Geoff's Great Grandparents

Samuel Drew and Jane Harris. Both of Illogan or thereabouts.

Not sure where or when these photographs were taken, but the existing reprints date from the 1930s, long after they were deceased. There is no clue as to the location of the originals.

Samuel Drew's House, Sandgate, Queensland

The Cabbage Tree Creek view of the House c.1910

The following is the official information on the Heritage listing of the house by the Queensland Government.

Former Drew Residence

Other Name		Samuel Drew's House
Place ID		602024
Status		Permanent Entry
Address		20 Wharf Street
Town/Suburb		SHORNCLIFFE
LGA		BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL

Significance

Constructed in the 1890s by American carpenters and boat-builders Samuel Drew and his sons as their family home, the place is important in illustrating the expansion of Sandgate as a town and seaside resort in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The place is closely associated with the Drew family and their contribution to local pleasure-craft construction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, further illustrating the nature of Sandgate as a bayside community.

The Former Drew Residence is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial, late 19th century artisan’s residence designed to impress, and of large timber sea-side homes in the Sandgate/Shorncliffe area in general, including in the design a tower room with views over Cabbage Tree Creek to Moreton Bay. The place exhibits a range of aesthetic characteristics, including the setting of the house adjacent to Cabbage Tree Creek; the scale, form, and materials employed; the decorative external timberwork; and the quality of the interior detailing, particularly the well-crafted joinery. The place makes a significant contribution to the streetscape, and is a local landmark.

History

This substantial timber residence with sub-floor, attic and tower, is understood to have been constructed in the 1890s, possibly in three stages, by American carpenters and boat-builders Samuel Drew and his sons Albert Edward and Frederick William, as their family home. As builders, the Drews erected many houses in the Sandgate/Shorncliffe district in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during the peak of Sandgate/Shorncliffe’s popularity as a seaside resort. They established a boat-building enterprise [constructing mostly pleasure craft] on Cabbage Tree Creek behind 20 Wharf Street, and were well known in local sailing circles.

In the early 1850s, Brisbane commercial interests headed by Thomas Dowse and Brisbane Valley squatters John and David McConnel, promoted the establishment of a shipping centre at the head of Cabbage Tree Creek. They were in competition with rival claims for Brisbane and Cleveland as the principal port for Moreton Bay. The Village of Sandgate was officially surveyed in 1852, with the first sale of Sandgate town lots held at Brisbane in November 1853. Most of the land sold was purchased by the speculative investors behind the move to create a port at Sandgate. However, with Brisbane subsequently consolidating its position as the port for Moreton Bay, Sandgate languished. Landowner inaction, poor communication and strong Aboriginal resistance further retarded its development.

Native police were stationed at Sandgate from late 1852 until 1862 to ‘disperse’ the Bribie Island and Ningy-Ningy people, and facilitate non-indigenous occupation of the land in the Cabbage Tree Creek and Pine Rivers districts. With the removal of hostile indigenes, Sandgate/Shorncliffe developed slowly from the 1860s as a seaside excursion venue. By 1868, Cobb and Co. was operating a twice-weekly service to Sandgate, and by the mid-1870s, three coach companies were offering services to the bayside resort. In the 1860s six hotels were established at Sandgate, although only two, the Sandgate and the Osborne, survived the decade. Also from the 1860s, a number of summer seaside residences and boarding or guest houses were erected, mostly along Eagle Terrace and at Shorncliffe. In the 1870s the permanent population increased, agitation for a rail link with Brisbane emerged, and municipal status was granted to the Borough of Sandgate in April 1880. With the opening of the extension of the railway from Brisbane to Sandgate in 1882 the permanent population grew rapidly, settlement spread along the flats, and weekend holiday-makers turned the township into a bustling seaside resort. The popularity of Sandgate/Shorncliffe as a seaside resort attracted day-trippers, seasonal holiday-makers and the Moreton Bay sailing fraternity, well into the 20th century.

Samuel Drew, his wife Jane Harris and family emigrated to Australia from the United States of America in the mid-1880s, and by 1887 were resident in Sandgate. They had arrived during a colonial-wide economic boom and the local flurry of development which followed the opening of the railway line to Sandgate. Drew, who was a carpenter and boat-builder by trade, gained employment as foreman/carpenter at William Street’s joinery works in Creek Street [now Palm Avenue], Sandgate, and in 1888 erected a house there, at the corner of Creek and Wharf Streets.

