Hidden Canberra

My Family History.

I'm second fleet convict descent and the family names are:

Merrick, Martin, Cooper, Russell, Chapman, Yeo, Price etc
Overview - Mary Russell (3rd fleet) married Edward Merrick (2nd Fleet) 24.12.1791 - their daughter, Mary Elizabeth married Robert Martin Jr who cf with parents in 1804 - they ran off together - he was working as a coachman for Macquarie it would have been.  Their son Robert Cooper Martin was born in 1822 - the second name of cooper came from Robert's mother who was Mary nee Cooper. 
 
Robert Cooper Martin married Martha Price - her linage goes back on her mother's side to Charles Cooper convict 1798 Barwell who came with his wife Alse nee Davis (family story he was the son of Lady Margaret Vane who ran off with the groom).  Their daughter, Ann was born here in 1800 or 1801 -always have to look it up - She married William Price - convict arrived 1816 on the Ocean - their daughter, Martha married RC Cooper.  Their daughter, Caroline Ann married William Thomas Price 19.6.1877 (Mum had me on 20.6.1937 so wasn't at the 60th celebrations.)
 
Thomas Chapman arrived free in 1839 with his parents - he was the youngest aged 4 - his mother died the following year and is buried in St John's Parramatta Cemetery - no marker. His parents were Thomas and Mary Ann Chapman (nee Clout).  Thomas Jr married Hannah Watts nee Garbutt - no record found of the first marriage.  Her parents were convicts who worked for Cox at Clarendon (and there should be a few ghosts there).  Her mother was Elizabeth Catlin alias Cattell who married Callicot (marriage and death not found) and then William Garbutt who came from Glazely Shopshire.  Hannah & Thomas's eldest was William Thomas Chapmen.
 
My grandmother, daughter of William Thomas Chapman and Caroline Ann Martin - Edith Roubina born 22 July 1886 married Samuel Yeo bc son of James Yeo and Ann Russell (no relation to earlier Russell).  She was born in Kent England from memory and CF around 1839 with her parents George Russell and Ann nee Weston.  Weston Mt is named after her brother who was another convict.
 
The Yeos came out quite late - 1854 or 55 from memory and their information is included in the section on my grandmother, Edith Roubina CHAPMAN.
 
To know if there is a connection would need to look at the off shoots from the above main line.  Thomas Chapman snr came out with two brothers and we are not sure what happened to them or Thomas Sn - he was an earthen-ware man - a potter.

If you believe you are related, please contact me via email to obtain the cd of the family history.


My father, Leonard Austin, was born 20 August 1896 in Melbourne, son of John Edward and Mary (nee Leonard) Austin.  He did enlist in the Great War but not under the name of Austin?  During the Great Depression when many men went bush, during a time when he was working for board and lodgings at Cobbora (northern NSW) he met my mother, Violet Ann Yeo.  They married in Gulgong in 1933.  Following the death of my sister Inez Edith in 1934 (buried Rookwood Sydney) my parents moved to Collarenebri NSW where Dad ran the local garage and I was born in June 1937.  Another downturn in the economic conditions led to the move to Canberra in 1941 where we remained.  Perhaps because there was no family here in Canberra I began in the 1980s my search for my families.  My father's family I have not found and only have sketchy details of his life that includes he attended Geelong College and knew the Bible off by heart.  My mother's side, however, led me back to the Second Fleet and the arrival of Edward Merrick (convict)  who married Third Fleet convict, Mary Elizabeth Russell.  Other convicts in my maternal grandmother's line are Charles Cooper who arrived on the Barwell in 1798 with his wife, Alse nee Davis and daughter, Sarah; William Price - Ocean 1816; William Garbutt who married Elizabeth Catlin alias Cattell (also convict) - both arrived in the early 1820s.  We also had a few free settlers - Robert Martin's family  Experiment 1803; Chapman & Russell 1839 (no relation to earlier Russell) and on my mother's father's side -Yeo mid 1850s.  The Yeos came from Swimbridge where they settled around the mid 1500s and for those interested in this line Sheila Yeo (England) has an excellent web page.  The Yeo line has been well researched and this family can be traced back to Charlemagne (the blood is fairly thin by now).
 
The following few chapters are from a book published in 1990 and updated.  Further updating is ongoing particularly by Harry Price.  These chapters give an outline of some of the early families. Please email me if you would like a copy of the cd rom of further information.
Ann Gugler (nee Austin).





                                                  



Left: Charles William Austin           Right: Leonard Austin & daughter Ann  1937