DANIEL BATMAN, AUSTRALIAN ATHLETE, WAS NOT A DIRECT DESCENDANT OF VICTORIAN PIONEER, JOHN BATMAN. :: FamilyTreeCircles.com Genealogy
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DANIEL BATMAN, AUSTRALIAN ATHLETE, WAS NOT A DIRECT DESCENDANT OF VICTORIAN PIONEER, JOHN BATMAN.

Journal by itellya

DANIEL BATMANcould not have been a direct descendant of John Batman unless he changed his surname to Batman by deed poll. He may well have been a descendant of one of John Batman's four brothers. John Batman only had one son, who drowned as a boy in 1845.

The above biography gives a source for the claim but that source does not give a source for its claim.

This is from the John Batman Wikipedia page.

Australian sprinter Daniel Batman was a direct descendant of John Batman.[28]

28. Jacquelin Magnay (5 March 2005). "Brat's all folks: sprint ace Batman comes of age". Sydney Morning Herald.

The portion of the article that supposedly proves that Daniel was a direct descendant of John Batman.
He is particularly proud that his direct ancestor, John Batman, who helped found Melbourne, was the first politician to sign a treaty with the Aborigines.

"My relative from seven generations ago is the only one who has signed with the Australian indigenous people, yet in Canada there are 250 such treaties," he said. "Just knowing that, which made me feel sad, brought me closer to Nova."


All that this proves is that Daniel thought he was a direct descendant.

Let's see what John Batman's biography says about John Batman's descendants IN AUSTRALIA.
The case dragged on through chancery, months after Batman's son was drowned in 1845.

A contemporary portrait of Batman seems to survive in a photograph at the State Library, Melbourne. His only Australian descendants derive from Mrs Weire. His fifth daughter, Ellen, died young; but the others made reasonable, and, three of them fruitful, marriages: Maria, first with John McKinney, tide-waiter (d.1841); Lucy with Joseph Lomas of Craigieburn; Eliza with William Collyer, squatter; Adelaide with John, his brother, and, as a widow, with William Bertram, Scotland; Pelonamena with Daniel Bunce.


Wikipedia is very big on citations being supplied for statements made, but the example given above is absolutely useless and may have led to Daniel's incorrect belief about his ancestry. Now Daniel's false belief appears so frequently on the internet, including in a Wiki page for children, that this fiction could become accepted fact; hence this journal.

John Pascoe Fawkner said that he was unable to accompany his party to Port Phillip because of sea sickness. Instead of just blindly quoting this, C.P.Billot uncovered the facts behind his disembarkation at Georgetown for his THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN PASCOE FAWKNER. Jacquelin Magnay was obviously a sports reporter and validating the claim about Daniel's ancestry would have been the last thing on her mind. How then could the Wikipedia administrators have considered her article to be sufficient proof of Daniel's claim?

I have just about proved that John Batman's daughter, Ellen, who died aged 20 in 1851 at Greenhills (now Toolern Vale) was the one buried in the historic grave there*. Conclusive proof could only be provided by exhumation and DNA comparisons with Weire descendants. My efforts will have been wasted if Batman history becomes tainted with mythology.
*See THE GRAVE AT TOOLERN VALE

Surnames: BATMAN
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by itellya Profile | Research | Contact | Subscribe | Block this user
on 2018-08-11 14:48:12

Itellya is researching local history on the Mornington Peninsula and is willing to help family historians with information about the area between Somerville and Blairgowrie. He has extensive information about Henry Gomm of Somerville, Joseph Porta (Victoria's first bellows manufacturer) and Captain Adams of Rosebud.

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