news
April 2008 by Dawn Juers
No 45
With genealogy you just never entirely give up as one day out of the blue some information comes forth to fill-in that ‘brick-wall’. Well I never really thought it would happen to me, but hooray, it has!
A week ago I had a phone call from a distant relative to say that she had heard from a man in England tracing her name. He had found her name in a world-wide listing of membership of a group she had joined. He had no address for this cousin but contacted another member in S.A. who was able to contact said cousin. Anyway through their correspondence we have found that our Great Great Grandfather was Irish and became involved in a robbery of large quantities of cash and gold bullion at the Port of London. He testified against his fellow robbers, and disappeared.
We believe he is the same person as our relative who arrived in Adelaide, making quite a name for himself under his alias. However, after marrying and having children he couldn’t resist using his previous name as the children’s middle name, who later made it a hyphenated name - hence the ability of the researcher in England to trace the name to Adelaide.
My cousin said her father had always hinted that they came from aristocracy and had claim to inheritance in England. I don’t know about that, but we now have a family line going back to 1733 in Ireland. [Fancy that! We now have a criminal amongst our tree.]
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The following is a small snippet from the book ‘The Murray River and Bottom Enders by E.D. Gray, p14.
To the River Murray in 1926
“When we called at Mannum on our return trips, we often saw the P.S.Decoy in charge of Capt Les Mewitt carting river water from Mannum to Tailem Bend. The water was loaded into two large barges by opening the valves on the bottom, flooding the barges to capacity, and then closing the valves. The boat steamed to Tailem Bend with a barge lashed to each side. This fresh water was necessary as the salt water from the mouth of the Murray was gradually working its way upstream. The reason for this was that the river was very low because there was little water coming down from the catchment areas. The tides were extra high at the time and seawater was pushing the fresh water higher and higher, even up to 87 miles from the river mouth.
As Tailem Bend was a railway town, the railways needed a large quantity of fresh water. A barrage has since been built at Goolwa to stop the encroachment of the sea water.”
I thought I would include this snippet as it is such a topical subject. Did you know that at the beginning of this month the salinity level of the river was Mannum 785; Milang3964; Goolwa 27,728. (EC units) No wonder our tortoise are in trouble!
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This postcard is titled ‘Glimpse of the Memorial Statue’ and was taken in Goolwa sometime after 1921. The photo was taken from the balcony of the Corio Hotel, showing the statue atop a mound, with the Custom’s House (now the Centre for Positive Ageing) to the right. To the left of the picture is Cutting Road, and the Railway Superintendent’s Cottage in the distance. The postcard was published by P.M. Wells, Goolwa.
I thought it appropriate to show this postcard as it will be Anzac Day on the 25th of this month when we will gather at the Memorial to honour our servicemen.
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Next month will be SA History Week and in Goolwa the Goolwa History Centre National Trust Museum will host a talk on local cemeteries by Lorraine Pomery, at 2pm Wednesday May 21st.
The History Room of the Alexandrina Library, Goolwa will host a ‘Bring Your Own Project’ on Thursday May 22nd 10am-3pm in the Community Room of the Library. Residents can bring along their own family records/project to show and tell. The volunteers of the History Room will do the same and showcase the latest projects.
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Well no-one came forward to say that they had solved the riddle from last month!
Answer: In all the words listed, if you take the first letter and place it at the end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word.
For those that didn’t see last month’s newsletter, the words are –Banana; Dresser; Grammar; Potato; Revive; Uneven; & Assess.
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Don’t wait for a special opportunity, seize an ordinary one and make a special one out of it.
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In a couple of weeks Bruce and I are heading north in our campervan, up through Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, then into Queensland and will be away for possibly 4months.
The newsletter will still be printed with the wonderful help of Helen, Frodo and Peter whom I’m sure will give you a great variety of information.
Genealogy help is available by appointment on Thursdays, to guide you through your research. Please phone the Library on 8555-7000 to make an appointment. For comments, suggestions or to receive this newsletter – email
historyroom2004@yahoo.com.au or phone the Library on 8555-7000.
Back copies of this newsletter can be sourced on the Alexandrina Council website –
http://www.alexandrina.sa.gov.au/site/page/cfm
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