How many members are from Queensland

Question

Hi Everybody,

I am curious as to how many members reside in Queensland, Australia or have connections or relatives who resided or worked in North Queensland, Australia. I live in North Queensland and have noticed that there actually is very little about North Queensland on Wikitree, either as profiles or Free Space profiles or even projects, so far. I have been personally been researching the development of the area which includes Townsville, Ravenswood, Charters Towers, Ayr, Home Hill and the Burdekin River area which includes the Burdekin Dam. Townsville, which was established in 1866 was the port of call and entry point during the northern '''gold rush''' period. It has been a fascinating journey, which includes the tragic destruction of the '''Yongala''' during a cyclone in 1911, with no survivors, and also the sinking of the HMS Pandora off the North Queensland coast, during her return journey in 1791 with 14 captured '''HMS Bounty''' mutineers.  If there are any out there I would love to hear from you.

Comments

My mother was Townsville born, as was her brother (both now deceased).  My Uncle's wife was from the Cairns area. My younger brother was one of those who were there for the commissioning of HMAS Cairns back in 1979/1980 (I forget exactly when).  

My son was born a Queenslander.  I lived in Qld long enough I consider myself more a Queenslander than my birth state (although I still have a connection to it .. especially as, right now, my daughter, her husband (a Rockhampton-ite) and their son live there).  Unfortunately, I don't currently live in either.

Mum's ashes were scattered off Magnetic Island, as that's where she and her mates would sit at times, watching the "lights" from the fighting in the Coral Sea (or so her unfinished memoirs say).

I have rellies in the Ayr, Charters Towers, Townsville areas, but my Uncle's lot are now down around Brissie and the Sunshine Coast.

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Hi Melanie,

Thanks for your reply.

It's interesting that your mother's ashes were scattered in the sea. Nice thought.

I am thinking about an Ayr One Place Study or maybe Burdekin One Place Study. I'm not quite sure what I should do yet. I might have to pick some brains. Ayr started out as the port of  Wickham in the early 1860's on the Rita Island side of the Burdekin River and kept getting washed away in Burdekin River floods. About that time Robert Towns, one of the founding fathers of Townsville had property selected in Jarvisfield near Rita Island. So my problem is that everything and everybody in the area meshes in together. Townsville then became the go to port for the gold rushes of Ravenswood and Charters Towers.

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I have McConnachie, a different spelling of a sound-alike name (I'd need to check my Mum's notes for cousin Rita McCon-something), Cosgrove, Williamson, possibly Crewe (not sure where Gr-Gran's brother ended up .. he may have moved south to Brissie area), possibly Gordon, still up in the area.  (There are other names, but I don't have Mum's notes handy.)  There may also be some Newtons up there still, as well.

Granddad is buried Belgian Gardens, as are a number of the family.  Mum's mother and Grandmother ended up in Bris .. Grandma Dolly is buried Toowong, not sure about Mum's Gran (again, I'd need to look up the file).

My Uncle's wife was from the Cairns area .. her father being what was known back in the day as "White Russian".  (Apparently there was some huge secret about him and we were never to mention that he had "jumped ship" or anything else about him.)

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Hi Melanie,

Interesting. Might you be related to the McConnachie's from here in Ayr, Queensland ?

David.

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Most likely yes.

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Sweet, My grandparent's were friends with the McConnachies. Small world.

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Alec/Alex McConnachie, died 1980, buried Ayr Cemetery, is my uncle-by marriage.  His wife, Daisy, was my grandmother's sister.  I'm blood-related to their kids, but only step-related to his kids by first wife Margaret née Christie.

There should be some O'Farrell folk around about there, too .. and Cosgroves.  (They're all related to each other and to me.)

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Hi Melanie,

If it's any interest to you and your research, you are able to access the Burdekin Burial Register online. Just google it.

David.

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That's where I found that Uncle Alec and Aunty Daisy were buried together.

Unlike my grandparents, with one on Belgian Gardens T'ville and the other in Toowong, Bris.

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Hi Melanie, I’m in NQld but my mum is a McConachy from Victoria (around Geelong originally).

There is a website themcconachyclan dot com that may have something of relevance to Queensland McConnachie’s.

Cheers Peter Cogan Cogan-457

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G'day, Peter -- I have TWO different spellings of the name, not related that we know of. My grand-uncle was from Towie, Aberdeenshire (died Ayr, Queensland), and he was the McConnachie.  So, through his 2nd wife, some of his kids were my mum's cousins, and their mutual cousin married a McConochie.  (She'd been an O'Farrell prior.)

(It all makes sense in my head!)

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Hi Melanie,

Lol, yes sorry for contacting on a zombie thread. I did not realise the thread was so old.

It appears there are lots of McConachy's and the variants out there.

Cheers Peter

Answer 1

I'm a south-east Queenslander, raised on the Darling Downs, currently living in Brisbane. My husband's family are north Queenslanders - Ingham, Cairns, Giru, Ayr, Ravenswood, Home Hill, Townsville... I'll get to them one day!

Answer 2

Hello David, I live in Queensland and have relatives around the Yeppoon Area. I am not in close contact with them so can't tell you much about them except for what is available on the Latter Day Saints (LDS) Mormons site Familysearch.org.

