Gunning & District Historical Society

Hazel Doris Alchin with nephew Garry Norman Smith By Garry Norman Smith Hazel Doris Alchin is arguably the oldest living direct descendant of Ambrose Alchin (1800-1877) and Ann Alchin (nee Waters) (1799-1858). This image is of a woman who recently turned 95 years old. Hazel is from two long lines of pioneer families: the Thompsons of West Pennant Hills and the Alchins of Oolong Creek and Gunning. Roy Irwin Alchin (1922) and Doris Irene Thompson (1919) While Hazel’s father, Roy Irwin Alchin (1897-1976) was born at Gunning, she has never actually visited the town.  (l-r) Daphne, Doris, Hazel, Roy, Joyce & Ellen Alchin c1938 Charles Alchin and Mary Alchin (nee Stear) Roy married Doris Irene Thompson (1902-1990) in 1922 at Dural, New South Wales; Hazel was born that same year at Dural. Hazel and her four sisters lived their early lives in The Hills District. Her grandparents, Edward Alchin (1863-1941) and Elizabeth Ann Alchin (nee Bailey) (1872-1964), ...

Post afternoon tea with Edith and John Medway at Crookwell Shared Ancestors, Living Relatives By Garry Norman Smith (Images by Garry and Malia Smith) The research sources you use for your family history are many and varied. While little can match primary sources such as historical documents, eyewitness accounts, diaries and family photographs, it is the fortunate face-to-face meetings with people who share a family story that are arguably most valuable. Contributing to the Gunning and District Historical Society (GDHS) Blog has brought several personal contacts. These contacts extend and enrich the research I have done on my Alchin family in Gunning, Dalton, Jerrawa, Crookwell and other places. Morning or afternoon tea is such an enjoyable way to talk about family connections, such as I was delighted to do with newly-found cousins John Medway and Edith Medway (nee Clark) at Crookwell in late 2017. I uncovered, thanks to Edith – the real family historian in her family ...

Land, adjacent to Walsh’s Road, Dalton, once owned by Ambrose Alchin (Photo by Author) In the 1850s my Alchin family procured land out along Oolong Creek, to the north of what is now the town of Dalton. In the years 1852 to 1863 Ambrose Alchin and his sons transacted several purchases of land. Location of land in photo above (Source: Upper Lachlan Shire Council Road Map; Department of Lands, 2010) By cross-referencing old land maps with today’s Google Maps, I closely located portions of Alchin land in 1864 and plotted them onto a modern-day map; frustrating fun but the exercise enabled me to recently drive through Dalton onto Walsh’s Road and photograph the “Alchin panorama” adjacent to the very dusty road. Near Oolong Creek, along Walsh's Road (Photo by Author) When Ambrose Alchin died at Oolong Creek on 13 November 1877, his last will and testament (dated 26 October 1872) left his Oolong Creek land to his second wife Emma Alchin and five children. Emma wa...

Arthur Montague Alchin. From a postcard sent to his mother from France, dated April 1917 (Photo from Garry Smith's collection) The battle of Passchendaele Ridge took place in terrible weather, with torrential rain that filled shell holes to neck deep and created mud so thick it often stopped men in their tracks and clogged their weapons. Arthur Montague Alchin prior to enlistment (Photo from Garry Smith's collection) Private Arthur Montague Alchin, No. 2027, A.I.F. 35th Battalion, was among the shower of earth, mud and barbed wire that accompanied the German bombardment on 12 October 1917. Machine gun fire from pill boxes cut down soldiers as they emerged from trenches and shell holes. Many men were already suffering the effects of mustard gas. Letter from Arthur Montague Alchin to his mother Louisa Susanna Alchin. His father Albert Noah Alchin died in 1913. From Goulburn Evening Penny Post, Thursday 26 October 1916, p. 2. Arthur would have reali...

