Part 3

Frightened & unsure of my present position I started to cry. The person who pulled me out through the gate said to me, while supplying me with a handkerchief, ‘Where\’s your father, Michael?’

How did he know my name,…

Michael Peter Larobina (Part 3 of story), Italy, 1954

Part 2

That night I found it extremely difficult to sleep. While trying to outstare the gloomy darkness of the cabin I heard my mother give a few sobs which were soon smothered by the pillow.’ If our new home is going to be as pleasant as Mum says …

Michael Peter Larobina (Part 2 of story), Italy, 1954

This story was found amongst Michael\’s belongings after his death in 2004.

JOURNEY TO A NEW HOME

My first glimpse of Australia was at Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne. I was then six years old. My destination was Sydney where I was to meet my father…

Michael Peter Larobina (Part 1 of story), Italy, 1954

In the mid 1800’s wealthy landowners in the Hunter Valley needed the expertise of German vineyard workers to work in the vineyards & wineries of the area.

In 1848, a year when revolution threatened Europe, arrangements were made to recruit…

Friedrich Ebbecke (Ebbeck), Germany, 1849

Part II of Done’s story.

We were very happy to receive clothes and shoes. We were especially pleased because the clothes were new and not hand-me downs. Being the youngest in my family I was particularly happy, I was very pleased. In total there…

Done Dimov (Part 2 of story), Macedonia, 1965

My name is Done Dimov and this is my story.

I was born in 1942 in the village Statitsa, Macedonia currently Northern Greece. I left my homeland in March 1948 with the refugee children, during the Greek Civil War, and never returned. I was only six years…

Done Dimov (Part 1 of story), Macedonia, 1965

My mother Zora was a prisoner of war, her story began in the Village of Mladenovac in Serbia in Yugoslavia. Her village was occupied by the Germans during the second World War. Unfortunately a German soldier was killed by the partisans and retribution…

Zora Skorich, Serbia, 1949

Henry Knight was born 1817 in Leigh, Kent, England, to the servant Susannah Knight (1797-1821). He was the illegitimate son of Susannah’s employer, the yeoman farmer Thomas Medhurst (1784-1848) of Killick’s Bank. When Henry was …

Henry Knight, England, 1853

THOMAS ANDERSON was born 18 Aug 1817 in Larbert, Scotland to his parents James ANDERSON & Margaret SMITH. He married Margaret FLEMING on 17 Feb 1852 in Larbert, Scotland. Margaret was born on 29 Oct 1826 in Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland …

Thomas ANDERSON, Scotland, 1884

JOHN HAMILTON was reared on farms in Scotland. He was the youngest in his family and the only one of his family to marry and also to emigrate to Australia. His father Robert Hamilton born 1807 Bellshill, Scotland & mother Anne Lawrie born 1812 …

John HAMILTON, Scotland, 1884

Stef Boeren was born in Alphen a/d Ryn in the Netherlands and Mia in Semarang, capital of Central Java. Each of us had very devoted Catholic parents. Mia was a victim of the Japanese Women POW camps. Her mother died there and her grave is at the war cemetery…

Stef and Mia Boeren, The Netherlands & Central Java, 1951

Major Francis Downes, son of William Downes Esq. of Dedham, Essex was born in 1834. He spent his boyhood in Dedham, a village on the Essex-Suffolk border made famous by the landscape paintings of the artist, John Constable. At the age of 14, Downes …

Major Downes, England, 1877

Part 2 of Story

Years later in a TV documentary called ‘Lost children of the Empire’ I was recognized as one of the children coming down the gang way with many of my friends already lining up on the dock. I do remember feeling quite miserable…

Dilys Budd (Part 2 of story), Wales, 1947

Part 1 of Story in 2 Parts:

It was early 1947, I was 10 years old & Britain was still recovering from the war. I remember sitting in a classroom in the Nazareth House Orphanage, Cardiff, when the nun in charge introduced the class to three men, one…

Dilys Budd (Part 1 of story), Wales, 1947

I left my homeland to get married and start a new family in Australia.

The trip from Peru to Australia lasted about 20 hours. I travelled all by myself. My English was very basic. It was hard for me to understand in Immmigration when they asked me for my…

Gloria Kennedy, Peru, 1990

John Munday was born in Bevington, near Berkeley, Gloucestershire in 1759. He was the first child of Edward Munday and Betty Gooding. He joined the Marines (18th Plymouth Company, Plymouth) at the age of 18. In 1787 he, together with his wife Anne …

John Munday, England, 1788

William Johnstone was born in 1819. His wife, Martha Matilda Birnie, was born in 1822 into a family connected with the sea. The couple were married in 1841 and shortly thereafter William sold up his possessions and sailed from Gravesend with his young…

William Johnstone, England, 1842

Malcolm Jenkins and his family migrated to Australia from New Zealand by ship.

in search of a better life style.

Malcom Jenkins married Winifred Hawes on 22nd Feb 1879 later moving to Australia. They had 3 children Nesta, Gwen and Marjorie. When Nesta,…

Malcom Jenkins, New Zealand, 1915

After completed the high school I started my apprendiceship in the building industry as a bricklayer.

Four years later I got my certificate. At 21 years of age I was called up to serve in the army for 13 months

At age of 23 I decided to come to Australia …

Andrea (Andrew) Cappuccio, Italy, 1966

William and Elizabeth Hunt

William Henry Hunt, baptised 16 July 1809, and his wife, Elizabeth nee Toogood, left Gillingham, Dorset, England, seeking better prospects for their all male family of five sons. At Plymouth they boarded the SS Sibella,…

William Henry Hunt, England, 1848

Jabez and Sophia Mary Grimble

Jabez Grimble, baptised 4 March 1814, emigrated from England with his wife, Sophia Mary nee Felgate, and six children as cabin passengers on the barque SS Orestes, arriving at Pt Adelaide, South Australia, on 19 September…

Jabez Grimble, England, 1853

My father Charles migrated from Holland to Australia to marry my mother, Marjorie, who was born in Australia. He had met her when he visited Australia while he was in the Dutch Merchant Navy. He had joined the Merchant Navy after the war and travelled…

Charles Franchimon, Netherlands, 1955

Due to WWI mustard gas poisoning , my father could not live in the damp English climate. My parents, were living in sunny Spain when I was born in 1936 under the Union Jack, on the Rock of Gibraltar. In 1939 because of the horrors of Civil War, we moved over…

John Gordon-Kirkby, Gibraltar -/- MOROCCO, 26/11/61

Carl Andreas Winkler was born in Germany in about 1827. Germany, at this time, was experiencing a religious upheaval resulting eventually, in many thousands of German Lutherans leaving their homeland to seek religious freedom elsewhere. Many…

Carl Andreas Winkler, Germany, 1855

Desmond George Humphreys was born on 29 September 1925 at Henley on Thames in England.

He arrived in Fremantle on 15 October 1929 aboard the SS Otranto as he had been sent to Australia for a better life. He lived with Sydney and Eleanor (Nell) Brookes,…

Desmond George Humphreys, England, 1929

Antonio VALLI was born in 1842 in Teglio, Lombardy, Northern Italy to his parents Battista & Domenica VALLI (nee CONTE). According to his naturalization records, dated 11h June1894, Antonio arrived in Australia on 29th June 1861, aged 20 …

Antonio VALLI, ITALY, 1861

Honorah was born in Cork, Ireland, the daughter of John & Norah O’Shea nee O’Mahoney. She had 3 brothers John, Daniel & James and 3 sisters Margaret, Catherine & Bridget. Honorah’s father John had a dairy farm…

Honora O’SHEA, IRELAND, 1876