Good morning all
Susie, I’m glad you found the story of Catherine and Mary Eliza Downey interesting – their life in London and their migration to Australia. I owe so much of the information to the wonderful help I have received – mostly from members of this forum but also from others in Australia … a couple in WA who descend from Catherine’s brother, the community historian of Mitcham SA, a lovely lady in Melbourne: people who have gone way out of their way to offer lookups, help, advice. I have researched other branches of my family, but this has been my first project concerning Australia, and I can honestly say that I have never experienced anything like the friendliness I have met with among Australian family researchers.
At the moment I’m back with the Page family. The Mitcham community historian sent me, among other things, a newspaper cutting about one of James Page’s daughters, Laura (Mrs HP Wilson) actually a cousin of Catherine and Mary Eliza. The cutting mentioned that certain family documents brought to Australia by James Page suggested that the family were related to the owners of the great Page estates in Middlesex. The so-called ‘Page Millions’ case was a long-running story in the 19th century. It seems that the last of the Pages, Henry who died in 1829, was swindled out of his estate by rascally lawyers (are there such people?). Laura was intending to travel to London to look more closely into the matter.
With best wishes from blustery Cornwall
Ian
