Help needed finding information on UNDERWOOD family

[tropicalj]

Glad to  hear  you  have  enjoyed reading about all  of the history  that  we could find .

Now to The  BISA

Biographical Index of South Australians 1836-1885

I  take  this  quote  from  the web

"The South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society, decided in 1980 to publish a permanent record of people who lived in South Australia during the first 50 years of colonisation (1836-1885) to coincide with the State’s Jubilee 150 year - 1986.
The result was the 4 volume set - Biographical Index of South Australians 1836-1885 edited by Jill Statton. A further 4 years of work resulted in the publication in 1990 of  2 more volumes of biographical information - as South Australians 1836-1885, edited by Jan Thomas. Both have been long out of print and now command high prices if they ever come onto the second hand market.

Now Archive CD Books Australia, in partnership with the South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society Inc, has reissued both these sets - six volumes in all - as a facsimile of the original on a 2 CD set.


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The CD-ROM advantage
This CD-ROM edition not only makes this vast body of information readily available again, but enhances it with its full text searching. Now you can:

find many more names that can be found in the original alphabetical arrangement or printed index - especially the mother's maiden names and married names of daughters. For example there are 74 biographies of people with the surname "Dawson" in the 2 sets, but a search for that name returns 294 occurrences.
search by place and find all people associated with that place— a great local history resource. For example a search for "Gawler" returns 4682 occurrences. No index to places is in the original.
search for places of origin—how many and who are listed as coming from say Norfolk or Truro in Cornwall? For example a search for Truro (Cornwall) returns 137 occurrences. No index to places of origin is in the original.
find out who else is listed as coming on your ancestor's ship (same or another voyage)—just search by name of vessel. For example a search for the Ship Trafalgar returns 347 occurrences. No index to ships is in the original.
search by any other word for any other purpose of interest, e.g.
- occupation—how many are listed as solicitors (a search gives 205)?
- religion—all those identified as say Presbyterians (a search gives 2682)
enlarge the image on screen to easily read what is very small type in the original.

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About the Biographical Index of South Australians 1836-1885
This major project involved over 2000 volunteers and 100,000 working hours in collecting, collation, checking and storing on computer approximately 100,000 entries.

Gaining the information was a huge task. Apart from Society members, the material came from individuals, archives and public records such as church registers, ships’ passenger lists, and burial records; private papers which include, wills, family bibles, birthday books, and letters of administrations. Nothing of this magnitude had ever been attempted in South Australian before (or since).

It was originally published in 1986 as a four volume reference set totaling 1958 pages of closely typeset information, alphabetically indexes, of single women and adult males with associated family details and maiden names cross reference – an invaluable contribution to the preservation of the State’s history.

Entries record basic biographical information about an individual such as parents, spouse and children, birth date, marriage date, death date and place, arrival in South Australia (including ship if known), plus residence, religion, occupation and more.

A complete entry could contain the following detail (with example data):

entry name: "HEWETT Henry Grigg
par:   Henry and Frances, Matilda Eliz nee, BACCHUS
b: bapt.14.1.1816 Portsea, HAM ENG
d: 16.1.1850 Nth Adelaide SA
bd: WTC
arr: 1836 BUFFALO
occ: Mason, Clerk of Police Court
res: Nth Adelaide
rel: C/E
m: 30.11.1837 Adelaide SA
spouse: Mercy nee ABBOTT
par: Giles and Hannah nee FROST
b: c1817 NTH ENG
d: 4.4.1861 Pt Elliot SA
bd:
other:
Ch: Hannah Frances (1838-1857). Henry Giles (1839-1840). Priscilla Myra (1840-1861). Danl John (1842-1924), Wm Alfred (1844-1922) Martha Louisa Mary, TUCKEY (1846-1882), Emily Matilda (1849-1850) ""
 
 

A  few  of  the folk  are lucky enough  to  have  the BISA in  their collections


Jenn

[eramophla]

Victorian Police Gazette 8/4/1891 -
A warrant was issued against Robert James Charles Alexander Underdown for 3 months imprisonment, in default of paying a 10 pound fine for obscene language. He was described as "Victorian, labourer, a saw mill hand, 26 years of age, 5 foot 11 inches high, medium build, dark completion and hair, dark-brown moustache and side-boards, may be clean shaved or may have his beard growing which may be rather scanty on the cheeks and of lighter colour on chin than moustache, small squinty eyes, believed to have a mark of cut on chin, peculiar expression on mouth when speaking as if jaw or tongue had been injured; wore black sac suit larrikin cut, back flaps and buttons on coat, bell-bottom trousers with sidepockets in which he usually keeps his hands when walking, pink silk sash round waist, larrikin high-heeled shoes, hair fringed, never wears a collar, but usually has a silk handkerchief round neck, low countenance and appearance. A second warrant of commitment has been issued against him for assault".

