Chapter 1 – The Prisoner, Joseph Dangerfield
When Joseph Dangerfield 1, my great, great grandfather, arrived at Port Adelaide as a member of the crew of the ship “Santipore,” he and his friend Edward Cooper “skipped ship” in the harbor at Port Adelaide rather than return . . .
Chapter 2 – The Wedding of Joseph Dangerfield and Sarah Elliott
I am standing in front of the beautiful St Stephen’s Church at Willunga on the 27th June 1850 where the marriage of my 27-year old great-great grandfather Joseph Dangerfield 1, and my 17 year old great-great grandmother Sarah Elliott is . . .
Chapter 3 – William and Judith Cooper and Their Children
William and Judith Cooper and their children In Chapter 2 – the Wedding, I left Joseph and Sarah Dangerfield, my great-great grandparent’s, on 27th June 1850, at their wedding at St Stephens Church Willunga. At that time, the relationship between . . .
Chapter 4 – The King of Melville Island
In Chapter 3 I told the story of the Cooper family who were present at the wedding of my Great Great Grandfather Joseph Dangerfield 1 and Sarah Elliott of McLaren Vale. Resourcefulness and good management must have run in the . . .
Chapter 5 – The Bullocky
After my great-great grandfather Joseph Dangerfield 1 married Sarah Elliott in 1850 at the St Stephens Church at Willunga, he and Sarah went on to have a large family of twelve children, Henry, Joseph, Ellen, Charles, James, Edward, Sarah, Emma . . .
Chapter 6.1 – The Soap and Candle Factory
In 1863 Charles O’Connor 1, my great-grandfather (b. 1827), at the age of 36 years joined the exodus from Ireland. He left Dublin and sailed to Australia on the ship ‘Pestonjee Bomanjee’ to Melbourne and from thence to Kadina where with his wife Mary (Mone) O’Connor (Piggot), he began his Australian adventure.
Chapter 6.2 – The Soap and Candle Factory
“What was it mainly that you liked about being a Blacksmith, Dad?”
“I loved the whole job, but there were three things associated with the trade of Blacksmithing in those far off days that I truly loved. They are firstly, the beautiful odors of a black coal fire, secondly, the odor of the burning of a horse’s hoof when the shoes are being fitted and thirdly and the sound of the ring of a good anvil.
Chapter 7.1 – All About Olive
My great grandfather, Joseph Dangerfield 2 (1855-1939) had an older brother called, Henry (Harry) Dangerfield (1851-1919). Harry was the eldest of the Dangerfield family. He had twelve children and his youngest child was a girl named Olive Evelyn Riley . . .
Chapter 7.2 – German Charlie
When my father, Maynard O’Connor Snr died in 1995, among his belongings was a little book called “German Charlie, Man of the Mallee,” by Marilyn Foster-Holmes.
Chapter 8 – The Truth Seeker
William Charles Dangerfield was the first member of the Dangerfield family to become a Christadelphian.
Chapter 9 – Pioneers of the Wilderness
On 7th Feb 1877, at the Wesleyan Church, Clare, South Australia, Joseph Dangerfied 2, my great-grandfather, married Margaret Thoday, second daughter of Henry and Maria Thoday who were my great-great grandparents.
Chapter 10 – The Minstrel Boy
Yesterday I visited my grandma to keep her company and talk to her about her family and her growing up in South Australia. My grandmother was born in Yacka, South Australia in 1879 and spent her early years traveling from place to place wherever her father Joseph Dangerfield could find work.
Chapter 11.1 – ‘The Scrapings of the Pot”
In 1913 Howard married Charlotte Maud (Lottie) Offler, and they spent the next 50 years together and enjoyed a very happy marriage. On 25th May 1963, sadly, Howard’s beloved wife died and Howard was bereft!
Chapter 11:2- ‘The Scrapings of the Post”
In 1877 Joseph Dangerfield 2 married Margaret Thoday the daughter of my great-great grandparents, Henry and Maria Thoday. They had children, William Charles, Alice Maud (my grandmother), Joseph Henry (Harry), Elizabeth Lilian, Elijah, twins Mary and Martha who died in infancy, Ivy an adopted daughter and and finally came Howard, or as he humorously described himself “The Scrapings of the Pot.” This is part 2 of Howard Dangerfield’s story.
