Those very tough ancestors...

This morning Philip brought down a big monitor so I can see all the ancestry documents more clearly. This is a letter written by John Earl in 1822, organising his move from Patterdale beside Ullswater in the Lake District to New South Wales. He married Ann Mounsey, from Patterdale Hall, who had been married before and had several children. Once here, he took up several land grants and became quite prosperous. After some time he left his wife here and went back to England with his housekeeper and they had many children together. Ann Earl is buried in Murrurundi, a town where I used to live, without knowing a thing about her. I will visit the headstone next week on my little trip.

I certainly take my hat off to these early settlers. Imagine arriving in Sydney just 40 years after invasion and heading hundreds of miles north to establish a farm! No roads, no McDonalds on the corner. They first had to find their way to their allocated property, clear the land, build a house and fences. How they got the cattle or sheep there I cannot imagine, nor how they managed to grow crops. And the women had 14 or so children...No electricity or running water. At least they were allocated convicts as workers, which would have been better than being locked up. 

Can you imagine doing all that, dressed like this, in 40 degree heat?