1st Cousins come to Australia
William & Annie Paton’s daughter Isabella married David Reid in Kirkwall on the 8th of August, 1810.
Isabella’s younger sibling, Robert became a Solicitor (Writer to the Signet) in Kirkwall and married Matilda Russell, from London, on the 6th of February 1825 in Edinburgh.
Isabella & David had one daughter Jane, and three sons, James, David & Peter.
Robert & Matilda had seven daughters, Matilda, Ann, Elizabeth (dec), Jane, May, Elizabeth, Ellinor & Agnes, and nine sons, William, Robert, John, James, Russell, Charles(dec), Charles, Ninian & Edward.
Isabella’ & David’s son, David was born in 1828, his slightly older 1st cousin and son of Robert & Matilda, William was born in 1828.
Although David as born in Edinburgh and William was born in Kirkwall, the regular movement of the Patton family between Kirkwall and Edinburgh can assure us that the two cousins knew each other well.
Perhaps as children the two boys dreamed of adventures in different countries and perhaps even openly spoke about the exciting new Colony called New South Wales.
It would be interesting to note David’s reaction when William effectively “disappeared” from the family, finding his way to Australia around 1846, landing in Port Phillip on the 27th of January of that year.
44 years pass, did the two boys communicate with each other during that time? Possibly not.
But at the age of 58 David with his wife Jessie, and a number of their children emigrated to Queensland where they settled on a farm called Grange Farm on the Ringing Plain near Dalby in Queensland.
William passed away in 1909 in Wandong, Victoria and David passed away in 1919 in Dalby, Queensland.
Did either family know of the existence of the other? Hopefully they do now. And hopefully we will get to meet with some of them in January 2018 in Wandong.