Chapter 11.3 – “The Scrapings of the Pot”
“To fill in time between seed time and harvest, Dad took on a number of scrub rolling contracts which also provided finance necessary for keeping the farm as a going concern. Dad made two scrub rollers from scrub timber and brother Harry had left the Broken Hill mines and was now working on the farm and also driving a team in a scrub roller.”
Chapter 11.4 – “The Scrapings of the Pot”
Howard Dangerfield had a varied employment history throughout his life as did most people of the time. Work was hard to get and so people would take any job that was available and so work was found on the land or in the mines at places such as Broken Hill and Kadina, or for Howard as a traveling movie theater operator.
Chapter 12.1 – From Prussia with Love
On 5th Oct 1910, Joseph Henry (Harry) Dangerfield, son of my great-grandfather and great-grandmother Joseph and Margaret Dangerfield (Thoday), married Emma Emielia Laube, daughter of Joahann Friedrich Laube and Pauline Wilhelmina Laube (Zucht) and granddaughter of Johann Friedrich and Dorothea Laube.
Chapter 12.2 – From Prussia with Love
The Laube’s were a very close family group and there was an account of their movements which was handed down through the family of the eldest child, Johanna Laube, then through her daughter August Matilda Mitchell (Laube), then granddaughter Melva Brus and finally her great granddaughter Vennetta Brus.
Chapter 13 – Deutsche Kuchen
When Joseph Henry (Harry) Dangerfield married Emma Emelia Laube he married a real treasure. Emma was a kindly woman, good-natured and even-tempered. She was imbued with the strong Lutheran values of her Silesian ancestors, and is remembered by her family as a brilliant cook using recipes lovingly passed down to her from her German grandmother, Dorothea.
Chapter 14 – Little Sister
Joseph 2 and Margaret Dangerfield’s eldest daughter, Alice Maud, was my grandmother and she married Richard Pryor Williams and had three daughters, Jean, Connie and Ronda. Jean was my mother and Connie and Ronda my dear Aunties.
Chapter 15 – The Forgotten Child
My Aunty Connie, was the second daughter of Richard Pryor Williams and Alice Maud Williams (Dangerfield), my grandparents, and she was born on the 9th Oct 1919 and named Bessie Constance Margaret Williams. Aunty Connie was a rebellious and troubled child.
Chapter 16.1 – The Background to the Thoday’s from England
From England came the Thoday’s, Henry and Maria, my great-great grandparents. Henry Thoday (b. 1831) was from Cambridge and Maria Thoday (Cooke b. 1839) was a Cockney, being born within the sound of the Bow Bells.
Chapter 16.2 – The Genealogy of the Thoday’s from England
Chapter 17.1 – The Background to the Cooper’s from England
The early 19th century was an era of political and social unrest in Britain. The pull of a new life in a new land was what brought so many immigrants to Australia and among them were the Coopers who were to become part of my ancestral family tree. Samuel Cooper Snr (b. 1709 in Norwich England) married Mary Cooper (Lovick) (b. 1713 also in Norfolk England).
Chapter 17.2 – The Genealogy of the Coopers from England
Chapter 18.1 – The Background to the Laube’s from Silesia
In 1854 Johann Friedrich Laube and Dorothea Elisabeth Laube (Teichert) were among 48 Prussian immigrants who arrived in South Australia amongst the 171 colonists who arrived aboard the Steinwaerder. They were helped by George Fife Angus, a director of the South Australian Company established to develop the new settlement in South Australia.
Chapter 18.2 – The Genealogy of the Laube’s from Silesia
Chapter 19.1 – The Background to the Dangerfield’s from England
Joseph Dangerfield Snr, my great-great grandfather was born in England in 1823. Up to just recently we have not been able to trace him back further than his birth of 1823. Recently I have been able to go back even further. to Thomas and Martha Dangerfield (no dates) and son Samuel Dangerfield (1752)have been unable to find more information than this. He came to Australia on the ship ‘Santipore’ but skipped ship with his friend Edward Cooper in 1848 and later married Sarah Elliott aged 17 in the St Stephen’s Church at Willunga, South Australia.
Chapter 19.2 – The Genealogy of the Dangerfield’s from England.
Chapter 20.1 – The Background to the O’Connor’s from Ireland
My great-grandfather, Charles O’Connor Snr was born about 1827 (d. 1887) and came out from Dublin to Australia in 1863 on the ship ‘Pestonjee Bomanjee’ to Melbourne and from thence to Kadina. His occupation was listed as a soap maker.
Chapter 20.2 – The Genealogy of the O’Connor’s from Ireland