( Best viewed online - connected to Internet )
This is NOT systematic - just a compilation of where various other files (writings) reside.
The line (inverse tree) is a convergence of German (Steiner), Irish (Burns/Byrnes), Scottish (Graham, Gibson), maybe Welsh (?Mostyn), and English (Clouts, Reffins, Worboys - all in turn families that likely went to England from Europe) ... and so on.
My parents are: Mostyn Arthur
BYRNES
23/1/1920 - 7/1/2007
Doreen Phyllis
BYRNES
(nee Steiner)
15/1/1916 - 22/2/2007
Files on the places or events -
Castlereagh tree - planted in 2003 and died, then replanted in May 2009.
Files on the writer's parents and some family history -
Planning a remembrance from Ann Reffin (200th year from arrival in Australia)
Ann Reffin 200 year commemoration, planned and carried out in 2004 [ = "COMMEMORATION - ANN REFFIN (1783-1839) ARRIVED IN SYDNEY 200 YEARS AGO" ]
First Byrnes family graves plot at "Old Castlereagh cemetery" (First-Byrnes-plot.htm)
Samuel Byrnes = http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5737284/samuel-byrnes.htm
Byrnes family, family of Mosytn Arthur Byrnes, my father (default1.htm)
Mostyn's burial at Upper Castlereagh 2007 (order-of-service.htm) [original made 2007]
-- 2009 update of same webpage, on Byrnes at Castlereagh Wesleyan 'sacred acre' ( order-of-service-castlereagh.htm )
Arthur Gervin Byrnes, father of Mosytn (arthur-byrnes1a.htm)
Some snippets of Irish history (irish-history.htm)
Doreen Phyllis Byrnes, my mother (doreen-phyllis-byrnes.htm)
Doreen's life (dp-byrnes-life.htm)
Clout family, Doreen's mother's family (the-clouts.htm)
Steiner family, Doreen's father's family (the-steiners.htm)
Steiner family 150 years (the-steiners-150-yrs.htm)
Steiner compilation began in 2007 as the-steiners-150yrs.htm (2007 was 150th year since the arrival of Christian Steiner on the Gottorp). This file grew too large for easy perusal. It has now been split up and the following created:
steiner-stories-index.htm (overview and guide to other files)
steiners-germany.htm (Steiners and Germany)
steiners-mulgoa-camden.htm (The family began at Mulgoa, and they may have dwelled briefly at Camden)
steiners-wagga-wagga.htm (The family relocated south, settling permanently at Wagga Wagga)
pomingalarna-gold-discovery.htm (under construction - gold found on Christian Steiner's land)
Worboys family - descendants of Augusta Worboys (augusta-worboys.htm)
My maternal grandmother - Queenie (died when I was fairly young).
Paternal grandmother - Janet Graham (lived to a long age although she became senile/unknowing in her last years).
Info
on Janet Graham and Scotland
(janet-g-byrnes-fam.htm)
Grandmother - The young Janet Byrnes (née Graham)
Janet Graham - born at Ayr
Doonfoot and Ayr, Firth of Clyde, Scotland. Just southeast, the "Burns Cott" near Alloway was the
home of Robert Burns.
Home of Robert Burns (viz. "Burns Cott" on above map).
Although I do not know them, it is easy to find (as below) that Grahams still reside in the Ayr district:
A batch of Graham kin surround Adam Graham of Kirkoswald road, Maybole. Adam reached his 100th birthday in 2008 but died not long
after this party for him which was held at Carrick Sports Club where he was was joined by family and friends attending from
Scotland, England, Holland and the United States. Councillor Brian Connolly presented Adam with a card from the
Queen, another from the Department of Works and Pensions, plus a card and a gift from South Ayrshire Council.
BURNS KIN: - There appeared to have been little social stigma attached to reiving; being a professional cattle thief just became a way of life, a means of earning a living and surviving. Scot stole from English and Scot stole from Scot – and sometimes even Scot and English would unite to steal from their neighbour. The allegiance was not to one’s King or country, but to a family or clan. No trust could be put in another unless he was a close relative. Blood feud was endemic. The governments of both countries tried to enforce some sort of law and order, but it was almost impossible. It was indeed an age when the English Queen Elizabeth 1st ruled the seas around her realm – but she could not control the edges of her own land ( http://www.thereivertrail.com/history.asp ). Burn or Bourne. Scottish, East Teviotdale. A most predatory and vicious family of the Middle March whose raids and murders reached a peak in the 1590s when they were under the protection of Robert Kerr. They were the worst of the East Teviotdale Reivers and are supposed to have killed 17 Collingwoods in revenge for the death of one of their own men. Notable name: Geordie Burn - his confession is detailed elsewhere
( http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/border_reivers3.htm ).
