FAMILY TREEfa
My parents were Colin William Turner and Kathleen Mavis Thompson and this is our story.
TURNER / DRAYDON
FAMILY PORTRAIT of ELIZABETH ISABELLA TURNER (nee STORMER) & JOHN RICHARD COULSEN TURNER (My Great Grandparents) with their children at their residence at La-Range Dalveen, near Stanthorpe.
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This is the only photo of the family in existence, that I know of, and of my Grandfather George Thomas Turner (top right). I don't know of any photos that predate this one, so this is a very special photo. I've done my best to restore it. It was a small 6 x 4 inch faded photograph that was found among a mountain of photos inherited from Aunty Mary (Dad's sister), and aren't we grateful to the person who had the foresight to write names on the back of the photo. If only all the photos I have were so lucky. It reads:
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"The John Turner family "La-Range" Dalveen.
Back row from left: Bob, Bill, Kate, Sam, George. Front row: Charlie, Mrs Turner, Violet, Syd, Mr Turner, Mary (Jack is missing)."
Note that Charlie and Mary were twins. Florence Sophia is missing as she died in 1892.
THOMPSON / WRIGHT
These are the oldest photos we have of my Great-grandparents: Robert Wright and Margaret Buttner.
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Robert was born in Scotland on 17 March 1850 and died in Leyburn on 25 May 1931. Whereas Margaret was born in April 1867 in Leyburn and died on 15 January 1934 in Leyburn.
Margaret's father, Francis Buttner was born in 1832, died 2 Sept 1864 in Leyburn and had emigrated from Auma, Saxony (German7).
Margaret's, mother Hanora Liddy was born in 1836 County Clare, Ireland, and died 10 December 1868 in Leyburn.
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Robert and Margaret married in 1886 and had 12 children. One of these was Margaret who married Robert Thompson and had 9 children of her own.
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In 1984 Chris Coleborn (cousin on the Wright side) compiled a wonderful "History of Robert Wright and his descendants in Australia". Full of stories and insights, I'll be reproducing it in full inside for all to see.
So it is a big hearty welcome to the Turner / Thompson family history project - here are the "rellies", all sorted and accessible to any of us, who like me, often struggle to piece together the ancestral roots and make sense of this vast web of familial connections.
I enjoy hearing stories from days gone by, and seeing the faces of our ancestors. Time seems to be moving quickly. I wish I'd written things down, remembered the tales, tall and true of pioneering life, the bush stories, the funny anecdotes that were the hallmark of the early generations surviving the harsh realities of life in a new country. So, I would love your help with fleshing out the scant dribs and drabs of information I have, sharing your photos, re-telling the stories, etc.
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I love seeing the old photos. I can scan them into the computer and put them on a website for anyone to see. Especially the very very old ones , I hope you might either email them to me or entrust me with the originals so that I can scan them in myself. And I will restore any that you might find in need of a touch up (when time permits). Also, I would encourage you to write names, dates, occasion, on the backs of your photos so they don't risk ending up in a "who's this!" pile.
I am excited to be finally taking this first step into collating Family Tree information. I had to find a place to put it all, to digitalise, so my existing website seems a convenience place to start. For confidentiality/privacy reasons I have "password protected" entry to our information. Once you click on the relevant TURNER or THOMPSON link, you will enter a Password to access the page. So, please drop me an email or a text message and I'll pass it on.
My goal is to have a digitalised version of a Turner & Thompson family tree filled with as many early photos and stories, names, dates, etc. as possible. And ultimately, a year or so down the track, I will put it all into a beautiful hard-covered book and hopefully print many dozens of copies.
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Thanks in advance for your contribution in whatever form.
Stay tuned... this is a ongoing project!
Christine Turner
February 2018
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