Posted June 9, 2013
MY FAMILY
WRITTEN BY ANN WESTLAKE
The Lindum and Lytton areas
On the 24th February 1857 a 21 year old William Gurney died March 1923, 87yrs, buried Toowong, he sailed from Liverpool on the sailing ship “The Hastings” arriving in Moreton Bay off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on the 30th May 1857.
He had been a bricklayer and stonemason in England, but tried his hand at anything in Australia.
Grandfather William Gurney 1917
He met Martha Edson (born 1842, died 1891) and married her on 14th September 1861, in the Brisbane City Congregational Church, she had sailed from Plymouth, England, in July 1860 on the ship Montgomery, arriving in Moreton Bay on the 16th October 1860. (These were my Great, Great Grandparents)
They traveled to Gympie and tried their hand at farming, and gold mining but this didn’t work out.
After traveling down to Brisbane they settled at Lytton and operated a piggery in the area that is now the old quarry, out near the Port of Brisbane, it is also a reserve.
This venture was very successful.
Over the next 17 years William and Martha had seven children, Martha Louisa in 1862,
William in 1865, died December 1945, 80 yrs Buried Toowong.
(My great grandmother) Elizabeth in 1867, died 1944, 76yrs, Buried Balmoral
Mary Ann in 1869, died 1963, 93yrs.
Kate in 1871, 1963 yrs, 92yrs, buried Toowong
George in 1875 died May 1946, 61 yrs
Edward in 1878, died December 1928, 50yrs
None of the boys ever married and the Gurney name was not carried on.
(1) Mary Ann Gurney, died 1963 , 93 yrs, buried Hemmant, married Charles Marsh, a farmer of the area, and had children, Ethel ,John, Charles and Harold
1.Ethel Sarah Marsh, Born 24.12.1891….died of diphtheria in 1892, buried Hemmant
2.John James Marsh, known as Jack Born 24.6.1892….died 6.11.1917, John was killed in WW1. And is buried in Beersheba Military Cemetery, Palestine.
3.Charles William Marsh ( known as Pete) Born 25.5. 1977….died 8.5.1977
Pete married Mary Frances Atkins ( Known as Molly)Died 6.8.1976 they had 3 children and had a shop at Hemmant in the 1930’s
Joan Margaret died at birth, 16.12.1931
Mary, Born 11.4.1933
John (known asJack) born 1941.
4 .Harold George Marsh (Known as Bulla) Born 26.11. 1897,
died 2.3.1977, he married Elsie Uhlamann
*********
(2) Kate Gurney, Born Gympie on 22.10.1871, died 22.12.1963,
92 yrs, She married George Ludgater, he died 1952, 78yrs, they had 4 children.
1.Isobel, Ludgater born 4.1.1890, Married Robert Street,
2 children Beryl 1913 and Royce ?.
2. Ivy Maud Ludgater, Born 19.2.1908, she married Alfred Lloyd, they had one son, Allan
3. Doris May Ludgater died at birth 1910, buried at Toowong
4.Doreen Ludgater, 29.3.1912, Married ?
(3) George Gurney, Born 1875 …. died 2.5.1946
(4) William Gurney, Born 6.5.1865…. Died 2.1.1946
(5) Edward Gurney, Born 1878….Died 15.12.1928
(6) Martha Louisa Gurney, Born in Brisbane, 22.5.1862,
Died 1.10.1927, She married Fredrick John Stokes, on 6.3.1889
They had 5 children
1. Beatrice Emma Mary Stokes Born 6.3.1889
Married George James Bromfield, they had 3 children
2. John Alfred Stokes, Born 30.8.1891….died 30.4.1940
3. ?
4. Dorothy May Stokes , Born 5.5.1883….died 17.7.1963
Married to Leonard Sparkes in 1923, 1 son Allan Leonard.
5. Amy Frederica Stokes, 17.5.1897, married Henry Ingold.
In 1850 James and Jane Brock (formerly Jane Bray) migrated from Cornwall, England, they had 6 children, they settled in the Hemmant/
Lindum/ Lytton areas.