The is a lot of information available on the Australian Memorial WW2 Nominal Roll. You can search by Name or by Place

The following people with the surname of Urquhart are as follows

George William 9 February 1905 Charters Towers

James Adamson 27 September 1923 Charters Towers

There are others in the surrounding areas and there are 162 Urquhart's on this list.

Cheers Arthur Ross Geissmann, Burpengary East, Queensland, Australia

Comments

Hi Ross,

Thank you for your reply. My actual interest is not primarily the Urquhart surname or just surnames, but people and places. It is more of connecting with people with interest in the area and collaboration aspect with a view to getting more North Queensland into Wikitree. Ludwig Leichhardt, for example, he is not on Wikitree. He and his party traveled up along the Queensland coast to the interior of the Northern Territory. I have started to put together a collection on my profile until I work out what I will do with it, maybe on a free space page.

David.

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David the Australia Project has recently reformed and are looking for people to assist.

You could offer to set up a Queensland or North Queensland sub-project? I also notice the Explorers of Australia needs a team leader.

Answer 3

Hi David, Personally, my sister lives in Townsville, My great gr parents were from Rockhampton, my brother was born Ipswich. I have recently joined Rockhampton group on Facebook and had  posted a picture of the Fitzroy Bridge which had attached stats.  Over 75 people viewed or commented on the pic.  You may find  something like this beneficial.  I have noticed many  talented, knowledgeable people on these sites.  I also am trying  to find out more about Paddy Hannon who family lived there.

Comments

Hi Rionne,

Thanks for your reply.

I have a gr.grandmother who was born in Rockhampton in 1880 and have not done much research into the beginnings of Rockhampton as yet. I like investigating the history of places and looking at old photographs.

Answer 4

Hi David, I live and work in the Mackay region but have sort of ended up here by accident and all my Australian ancestry is from South Australia, Victoria and NSW, so I've never really investigated Queensland much.

Comments

Hi John,

Thank you for your replies.

I have joined with Gillian Thomas on a project about the Assisted and Bounty Immigrants. I might have a little think about a Queensland sub project. I also have quite a lot of relatives in the Young area of NSW that I haven't added to wikitree. They have spread out and around now tho.

Answer 5

G'day David.  South east Queenslander / New South Welshman.  First of my Queensland family were pre-separation Scottish emigrants in the 1850s: Thomas and Barron, but not the North Queensland Barron Falls family.  A few recent family members have ventured into the tropics, around Charters Towers and Atherton.  Regards, Ken

Comments

Hi Kenneth,

Very interesting. For future reference, I have started a One Place Study of Ravenswood, Queensland, in case you come across it during your research.

David

Answer 6

Hi David

I have a lot of connection to Townsville, Gr Grandfather was a baker and confectioner who started his business in Flinders Street abt. 1861. By 1888 he was mentioned in the writings about Townville pioneers 1888, he was employing nine people. This is from the microfiche available in Townsville Library.  My mother was born in Townsville but moved to Gympie as a small child, leaving the older members of the family in Townsville.  

Another Gr Grandfather was living in Charters Towers but fell down a mine shaft in 1908, his son, a sailor lived in Charters Towers from 1902.

My husband's family were also originally from Charters Towers his father took his lovely lady friend to Magnetic Island for the day, where he proposed to her. They married and had 8 children.

My brother now lives near Townsville after being in Mt Isa for over 25 years.

There are many of  families descendants still living in Townsville.

Heather

Comments

Hi Heather,

Sounds like you have interesting stories to document on your profiles.

We will put it out there when the project pages are up so you and anybody else interested can connect profiles to the pages.

David.

Answer 7

Hi David, and everyone else, Veronica and I are planning teams for each of the Colonies/States as part of the Australia project restructure. So we'd love any of you to get involved on the Queensland team. Basically you would be able to focus on anything Queensland-based either individually or as a team. So if you've identified that North Queensland is not well covered then that would be an excellent task.

Comments

That sounds fantastic Gillian.

Answer 8

I'm a sporadic family researcher from around Rockhampton - hardly North Queensland, but there certainly doesn't seem to be much for this area either.

(Anyone interested in the Gracemere Johnson and Jones families? ;)

Comments

Don't know those families.  (My son-in-law was a Rockhampton boy.)

Answer 9

I was born in Bundaberg. I’ve now retired, and spend about half the year in Brisbane and the other half at my place in New Zealand.

My father’s family (Voges, Rackemann and Jensen) all lived in the Bundaberg and Maryborough areas. There were quite a few Rackemann siblings and the descendants are spread out all over Queensland now. My mother’s mother’s family (Weier) settled in the Lockyer Valley and also have quite a few descendants.

My only contact with north Queensland is an uncle on my mother’s side (George Reaston), who was born in Mackay.

Comments

Hi Kevin,

I'm sorry to say that your answer has only just now arrived in my inbox. Gotta love technology!. It's great to finally meet you, and I'm looking forward to any further collaboration.

Regards,

David.

Answer 10

This sounds like a great project David

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The history of early settlement could become a good reference point for families that come from that area. There could be many examples of Australian regional projects in Wikitree but one that I like is https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Kangaroo_Island_Early_Settlers

Good luck!

Answer 11

Hi David,

I'm a Queenslander and my sister and I spent most of our childhood at Brookfield, North Brisbane (as I suspect you did?). My Queensland ancestors are from Ipswich though, not North Queensland.

Cheers,
Peter.