Grahame Thom's family history
Grahame Thom grthom@bigpond.comWith my mum 2005
| Welcome to my family history site established in March 2006.
The purpose of my web site is to share information about my family tree. I have been researching my family history since 1968. I am a Fellow of the Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra Inc. I have lived in Sydney, Canberra, Hobart and Melbourne, and now live in country Victoria, Australia. I am married with four children and eight grandchildren. The surnames in my family tree I am researching are :- Allen - Cornwall ENG Anderson - Oxfordshire ENG Artus - Goucestshire ENG Ashby - Leicestershire ENG Boyd - Dublin Co IRL Brabyn - Cornwall ENG Bullivant - Leicestershire ENG Buscombe - Cornwall ENG Butts - Kent ENG Cock - Cornwall ENG Cox - Herefordshire ENG Donaldson - Lanarkshire SCT Flemimg - Lanarkshire SCT Hardy - Tyrone IRL Harris - Cornwall ENG Hughes - Tyrone IRL Ikin - Shropshire ENG Jones - Monmouthshire WLS Kerr - Lanarkshire SCT Lane - Herefordshire ENG Little - London ENG Llewellyn - Glamorganshire WLS May - Cornwall ENG McBride - Lanarkshire SCT McClean - Tyrone IRL McDougall - Lanarkshire SCT Mahone - Hampshire ENG Manning - London ENG Martin - Lanarkshire SCT Miller - Somersetshire ENG Murphy - Co Durham ENG Parker - Cornwall ENG Phillips - London ENG Reid - Lanarkshire SCT Reilly - Westmeath IRL Rogers - Cornwall ENG Russell - Gloucestershire ENG Thom - Lanarkshire SCT Trainer - Westmeath IRL Turnbull - Roxbugh SCT Walker - Tyrone IRL Wardle/Wardell - Co Durham ENG Ware - Gloucestershire ENG Warr - Scotland or England Weir - Lanarkshire SCT Whitelaw - Lanarkshire SCT Williams - London ENG Williamson - Lanarkshire SCT Wilson - Lanarkshire SCT Woor - Herefordshire ENG Based on my 27 ancestors who arrived in Australia, my origins makeup is 51.5% English, 28.1% Scottish, 18.8% Irish and 1.6% Welsh. My biggest thrill doing family history research My grandmother, Adeline Margaret Bullivant was born on 20 July 1890 in Sydney. Her mother, Adeline Margaret Bullivant never married. Grandma’s birth, two marriage and death certificates do not state her father’s name. Much to my disappointment, I thought this meant one/eigth of my tree would be unknown as it appeared there were no other avenues to find out my great grandfather’s name. I started my research in 1968 and soon after made contact with the late Harry Jessep of Sydney, a distant cousin on my mother’s side. I was living in Canberra at the time. One day we decided to go together to the Mitchell Library in Sydney, to research our common Lane ancestors of Windsor. One of the sources we asked for was some bound birth death and marriage registers of the Methodist Church in NSW. In order to further appreciate this story I should explain that these large volumes were not indexed by circuit (similar to a parish). This meant one simply took “pot luck” in choosing which volumes to check. Also there was no logic in which circuits were in which volumes. We found the Windsor circuit volumes and looked for the entries we were searching for. I finished first and decided to browse through the volume in front of me. I suddenly realised that I was looking at the Redfern Circuit marriages. My grandmother was on my other half of my tree and just so happened to be a Methodist . Then I realised I was looking at Grandma’s marriage certificate (1912) and to my great surprise her father’s name was stated; Sydney Wardle. I nearly fell off the chair and wanted to yell out my discovery but one only spoke in hushed tones in the Mitchell Library. So I wonder why her father’s name was included in the Church copy and not in the Registrar’s copy? I can only explain it by thinking that my grandma did not want her father’s name recorded and that the minister, in respecting her wishes, did not include the name in the official Registrar’s copy but convinced grandma that as no one looked at the Church copy it was safe to record his name. In 2009 an online index of the records of the Sydney Benevolent Asylum (where my grandma was born) became available, and through this index a search of the admission and discharge register was carried out. The admission entry for my great grandmother Adeline Margaret Bullivant states quite clearly that the father is Sydney Wardell (sic), wheelwright. Of further interest, Sydney Wardle lived till 1956 in Naremburn not far from where I lived as a small child in nearby Crows Nest. Did I pass him in the street? His death certificate does not reveal that he had a daughter Adeline Margaret and I have not tried to contact his descendants in Sydney. A nephew was Sir Thomas Wardle, one time Lord Mayor of Perth and a millionaire through his supermarket chain “Tom the Cheap”. He lost his fortune, but retained his interest in Dirk Hartog Island off the Western Australian coast, as the Wardle family does today. I wrote to him but he did not reply. Publications I have published four books about my Ikin ancestors, see below. Copies have been lodged with various libraries, including, National Library of Canberra, Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, State Library of New South Wales, the Stanton Library, North Sydney, the Lane Cove Public Library, the Society of Australian Genealogists, the Nepean Family History Society, Penrith City Library, the 1788-1820 Pioneer Association, the Tasmanian Family History Society and the State Library of Tasmania. Obadiah Ikin - The story of a Shropshire Soldier and his family in Australia, by Grahame Thom and Margaret Miller, 1986, Canberra. Some Ikin Reminiscences - Ikin Family Gathering - Sydney June 1990, by Grahame Thom and others, 1990, Canberra. Henry Ikin (1816-1900) - An Autobiography, edited by R Wesley Hartley and Grahame Thom, 1988, Canberra. Ikin Newsletters Numbers 6 to 30, by Grahame Thom, Wallan 2003. Please note that Newsletters 1 to 5 are included in Some Ikin Reminiscences. Please click on the buttons below to see various articles that have been written about my ancestors. If you would like to contact me please click on my email address at the top of each page. Last updated on 6 November 2009. |
Access to my family tree charts and to several indexes I have compiled
Tracing my ancestors' arrivals in Australia
Thomas Anderson
Maria and Charles James Bullivant
Obadiah and Sarah Ikin
William Lane to Alfred Oram Lane
John and Margaret Manning
John and Ann Reilly
Thom and Weir Branches
Mud Island, Hawkesbury River NSW
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