John Beale (or Beal as he was sometimes known), had an interesting life in the early years of the Colony of New South Wales. In many ways, he was no different from any other person in early Australia, but he certainly had an active life. John Beale, the son of Joseph Beale and Rebecca Heppy, was born in Essex in 1783 and baptised at All Saints’ with St Peter, Maldon, Essex on 23 March the same year.[1] John was the … Continue reading
Do you know where the Azores are located? It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the North Atlantic, which are an autonomous region of Portugal and located about 1,360 km west of that country. This is about my maternal great great grandfather Joseph Antoney and my paternal great grandfather, Emanuel Vero. What a coincidence, an ancestor from the Azores Islands on both sides of my family but two generations apart. Growing up on a remote group of … Continue reading
Colourful, what does that mean? Does it say they wore bright clothes? Or, does it mean they were ‘colourful characters’? Sorting through my family file for the colourful characters and after sorting through and considering this one and that one I have decided on a 1st cousin twice removed – Joseph Emanuel Antoney AKA ‘Manny the Murderer’. Manny was born in Walkerston near Mackay, Queensland on the 2nd April 1900 to Manuel Silva (Emanuel) Antoney and his wife Annie Marie … Continue reading
I have several ancestors in my family who could be considered troublemakers or ne’er-do wells; the problem is deciding who would be the one to write about for this blog post. It must be William Nelson McCann, aka William McCann Neilson, he is fascinating, but I need to sort through the pile of newspaper clippings I have on William to write coherently. William Nelson McCann (my 2nd great-granduncle) was born on 27 September 1837 in Launceston, Tasmania, the son of … Continue reading
Rosetta (Rose) Johnson – Johnston(e) – was born in County Louth, Ireland in about 1773. Rosetta was convicted at the Surrey Assizes – Lent 24 March 1814 [1] and sentenced to “Let them be transported beyond the seas for seven years.” Rose had stolen 18 yards of sheeting, value of seven shillings, and a shawl, value of 30 shillings, in the parish of St George the Martyr in Southwark, aged 29 years. There is no mention of a daughter during … Continue reading