William Street, reputedly formerly employed by Samuel Drew in America, was by this time a prominent Sandgate builder and contractor, who erected the Sandgate Post Office 1886-87 and the Sandgate Baptist Church in 1887, as well as many houses in the Sandgate/Shorncliffe area. Early in 1886, he had purchased over an acre of land at the southern end of Creek Street [present Palm Avenue] on the western side of the street, adjoining Cabbage Tree Creek, where his joinery works were established. Street was a Justice of the Peace, a trustee of the local cemetery, and along with EB Southerden [first mayor of Sandgate], was joint treasurer of the Sandgate School of Arts. By 1890 William Street was in partnership with W Krimmer as proprietors of the local skating rink in Sunday Street, Shorncliffe, erected 1888-89, and Samuel Drew was manager of the rink.

During the widespread economic depression of the early 1890s, William Street was forced to liquidate his business affairs, his Creek Street property passing to his mortgagor, the Queensland National Bank, in 1893. The Drew family’s 1888 house was located on this property, which in 1904 Albert Edward Drew, Samuel Drew’s son, purchased from the bank.

From 1889 the land west of Street’s Joinery Works, along Wharf Street, was made available as residential allotments. Samuel Drew acquired title to 1 rood 22.4 perches [resubdivisions 96-98 of subdivision A of allotment 3 of section 15, Village of Sandgate] of unimproved land backing onto Cabbage Tree Creek and fronting Wharf Street, in May-June 1890. The eastern boundary of this land abutted William Street’s Creek Street property. According to Samuel Drew’s descendants, over the next decade the Drews built their family home here in several stages: firstly the main bedrooms and sewing room, then the central section [including the tower]. A stables, complete with bell tower, and a large boatshed which housed the family’s boat building business, were erected prior to the construction of the third stage of the house.

It is not clear whether Samuel Drew actually lived in the Wharf Street house, as through the 1890s and early 1900s he was listed in the Queensland Post Office Directories at Creek Street, Sandgate. His Wharf Street property was transferred to four of his children in 1895: Mary Ellen, Elizabeth Jane, Albert Edward and Frederick William, then in 1905 [perhaps following Albert’s purchase of the Creek Street property in 1904] back to Samuel, who on the same date nominated Mary Ellen and Elizabeth Jane Drew as trustees. When Samuel Drew died in April 1907, the funeral party left from his late residence, Creek-street, Sandgate [Brisbane Courier 26 April 1907:4:3]. However, by 1911 his widow, Jane, was resident in the Wharf Street house, and his unmarried daughters remained there until their deaths in the mid-20th century.

The family understands that the sisters conducted a sewing and sail-making business from 20 Wharf Street for many years. An intriguing reference in the Queensland Post Office Directory of 1910-11 lists ‘Drews Sanatorium Home for Infants’ at Sandgate – whether the Drew daughters ever used their home for this purpose has not been established. In 1918-19 Samuel John Drew [Samuel Drew’s youngest son] built a house for himself at 19 Wharf Street. He and his brother Albert Edward, who continued to live in the 1888 house at the corner of Wharf Street and Palm Avenue [formerly Creek Street], maintained the family boat-building business from the boatshed at the rear of 20 Wharf Street until the 1930’s depression, when Samuel leased his house and moved to Toowoomba. Albert and fellow boat builder and relative, Theo Woodhead, constructed the last boat in 1948, the year in which Albert died. Albert Drew, known locally as ‘Skipper’ Drew, was a foundation member of the Sandgate Yacht Club, established in 1912, and was well-known in local sailing circles. He won many sailing titles on Moreton Bay, in craft he had built himself.

In 1947, prior to Mary Ellen's death in 1950, Samuel John Drew and his son Oliver, also a builder, repaired and repainted 20 Wharf Street in white and several different shades of grey, believed to be the original colours. At this time they removed an early hedge and fence, replacing them with a smaller wrought iron fence. As the original timber gates were in poor condition, replicas were constructed in their place. In 1952, 20 Wharf Street suffered slight damage by a cyclone, and decorative fretwork across the ridge of the tower was blown away.

Following Elizabeth Drew’s death in 1957, the residence was transferred to Samuel John Drew and William Roy Drew [son of Frederick William Drew and Samuel Drew’s grandson]. As both had homes elsewhere, it was decided to convert the house into two flats to provide an income sufficient to pay the rates on what was effectively three blocks of land. In 1966 the flats were reconverted to a single house and offered for sale, passing out of the Drew family in 1967. The large boatshed on Cabbage Tree Creek and the stables were demolished subsequently. In 1987-88 the house was raised slightly and the undercroft, which previously housed a bathroom, laundry, and two water tanks, was converted into a lounge/dining room area. The place remains a private residence.

