A Link to a Socialite

Welcome to my first post in several months! A lot has gone on in this time: made redundant after nearly 25 years at Lonely Planet, I've been concentrating on taking the opportunity of this time off to get a lot of 'digital admin' done. I've also been lucky enough to score some casual genealogical work with Jan Worthington, who was my supervisor when I did my Diploma in Family Historical Studies in 2017-18. That work has made me less motivated to spend hours on my own research, but I'm starting to get back into it. And so here we are with some new material for your reading pleasure!

As you might remember I had been working on my Cowan ancestors, and had posted about my great-grandfather Joseph Cowan who was an architect and Mayor of Essendon. I am now delving into his children and their families. His eldest child was Magdalene Elizabeth Cowan (Dad's Aunty Madge). She married Herbert Rossiter, and it is through this family that we have a link to a woman who was well known in Melbourne social circles back in the day: Lady Susan Renouf, who had been Susan Sangster before that, and Susan Peacock, wife of one-time Liberal Party leader Andrew Peacock, before that. I can't recall if this was known by members of my family, I have a feeling it might have been; anyway, have a look at the chart below to see the link.

Note that Susan Rossiter's father Sir John Frederick Rossiter was famous in his own right, also as a politican in the Liberal Party. He was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1955 as the member for Brighton. He served as a minister in the Bolte and Hamer governments from 1965 to 1973, and was Chief Secretary from 1973 until his retirement in 1976. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1978 (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rossiter).

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A Sacrifice, By Any Name

Prologue Before launching into today's story, I thought I might give an update on how my research is going. I started this blog back in 2019 as a way of communicating some of the more interesting stories about past family members, as I embarked on a 'redo' of all my original research. Having completed my Family History Diploma the year before, I'd learnt the importance of verifying information, and my family tree had plenty of information with no proven sources. Across the last four years I have completed the 'redo' of seven lines of the family: Phelan, Gasperino, Cowan and Davenport on Dad's side, and Atkin, Collins and Kenny on Mum's. I have also done a lot of work on the remaining maternal line, Lawless. But this line's Australian history goes back an extra generation, and has not just one but five brothers who emigrated here, so it represents by far the largest chunk of work to get through. As of now, I estimate that I've completed about 85%...

A 'Painful Accident'? You're Not Kidding!

Perhaps it stands out when compared with the tendency of today's media to sensationalise, but the understatement of much of the reporting of yesteryear is remarkable. Take the following 'painful injury' to Martin Clohesy, a farming contractor of Leongatha, as reported in the Great Southern Star on Friday 5 February 1915. Martin Clohesy was a cousin of my great-grandfather Nicholas Lawless (as shown in the chart below), who some readers might remember was a hopeless alcoholic and ultimately divorced by my great-grandmother Margaret. You can read about that elsewhere in this blog. Martin was married and had two children at the time of the horrific incident, and had other relatives in the Leongatha district - including the Cantys mentioned in the article - so presumably his family were able to lend plenty of support in his farming work (he was later listed in the electoral roll as an 'onion grower').

The Record-Breaking Adventure of the Utiekah III

Today's post is about one of my distant relatives on Mum's (Atkin) side of the family. My 2x great-grandfather Samuel Atkin came to Australia from Lincolnshire in 1853, and three years later was followed by his older brother Henry with his family. Henry settled near Newstead (not far from Castlemaine), and his daughter Elizabeth married Charles Slee, the Slees being another prominent early Newstead family. Elizabeth and Charles had 14 children (!) and this story is about their grandson Mark Mackie - my third cousin once removed - and what would have been, for the time, a pretty incredible adventure. Mark Mackie was born in Camberwell in 1899, and was educated at Scotch College. He worked as a photo-engraver and had a keen interest in yachting. In 1927 he was one of several ex-public school boys to undertake an 8 month trip in the South Pacific, aboard a yacht named Utiekah III, a 37-ton, 56 ft, auxiliary ketch built in Tasmania two years previously. The Utiekah...

Phelan and Atkin Family History

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