‘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...

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...

William Brown’s Bible – “the best book to read”

Personal objects can often be overlooked when conducting family research. It may be that they are seen as merely possessions, however objects can provide us with rich and invaluable information and stories. While consulting a well-crafted genealogy publication, concerning the Holgate family, I observed an interesting note. On the pages that were of interest to...