What a fabulous description and also provides info on why he may have changed his name and moved to QLD.

[Klloyd88]

Hi all,

To highlight a portion of the underdowns from WA

My name is Kelly, my grandfather is Donald Richard Henry Underdown (Haddow) and his adopted father (uncle) is Henry Charles Emanuel Underdown (b) 1905 in Mahogany Creek. Henry was married to Rose Caroline Rigby (my grandfathers maternal aunt) (b) Prahan Victoria. They married on June the 28th 1930 when Henry was 25 and Rose was 36. Rose could not have children of her own and her sister Mary Haddow tragically passed away from sepsis when her son (my grandfather) was under a year old. Rose and Henry adopted my grandfather and he regarded Henry as his father. His biological father remarried but that is another story in itself.

Henry Charles Emanuel Underdown was the son of Henry Emanuel Underdown and Alice Ada Byfield. Henry Emanuel Underdown was born sometime around 1875 in Victoria (Vic birth index 5819) and is the son of Robert Underdown and Elizabeth McBroom.

My understanding is that there is a large group of Underdowns (several siblings and cousins having migrated out in way or another to Australia) originating from Devon (northleigh, southleigh and mary). There are a lot of naming after predecessors which makes it rather hard to follow at times).

I am only just beginning to compile a little book for my grandfather on the Underdown family and their origins in Devon. Despite being born Donald Richard Haddow, my grandfather has always been known as an Underdown and had very little knowledge of the Haddow side beyond what he has said so far. He is very interested in knowing more about the underdowns and where they come from. He had thought the origins of the family were rooted in Kent (not unsurprising given such a large portion of Underdowns were from Kent as well). It will be fun for me to surprise him with all of the interesting tales and the fact that they were from Devon.

I've attached a photo of Henry (we refer to him as old paddy) and my grandfather Don (mind the bell bottom pants). when I asked him to describe paddy, Don said he was a giant of a man, he was extremely fit (as he would have to have been, he owned and worked a saw mill in mundaring). he was a hard man and worked even harder. My grandfather grew up going to work in the bush when he was a child and spent many years working right beside Henry lopping trees until he began his own apprenticeship as a blacksmith at the midland railway workshops.

Paddy's father Henry Emanuel Underdown passed away in 1936 due to an accident at the saw mill in Mundaring and this happened with paddy on site with several other workers. from an investigation it was assumed that Henry had made an error in moving to shovel sawdust whilst the machinery belt was in motion, and he was struck on the head before collapsing into a sawdust pit. he was conveyed to hospital to undergo surgery, but he never regained consciousness. Alice Ada continued to live in Mundaring following Henry's passing and my grandfather always tells us some humorous stories about her and life in the hills.

(sorry to ramble on but thought you might like a little more information on where the hell Henry went.)

I am on ancestry.com, Geneanet and a host of other little sites gathering information. I have spent alot of time searching WA sites and digging through Trove but have only just touched the surface on other states in regards to family research. it's hard keeping to one line at a time, there is so much to explore!

[eramophla]

Hi
I am a descendant of Thomas and Ann Underdown (nee Harding) of Devon, England. Their children Thomas and Robert Underdown came out to Australia. I am descended from Thomas' branch - you are descended from Robert's branch.
If you are still interested in finding out more about the Devon Underdown line, I recommend you start here - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Underdown-360
I am gradually adding as much detail on the family as I can to Wikitree. That link will take you to what I have added on Paddy's father, and you can keep clicking each generation back to find out more.
If you would like some more specific detail, please don't hesitate to contact me and we can private message each other.
Regards, Eramophla