Who Were They

For readers new to this blog I have prepared a list of posts which might have escaped their notice.

– almewett

2011

June 22 Introduction – Family History

June 23 Aunty Ruby.

June 23 Ruby and Will Weaver – photo

June 24 The Pollocks of Bonnie Doon

June 27 Uncle Jack

June 27 The Inquest

June 27 Simmons Reef to Gobur to Bonnie Doon

June 28 William McGuigan of Kanumbra

June 28 My Grandfather Mewett

June 29 South Australian Origins

June 29 The Giddings of Gumeracha

June 30 Derivation of the Name Mewett

July   5  English Origins: Mewetts in the 17th Century

July   5  Mewetts in the 18th Century

July 16  Mewetts in the 16th Century

July 24  Willingdon and Emigration to South Australia

Aug 13  A Ladder for the Family Tree

Sept 26 Samuel and Martha in South Australia

Dec 14  Mystery of Identity Solved

2012

May 28  Mrs Mewett in fiction!

2013

Sept 28 Walking McGuigan Country – text

Sept 28 Walking McGuigan Country – photos

Sept 28 Walking McGuigan Country – maps

Oct   7   Woodfield – Brankeet – Doon

Nov 22  Meadowbank Farm

2014

Mar 28 Longevity of My Mewett Ancestors

Mar 30 Maggie Pollock

Mar 30 Maggie Pollock – Photos

Mar 31 Uncle Will Weaver

Mar 31 Uncle Will Weaver – Photos

Apl   2  Pollock Family Photos

Apl 29  Mewetts and the 1st A.I.F. in World War I

May  2  Mewetts: A.I.F. Servicemen of the Second World War

Nov 29  Robert Brace – Martha Pollock Wedding 1917

2015

Jan   4  Robert Brace – Martha Pollock Wedding 1917 – photo

Jan   4  Mewett Road, Kersbrook, listed in Adelaide Hills fires.

Jan 24  Charlotte

Jan 24  Contents – Mewett Family History blog – Who Were They

Apl   8  Photos: Meadowbank Farm, Bonnie Doon

Aug 28  Jesse and Rhoda’s Photo Album

Aug 28  Jesse and Rhoda Mewett’s Photo Album

Sep  4   The Jesse Mewett Photo Album – Wongalere

Sep  4   The Jesse Mewett Photo Album – Wongalere or Wangolere

Sep 25  The Trestrail Connection

Sep 25  Jesse and Rhoda Mewett’s Family Bible Entries

2016

Apl 25  Uncle Dave

Dec 15  Dreadful Railway Mishap

Dec 27  The Manager, Col Mewett

2018

Feb 14   John Kirkpatrick

May 20  The Walsh Family

Two months ago my second great-granddaughter was born in Perth, W.A., and she was given the names of Charlotte Rose. Before her birth I was asked by her mother for a list of given names from our family tree; but I did not include names of siblings of my forebears. But the name Charlotte rang a bell when I first heard the new baby’s name.

Delving through my family history files, I found it : Charlotte – the name of the elder sister of Jesse Mewett, my great-grandfather. She was born in Willingdon, Sussex, in 1833, third child of Samuel Mewett and his wife Martha Balcombe and she sailed on the Platina with them arriving at Port Adelaide in February 1839.

At age 18 Charlotte was married to Thomas Barber at Gumeracha, S.A. She gave birth to eight sons and six daughters from 1852 through to 1879.  Thomas and Charlotte Barber moved from the Kersbrook/Gumeracha district of South Australia in 1873 and settled on a farm at Wail, north of Horsham in Victoria. Two of their children were born there, Samuel in 1875 and David in 1879.

Martha aged 8, died of diphtheria at the Horsham hospital in February 1878; Selina aged 9, and Alice aged 5, died at Wail in March of that year, also of diphtheria. Names of the surviving children were Ann, John, William, Elizabeth, Robert, Richard, Susanna, Thomas, Samuel and David.

Charlotte died at Pomona, Victoria, aged 71, and was buried at the Horsham cemetery.

Wail has a Barber Road running east through farmland from the Wail-Polkemmet Road to the Western Highway between Horsham and Dimboola. There are still residents today at Wail by the name of Barber.

By today’s travel standards Wail would be on the same map as Noradjuha where the late Bob Mewett and his family lived; Murtoa where Ted Mewett married Emma Lloyd and where my father Percy was born; Horsham where Wm Lloyd my great-grandfather was buried, and an area where some of the Giddings migrated to in the 19th century.

Pomona is a town south-west of Stawell and north-west of Ararat and close by Lake Bellfield in the Grampians National Park. Pomona would be on the same map as Stawell where my grandmother Emma Lloyd was born; two of my Mewett aunts were born at Maroona, a railway town south of Ararat and Pomona. Quite some family history in this Wimmera district of western Victoria.

– almewett

We have noted that fires currently burning in the Adelaide Hills in the Sampson Flat and Humbug Scrub areas have threatened towns and districts where our Mewett and Giddings forebears settled 160 years ago, namely, Kersbrook, Gumeracha, Williamstown, Chain of Ponds, Forreston (once known as North Gumeracha), and Kenton Valley. The ABC online news service gives the Country Fire Service listing today (4 January 2015) – including among others: grass fire at Checker Hill Road, Kersbrook; tree fire at Retreat Valley Road, Gumeracha; tree fire at Rake Road, Kersbrook; grass fire at Redgum Lane, Kersbrook; grass fire at Mewett Road, Kersbrook; grass fire in Kenton Valley, Gumeracha. I commented in a post on this blog some years ago that the Mewetts and other emigrants in the 19th Century had given up the hellish economic conditions experienced by agricultural workers in southern England for the Australian hell of drought, bushfire, flood, pests, etc. but I did not imagine then how close to the truth this would become in the areas settled by our great-great-grandfathers. May the outcome of these current fires in the Adelaide Hills not include any loss of life and minimal loss of livestock and property.

– almewett

Robert and Martha Brace

This photograph was kindly sent to me by David Brace, grandson of Robert and Martha Brace who were married at Kanumbra, Victoria, in 1917. See previous post for details of wedding party, bride’s dress, gifts, family and friends present at the ceremony.