Our Families
Roberts.......Lisle.......Hodgson.......Jones
Many of us who decide to delve into family history come across all types of situations and I am sure we all find branches with blank walls or interesting little mysteries. My paternal great grandfather, Hugh Roberts came from Carnarvon, Wales, sometime before Queensland became a State (1859). A Hugh Roberts aged 21 years arrived in Brisbane aboard the ship "Ascendant" in 1853. He is listed as a single male passenger, possibly our Hugh? The mystery here is that he married not as Hugh Owen Roberts but as Hugh Robert Owens. Both he and his wife Isabella Riddell could not write and signed their marriage certificate with an "X". Did the clerk who wrote out the certificate get the names wrong or did Hugh give his names the wrong way? (a fellow researcher told me once that the Welsh were never sure which way their names should go). What ever happened, their first two children Robert, my grandfather and his sister Grace were registered as Owens. All later births were registered as Roberts. In the Queensland Post Office Directory, Hugh is listed as a selector in the Glasshouse area from 1892 to 1905. I understand a selector selected a piece of land that was government owned and agreed to farm it for a period of time. If at the end of that time if he was successful the land was signed over to him. I found at the Queensland Archives records of two selections to Hugh Roberts at Beerwah, number 29 , 306 acres, Registered No. 4334 on June 2 1883 and number 30 ,184 acres, Registered No. 4013 on June 4 1884. I don't know what happened to this land . In 1906 the Post Office Directory lists, Hugh and Isabella as living at Park Street, Albion, Brisbane. This is where my grandparents, Robert and Sarah lived (it is Breakfast Creek rather than Albion). My father went to the old Breakfast Creek State Primary School. There was a Chinese Temple nearby and my father and his brothers used to steal the food left there by the worshippers for their gods. The Joss House is still there beside the Albion Park Raceway. In 1906 my great grandmother, Isabella, died aged 72 years and within four days my grandmother Sarah also died. ,Sarah was 42 years old when she died and pregnant with her tenth child. Poor Sarah she was probably worn out looking after her family and aged in-laws. My father William was about 14 years when his mother died. He went to live with his oldest sister Isabella and her husband Herbert Rickets, at Ada Street, Windsor. Great grandfather Hugh remarried in 1907 to a Sarah Howden ,about whom I know nothing. Hugh and Isabella are buried in Lutwyche cemetery, also in their grave is their small granddaughter Mabel Roberts, a daughter of Hugh Junior. She died of diphtheria on the train between North and South Pine, aged one year and eleven months. Her parents were probably taking her to hospital in Brisbane. The headstone on this grave was removed in 1975 as it was considered dangerous. My father lived with his sister until he married. I vaguely remember Bella as she was called. I was about 5 rears old when she died in 1928, but I remember sitting on her knee and being cuddled. William my father did not go in the army in World War One. He had had pneumonia and had had a lung collapsed and two ribs removed, which must have been the treatment in those days. He was not considered fit to go in the army but was fit enough to play all sports at "A"grade level. He used to say the ground he played football on was a cow paddock all week. On Saturdays the players had to clean up the cow pats before the game. This ground became the Albion Park Raceway. He got into quite a few fights by all accounts but as a amateur boxer and wrestler he could handle himself, he had fought in amateur bouts at the old Bohemia Stadium in Stanley Street ,South Brisbane. My father's younger brothers Henry and George fought with the AIF in World War One, (Henry , 44th Battalion 28th July 1916 to 21st June 1919). The only story I know about George is that during his service overseas he met and fell in love with an Irish girl and got her pregnant. He returned to Australia, and with the help of the Roman Catholic Church she found him and came out to Australia where they were married. Her name was Lily and to distinguish her from my mother, Lillian, she was known as Irish Lil. She and George had a daughter Lilly and a son George. George senior was shot and killed whether by accident or intent is not clear, my father used to say that he shot himself. Another of life's little mysteries. Header 1 This is sample text.This is sample text. This is sample text.This is sample text. Header 2 This is sample text.This is sample text. This is sample text.This is sample text. |
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