Very similar distribution of Burns and Gibson families in the 1891 census. Lankashire had 38% for Gibsons
and 69% got Burns. Ayrshire had 18% for Gibsons and 13% for Burns.
The family of David Burns/Byrnes in Australia first traces back to Ireland, maybe northern Ireland. Whether or not it then goes back further to the Burns of Scotland is not know. However many Burns in northern Ireland are believed to be Scots Irish in derivation.
Also there is a slight peripheral Burns connection found in the fact that Janet's mother married William Dewar Burns before marrying Robert Graham.
The allegiances of David Burns are not known with certainty. He is known to have deserted from the Londonderry Regiment. Maybe he never wanted to be part of it in the first place? Maybe he did not agree with England's conquest and subjugation of Ireland. Maybe he even resisted it, in the war of 1798? This is not known, other than that he is supposed to have been trialled at the end of 1798 - as a suspected "Rebel" (United Irishman). His (first) wife petitioned the lord high protector of Ireland to set her husband free to return to his small (six children) family - as they were starving or reduced to living on charity, and she herself was bed-ridden. According to how she presented things, everyone loved the English or pro-English rulers, and prayed that they and theirs would rule Ireland forever. Her pious pleas did no good at all, however - for David was still exiled to Australia and she never saw him again. That first family of David's is totally lost track of, apart from this one Irish document surviving; but even in that, wife number one did not state her name even - so we know nothing at all of David's first family or what happened to them. In Australia he married an English convict girl, Ann Reffin/Ralphin, and the story from then on is much better known. Even if we do not somehow relate back to Burns kin in Scotland it is still interesting that Janet Burns came from very close to Bobbie Burns' cottage - which is quite a place of national heritage.
Robert Burns was born in a small cottage in Alloway on 25 January 1759. He died early, at the aged 37, on 21 July 1796; not before he had become Scotland's best-loved poet and a writer on things that were both national and transcended the national for the brotherhood of man. Perhaps only Shakespeare and Homer have achieved similar universal appeal as Burns.
William, Robert's father, was very poor man and in 1750 had moved to the area in search of work. This he had found at Doonholm market garden. (pronounced Doon-Home) William Burnes, (pronounced Burn-iss but later changed to 'Burns' by Robert Burns himself) was granted a tenancy or lease over a small area of the farmland where he worked as Head Gardener of Doonholm.
William met and married Agnes Broun (pronounced Broon, the old Scots for Brown) a local girl.
Following William Burnes' death, in 1784, the family moved to farming at Mossgiel. Robert had also received some education as a surveyor, plus he found work as a flax-dresser in Irvine. But overall he had little success, so early in 1786, Burns decided to emigrate to Jamaica to seek out better fortune.
By this time Burns had already having fathered one child by a servant girl, Betty Paton. Also, he had pursued Jean Armour. Jean became pregnant with what were to be twins but he father repudiated Robert as any potential son-in-law and instead determined to take court action against him. Unable to marry Jean Amour, Robert was moved to repudiated her and her father; and he also then became infatuated with a young highland woman named Mary Campbell. Robert "secretly married" Mary (exchanged vows) in a Gaelic ritual at Stairaird Craig.
Romantic depiction of a Gaelic practice, the exchange of bibles across the burn, between Robert and Mary.
It is believed that such book/bible still exists, and is held at Burns Cottage heritage centre.
Robert planned to take Mary with him to Jamaica, and organised her going to Greenock to await him. This too did not work out. When in September 1786, Jean gave birth to her twins, named Robert and Jean, Burns delighted in them.
In October, still waiting for Robert who by this time had twice postponed his departure, poor Mary Campbell died from a fever.
And so it goes .. such were the times.
GRAHAM CLAN: - The clan Graham is a Scottish clan who had territories in both the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands. They have long fought the English and were early inhabitants along the border lands.
Clan Graham Society Inc. - http://www.clan-graham-society.org
Theories differ as to how the clan was established in Scotland, solid information has established a Norman descent of the original Grahams. These Normans were originally of the Vikings who landed on Scottish soil in ancient times and thus the Graham lineage goes back into Scandinavia. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Graham
The first recording of the name appears at the time of King David I (1084-1153) who granted lands at Abercorn and Dalkeith to William de Graham a few years after he was crowned king in 1124. His name is recorded as having witnessed the founding of Holyrood Abbey in 1128. Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries the Grahams were granted more lands including Clifton in Midlothian and from William the Lion the lands of Charlton and Barrowfield in Forfarshire. The lands of Dundaff and Kincardine were also gained around this time. From this period the Grahams were known as ‘the Gallant Grahams’ due to their bravery to the causes they pledged their lives. Sir Patrick Graham was killed at the battle of Dunbar in 1296 while carrying the Kings Standard.
