Australian Genealogists

Comment

Comment by Doug Hinton on July 22, 2009 at 12:44am

INTRODUCTION
We temper our understanding of past cultures by our perceptions of ourselves in our own time envelope. When my mother died in 1992, I began to look back into the past of the Hinton family. Initially, my efforts were haphazard, lacking structure, with little direction. However, as I started to fit the family puzzle together, I found a richness of culture not only in the Hinton family but related families. My journey started with an idea, “Who am I?” and where did my family come from. In answering the second question first, genealogical research draws together the English origins of those Hinton ancestors from the Oxfordshire area and their Australian descendents. There are also many directly interconnected families in the Hinton story, each with a tapestry of triumphs and loss. Some include the Appleton mine accident at Ipswich; loss of children at sea, but also romantic stories like Sarah Simmond’s affair with a sea captain or the mystery disappearance of Mary Harding Harris. The Hinton story is a story of many Australian families. My early work brought together two factors. Hinton’s lived much of their life in the area of Mt Coot-tha. As a boy, my friends and I spent many hours wondering Mt Coot-tha. It is fitting that I tell the Hinton story against the background of Mt Coot-tha. Other families who also settled in the Mt Coot-tha area had connections with the Hinton family, such as the Woolfe, Randal, Simmons, Collins and Wood families.
Writing this book gave me purpose, but more importantly, it gave me a sense of belonging. Some critics thought I displayed symptoms of obsessive, compulsive behaviour. I have uncovered a richness of life that has helped mould me into a patient, tolerant human being capable of expressing my thoughts into a format for those generations to follow. There are those who argue that the past is dead, why drag up the dead. To me, that is too simplistic in trying to understand who I am. I believe I am the sum of the lives of my forebears. To deny that is to deny one’s present existence. Taken from a different point of view, we all carry genes of our forebears. I believe it is fitting to express our genetic history relative to the present.
Broadly speaking, stories have a beginning, middle and an end. In this story, the beginning is 1711. The middle is a continuum and there is no end because future generations will have their tale to tell, perhaps built on works like this.
To better understand the way in which I see the Hinton family and its development through the ages, I need to paint a brief word picture of life in England in the period 1711-1875.
In the period 1600-1750 the general standard of living in England was relatively low, techniques of agriculture inefficient and communication cumbersome compared to the post- 1850 period. There appear to have been few health and medical services, consequently infant and adult mortality was high. In some years, severe weather conditions, combined with these factors and outbreaks of epidemic diseases, increased death rates of both infants and elderly. Consequently, net population growth was suppressed.
Conditions in England between 1860 and 1870 were one of prosperity driven by technological and social advancement. Examples cited include the building of the first underground railway in 1863; electric lighting in 1875; the bicycle in 1870; the Reform Bill of 1832; voting franchise for males; introduction of the Education Act of 1870 and the demolition of slums. This, against a background of the depression of 1873-1896 was a marvel but, unfortunately only for certain social classes. Many living in poverty such as the Hintons of Cuddesdon, were shunned by both the industrial unions and higher social classes. The perception of the poor and illiterate in England, Europe and later in Australia was that they were a burden on society because they were not fit as humans and interfered with the natural processes of society. Consequently, there appears to have been a strong movement against the granting of any social assistance to this sub-class.
The Royal Commission on Population in England estimated the growth in population in the period 1086 to 1700 to be not as rapid as in the period 1700 to 1947. Population growth in the Eighteenth Century was of the order of 50%. By comparison, post-Eighteenth Century population growth was rapid. Contributing factors to this shift in population trend included a decline in mortality rates rather than a rise in birth rates. This may have been brought about by improved nutrition and clothing, better sanitation, cleaner water supply and improvement in medical services.
England’s population multiplied 3.5 times between 1801 and 1901, driving up consumer demand, thereby increasing pressure on both agricultural and industrial production. Linked to this cycle was the need for technological improvement and a growth in capital investment. Much of this capital investment found its way into growth industries such as mills, shipbuilding and steel. England also needed to secure its colonial acquisitions by lifting investment in offshore colonies such as Australia. It could be argued that without such growth, emigration by our ancestors may not have been a consideration.
Conditions up to the depression of 1875 were such that families could afford to increase in size, proportionate to income and wealth levels. However, unskilled labourers were not in a position to grow. The hierarchy of landowners, clergy and professional men together with fringe elements of farmers, locked unskilled labourers out of wealth. This class would be subject to rental conditions that ensured their ongoing place in English society. The agricultural revolution, through amalgamation of small farmlets, draining and ditching along with mechanisation contributed to pushing unskilled labour further into poverty or migration to urban centres. “Official reporters and morally-agitated observers reported that rural labouring-class housing conditions remained generally dismal until at least the Seventies”. In 1851, 20.9% of the population of England and Wales found in agriculture. However, by 1871 this level had fallen to 14.2% and by 1881 to 11.5%.
Agriculture, forestry and fishing contributed to 22.1% of national income in 1841 declining to 14.2% by 1871. The converse occurred with mining, manufacturing and building. These factors strengthened the gulf between the haves and have-nots, the capitalists and the workers. Such gulfs permeated English institutions and may be observed by comparing the genealogical history of the upper and lower classes.
Most, but not all, ancestors of the present day Hintons and related families came from working class stock. The Gottschalks of Eschede, Germany were wheelwrights and cabinetmakers. The Hintons and Appletons who settled in Queensland were members of this sub-class in England. Most were unskilled labourers either working in agriculture or mines. Although conditions, relative to the present generation, were harsh, the standard of living improved between 1866 and 1898. For instance, a farm labourer could earn 14 shillings per week or coal miners 21 to 23 shillings per week. Today, a labourer may receive $20.00-$24.00 per hour.
This outline of general conditions in England paints a background to family life for the Hintons, Appletons and the interrelated families. These notes and the accompanying genealogical data may be likened to the structure of the human body. Genealogical data represents the backbone and rib cage of the body while the history, personalities, culture and anecdotal stories of families make up the flesh, skin and muscle.

