Well, here I am listening to Brooke Fraser, pondering the weekend that’s been.
Yesterday, after going to a church working bee in time for bacon and eggs and enough time to take apart a fence, I went to Portarlington, a little past Geelong.
Now, you may wonder why, correct?I went for a family function where people from Sydney, Adelaide, and even New Zealand had travelled from. So, you would think that it would have been a big event right? Well, it was.
150 years ago, a guy by the name of Thomas H Widdicombe built a mill in 1857 that has a massive history in the region of the Ballerine Peninsula.
You can read more about it here and learn about the interesting heritage of the building. http://www.zades.com.au/port/mill.htm
The occasion was hosted by the volunteers who now look after the Mill, with entertainment by a woodwind section of the Royal Australian Navy Band, the National Trust, and a local State Politician.
So we had a good time and had a chance to learn more about this little mill. It made flour, produced bricks, and other stuff for the area, with many bricks still around in the area. They are however a little bit hard to get hold of now though.
A time capsule was also sealed up on site with students from one of the local schools putting a whole bunch of stuff in it. Things included were photos of their classes, a newsletter, a Geelong commemorative AFL thing, and lots of other historical type school things.
It was a good day. Mum and I travelled over there, as Mark and Andy were working and dad’s still recovering from some surgery.
Today, we had a smaller family gathering at Uncle Des and Aunty Margaret’s house, both of which are mum’s aunty and uncle, but all the same that’s what we call them. There were probably about a dozen of us there. But I guess one of the most interesting things I discovered was how I am related to the Thomas Widdicombe guy who built the mill. I also found out a few other things too. You have to go through 5 generations to get to the famous guy.
Now it’s a strange thing this family history and very fascinating. I learnt mum’s great grandma had a Spanish father. So I’ve got a small part wog in me! ha ha… ok, doing the maths that would be… 1/64 Spanish! Kinda cool I thought! Catharine Penaluna was her maiden name, before she married Tom Chalmers.
I’m kinda enjoying all this family tree stuff. Kerryn and I penned down nearly 50 people, which is 6 of my Grandma’s siblings and their descendants. It’s really cool.
So, we are now going to do a bit of family history tracking. It is going to be a huge process I think, because there are so many people to trace and track, and it all depends of which way to go.
I was sitting there saying to mum, what about such and such, and she was like, “No, they are on Grandpa’s side”. “Oh, oops, wrong side again!”.
My family is big. ha ha… A mate agreed with me the other day and said, yes, it’s so big I’ve dated two of your cousins!
Anyway, enough of me. I’ve got a big project to do! So far this is only on mum’s side! So if you end up being related to me… it’ll be really cool!!!
Here’s a picture of the mill. Click on it for a larger view.
