From the Land Down Under to the Rising Sun

This post is a little subtopic from June and Milton’s experiences in Japan. There are some interesting (to family history fans) stories that I would like to share over a few posts. As you read on, it is easy to get confused with who is who due to Scottish naming traditions. The Whan family repeated the names James, Matthew, Andrew, and others many times over the generations. I created a shorthand version of part of the Whan tree to help illustrate.

Milton (and his siblings) had a cousin, John Wilson who did a ton of family history research. Even before there was the Internet, he found records the old-fashioned way – by mail and requesting birth and death certificates. And much of the information here is thanks to his hard work many years ago. John Wilson even had obtained copies of letters dated from 1877 to 1901 written by brothers, Samuel and Matthew in Australia to their brother Andrew in Canada. (Yes for those of you related to Matthew Whan (1824-1900) we have Canadian relatives!)

As I was starting this post, I asked Darelyn how we came into possession of these letters, and she produced a letter that John had written and sent to Loma (his cousin), and here’s what he said:

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Dear Loma, 

Just a short note… Twelve months ago I wrote to a 52nd Whan cousin in Canada. She had been iced in owing to a severe winter, but the wait was worthwhile. She sent 9 letters sent to her grandfather Andrew Whan (Canada) from Samuel Whan and Matthew Whan (Australia). 

The letters are 100 years old and reveal that our great grandfather Matthew came to Australia when he was about 60 years old, with his wife Janet Cameron and daughter. So this is the picture: there were three brothers in Australia, James (farm, Duval), Samuel (farm, Saumarez Ponds), and Matthew (Sydney) plus brother Andrew (farm, Canada) and brother John (deceased)

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What we now know, with the help of Ancestry.com and the Internet, is that there was probably an older brother Alexander (born 1815), and a sister (Martha) who remained in Scotland.

As John Wilson mentions Matthew and his wife and daughter Mary came to Australia in 1885. At this point two of Matthew’s brothers (Samuel and James) and three of his sons, including James and Andrew had already immigrated to Australia ahead of him. Andrew was Milton’s grandfather.

Matthew’s first son, James (Milton’s great uncle) arrived in 1863. John Wilson wrote a great summary using public records and the contents of those letters to summarize as follows:

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James’ Australian adventure commenced in 1863 when he left Scotland to come to Australia on the “Peerless”. The ship’s record shows that James had an Uncle James Whan at Armidale, however young James was met on his arrival by his Uncle Samuel, also of Armidale. They caught the train from Sydney to Singleton and then by horse and dray to Saumarez Ponds, near Armidale. James first worked on his uncle Samuel’s farm. 

From Immigration Deposit Journal: Date of deposit: 12-12-1862 Depositor> Samuel Whan; 

Immigrant> James Whan; Age> 16

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Here is a portion of the letter from Samuel to his brother in Canada written in 1877 – fifteen years after young James had arrived. Samuel tells about their brother James as well as their nephew James.  (I will try to transcribe below)

The handwriting is hard to decipher but this is the best I could do:

Your brother James is not (m…??) I have not seen him since I wrote you last. I understand he is troubled with a pain in his back; my opinion is that he will not send you money he never has given much to his friends yet but that has nothing to do with me! Our nephew young James is doing very well. He has nearly 400 acres of land. Both the James are free selectors. The same as you squatted down but here they have to pay five shillings an acre before (letter gets cut off here)

I enjoyed the little family dynamic that Samuel is opining that James (the brother) is tight with his money.

This “young” James was Milton’s great-uncle. Milton’s grandfather Andrew was seven years younger than his brother James. Andrew arrived in Australia later, in 1880 at the age of 27.

Here is part of what Milton’s said (from an earlier blog post) about Andrew:

My grandfather Andrew Whan migrated to Australia from Scotland as a stonemason. Some of the bridges that granddad built still span little creeks around New South Wales. His wife, Elizabeth was a five-foot moneymaker: a “business wiz”, my auntie said. Grandma traveled out to the Australian colony on a windjammer, alone and only 18 years old

Interestingly, Creetown Scotland, where Andrew came from had a stone quarry that began operations in the early 1800s. It would seem Andrew learned his trade there and continued to do so in New South Wales.

Coming up next post – more poignant excerpts from the Whan brothers’ letters 😊

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