"Anyone out there with ancestors who where Gold seekers in Victoria 1860s?".

[tornado]

My distant Cousin(miner) was from Newlyn Cornwall and he emigrated to Daylesford Victoria Australia in the 1860s . Apparently he was a gold miner (unprofessional) at the time of gold rush . So "Does anyone else have similar stories?". I expect it was hard work and a hard place to live at the time .

[Jebber]

I have letters I found with some old family papers, they written from the  Victoria gold fields in the 1860s. They were one of the reasons I started researching my family history years ago, I wanted to know what connection the writer had to my family. I eventually discovered the letters were written to the wife of one of my grandfather’s brothers, she was the writers sister.

The letters were very difficult to read as some were written three times over the same page. Written once as normal then turned 45%, with more writing, then turned  25% and written over again.

They make fascinating reading as they describe the life and the hardships they endured. He goes on to describe the cost of buying the essentials of life. They were a tough lot in those days.

[tornado]

Hi Jebber . Thanks for the reply . I think the reason they wrote all over the pages was because paper was so expensive . So they had to fill in as much as they could . I agree on the hardships back then but the Men where ever hopeful of a good catch(gold) I believe some Died through the process .

[Jebber]

I also have a distant cousin many times removed, who went out to Victoria in the 1860s and made his fortune mining quartz, he became known as  Australia’s king of quartz. He was the director of thirty eight mines. He also became involved in gold mines and became a millionaire. The son  of a soap and  candle maker, he went to Australia with two brothers, one of whom had been a sailor on the convict ships and suggested they go and seek their fortunes.

Sadly too far removed to affect my family’s fortunes 

[KGarrad]

My 2nd Great-Grand-Uncle, Henry Garrad (b1830 Colchester, Essex) died on the trek to the Goldfields drowned crossing floods at Wangaratta, South Australia.

On approaching Wangaratta, the township at the point where the road crosses the Ovens, we
found that the flats adjacent to the run, several miles in extent, were flooded. The increasing
warmth of the weather had caused the snow on the mountains (among which the Ovens springs into existence) to melt, and the river was so much flooded that the back water had spread over the line of the ground over which the road passed. There was no help for lt. If we waited it might be worse the next day, so through it we went. A great many teams were waiting, and we all commenced to pass over together. For three or four miles we waded through the water, now up to our armpits, now to our knees, sometimes on a hard bottom, very often in mud, where our horses feet sank so deeply that they could with
difficulty withdraw them. Now and then we had spells on dry patches of ground not inundated by the flood. The danger and difficulty in all this were very great, for the horses as well as ourselves stumbled frequently over logs and roots, and occasionally the wheels of the drays went into great holes, entirely immersing the vehicle. As the flood was subsiding there was a strong current running. The day after we passed through, a digger on his way to the Ovens was drowned in attempting to push his way through. He went into a deep hole, and not being able to swim was drowned.
29th September 1853

[tornado]

Keep the stories coming , they are fascinating social history insights . We all think times are hard now , but imagine back then . Desperate people do desperate things . I am sorry for K Garrads story , what an ordeal and I  find hope in Jebbers ancestry . I know how you feel about not gaining from a success in the Family .

[Viktoria]

Not Victoria but N.S.W.

Three brothers and families left Pinchbeck Fen Lincolnshire in the 1850’s .
Sailed in “ The Harriet” .
Another brother sailed a little later ,he was a Methodist Minister.
They settled in Bathurst and Sofala.

They were brothers of my Great Grandmother on my father’s side .
Their parents and siblings would never see them again, but their grandchildren visited Lincolnshire  some years later.

How brave ,given the privations on board and at the Goldfield camps .
There are thousands of descendants now.
Family tree in a book an inch thick.

Viktoria.

[Kaybron]

My husband's paternal great grandfather and great great grandfather were on the gold trail.  Thomas Hill (1825-1894), his 2 sons (Thomas and William) and daughter (Emma), were in the Daylesford area for a few years in the 1850/1860s and later moved to Milparinka in NSW.  Gold was discovered in Milparinka and for a few years the family lived there.  Emma Hill, met Selmar Heuzenroeder in Milparinka and they married there when Emma was 19.  Selmar and his brother Carl operated a store and made regular trips to Wilcannia to pick up supplies.  Emma and Selmar in the 1890s moved to Birdwood in SA and later settled in Silverton and Broken Hill. 

Thomas Hill decided to move to Coolgardie WA in search of gold in 1890.  Tragically Thomas committed suicide shortly after moving to the area.  Thomas had been robbed a week before his death and had to borrow money from friends. After their father's death his 2 sons moved to Coolgardie, one settling in the area and the other later moving to South Australia.

[tonepad]

Father who deserted his family for gold fever:

Barnabas Stratford, 42, making hoops for use in the Faversham, Kent, gunpowder industry left his family and went to Australia to join the gold rush in 1852. His wife Mary (who later remarried) and his two sons Thomas and Edward never heard from him again. Research by another Family Historian revealed that he died on St. George's Day, 1898 after two years illness in Inglewood, Victoria.

I am descended from the eldest daughter of Barnabas, who married in Kent seven years after Barnabas disappeared. Her father is recorded as a Hoop Maker, but not as deceased on the marriage register.


Tony