Our ancestors who immigrated to Australia must have missed their homelands. While their move to Australia was the start of a new part of their lives, the places they left mustn't have been far from their daily thoughts. Yesterday, at the Running Waters of History Conference at Wyong, historian Dr Richard Reid described how the wording on our ancestors' gravestones were examples of "glancing backwards" to their homelands.
Here are a few examples of how my ancestors' graves showed how their families wanted their origins to be remembered, even in death.
One of my great-great-grandmothers was Ellen TORPY (c. 1833-1906). She was from a small place known as Ballyfliugh, outside the town of Windgap in County Kilkenny. She became Ellen FLEMING when she married Patrick FLEMING in 1853. Ellen is buried in a grave on the edge of Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.
Ellen's Irish origins are recorded in the wording on her headstone:
ELLEN FLEMING
Native of the Co. Kilkenny, Ireland
Died 25 July 1906
Aged 73 years