Description

The Former Drew Residence at 20 Wharf Street, Shorncliffe, is a substantial, high-set, single-storeyed timber residence with enclosed brick undercroft, attic and viewing tower. It is located at the southern end of Shorncliffe, on a property of over 60 perches which slopes to Cabbage Tree Creek, providing boat access.

The core of the house is rectangular in form, with gabled transverse wings at each end. There is a substantial brick chimney rising above the main roof, and the roofs of the side wings have galvanised iron ridge ventilators. Its most distinctive characteristic is a centrally-positioned Mansard tower over dormer rooms in the main roof, providing a central focus to the front elevation and a viewing room with vistas over Cabbage Tree Creek to Moreton Bay. Across the front of the main body of the building is a deep verandah.

The Wharf Street elevation is particularly decorative, with paired, chamfered verandah posts with timber capitals and brackets; a decorative timber balustrade across the front verandah; decorative timber bargeboards and gable infills; an attic room with large dormer window over the front entrance and vestibule; and the elaborate timber viewing tower above this, complete with decorative bargeboards, spandrels beneath the guttering and acroteria.

The rear elevation also has a central, decorative focus, where a dormer window and a room beneath this project from the core of the house, overlooking Cabbage Tree Creek. There are some later additions at the rear, and the undercroft has been enclosed with brick, which is screened from the front street by timber battens.

Most of the windows are tripartite sashes, and have window hoods. Those facing the street incorporate a small gable in the window hood.

The interior also has ornate decorative elements and fine joinery. These include a narrow staircase in the vestibule with turned timber balustrades and an ornate, carved newel post. The interior is lined throughout with wide tongue and groove boards. To dado height throughout most of the house the boards are diagonally placed, contrasting with the vertical boarding above. Architraves around all windows and doors have a carved quatrefoil detail to the corners, and doors throughout are timber panelled. The interior is painted throughout.

In plan, the building is largely symmetrical. The centrally-positioned front door with side and fan lights opens into a wide vestibule, off which a large room opens either side. That on the western side is the lounge room, which has an early timber fireplace surround incorporating an over mantle and a cabinet. The eastern room was formerly a dining room, and has ornate, hand-crafted timber architraves.

Each of the side wings contains two rooms. Those in the western wing are separated by pairs of folding, panelled timber doors. Those in the eastern wing function as bedrooms and do not have connecting access. The side rooms which face Wharf Street are accessed both from the front verandah and from the large rooms which open off the vestibule. The two rooms which face the creek are accessed from rooms at the rear of the house.

Beyond the vestibule a door opens into a room at the rear of the house which overlooks Cabbage Tree Creek, and from which two small rooms open, one either side, entered via arches, one of which is an early arch. These are the rooms which give access to the rear rooms in the side wings. The back room on the western side also has access to an external set of stairs, but the stair to the room on the eastern side has been removed. Later bathroom extensions at the rear are accessed from these rooms also.

A narrow stair in the vestibule leads to two small attic bedrooms with arched doorways. From the front attic room another narrow stair leads to the tower viewing room.

The enclosed undercroft, which is accessed via a recent stair in the room behind the vestibule, contains an living space, dining area and kitchen. The chimney at this level has a double fireplace, which is of recent construction, but utilising the base of the original chimney. A recent galvanised iron awning extends from the rear of the undercroft.

The grounds have been altered, and the only evidence of the boatshed are two slipways, now covered by rapid mangrove re-growth. A recent timber jetty extends from the rear of the property into Cabbage Tree Creek, and later sheds replace the stables along the northwestern boundary of the property. A tennis court has been constructed in the southeast corner of the block along the creek frontage, and gardens have been built up in front of the house. Paved paths have been added and the driveway cemented. The front fence along Wharf Street has three ornate timber gates, one situated in front of the stairs leading to the front entrance, and the other two on the eastern side of the property which give vehicle access. These are 1947 replicas of the original timber gates.

The Wharf Street frontage of the house after the 1952 cyclone repairs.

Cost of Funerals - Catherine and Bennett Drew

Richard kindly supplied these scans of the invoices for Catherine and Bennett Drew's funerals.

(Click on the images for a better view. Use your browser's "Back" button to return to the blog.)