I am the son of Ida and Ernest Hinton and the 5th Great Grandson of Thomas Hinton (1711-1796) of Cuddesdon, England. My parents were hard working and thrifty. As a baby boomer, my early life was full of adventure and simple pleasures. My family entertainment included the radio and local picture theatres. Television or computers were not in common. My sister Pam and I created our own fun through imagination. I left school at 15 to commence work with the Weather Bureau. I married my first wife, Cheryl, in 1969. After having two children together, we divorced in 1998.

We stayed in Canberra until 1986 when we moved to Mollymook after buying a small business. Peter and Melinda graduated from Wollongong University. Fortune smiled on me when I married Jane Haddock (nee Harris) in 2001. I moved back to Canberra where I now work for the Australian Federal Police.

One may ask why include background history of local Aboriginal tribes into a story of Hinton family history. The reason is that Hinton family history did not happen in a vacuum. Indigenous families inhabited Mt Coot-tha and the Guinea long before the Hintons and Collamores arrived. Their footprint, so to speak, was already there. I needed to demonstrate that tribes were pushed out of the area to be replaced by the Hintons and other families just as the Hintons were squeezed out of England.

22 July 2009

Comment by Sandra McIntosh on July 18, 2009 at 6:45pm

Hi. all
My brick wall is in WA goldfields John Wilson married Mary Jane O"Brien can not find parents of John. He managed a pub in Mulline and it is bellieved that, Mary Jane fed the railway workers in that area have no idea where John came from if any one could help please
Sandra

Comment by Glenys Heather Rankin on July 17, 2009 at 12:05am

G'Day to all. I am new to this so will probably need some help from anyone. My name is Glenys Rankin from Bli Bli, Sunshine Coast, Queensland. I am trying to research Clark, Rankin, Ahern/Ahearn, Morrison, McDougall. Thanks

Comment by Renata Nelson on July 16, 2009 at 8:45pm

Hello ,
My name is Renata Nelson and reside in Victoria, Australia,

I have been researching our direct & interelated family lines for over 20 years and it has truly become an obsession.

I thoroughly enjoy the research involved in Genealogy, especially when another brick wall crumbles!

A few years ago, I submitted a small portion, (about 20,000). of the data that I have, to Family Search.

Predominately my research revolves around, Australia, England, Ireland, Germany, East Prussia & Upper Silesia

The following are just a few of the names that I am researching:

Carpenter, Dau, Doyle, Epworth, Fairbrother, Fiella, Fryer, Gray, Hambly, Harrigold, Jolley, Kosmala, Markwell. Martin, Mew, Nelson, Olsson, Payne, Passek, Powell, Rye, Schaefer, Schodlok, Stroud, Sturzaker, Tooke, Vincent, Williams, Wilson & Young.

Regards, Renata

Comment by Laurence E Stephenson on July 16, 2009 at 4:54pm

Hi All
I am researching the following:-
Butcher...................Stroud, Gloucestershire, England
Buttigieg.................Tripoli, Libya
Fortune..................Berwickshire, Scotland
Garlick....................Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Mee.......................Kilflyn, Limerick, Ireland (Palatine)
Payne....................Washingborough, Lincolnshire, England
Ritchie...................Bonhill, Dunbartonshire, Scotland
Stephenson............Pickering, Yorkshire, England
Wittick...... ...........(Convict) Walsall, Staffordshire, England

Any one researching any of the above feel free to contact me.

Comment by Carole Sarvis on July 15, 2009 at 10:31pm

Thanks John. This could be interesting.

Comment by Wayne Glazier on July 15, 2009 at 7:56am

Thanks for the invite to join. My interests in Australia/Scotland/Ireland are Houseman, Bell, Twyford, McGowan, McGregor, Spring, Kelly and Kilkelly.

Comment by Stephen Capron on July 15, 2009 at 2:40am

I am looking to find the family name Capron

Comment by Debbie Kampowski on July 15, 2009 at 2:28am

thanks for the invite if i can be of any assistance in anyway let me know
thanks Deb

Comment by Ross James Stacey on July 14, 2009 at 11:24pm

My search is for my great-great grandfather Robert Shueard, boen in England(we think) in 1813. He came to Adelaide in 1838 from Tasmania on the Siren. We thought he may have been the convict no 1198 who was convicted in Norfolk epiphany assizes in 1830 and transported to Tasmania on the Royal George. However, the description of this man 5'7" tall does not fit because robert was well over 6ft. tall. I have searched all ancestry.com records and can not find a birth record for him. We also checked the ancestry census records to see if we could find realtives who remained in the UK after 1830 and have checked town records where Sewards and Shuards lived to see if there are any church records. I am at a dead end as to how to proceed.

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