Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries

 There are many dynasties that call Rookwood "home" such as the Hordern's and Fairfax's to name a few. Today's blog highlights another such dynasty where many of the family are buried in the cemetery. BRENT CLEMENTS RODD Brent was born in December 1809 at Barnstaple Devonshire England, the third son and youngest child of John Tremayne Rodd and his wife Bridget. After his wife died in 1818, John made the decision to immigrate to Australia with his four children in 1821. When the "Tiger" called in to Cape Town in South Africa, his eldest, Lucy, left the ship to marry William Pope and return to England.  John and his sons continued to Hobart arriving in January 1822 and then transferred to another ship arriving in Sydney in April that year. John was a hydraulic engineer and was initially Assistant Surveyor but owing to an injury three years later became Superintendent of works at Newcastle and later a successful pastoralist in the Hunter region with land in...

 So many headstones throughout the Necropolis state "accidently killed" or similar words to that effect. We forget just how dangerous going to work to earn a "quid" in order to put food on the table was. This week I have chosen two instances of stonemasons who never made it home. Thank goodness for OH&S! GEORGE WILLIAM KINDER George was born in @1857 in Lancashire, England to Henry, a stonemason and his wife, Mary. He was the third son of eight children. He followed in his father’s footsteps training to be a stonemason and came to these shores alone in 1883 as an assisted immigrant (meaning his passage was subsidised or paid for via one of the several schemes in operation at the time.) A few years later on the 23rd of December 1886 George married Mary Anne Flynn in the Congregational Church in the inner Sydney suburb of Glebe. The had two children in quick succession, Alice and William, followed in 1889 by Henry and a young girl named Myee Helen i...

 Well, what a splendid medal result for Australia in Paris so now it's onward to the Paralympics starting later this month. Another event to load up the return plane with a lot of metal! I hope so. I did not intend to publish another blog about a person whose origins were French, but this person ancestry was removed from that country via a few generations. CHARLES EDWARD DE BOOS  Charles was born in May 1819 in London to Abraham Charles de Boos and his wife Mary Ann. He was the first of seven children. There is reputedly a link to a French Count but his 3 times Grandfather, Abraham de Boos was born in Normandy to a family of the Protestant faith who fled to England in the early 1700's to escape persecution in a Catholic France. The family like many other Huguenots settled in the Spitalfields area of east London and were heavily involved in aspects of the silk industry especially in relation to weaving cloth. Abraham married Madeliene Eude in 1716 in the French Huguenot Church ...

Allez, Allez Australie - as we chase those medals and what special medals they are. Designed by LVMH jeweller, Chaumet, each contains a small piece of the original iron from the Eiffel Tower in its centre with the colour of the medal radiating out from that point in a hexagonal style. Tres magnifique et elegant! We are at the halfway point of the Games and this week's blog, the second in French related ones, highlights another French man who made Australia his home. EDMOND MARIE MARIN DE LA MESLEE Edmond was briefly mentioned in the blog published on the 24th of June, but this piece will go into more detail and also highlight his wife and her ancestors. Edmond was born on the 8th of November 1853 to Colonel Edmond la Meslee and his wife Amelie in Nantes, a city on the Loire River in Upper Brittany, a region of Western France. Nantes is considered to be the birthplace of the Surrealist art movement and the third highest ranking city in France after Paris and Lyon. It is also the lar...