Another Update

Hello Cousins Jack and Jenny,

I have invited Lesley to join - for some reason I'd missed her the first time around. Mary is having strange problems posting - can't work it out at all.

The Ballarat and District Geneaology Society website is up and working again. Just put Nicholls into the search box at the opening page to see what they have on that family.

Cheers
Geoff

More about Robert Lawry

From Mary, who is experiencing problems making new posts. If anyone else is having the same problem, let me know and I will try to find out what is going on.
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I tried to follow your instructions and add a post. I got to the dashboard saw the blog name there. I clicked on the green+ and added a comment. However when I went to publish it an error message came up about something being wrong with my template, so unfortunately my message has not appeared on the blog. I just don't know what I am doing wrong. Anyway, I will insert below what I wrote on that message:

Thanks Geoff for posting my query on Robert Drew or Lawry. I should have added that on 4 January 1782 at Madron Church (when Robert was nearly 10) Robert's mother Alice Lawry (baptised at Penzance on 12 November 1753) married Charles Runnals/Reynolds (baptised at Penzance on 8 May 1757) and Alice had at least 6 more children by that marriage. Alice was buried at St. Mary's Church, Penzance aged 77 on 11 February 1828 and Charles was buried at the same church aged 74 on 27 May 1829. It is interesting to note that Robert Drew or Lawry clearly named his second son (my great-great-great-grandfather) William Reynolds Drew - in honour of his step-father Charles Reynolds. I have been unable to find a burial record for Robert's natural father Robert Drew Senior at Penzance, though there is a record for an Ann Drew (Robert Drew Senior's wife?) being buried aged 90 at St. Mary's Church, Penzance on 19 Jan 1819. If this is indeed Robert Drew Senior's wife and the age is accurate, she would have been about 10 years older than him. But as we know, records of peoples' ages in the early years of the 19th century were often mere guess work!

I am sorry for not being able to get the hang of posting messages on the blog.
Bye for now,

Mary's Comment

This comment from Mary is, I think, too important to many of you to be tucked away in the Comments. To me, Robert Drew (or Lawry, or Drew-Lawry) is an interesting story of one of the several "base children" scattered through our trees.
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Mary said:
I too have been musing recently over Robert Drew or Lawry born at Penzance in 1772. He must surely have lived in the Helston area under the name of Drew around 1800 because he married Mary Bosisto there in 1801 under the name Drew, and their first son James Drew was baptised under the name Drew at Helston on 14 February 1802. From your research, I see that Bennett Drew of Creed married Jenifer Tallack at Mylor in 1792 and in Phillimore's Marriage Register he is listed as Bennett Drew of Helston (Widower). So did young Robert live with or near his natural father's brother, Bennett in Helston?

Then there is the enigma of why when Robert and Mary moved to live in Penzance they had their sons William and George baptised at St. Mary's Church, Penzance under the surname Lawry on 10 April 1803 and 17 February 1805 respectively. However, when their children Sophia and John were baptised at St. Mary's on 30 September 1807 and 29 October 1809 respectively, they were baptised there under the surname Drew. John was buried under the name Drew at Paul on 3 September 1811 and Mary and Sally were baptised at Paul on 2 September 1812 and 4 March 1815 respectively. From then on according to census details and burial records the family was always known as Drew.

I ask myself why when Robert returned to live in Penzance in the years between 1802/03 and 1805/06 he was using the name Lawry only to change it from 1806 onwards in Penzance and later in Mousehole/Paul back to Drew. Maybe he did not want to use the surname Drew to cause problems with his natural father who may well have still been alive and residing in Penzance during those years.

I would be interested to learn your views on the above enigma.

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My great-grandfather, Samuel, had a 'base' half-brother Edward George Drew who appears to have used the Drew surname in all official matters during his long life at Mylor. Even when he was living with his natural mother, Elizabeth Dingey, at the time of the 1851 Census, he was known as Edward Drew. It appears that this particular branch of the family were respected citizens of Mylor (in particular, the Wesleyan community). However, we in Australia had no oral history of the existence of Edward George II and his large family. It was the oddity of the 1841 Census, with two Edward Drews with a 20 year age difference living in Illogan, that set me to head scratching until Chris came along with some of the details.

