Adelaide - South Australia : Road Trip - Part 1 (How it came about)
For the many years that I've studied my Melbourne maternal lineage of Newenham's, in the background, I've also known about a "cousin" branch of this Family & that they were based in Adelaide. I was told about this Branch, but only by the occupational link to a "Sheriff of South Australia". That's all I knew.
This intriguing Adelaide story, was well before my Melbourne story even took hold. So well before, it was in the formative years of Colonial Adelaide... Yes, colonial 1837 era....
My lineage emigrated from Jersey Island & landed on the Australian shores in 1855, some 18-19 years later than the Adelaide mob. Somewhat ironically timed, when we landed here, the cousin branch left Adelaide & headed back to England. Fancy that, they might have even passed each other on the High Seas!!!
So over the years, after intense research & the data from it, it produced a constant question.
"Did the cousin branch, ever make contact with us, or even know about us?"
I mean, with all this info & family placements, surely there has to be something?
At this starting point (before the road trip), there was no documented proof, that showed the 2 Newenham (1st) Cousins, had ever made contact with each other.
Just like in the Ancestry TV Shows "Who do you think you are" & all that, a burning question results with a road trip to find the answer.
And I did just that - off my own bat, I went to find an answer to this burning question, if there was any "contact between the cousins". A road trip with the hope of understanding any sort of connection or contact that was plausible, I wanted to know about it.
The reason I had a strong gut feeling on this, is because these families were always connected.
And I found out much later, that there is a "plot twist" to this word of "connected" & this statement is crucial to understanding the story.
Moreso, the Adelaide & Melbourne story, connects back to Ireland with the same Grandparents.
The 2 "cousins" that landed here, descend off 2 Brothers (1 off the eldest Male & the other off the 2nd eldest Male - off the Heir & the Spare so to speak).
This road trip, was thought about for some time (years), but I didn't have enough compelling evidence to enforce the road trip. I needed another reason to compel me to justify the trip.
So, there is a Melbourne Rock Band (Sisters Doll) I've been following for some years & they just so happen to do a national tour at the right time & one of their gigs was in Adelaide.
This was what I was looking for, another reason to go. Once I confirmed to myself, that I wanted to go to this gig & it'd be "one for the books", I decided to make secondary plans to do this historical tour on the back of this gig. For some reason, things just started to fall into place.
The risk versus reward at this point was worth it.
The road trip was "on" & plans were made.
On the back story of this road trip, was another 2 connections to the Photographical / Arts Industry of Adelaide.
1. Via my Maternal Hasler family (Photographer's), who had business ventures in Adelaide & also had business associations with Henry James Johnstone.
2. Slightly off track to the Orpen name - Sir William Orpen (we are multiple x cousins via both of his Parents through the Newenham/Persse & Blakeney families). Orpen's story links back to his controversial "Nude" satirical Portrait called "Sowing the Seeds" & it was on display in Adelaide.
On a final note, before we headed to Adelaide, I had done some research via the DNA & found a story to Adelaide & the slightly northern towns of Kapunda. But I had no clue as to what the connection was.
The most important thing, was to keep this story in mind.