Sir John Graham of Dundaff was William Wallace’s right hand man and died at the battle of Falkirk in 1298.
William Wallace, captured and executed by the English in 1305. Walllace was in recent years
portrayed by one of the world's best known "Gibson's" - 'Mad Max' Mel
Gibson, in the movie Braveheart.
Mel Gibson. A noted traditionalist Cathollic, Mel is an American-born man but is also widely thought of as Australian
(and who has described himself as plagued in life by a booze problem). He is surely one of the world's best-known
"Gibsons". He is shown here in 1990 and later on as Braveheart (William Wallace).
On the map below the land of the Grahams north of Glasgow is shown. The Grahams had variously held lands in the borders since the mid 13th century. Sir John Graham ‘with the bright sword’, banished from Scotland by the crown for some unknown quarrel is given to be the ancestor of Lang Will Graham who planted his sons along the banks of the river Esk throughout the debateable land stretching into England. By 1552 the clan numbered some 500 warriors with thirteen peel towers across their territory. The Grahams lived in several settlements and were organised into ‘bands’ under ‘headsmen’ such as Graham of Rosetrees, Graham of Netherby and Graham of Kirkandrews. Forced in the 1590’s to sign a bond with the English government of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) similar to those forced on the Irish Clans a generation earlier, the border clan was fiercely persecuted when James VI (1567?) took the English throne. A border commission was set up and many Grahams were executed or banished to the Low Countries and Ireland.
The house of Graham of Montrose stems from the younger son of William de Graham, a descendant of whom acquired Old Montrose and lands around it from Robert I (the Bruce) in 1325. Twice the Montrose Grahams, however, married into the royal family and were preserved from royal persecution. From these came some notable men. First among them was Sir John de Graham, right hand man to William Wallace, killed during the Wars of Scottish Independence in 1298. The Clan Graham fought at the Battle of Dunbar in 1296 where Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine was the only man of all the Scots not to retreat and instead fought to the death. The Clan Graham also fought against the English at the Battle of Durham in 1346, in support of Robert the Bruce.
The Grahams acquired the lands of Mugdock north of Glasgow, where they built a stout castle around 1370, later destroyed by the English or pro-English forces, currently being slowly restored.
Mugdock Castle in East Dunbartonshire. Ancient Seat of Clan Graham, 1372-1700
Sir John de Graham, hero of the Wars of Independence, rescued William Wallace at Queensberry, becoming one of Wallace's few close friends and perhaps his most trusted advisor. William Wallace was at his side when Graham was killed in 1298 at the battle of Falkirk, where his name is still perpetuated in the district of Grahamston.
In 1504 Lord Graham, on account of his gallantry was made 1st Earl of Montrose. He would go on to lead part of the Scottish Vanguard against the English at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513, part of the Anglo-Scottish Wars where he was slain. The Clan Graham were among the clans who fought against the English at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547, where the eldest son of the second Earl, Robert, Lord Graham was slain.
Another prominent member of the family was John Graham of Claverhouse (1648-89), created Viscount Dundee (“Bonnie Dundee”). A great opponent of the Covenanters, he was a loyal Jacobite campaigner and died fighting at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689. In 1370, the Grahams gained the lands of Mugdock, north of Glasgow - acquired by David de Graham. In 1504 the hereditary lands of Auld Montrose were erected into a free barony and earldom of Montrose
An Greamach Mor (Chief of All the Grahams) and his dog.
His Grace the 8th Duke of Montrose, James Graham, is the present day chief of the Graham Clan. See The Origins of the Grahams,
by Nellie Graham Lowry, Clan Graham Society Genealogist, for more information.
An earlier James Graham, the 1st Marquess of Montrose (October 1612 - 21 May 1650).
The 1st Marquis of Argyll, Archibald Campbell - arch enemy of James Graham the 1st Marquess of Montrose.
THE BEAUTY OF GLENCOE: Place of the infamous massace of the MacDonalds under Campbell-lead troops..
A closer view looking down into Glen Coe.
Views down in the glen at Glen Coe (“Gleann Comhann”).
Eve Graham at Glen Coe - Song title "Glencoe".
(The New Seekers were a British / German / Australian pop group, formed in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his group,
The Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the same market as the original Seekers.
The New Seekers line-up included Eve Graham, Lyn Paul, Marty Kristian, Peter Doyle and Paul Layton. (Their hit songs
included: "What Have They Done to My Song Ma?" and the global hit of "I'd like to teach the world to sing
[in perfect harmony]". Eve is second from left in this photo - date 1975. Peter Doyle died aged 52,
on 13th October, 2001 in Castlemaine, Victoria. He is buried at Muckleford Cemetery.