Look what I just found

My grandfather's WW1 diary/notebook contains a number of little lists, and one such entry had the name Carne in it. So, looking through the National Archives of Australia records for 1914-1919 I came across this amongst 48 mentions of the Carne name in that period:

JENKIN, Philip Carne : Service Number - 5475 : Place of Birth - Redruth England : Place of Enlistment - Prahran VIC : Next of Kin - (Mother) JENKIN Mary
In his service records, digitised, mother's address given as:
Mary Sarah JENKIN
"The Firs"
Scorrier
Cornwall

When he joined up on 1 April 1916, he was 24 years and 4 months old, so was born about New Year, 1892. He had an eventful war, wounded and gassed, but survived and returned to Australia in 1919. He was still alive in 1924. With a name like that, he has to be connected somehow.

Tallack Connection

Unkel Richard Tallack Died in Redruth Union February 9 - 1851

(Thanks to Christine for providing the scans and transcriptions)

From Edward George Drew's "Register". As EG's mother was Jennifer (aka Jenefer, Ginnipher, and assorted other spellings) Tallack, and EG called Richard 'Uncle', the most likely family having siblings with these names is Nicholas TALLACK and Jenefer TREGENZA with their 10 children (Nicholas, John, Jennifer, Hannah, Frank (died in infancy), Elizabeth, Frank, Betsey, Richard, & Harriet.

We're getting there!

I see that Mary has joined us after her holiday. Welcome.

I have invited Richard to join - his wife is a descendant (granddaughter) of Bennett Drew (1874-1952) and Catherine Williams (1871-1944). He is known to Mary and Kathryn. So that will be another 'twig with fresh new leaves'. He sent me scans of the invoices for the funerals of both Bennett and Catherine. Both from the same firm, Harvey, which I guess is part of the Harvey family that appears in the big tree.

Janet will be flying back to New Zealand today after her holiday, so we can experct her name to appear up there soon. (Lovely day with her and Warren last Sunday.)

Chris sent me a replacement CD and it arrived yesterday. I immediately copied the scans of Edward George's 'Register' to hard drive, so there will soon be some bits and pieces appearing here.

Daryl is still trying to find a home for the Ballarat Genealogy pages, with Drew and Tallack descendants on it.

Remember, you are all full members of this blog, so you can do everything I can - make posts, edit posts, invite new members, and all that.

Cheers
Geoff

Bosisto/Bosustow in Australia

While looking through Linda's tree, I spotted some Bosisto names in Australia, mostly South Australia. So, I had a look in Aussie Whitepages. And yes, there are some Bosisto names scattered around the place, in South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia but mostly in South Australia.

But there are Bosustow names as well, with listings in Western Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland, but mostly in Western Australia.

Maybe I'll draft up a letter to send out.

Both the National Archives of Australia and the Australian War Memorial hold war service records (1914-1918 and 1939-1945) for Bosisto and Bosustow names.

1914-1918 - National Archives
Bosisto, Rolland William : SERN 12173 : POB Riverton SA : POE Adelaide SA : NOK Mother Bosisto, Anna Letitia
Bosisto, Russell George : SERN 1038 {AKA Russell George] : POB Hindmarsh SA : POE Keswick SA : NOK Mother Bosisto E M
Bosisto, Glyn De Villiers : SERN DEPOT : POB Gawler SA : POE Adelaide SA : NOK Father Bosisto, Glyn De Villiers
All of the above have digitised files of their service records available for viewing.

Bosustow, William James : SERN 4375 : POB Gormandale VIC : POE Melbourne VIC : NOK Mother Bosustow, Annie
Bosustow, Ernest Charles : SERN 17276 : POB Toongabbie VIC : POE Kalgoorlie WA : NOK Father Bosustow, Harry
Also have digitised service records

1939-1945 - National Archives
THOMSON, CHARLES BOSISTO : Service Number - 32819 : Date of birth - 01 Jul 1919 : Place of birth - FREMANTLE WA : Place of enlistment - FREMANTLE : Next of Kin - NELLIE (Navy - has digitised record, the remainder do not.) (OK, he's neither Bosisto nor Bosustow, but must be a child or grandchild of one.)
BOSISTO, JAMES : Service Number - V17508 : Date of birth - 02 Dec 1886 : Place of birth - ST BLAZE ENGLAND : Place of enlistment - ROYAL PARK : Next of Kin - BOSISTO JOHN
BOSISTO, MAXWELL CAMERON : Service Number - 121671 : Date of birth - 12 Sep 1917 : Place of birth - GAWLER SA : Place of enlistment - ADELAIDE : Next of Kin - BOSISTO KATHLEEN

