Foreword “I’m illegitimate!” Jean declared to the author (her daughter) of this story. “I had no idea until my brother Ian told me when I visited him in Canada in the 1980’s. I’d always wondered why my father was so distant towards me when I was little…” Jean's mother Maggie had never said a word… Continue reading Who was my Father?
John Sellenger (variants: Salinger, Sallinger, Sallenger) arrived in Fremantle on 31st. August 1853 on the ship Phoebe Dunbar, which had sailed non-stop from Kingstown, Ireland, taking 89 days. He was fortunate not to have been one of the 16 convicts and passengers who died during the journey, supposedly of Typhus but more likely of advanced… Continue reading John Sellenger or Salinger 1832 – 1906 Convict No. 2400
I was recently asked to try and trace the ancestry of a mixed race Australian whose grandmother was half Indigenous Australian and half white Australian, born in 1920. This was the first time I'd been tasked with researching Aboriginal ancestry and I was somewhat daunted by the thought of so little recorded information being available.… Continue reading Tracing Aboriginal Ancestry
John Richards was convicted of burglary at Liverpool Assizes on the 9th December 1848 and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for stealing 2 hams1. This was the era of the potato famine in Ireland, which caused mass starvation, disease and emigration. John was about 23 years old, an ex soldier from Dublin, Ireland, whose parents… Continue reading John Richards 1823 – 1897 Convict No. 453
Before George Ryder was convicted of breaking a window and stealing a watch from Timothy Wakefield's shop in Lancaster, he had been imprisoned a staggering 32 times in his young life1. It was the 1st. January 1849 and he was 24 years old when he was sentenced to 7 years transportation to Australia for stealing… Continue reading George Ryder or Rider 1824 – 1889 Convict No. 972
Speak of the Past 