VicSearcher on Family Tree Circles

I believe that my great-great-grandmother, Margaret Blair, was a domestic servant at the "Darriwill" homestead in Moorabool from the 1860s to the 1890s.

"Darriwill" belonged to the Hope family from the 1850s and was still owned by the family until fairly recent times.

It would be wonderful to know more about the servants who worked at "Darriwill" (and especially about Margaret Blair).

Margaret eventually married Robert Snedden (retired farmer) at "Darriwill" on 25 March 1891.

I am finding it very difficult to make progress with the King side of my family.

Thomas King, whose father was John King, married Emma Jane Goodwin at the Wesleyan Parsonage, Port Adelaide, South Australia on 3 May 1879. Thomas and Emma had five children (four of whom survived) - John, Alexander Thomas, William, Amelia Sarah Ann and Margaret Emma.

Emma Jane King died in June 1908, aged only 53. Thomas King continued to live "on the old Port Road" until he died in August 1946.

With no online search facility for South Australian BDM certificates and a general lack of detail on the certificates that I have been able to obtain, it has been extremely difficult to find out where Thomas King was born (and when), when he emigrated to Australia, whether he had any siblings, etc. His father's name being so common (John King) and with no information about where in the UK he lived, I have been stuck for some time on this branch of the family.

If anyone can help with any details at all, I would be very pleased to hear from them.

Here are some further puzzles from my research. My grandfather, James Donald Blair, was taken from his actual parents when he was just a baby (under an order from the Geelong Court). He was eventually "adopted" by Frederick Tucker and his wife, Margaret Allison Tucker. Frederick and Margaret were comfortably off and spent their final days near the beach at Hampton, Victoria (Australia).

Coincidentally or otherwise, Margaret Tucker was originally Margaret Allison Blair. Her parents were James Blair and Eleanor "Ellen" Price. James was the younger brother of William Allison Blair, who did well for himself and lived in the Maidstone / Essendon area of Melbourne in the late 1800s. The brothers were born in Scotland and emigrated to Australia in the 1850s.

James Blair and his wife, Ellen, lived in Collingwood and Fitzroy. He was a hatter. They had five children, only one of whom survived (Margaret Allison Blair). The last child was born and died in 1865. Then, in 1866, Ellen Blair began to have children with another man, Robert Simpson. Robert was a confectioner. She had the children registered with the dual surnames "Simpson Blair". Only one of these children survived - Ellen Simpson Blair.

Where was James Blair? Had he gone back to the UK? Had he run off to the goldfields? Was he dead? I have been unable to find any definitive information on this.

Ellen Blair died in 1874, aged only 42. How did her two surviving daughters (Margaret Allison Blair and Ellen Simpson Blair) manage to look after themselves? Did their uncle, William Allison Blair, take them in and care for them?

If anyone can shed light on these intriguing questions, I would love to hear from them.

Hello. I have some Dennis ancestors who came to Australia (Victoria) from Cornwall in the UK in 1853.

One of the ongoing puzzles in my research so far is whether my Dennis relatives were part of the Dennis family who lived in the Colac and Birregurra areas. My bunch were originally from Truro and were miners and labourers. The family in the Western District came from Madron and were wealthy.

My reason for querying a connection is that my ancestor, Elizabeth Jane Dennis, was living in Irrewarra in 1881 when she married her husband, Alexander Blair. What was she doing there? She was born in Geelong in 1854 to Ferdinando Pascoe Dennis and Elizabeth Ferze Ferral. Her parents and siblings were living in Creswick. Was it sheer coincidence that she was in Irrewarra or did she have some connection with the Dennis family there?

The wealthy Dennis family (Alexander Dennis and his wife Emma Williams Tregurtha, and their sons - Richard Vinicombe Dennis and Alexander Dennis Junior) lived on properties such as Tarndwarncoort, Uondo, Eeyeuk etc. Did my great-grandmother (Elizabeth Jane Dennis) work in Irrewarra? Was she visiting the Dennis family there? If so, was she actually related or was she attempting to create a relationship?

If anyone out there in the internet either has any ideas (or, better still, some actual information), I'd love to hear from them.