‘Butcher Dick’ and Son; Dalton’s Butcher and Builder

This story discusses the lives of my maternal 2x great-grandfather, Henry Richard Alchin (1861-1942), and his son, my great-grandfather, Harold Gordon Alchin (1888-1986). Henry Richard Alchin (born 1861 in Gunning), and his family were long time Dalton residents. Henry Richard married Ellen Pollard in 1884, a daughter to Benjamin Pollard; one of his twenty-six children...

Fred Alchin at War: Two-up on Tarakan

I was always told that after my Pop, Frederick Otho Alchin (1917-1998) returned from active service during the Second World War, he had a desire to never go anywhere too far from home again. I don’t think that being a soldier defined him as a person but it certainly influenced his identity. Like most returned...

Grave distribution: the limited geography of ancestor burials

During my family history research project, I have investigated the lives and movements of over 100 of my direct ancestors in New South Wales. Surprisingly the geographic range that these families have covered in the past 190 years is not overly extensive. All of my ancestors in Australia began their new lives after arriving in...

Husband of 2, Father of 26; Benjamin Pollard and his remarkable women

When Benjamin Pollard died in 1915 at ‘Sunrise View’ near Dalton, New South Wales, he had recorded a remarkable statistic; fathering 26 children. Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact only one of the 26 children died in infancy; even with a serious diphtheria outbreak in the area which claimed many young victims in the...

The Convict and the Orphan

During my family research project a number of convict ancestors were discovered. Five were discovered in all; one of which belongs to this (my maternal grandfathers) line of my family ancestry. The others belong to the Whittington/Noakes Line (a post on those four convicts can be found here). Below is a quick snapshot of the Alchin/Wheatley...

Shaw & O’Donnell – an interfaith marriage that divides a family

The phrase, “beyond the ministration of the Christian ministry”, used in reference to Shaw family by the Methodist Newspaper in 1892, may be an adept description of two periods of young Ann Shaw’s life. Ann Shaw, my 3x great-grandmother, and the subject of this story, was five years old when she arrived in Australia with...

Three Wheatleys

In family history research, you often come across the problem of having multiple descendants of the same name. That almost no longer existent custom of naming the first son (or at least one son) after the father. This was the case for the descendants of my maternal grandfather (Frederick Otho Alchin). His mother was the...

Waggallalah: Murder, Methodism, and marriage

Waggallalah, also referred to as Wagahrallah, refers to a rural property in the parish of Lerida, to the south-east of Gunning, New South Wales. When pioneer Methodist preacher, John Wheatley (snr) moved, with his family to the Gunning region around 1850, he launched a campaign of zealous religious conversions in the Goulburn/Gunning Circuit from his son's property...

The Steads at Gundaroo

The story of the Steads of Gundaroo has shaky origins, intriguing details and an unfortunate tragic ending. Before we can detail what we do know, we must first deal with what we do not. John Henry Stead, born circa 1804, is the focus of this story. It appears that he was born in London, however...

Stories from the Alchin/Wheatley Line

The next cluster of stories that will be appearing here are mainly concerned with members of my maternal grandfathers family line. The line is comprised the Alchin and Wheatley families and those that married into them, including; Pollard, Brown, Stead, O'Donnell and Shaw. Details on these two family groups, and the members who are most...