Hi everyone,
I'm looking for any info about my 4x great grandfather Demetrius Donnell. I believe Donnell is his anglicised name as I'm fairly certain he came from Greece to Australia, although I'm not sure what passage he took. I have no information about any family he may have left behind.
He was known as "Peter the Greek" on the South Coast of NSW. From information I have gathered from newspaper articles and NSW police gazettes, he was about 71 years old when he "died" in 1903 so his birth year would be about 1832. Demetrius and his son Peter Donnell were fisherman in Merimbula, NSW who went missing and were presumed drowned at sea. He doesn't have a death certificate but there is an intestate case file at the NSW State Archives that I haven't accessed yet.
I don't have any information about his life before he came to Australia. The earliest info I have found of him in Australia is in newspaper articles about the Admella shipwreck in South Australia in 1859 when he was awarded a medal for rescuing survivors.
By 1862 he was in Broulee, NSW and married Teresa Trainer. I have found 3 birth certificates of his children, all born in Broulee, NSW. Theresa Anastasia Aspricia Donnell, my 3x great grandmother (who I think is recorded as Female Donnell) b. 1863, Laurence b. 1864, Horatia b. 1866 (no future records). There is no birth record of his son Peter Donnell who was about 30 when he died along with his father in 1903.
His daughter Theresa's marriage to William Lewis is recorded in the Sydney Anglican Parish registers which state that her father's name is Peter Donnell, a fisherman and her mother's name is Mary Downer. He did go by the name "Peter the Greek," but I hadn't heard the name Mary Downer before.
I know Demetrius was an old, well known figure in communities up and down the South Coast. On January 9th 1903, Demetrius and Peter Donnell went out fishing off Pambula, New South Wales where they were presumed drowned.
Thanks,
Georgia