Garry Smith at the Irish Famine Memorial at Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney (Photo by Malia Smith - provided) By Garry Smith: The 18th Annual Commemoration of The Great Irish Famine was held on Sunday 27 August 2017 at the Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney. Beginning in 1845 and lasting for six years, the potato famine killed over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused another million to flee the country. During the early 1830s, approximately 3000 women accepted the British government’s offer of an assisted passage to Australia. Many of these women were educated, articulate and keen to escape the stultifying effects of their family and demonstrate their enterprise. By contrast, the young orphan girls from the workhouses across Ireland during the potato famine were very young, very poor and refugees of a calamitous famine that ravaged Ireland. In the Ennis, County Clare workhouse, built in the period 1839-41, there was an overwhelming crush of famine victims wanting ...

The first bridge over the Oolong Creek at Dalton village a few years after its official opening in 1896 [ Photo: Lisa Wiseman, Gunning Landcare Blog / CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 AU ] By Guest Blogger, Garry Norman Smith My family history research – working title: "The View Across Oolong Creek" – focusses on the Alchin family which came to the colony of New South Wales aboard the Palmyra in 1838. Ambrose Alchin (1800-1877) brought most of his family to the area towards the confluence of Jerrawa and Oolong Creeks in the early 1850s. Ambrose and his sons John Alchin (1821-1901) and William James Alchin (1827-1913) were land holders on Oolong Creek from the 1850s. The site for the town of Dalton was not yet fixed. The announcement of the town was made in 1862. Notice of Town of Dalton,  NSW Government Gazette, 27 June 1862 (No.109), p. 1143 Given the preponderance of Wesleyans in the area – including the Alchins -, the name “Wesley Vale” was suggested for the town but ...

Graves of Robert Bayley and Lucy Jane Bayley, Dalton Methodist Cemetery (Photo by Garry Smith) Ann Bayley (nee Alchin) died at Leichhardt, Sydney on 4 July 1914. She was born in Staplehurst, Kent and baptised on 7 July 1832. She came to the colony of New South Wales with her family of Bounty Immigrants in 1838 aboard the Palmyra. The Sun (Sydney), Sunday 5 July 1914, p. 4. Ambrose and Ann Alchin brought their family to the Gunning District in the late 1840s. They settled at Jerrawa. In 1855 at the age of 23 years Ann Alchin married Thomas Bayley at Gunning. Their son, Robert Bayley, was born in 1857; he married Lucy Jane Waters at Gunning in 1883. Window dedicated to Robert and Lucy Bayley The Uniting Church in Gunning features a window dedicated to Robert and Lucy Bayley. Their graves in the Methodist Section of the Dalton Cemetery are part of a cluster of graves of the Bayley and Waters families. The headstones and general grave presentations are within a ...

Keith Brown, Ann Darbyshire and Garry Smith inside the Gunning Uniting Church (Photograph by Malia Smith) As a descendant of the Alchin Family of Gunning, Dalton, Jerrawa and various other places, I was pleased to visit the Uniting Churches at Gunning and Dalton in early March this year. Malia and I were warmly welcomed by Keith Brown and Ann Darbyshire and given access to both churches. It was a rewarding opportunity to see the interior of both places of worship. Robert & Lucy Bayley Window Of particular interest was the stained-glass window in the Gunning church dedicated to Robert and Lucy (nee Waters) Bayley. It is always gratifying to find such an artefact that has such relevance to my own family history research. Having the opportunity to examine the architecture and interior fittings of both churches underlines the simplicity of these churches but yet makes clear the ethos of the Wesleyan/Methodist approach to the “business” of worship. The contrast ...

Garry Smith (left) presents Arthur's Photograph to Peter Morgan at the Australian War Memorial In 2009 I had the great honour and excitement to be able to provide a photograph of Arthur Montague Alchin to the Australian War Memorial. 2027 Private A.M. Alchin 35th Australian Infantry Battalion  Arthur’s photograph was discovered among many other family images left by my aunt Daphne Brocklehurst (nee Alchin); she had “inherited” them from her mother Doris Alchin (nee Thompson). Fortunately Daphne was quite a hoarder – she even had her first-ever pay slip from 1948! Such behaviour is a real positive for the family historian. Arthur Montague Alchin (1898-1917) was a faithful son to his parents – Albert Noah Alchin and especially his mother, Louisa Susannah Alchin (nee Borman). He sent a postcard from France to his widowed mother in 1917 with kisses inscribed by his own hand, just months before he was killed at Passchendaele, Belgium on 12 October 1917. Arthur’s uncle...