Eve Graham is now (2008) aged 65. She was for a time a global superstar in a band that sold 25million records, mixing with
Bob Dylan, Henry Kissinger and Paul McCartney. Later on, income faded and she was forced to leave singing for a time.
She has since returned to singing as the above publicity photo at Glencoe shows.
Members of the 1st Marquis of Montrose Society in Glen Roy during their Inverlochy trip.
GIBSON KIN: - Gibson may be a Scottish sept of both Clan Buchanan and Clan Cameron - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_(sept). From very early times, the family is known from southwestern Scotland. The patronym arrived after the Norman invasion of 1066. The Norman name was originally found as "Gislebert" or "Guilbert," and is composed of the Old Germanic elements gisil, meaning "promise" or "noble youth," and beraht, meaning "bright" or "famous." Clan Buchanan has occupied the lands surrounding the shores of Loch Lomond since 1225. During the Civil Wars Clan Buchanan supported the royalist cause of King Charles. The Clan later fought at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 on the side of the Scottish Coventanters. During the Civil War, Clan Cameron fought on the side of the Royalist Scots and Irish led by Clan MacDonald who defeated the Scottish Covenanters of Clan Campbell. Later on, the Clan Cameron fought as Jacobites at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715 during the initial Jacobite uprisings., and at the Battle of Glen Shiel in 1719. Their chief John Cameron of Lochiel after hiding for a time in the Highlands made his way to exile in France. The Clan Cameron fought again on the side of the Jacobites against the British Army at the Battle of Falkirk in 1746, and on the frontline at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. After the Battle of Culloden the chief, Donald Cameron, also known as 'Gentle Locheil', took refuge in France. One of the world's best known Gibsons, Mel Gibson (see above), played Scottish hero William Wallace in the movie Braveheart.
Traditional clan lands. Note "Graham" north of Glasgow. In 1325, the Grahams were confirmed in the lordships of Kinnabar
and Old Montrose. In 1370, they acquired the lands of Mugdock, north of Glasgow. Sir William Graham married Princess
Mary Stewart, a younger daughter of Robert III, and, in 1451, their grandson Patrick was created Lord Graham. James,
5th Earl of Montrose (1612-50), elevated to become 1st Marquis of Montrose, was a staunch supporter of Charles I
and Charles II against Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth. He was betrayed, captured and
executed in Edinburgh in 1650.
The Highland Boundary Fault - The fault divides the Old Red Sandstone and Devonian deposits (brownish, no. 23, at centre)
from the Metamorphic and Archaean deposits (pinkish, no. 27, above the brownish).
The Highland Boundary Fault that traverses Scotland from Arran on the west coast to Stonehaven in the east. To the north and west lie hard Precambrian and Cambrian metamorphic rocks. To the south and east lies the Old Red Sandstone, ad sedimentary formations of the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. The Highland Boundary Fault was active during the Caledonian Orogeny, from Mid Ordovician till Mid Devonian (520 to 400 million years ago), marking the closure of the Lapetus Ocean.
FATHER AND HIS SIBLINGS
After Arthur and Janet married in Great Britain, Arthur returned to Australia and Janet soon followed.
Arthur and Janet settled at Mayfield and spent most of their lives there.
They had seven children, including twins, and the names and dates follow (one name attached to a photo, 'Valerie', is still to be resolved):
1. Mostyn Arthur Byrnes. Born 23 January 1920 at Iluka Hospital, died 7 Jan 2007.
2.Yvonne Peggy Byrnes. Born 14 May 1921, died 1 June 1950. (Known as Peg or Peggy)
Peg and Malcolm
"Janet and Valerie aged 2 months" (or should this read Yvonne?) [Photo ID needs confirmation?]
3. Malcolm Graham Byrnes. Born 3 May 1922, died 20 January 1998.
4. Gwendoline Ellen Byrnes. Born 22 February 1925, died 6 Jun 2005. (Known as Gwen)
Gwen and the twins
Gwen ( ... grows up and marries Jack Bebb) - this photo is Arthur, Janet and an adult Gwen.
Some time later on - the same group plus Gwen's boys Chris and Stephen.
5. Robert Gibson Byrnes. Born 3 June 1927 d 18 September 2002. (Know as Bob)
( Only photo of Bob at present is in the group one of Byrnes children, below. )
6. (Twin) James Edward Byrnes. Born 25 August 1936. (Known as James of Jimmy)
7. (Twin) Kenneth Warren Byrnes. Born 25 August 1936. (Known as Ken or Kenny)
The twins (.. not currently sure which one is which in this photo).
This one is James Byrnes
The Byrnes children in the backyard at 43 O'Mara Street, Mayfield - Back row - Malcolm, Mostyn, Peg.
Front row - Bob and Gwendoline (Gwen).
James and Ken both entered the Airforce
