Edward Ellis born 1882 Geelong - Trans Tasman ANZAC Blog Challenge

In keeping with Australia Day inspired by Twigs-of -Yore and the subsequent post for Waitangi Day.

We now have the Trans Tasman ANZAC Blog Challenge. Below are the details from the Auckland Reseach Centre Facebook page

"To participate:
*Write a blog post about an Australian or New Zealander serviceman or woman’s family, and the impact war had on their family history.
*Publish your post by 25 April 2011
*Post a comment with the URL on the Auckland Research Centre’s Facebook page under discussion or on the relevant post on the Twigs of Yore blog."

This is the document that relates to Edward Ellis, born in Geelong Victoria Australia the son of Frederick Ellis (1845 - 1914) and Sarah Ann Newton (1851 - 1923) on 3rd March 1882 and was one of 14 children.  All of Edward's siblings were born in Australia, but his father, Frederick had been born in Elstead Surrey in 1846 and was 8 years old when his parents migrated as free settlers to Geelong in 1854 on board the James Baines.

As I typed the above I realised that I really didn't know too much about Edward and my family history software had not been updated, so I pulled out the Ellis folder. Back in 1991, I had located various bits of information about Edward and here are those details:

• Born at Mount Duneed 3rd March 1882 and Baptised at the Wesleyan Church in Geelong 6 June 1884.
• A tuber player in Geelong Harbour Trust Band circa 1913.
• He enlisted at Cootamundra, New South Wales on 20th July 1916 and left Australia on 9th November 1916 on board The Benalla. 
• He disembarked in Devonport (Plymouth Devon England) on 9th January 1917.
• He proceeded to France on 30th September 1917 and was wounded in action (left leg) at Rouelles in August 1918. 
• He was discharged in England in January 1919 and returned to Australia on board The Karoa.

Having read the above in the file some obvious questions sprang to mind:

Questions:

1. What was the significance of the Wesleyan Church? Why not a C of E Church?
2. What further details could I establish about the Harbour Trust Band
3. Why did he enlist in Cootamundra? It is some distance from Geelong, but is mainly farming territory. Ironically, I have been to both Geelong and Cootamundra!
4. He was disembarked in Devonport, only about an hour from here in the car. What other records exist in the UK?
5. Locate Rouelles in France
6. Did he know of his English heritage and roots and did he venture to Surrey to meet any of the family?
7. Where did his life take him upon his return to Australia? 

Eliza Ellis & Charles Hudson

Last year I commented on the post of George Ellis that there was an address on the reverse.

The address read and refer to Eliza Ellis and her husband Charles Hudson.

St Kilda
Regent Street
Leederville
Western Australia

From my notes my cousin who descends from John Ellis born 1817 in Elstead and now lives in Victoria wrote to the address as it is written above in May 1991 in the vague hope we might have had a reply, but alas the letter was returned by Australia Post as address no longer known.

Ellis, Ellis and More Ellis!

The following is one of a series of posts for the Family History Writing Challenge - Day 15 (For more information on the challenge click here)

I have always thought that my Ellis families from Puttenham and Elstead were connected. When I initially embarked upon trying to untangle the Ellis I shared my thoughts with Ivy Sheffield, who was my Grandfather's first cousin. Ivy was then in her late 70s, but like most of the Grandchildren of Caroline Harris, nee Ellis, Ivy had an amazing memory and as I explained my hypothesis to her, she simply nodded and said I suspect your right. Not perhaps the most helpful of statements, but I felt that there was perhaps some truth in my thought process.

Then in 1990 I met a contact, I can't even remember how we met, but someone who shared a connection to one of the Ellis families in Elstead. She didn't live too far from Elstead and I was invited to tea and to see the documents and photos she had. They were delightful. With hindsight I wish I had photographed them, but I didn't, although I did transcribe and described the documents. The transcripts of those documents is online. Following that meeting I was even more confused and I elected to go back to basics and start again with a clear head.

The bottom line was there were too many families in the same 4 mile radius each having children and calling them all the same names. See the problem?, but there was a glimmer of light on the horizon and I remember telling myself at the time that I must not get swept away and caught up in the details that I was about to unravel.

The first thing was to head back to Ivy. Her son in law, (DW), was the Grandson of a man, from Elstead called Job Ellis. DW presented me with a birthday book that had come down through his family, and was understood to have originally belonged to Adelaide Underwood. I copied the details and like the other Ellis material it is online. It was the least of my problems to know where Adelaide Underwood slotted into the general mix. So my big question was to DW what is the connection between your Grandfather Job and your wife's Grandmother Caroline? The answer was a smile and then "that is what your to find out!" I could have cried. I didn't of course. DW reached into a photograph album and very kindly lent me some photographs that I shall load to the Ellis' of Elstead blog.

So, now I had four sets of Ellis families in the parishes of Elstead, Puttenham, Godalming and Guildford, and in 1992 I met a fifth connection to the Ellis families.

1. My Great Great Grandmother Caroline Ellis born 1844 the daughter of George and Prudence nee Budd in Puttenham.
2. Job Ellis born in Elstead in 1848 and the Grandfather of DW
3. The family of John Ellis born 1817 in Elstead whose family had migrated to Geelong Australia in 1854. I had already made connections with at least three other researchers in Australia and met them during their time in England, or mine in Australia
4. The family of my contact OS whose family came from Elstead.
5. The family of my contact BE whose husband's family came from Elstead.

The early families, were easy to work on.

• John Ellis born 1817 was the nephew to Job Ellis through the marriage of George Ellis and Sarah Hall in 1801 and subsequent lineage to James Ellis
• Caroline Ellis born 1844 was the Second Cousin to John Ellis leading to James Ellis
• Caroline Ellis born 1844 was the third Cousin to Job Ellis leading to James Ellis

Initial research has shown that James Ellis, who is the key to this entire family was one of three sons who were the children of James Ellis born circa 1690 and Jane Edwards who married in Peperharrow in 1710. As to what happened to the other two children of James and Jane I have no idea, and I am almost to frighted to find out!

The members who connect to the families of OS and BE are related and eventually join up and connect to Job Ellis.

So I was right when I sat and said to Ivy I think they all connect, I simply hadn't thought that they connected back in 1710!