BOSUSTOW, ALFRED HENRY : Service Number - WX22014 : Date of birth - 03 Nov 1905 : Place of birth - BOULDER CITY WA : Place of enlistment - CLAREMONT WA : Next of Kin - BOSUSTOW FLORENCE
BOSUSTOW, WILLIAM JAMES HENRY : Service Number - WX27717 : Date of birth - 20 Apr 1920 : Place of birth - BOULDER WA : Place of enlistment - MT LAWLEY WA : Next of Kin - BOSUSTOW HENRY
BOSUSTOW, CLIFFORD ROYAL : Service Number - 46088 : Date of birth - 17 Apr 1913 : Place of birth - KALGOORLIE WA : Place of enlistment - PERTH WA : Next of Kin - BOSUSTOW EVA
BOSUSTOW, WILLIAM JAMES HENRY : Service Number - 442126 : Date of birth - 20 Apr 1920 : Place of birth - BOULDER WA : Place of enlistment - PERTH WA : Next of Kin - BOSUSTOW HENRY
BOSUSTOW, CHARLES EDWARD : Service Number - WX25261 : Date of birth - 15 Oct 1922 : Place of birth - BOULDER WA : Place of enlistment - GERALDTON WA : Next of Kin - BOSUSTOW ERNEST

More on the Ballarat Genealogy site

A message from Daryl this morning. I quote:
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Hi Geoff

Due to circumstances out of my control and decisions made by higher authorities the Ballarat Genealogy Website (all 1200 pages of it) will not be available on the web until I can find a new home for it!

Depending upon my negotiating skills and the availabilty of technician time and skills it may be up to a week before it is back on line.

NOTE: All of this time and and work is voluntary and until now I have been able to make use of some server space on a school web server, but the cyberspace rules governing the operation of our system have just changed.

A couple of options are under consideration, keep checking back if you are regular user, as the actual website name will NOT change.

Regards
Daryl
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And, in view of this morning's news, sending our thoughts to Linda and all her colleagues. Teaching seems to be a very dangerous profession lately in the USofA. Colorado, Wisconsin, Vermont, and now Pennsylvania, all in a few days. Terrible things to happen in a school.

Newspaper Clippings

This page http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wbritonad/cornwall/intro.html is a lot of fun, and actually quite useful. I have, this morning, got more detail on a couple of deaths just by idly searching.

Try it - pop one of 'our' surnames in the search box and see what comes up (but Rouffignac doesn't get any hits, in case that was going to be your first choice).

But some of the news stories are worth chasing down. One I found was about a James DREW (not one on our tree so far that I could detemined) who was murdered during an argument over the matter of intoxicating beverages. (The Wesleyan leanings of a lot of the Drew families comes through fairly strongly in some of the mentions they get.)

Sunday Arvo Thoughts

The .pdf file of the compilation of all the bits and pieces I have 'scrounged' from you all is about to roll off the computer, and will be sent out tomorrow. I have gone cross-eyed doing the sanity check on it, so there might be the odd error here and there. To save file size, I am leaving off the sources and name index. I have reduced font sizes a bit (not too much) to get it under 100 A4 pages. It will contain the details of living persons, so is for our private use only.

I have been digging around in Gencircles a little, and have identified one individual who appears to have bits of our line - he has James White Trewhella (well, he actually has Trewheela, but we know what he means) DREW. He has Grenfell and Nicholls names aplenty. His name is Adrian Eddy - has anybody come across him before? He has a website - http://www.eddyfamily.co.uk/

I must be getting old. Was wondering why Thelma hadn't joined in, so finally had the gumption to look at my list of invitees and, to my dismay, I discovered that I hadn't sent her an invitation. Feeling very sheepish. Now rectified.

Monday morning (East Oz time): I see that she has very swiftly responded (see list at top right). The .pdf file of Robert Drew Descendants has just been sent out to everybody.

Tuesday night: A few glitches with the .pdf file, nothing major. Some of the notes from Linda's on-line .ged file have not transferred over properly, and I am tidying that up at the moment. Somehow, a Jane Harvey was described as being on the 1871 census as a housekeeper, despite being 3 years old at the time. Wrong Jane Harvey. Am also checking out FreeBMD as I go through it, and am adding in some dates and possibles. Like one Drew chap, Francis, who had a wife Louisa UNKNOWN - FreeBMD suggests that possibly Louisa is his 1^st cousin, Louisa DREW. That sort of thing.