Saturday, June 29, 2013

Not dead yet ....

I was thinking that it was about time I drew a line under the Townsend saga, when out of the blue came an email from David, brother of Simon. This has set me off again, looking into the life and times of Brewa Haly's grandfather, Charles Robert Haly, What an interesting character - arrived in Sydney in1838, and well established in Queensland by the 1840s. Member of the early Queensland Colonial parliaments, and it seems a principled man who said what he thought and to hell with the consequences.

The email has also set off a flurry of checking, with some new information found about some of the Captain's descendants (there's always something new on the internet when you go looking).

Anyway, this blog is still alive, despite the long break between posts.

7 comments:

  1. Hye Geoff, Ron Thomas and all members. I wish u all a Happy New Year 2014. Greatings Jeffrey.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Geoff,
    How are things. I thought I would come to Brisbane in 2013, but alas it did not work out. Perhaps 2014 is a better bet.
    The Toowong cemetery shows a death date for John Dunsmure Raff of 26 aug 1876. Sonehow I thought it was 28th Aug 1876. Or was that the burial date?
    Best wishes for the New Year,
    Thomas

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Geoff,
    More and more records from the Indian period are becoming available. Check this:

    Anna Maria Julia Thompson & James Alexander Augustus Chew
    Marriage: 21 nov 1838
    Howra, Bengal, India
    Spouse: Anna Maria Julia Thompson
    Geboorte:
    1817
    Spouse: James Alexander Augustus Chew
    DOB: 1816
    Age: 22
    Age partner: 21
    Batch Nummer: M75004-3
    Systeem: India-EASy
    GS film number: 498976

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Geoff,

    A gentlemen called Austen Loveday posted the following on MyHeritage:
    Harriet Sealey Bourne
    1821 - 1889
    Vergelijk haar stamboom
    Geboren
    Apr 24 1821
    Burder's Point, Arteruru, Tahiti
    Overlijden
    Aug 29 1889
    Begrafenis
    Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane

    Hope all is well.
    Thomas Helmer

    ReplyDelete
  5. He also claims that George Raff second partner was called Eliza Jane Molle. Any way to corroborate that?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Captain William Townsend bloggers,

    Regrettably, we found out only a few days ago that Geoff passed away last September. We knew he was ill for some time, but were not advised about his passing. We noticed that he no longer responded to his e-mails or kept his blog up-to-date. Since I was planning to visit Brisbane between 17 and 20 July 2014, I thought I better give him a call and thus connected with his family to hear to sad news.

    On behalf of myself and several other correspondents in The Netherlands (Ron van der Wal and Jeffrey Circkens), we would like to express our sincere condolences for the loss of Geoff Drew. He will be surely missed and not only by his family and friends, but also by the people of the Sandgate Historical Society, people in Brisbane and many who live around the globe, like me, have had the pleasure working with him.

    Let me introduce myself: I am Dutch National living in Europe and worked with Geoff for several years on the Captain William Townsend project, which kept on growing in its magnitude. Captain William Townsend is one of my ancestors. With Geoff, I spend a lot of time predominantly researching the families of three of William's daughters who married whilst in Padang, Sumatra, Nederland Oost-Indiƫ.
    Euphemia Clementina TOWNSEND

    Married to Henri Maximiliaan Andre Wiltens on 27th May 1850 at Padang. Henri was the son of Johan Frederk Hubert Wiltens and Adriana Elisabeth Jacoba Schott.

    Louisa Cecilia TOWNSEND

    Married to Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Vogler on 18th April 1857 in Padang. Friedrich was born on 25th October 1823 in Weiburg and died on 2nd June 1872 in Wiesbaden,

    Maria Augusta TOWNSEND

    Married to Theodorus Elink Schuurman on 4 January 1862 at Padang. Theodorus was born on 27th June 1821 in Utrecht, the son of Hendrikus Elink Schuurman and Antoinetta Gerardina Duuring. He died in Padang on 4th May 1876.

    The latest version of the Captain William Townsend manuscript I have is dated 27th August 2010. Geoff was going to share his latest version when were to meet, which regrettably did not happen.

    From his family, I understand that many of his documents have been transferred to the Sandgate Historical Society and I have now established contact with Fay Hebbard, sandgatemusm@bigpond.com. We wil try to establish if anybody has taken over the research project on Captain William Townsend and associated blog, and advise you on this blog if it remains in the air. Suggest any interested party to make copies of all previous entries on this blog.

    Meanwhile should you wish to get into contact with me directly, please use this e-mail address: thomas@helmer.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. I was very sorry to read this sad news. I was - finally - back home for a brief few days in late July; after 10 years away; and was in the Sandgate-Redcliffe area for less than a day. I had intended to stop in and say "hi", but that was not to be. -- I'm Dr Geo. Wm. Fredric Paul's great-grand-daughter by way of his son (Claude) Turner, so not related directly to the Townsend branch.

    ReplyDelete