Henry, born 22.4.1885
Joseph, born 3.9.1860 married Elizabeth Longland on 14.10.1884
Their son Frank William was born on 4.4.1885
Their daughter Zelpah Mary was born on 23.10.1887
They lived at Cannon Hill, Brock St Cannon Hill is named after them, They were married , and are buried in Tingalpa Cemetery.
James, born 15.10.1862
Thomas, born 19.6.1864 married Ann Sopia Cumner on 1.2.1886
They had a daughter Elizabeth Jane born 4.4.1889
Samuel, born 31.5.1866
Susan, born 20.4.1868 married John Milliner
They
settled at Hemmant and bought and leased land to farm in the Lindum, Hemmant and
Lytton areas.
Gran Brock ( Elizabeth Gurney) 1935
Elizabeth Brock, (Gran,) with Jims girls, Ina, Hazel and Margaret Brock, 1939
(7) Elizabeth Gurney, Born 1867….died 1944
Elizabeth Gurney married James Brock (James died in 1924) in 1888, he was a small crops farmer, and they settled out along Lytton Road, they had many acres of grapes along Lytton Road.
James built a house for himself and his bride.
They lived in the well oiled weatherboard home on the farm; this home was still in place, until in 1970, when it was demolished in the reclamation of land for the industrial estate at Lytton.
Elizabeth used to make caraway seed cake and feed the aboriginals that roamed around Lindum and Lytton, they would ask her for the cake with fleas in it!
When the aboriginals died, they would wrap their bodies in bark and put them in the high branches of the trees and sometimes make platforms for them in the paddocks of the area, ( my Grandfather told me that one place that they used to do this when he was a boy, was just around the corner in the swamp in Sandy Camp Rd)
Times were hard out at Lytton in the 1860’s, they never had electricity or town water.
Lytton was a very isolated settlement of dairy and small crops farms.
James used his horse and cart to take his produce to market, the river was the hub of transporting goods in this era.
James and Elizabeth had 4 children,
Martha, in 1890, (she was called Tottie),
William in 1886 , (Willie)
James in 1891 (my grandfather), ( Jim)
Richard in 1894 .( Dick)
Grandfather James Brock , Tottie with baby Ethel, Gran Brock, 1910
The
boys worked on the farm with their father and went to the Doughboy school,
(now Hemmant State School), times were hard and kids worked too.
They were all christened in the Methodist Church at Hemmant, and it still stands today (Which is now the Uniting Community Church).
At one time the land that Iona College and Lindum state school now stands on was farmed by James with pineapples.
He used to use his horse and cart to carry the produce to Hemmant to be taken on the barges up the river to market in Brisbane.
“Home Defence Wardens”, 1914.
Farmer Brock’s sons, Jim, (centre front), Dick 2nd Left, Jack Marsh 2nd Right
*Tottie married Charles Coull and went to live in Duke street at Thompson Estate, up near Buranda, and lived there until her death in 1966, aged 77years, they had 2 children Ethel and Colin (Ethel married Charles Ide and lived in Warwick), Colin Lived at Red Hill with his wife Mavis and daughter Sue.
*William was always known as Willie, bought land in Crawford Road Lindum and he farmed his land, he married Ruth (she died March 1956) and they had 2 children Elwin and Jack,died 1991 and Willie passed away in 1967 aged 81 years.
*Richard (Dick) married Lucy Thornton and bought a farm at Wellington Point, which he farmed and lived there until his death, in November 1986, his wife Lucy died in 1970 from cancer, aged 69yrs, they had 3 children,
Ken, married Rome Weeks, Ken died 2006, 2 children Maree 1950& Robert 1952
Joyce married Bill Chapman deceased, they had a daughter , Janet, Jan is married to Simon Brown, they have a daughter Lucy.
After Bill’s death, Joyce married Howard Willis, they had children Jennifer, Donald & Kenneth
Beryl. married Jim they had children, Peter born 1953 died in a car accident 1971, and Patricia 1956,David 1960 & Louise 1970
Joyce, Ken, Ina and Beryl, 1940 Lucy and Dick Brock with Grandchildren Approx 1960
My grandfather was James; everyone knew him as Jim.
