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Our South Australian Family

My 2x great-grandparents John Davenport and Elizabeth Froggatt both arrived in Australia at Adelaide in 1849, where they met and married before later travelling to Victoria during the gold rush. So it was interesting to discover that having ultimately made Melbourne their home, one of their children would return to South Australia, where his many descendants live today. These are not just in Adelaide - if you ever travel to the Yorke Peninsula, specifically the towns of Kadina, Maitland and Ardrossan, you might bump into some of them (or you can at least find several relatives buried in the cemeteries there!).   

(Before I go on, I would like to add how great it is when you find a connection on Ancestry.com who has made plenty of photos of their ancestors available - once again, I have third cousin Lesley in Adelaide to thank for that. So it is nice to be able to do a post with plenty of images to break up the words!)  

Edwin John Davenport, born 24 February 1863, was the seventh of John and Elizabeth's children, the one born immediately previous to my own great-grandmother Florence. Edwin was working as a painter (as his father had) when he met Emily Ann Winter Graham. They wed in North Melbourne on 13 August 1885. Their early years were spent in Moonee Ponds, where Emily gave birth to daughter Margaret Elizabeth Jane in 1886, then twins John Graham and George Edwin in 1899. Sadly John died at three days and George at just two years of age. A second daughter Emily was born in 1890.

Edwin John Davenport and Emily Ann Winter Graham

 

Edwin and Emily's wedding, 1885; and their home in Moonee Ponds in the late 1880s

Emily with daughter Margaret; daughters Emily and Margaret Davenport

Edwin's wife Emily Graham had been born in Adelaide, 1866, to George and Margaret Graham - Margaret was pregnant with her on the voyage out to Australia, and it is believed Emily's middle name Winter is in honour of a Mrs Winter who showed kindness to Margaret during the voyage. George and Margaret were still in Adelaide, along with Emily's only sister, so when depression hit Melbourne in the early 1890s, Edwin and Emily took their new family back to Adelaide. They set up home just south of the city centre at Unley, where three more children were born: Georgina Florence in 1895, Edith May (known as Bobby) in 1901 and Edwin Macleod (known as Mac) in 1908. Edwin (Senior) worked in Adelaide as a 'house repairer', according to one reference.

 

The Davenport home 'Caithness', in Mary Street, Unley; Edwin (Mac) and Edwin Snr

Margaret Davenport married Henry (Harry) Heylen Jr, an Adelaide jeweller, in 1908. They lived adjacent to Unley in the suburb of Hyde Park and had four daughters: Gwendoline, Constance, Caroline (known by her middle name Thelma), and Marguerite. All married. Gwen lived to 100! Thelma and husband Robert Laver moved to Kadina where they raised seven children. 

Henry and Margaret Heylen; Thelma Laver nee Heylen

Emily married John Wright (Jack) Klopp, a carpenter, in 1915. Jack had been born near Maitland, which is where the family made their home. They had five children: George, Edwin, Jean, John and Norma. Several of these children remained in the district.


Emily Klopp, with her father Edwin

Georgina married William Thomas (Tom) Dunstone in 1915 and lived in Adelaide. They had one daughter: Georgina Margaret (known as Peggy) 

 

Georgina and Tom Dunstone; Tom while in the AIF during the First World War

Edith became a nurse before meeting and marrying divorcee Harrold Morley Rothwell Wood in 1925. Harold was a 'surgical mechanic' at Royal Adelaide Hospital, and later lost his left arm from receiving too much x-ray radiation, from which he obtained compensation from the hospital. They lived in the Adelaide suburb of Tusmore and had two daughters, Patricia and Josephine (and in between a pair of twins Joan and John that didn't survive). Pat married Joffre Alexander (from Ceduna) and had four children - and these two are the parents of Lesley who has been the source of so much of this information.  

Edith Davenport as a toddler; and later as a nurse

  

Edith (centre) with daughters Pat (left) and Jo; Edith and Harrold Wood

And finally, Edwin (Mac) was a jeweller/watchmaker who served in the RAAF during the Second World War. He married Sarah (Sadie) Groves in 1930, and later worked as a distillery hand at Tolley, Scott & Tolley, a prominent Adelaide winemaker and distillery in the suburb of Stepney. 


Mac Davenport in RAAF uniform; and with wife Sadie



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