin, wrote her memoirs a few years ago and she mentioned her Uncle Tom and his wife Mollie and their son Jack.  Apparently Tom was a dentist and Beth didn't like it when he came to visit because he would do any dentistry required on the kids - with no anaesthetic.  She also said that Jack was a tobacco farmer after the war.
     As to Samuel's origins - I'm still of the opinion that he and the William who was born in 1689 were the same person but I don't think I'll ever prove it!
     Marama.

Hi Cando
   How did you do all that so quickly?  Everything you have found is correct but I must confess I have never seen the picture of my mother as a bride on Trove.  Must go and look for it.  That last family tree you mentioned - Auger I think - has been annoying me for many years.  I never gave them permission to us it and they have managed to transcribe several things wrongly - and they won't do anything about correcting them so that all sorts of other people are just blindly carrying these mistakes on.
    Bye for now.

Yes, that is William Mune.  Thankyou very much all of you.  He managed Ageston from 1871 to 1881.  He went to Fiji to manage the Rewa Sugar Mill in 1883.  I'm trying to find out why he left Ageston in 1881 and what he did for the next couple of years.  I know he applied for the lease of Darnley Island in Torres Strait to cultivate sugar but was turned down and that by mid 1882 he was mining and prospecting at Fountainville, Cannibal Creek.  His older children were at school in Jimbour in 1881 and 1882.   His wife was Martha Fountain and one of her sisters was married to the manager of Jimbour Station.
That's a blow that the census returns have not survived.  I do keep a very good eye on Trove but they have invented many strange ways to interpret MUNE electronically so I do miss some of them.
Thanks for your replies.  I live in Perth so your help is greatly appreciated.   Marama.

Hi judb
    Thankyou so much for all you have done.  I wonder if I could ask you to look up that disposal list once again and and tell me whether there was a second Mary as well as Joseph's wife?  They were all going to the Grange (near Hamilton) to a sister called Jane who had married James Blastock and come to Australia with him in 1841.  Margaret  married William Malcolm in 1850 and when he died she married Francis Rentiers.  The sister called Mary married Samuel Rayner, George Younger and Francis William Dawson is succession.  I am sure I found her on the Osprey too - she'd have been 22 in 1849. 
    Hannah, who was Rachel Ann's mother, was another sister.  She was born in 1822 and as far as I know she did not come to Australia.   
    Thanks,   Marama.