Gunning & District Historical Society

Hannah Luxon: Colonial Servant by Garry Norman Smith Hannah Barnes was born in Northumberland, England in 1830, the daughter of William and Margaret Barnes. She was baptised at Earsdon, Northumberland on 16 April 1831. Hannah Barnes married William Luxon (1819-1884) in 1850. The England census of 1851 records that Hannah and William and their 10-month-old son, Edward, were living at North Shields, Northumberland. William was a joiner and cabinet maker. On 29 January 1853, the Luxon family arrived in the colony of New South Wales aboard the Tamar . The voyage had taken 100 days without any stopovers. The Luxor Family listed on the 'Tamar', 1853 Hannah and William were to have at least six children, including Edward. Not long after their arrival, Hannah and William left Sydney for the Yass district. Five of their children were born in the colony and their births were registered at Yass. In 1855 the Luxons were among the subscribers to the...

By Matt Friend 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 me at the time (those detailing members of the Brown, Whittington, Noakes and Alchin families) there was a small note at the bottom crediting the information provided upon those pages to a bible that was, at the time the author put the book together, in the possession of Isabell Alchin (nee Whittington). Mention of the Bible as it appears in the Holgate Family Genealogy Book by Daphne Holgate Isabell Alchin was my Nanna, and when she died in 1996 the contents of her home, in Jobson Street Dalton, were sorted, moved into storage or dispersed among family. It was possible then that the bible, mentione...

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...

Henry Lawson and "The Times Bakery" on the disused $10 Note Article by Garry Norman Smith When Charles Alchin (1837-1908) married Mary Stear (1843-1897) in the Wesleyan Church at Gunning on 22 March 1860, they “immediately” set about having at least twelve children between 1861 and 1886. One of those children was my great grandfather, Edward Alchin (1863-1941). Home for this branch of the Alchin family was initially Oolong Creek, later Chain of Ponds and enduringly “Pine Range” near Gunning. Charles became a freehold farmer from the late 1850s, also running cattle into the 1880s and 1890s. Charles Alchin (1837-1908)   Mary Alchin (nee Stear) (1843-1897). Photo supplied by Garry Smith. It is so good to be able to gaze upon images of my great, great grandparents. Try as I have there remains a complete absence of great-grandparental images of Edward Alchin and Elizabeth Ann Alchin (nee Bailey) (1872-1964), albeit I met Elizabeth Ann on a precious few occasio...

Ambrose Alchin (1800-1877) and John Alchin (1821-1901). Land on Oolong Creek was first made available for sale by auction in 1851, although several farmers had already taken up selections there prior to that year – men such as Simeon Lord (land grant) and Thomas Brown (land purchase). Announcement of Land Auctions, Goulburn Herald and County of Argyle Advertiser, 25 October 1851, p. 4. The location of land in these years was always described according to creeks, for example, near “Blackeney [Blakney] Creek”, “commencing at Pudman Creek”, “at Jerrawa Creek, near the head of Oolong Creek” or “at Oolong Creek or Chain of Ponds”. It was valuable to know where these and other water courses started and finished. Ambrose Alchin (1800-1877) and his sons John Alchin (1821-1901), William James Alchin (1827-1918) and Charles Alchin (1837-1908) were active in land transactions from the 1850s and into the 1860s at Oolong Creek. Dalton and Oolong Creek were the “seats” of the...

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 ...