What a Response!
The Steering Committee has been encouraged by a great
response to the first bulletin.
The arrangements are taking shape.
So what is being planned for this one in 150 year
event?
Sat.5
October 2002: Dinner at Oatley RSL and Community Club, with a variety of
entertainment from family members.
Sun.
6 October 2002: Lunch at the same venue. Display of the family tree,
memorabilia (photos etc), entertainment.
Games at the nearby reserve.
See the old Derwent homesites and perhaps visit Woniora Cemetery which
has at least 33 family graves.
Can
you help?
We welcome your suggestions about how to make this reunion a success and memorable for us all.
Please let us know if you would like to contribute to organizing the reunion or participating in the entertainment – music, dance, poetry, short stories; games and activities for young and old.
150 YEARS IN AUSTRALIA
2nd
Edition – January 2002
This Bulletin is your forum for contact with the extended
Derwent family.
We are happy to publish your contributions - family events and achievements (past and recent), anecdotes and tales including copies of letters that have been passed down for generations. So much information is already lost, so please share those things that make being part of the Derwent family so important.
Just send your contribution by email or post to Laurie
Derwent (see over for address).
A Derwent by Any Other Name.
In our first Bulletin we mentioned that James and
Mary Derwent traveled with their two small children, Martha Ann and Andrew
Binns, to Australia on the SS Irene in 1852. While their names are shown as “Derwent” in the
ship’s records, on 22 September 1845, when James and Mary Wright were
married at St Michael’s, Ashton Under Lynne. Lanchashire England, the
name was recorded as “Darwent”.
The NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages shows the death of Martha Ann Darwent in 1852. (James and Mary had lost their first daughter, Ellen, before leaving for Australia). Later records, for the birth of the children sons John (in 1854), James H and Henry (1858), Mary (1861) and Elizabeth Ann (1865) in NSW, as well as the death of daughter Harriet M in 1858, and the death of James and Mary’s third daughter, Harriet Martha in 1858, all show the family name as “Derwent”.
So, by the late 1850s, the “Darwent” spelling had been dropped.
The reasons for the different spelling probably include a combination of the limited literacy of most people at that time and the Lanchashire pronunciation.
Thinking about the Family
Anon.
If you could see your ancestors, all
standing in a row
Would you be
proud of them, or don't you really know?
Some strange
discoveries are made in climbing family trees, But some of them, perhaps, do
not particularly please.
If you could
see your ancestors, all standing in a row.
There might be some of them, perhaps, you wouldn’t care to know.
But there's
another question which requires a different view.
If you could
met your ancestors would they be proud of you?
Personal and Missing Friends
We are still compiling our contact list of names and addresses. Please contact others in your family. If they have not received this bulletin we probably don’t know their address.
Please let us know the names and addresses or have them contact us directly.
Accommodation in Sydney
The success of the reunion will largely depend on how well the family is able to share the limited time we have together.
Do you need accommodation while staying in Sydney? Do you have space to share with someone who is traveling to the reunion?
We are happy to pass on information and provide a directory of accommodation available for the reunion. Just drop us a line with details of your needs or what you have available.
Your Questions
Why have the
reunion at Oatley? James and Mary settled at South
Hurstville. Andrew Binns and John
(who travelled with work for the railway) made their homes at Oatley and
Bexley. To bring the family back
to these humble beginnings we have sought a suitably sized venue within this
area.
The Oatley RSL and Community Club can accommodate the numbers we plan
for (200 or more) and offers suitable catering. It is close to rail transport. Local school halls do not permit such functions and most
other possible sites require us to organize our own catering and insurance.
How Much? The dinner on Saturday 5th October and lunch on 6th October will each be about $30 per head for adults (lower for children). The final menus are yet to be decided.
Laurie Derwent (02)
9580 2664 (h), (02) 8437 4973
(w) mderwent@optushome.com.au
Ian Frames (02)
9525 4926 (H), 0403 064 864 ian.frames@bigpond.com
Margot Derwent (02)
9579 5214 (H)
Website: derwent.poweringon.com (being developed by Ian Frames who recently returned from
holidaying with his family in South Africa).