James, (Jim) met an 18 year old woman who had migrated to Australia from Edinburgh, Scotland with her parents in 1914, Margaret Higgins, she was known as Maggie or Meg, they were married in 1922.
Jim bought land along North Road at Lindum to farm; he grew grapes, English potatoes, Sweet potatoes, watermelons, rock melons, pineapples and plums, there was not any town water in North Road, and Jim had to water his crops with water pulled from a well down the back of his North Road property, it was a very hard way of getting water to his crops in the dry times.
He worked his land with draught horses and hand plow.
Jim hired a builder from Wellington Point to build a house for Meg and him at Lindum; it cost 64pounds, in 1922, that was a LOT of money.
The House that Jim had built for his bride Meg.
Pearl Moores, Meg and Jim Brock, 1958
When Meg and Jim were first married in 1922, they lived in Coreen Street Wynnum in a tent, (down near the creek), with many other young married couples, this was until their home was completed.
Meg and another newlywed, Margaret (Pearl) Moores became lifelong friends, Auntie Pearl, as she was to all of us, was one of the local Crouch family, they were fishermen and she married Reg Moores, she lived until she was 100years and 11months and was still as bright as a button until she passed away.
Jim’s work horse “Dolly”, in the background is the corner of North Road and Sandy camp road Lindum, the small tree across the road is now a very big tree and in Iona’s property
Jim and Meg had 4 children,
1. Hazel Brock Born 1923…. Died 1987, married Bill Sheppard
they had one daughter Vada Margaret Born 15.3.1942
Vada married Ken Mumford in May 1964
They had a son Kenneth William, in 1965,
Ken Jnr married in 1991 to Sue and they have 2 sons, Liam and Ryan
2. (My Mother, Ina Brock , born 1925),
Married Ronald Herbert Thomas in 1944, they had one daughter:
*Vada Ann Thomas Born 23.4.1945
In 31.12.1964 Vada Ann married David Herbert Westlake,
They had 2 children:
Diana Lee Westlake 8.9.1971
Darrell Herbert Westlake16.3.1973
Ina remarried in 1949 to Leonard Ronald Anderson, known as Ron, They had 2 children:
*Peter Ronald Anderson Born 16.5.1953, he married Tirrion McPhail in 1976, they had a daughter Emma Jae born 21.7.1980 Emma married Ryan Powell had daughters Bella Jae born 16.6.2007, and Tayha born 12/02/2010
*Ina-Lee Anderson Born 11.3.1955, married Keith Wood on 18/10/1980, they have 2 sons,
Ryan Wood, born 17.1.1983, Ryan married Alisha Whelow born 22/4/1986. on 11/3/2007
Kurt Wood, Born 22/12/1985
Ina remarried in 1977, to Andrew Boyd Skillen he died 17.4.2005
Ina passed away 2/02/2013, aged 87 yrs
3. Margaret Brock, Born 16.11.1929…. Died 27.5.07,
Married James Heymer, 1949…..James (Jim) died in 1975. They had 2 sons
*Jim Heymer born 1950, married Sally Minty, they have a Son Christopher, with his partner they have a daughter.
*Malcolm Heymer, born 2.5.1953
Barry and Janice’s Wedding 1963, with parents
4. Barry Brock, born 4.3.1942, died 6.10.2005, married Janice Kenwrick in 1963, they had 3 children, Barry worked as a carpenter for a local Builder, Ernie Day for many years, starting as an apprentice, Ernie thought highly of Barry, and when he was given the naming rights to a street at Wynnum West where he was building homes, he named it Brockworth Street after his valued employee.
*Sharon Lee Brock born 1964,
Sharon had 3 children, David, Kalya and Tabitha
*Maree Ann Brock born 1966,
Maree had 2 children Rebecca born 1989, Jamie born 1991
*Stephen Brock born 1971
In 1986 Barry remarried to Veena and they had a daughter *Jessica born in 1989