Cruisin' with Nev: April 2009

Click to download family reunion group photos - medium resolution 1280 x 690. About 310kb each.

High resolution originals available on request.

Dear cousins et al,

Sue Meekins and Colin very kindly hosted yet another get-together of the Thomas clan, family and friends on Sunday the 19th of April (2009) at Pier St. As you might expect, a great time was had by all. The weather was perfect, and by mid-afternoon everyone was in fine form chatting and catching up at a great rate of knots.

Here are some of the happy faces.... Click to see low resolution extracts. The original pics are further down....

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THANKS SUE AND COLIN FOR YOUR WONDERFUL HOSPITALITY!

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Did you know that it has been almost 10 years since the last family reunion? That one was also hosted by Sue. By the way, it WAS held at Kipling Ave. I mention the location because there was some robust debate about when and where the reunion (as such) took place. And how can I be so sure? Well, you can all relax; Dianne and I found the photos and Vonnie has also confirmed the location. We are confident about the date because our grandson David was there as a wee babe in arms. As he was just a few months old, it must have been early 1999 - almost exactly 10 years ago.

Yes, there was a later reunion of sorts at Pier Street. We think the confusion arose because although most of us could also recall another gathering of the Thomas mob at Pier St, the occasion was Uncle Adrian Thomas' birthday celebration. Again, I'm sure I have photos, but I am yet to locate them. I can't be sure of the date until I see them but I think it might have been Adrian's 90th birthday (2004).

Sadly, a few of the older, family members were missing this year. My Mum (Auntie Eileen), Anuntie Joan, Uncles Silvester and Lloyd; all have now passed on to their own big family reunion. A few others also were not able to make it due to ill-health, having other engagements that couldn't be put off, tyranny of distance, etc. Never mind, I'm sure we will all catch up again soon. Just a few we seem to have lost touch with.

On the up-side, it was also nice to see some nice new faces and meet some new folks for the first time. New partners for the cousins, and their latest additions to the lineage - lovely to meet you.

Here is a bit of statistical trivia: At last count, the number of descendants of Grandfather Henry George Thomas ('Pop' Thomas or 'Poppa') and Grandmother Harriet Rose ('Nanna' Thomas nee Butler) was :

7 Children

14 G. Children (11 direct descendants, plus 3 step)

15 G.G. Children (9 direct descendants, plus 6 step)

12 G.G.G. Children (10 direct descendants, plus 2 step)

The span is now 5 generations from when Grandfather Thomas was born in Australia (1888 or 121 years ago). There is a total of at least 37 direct descendants, that I am aware of.

How many cousins? Well, that is a question that can be asked and answered in many ways depending on how you define what is a 'cousin'. I though I might therefore express the answer in its most interesting form - that is all direct descendents are 'blood' cousins if they share a common ancestor. How they are related to each other (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. is not relevant).

Grandfather Henry George Thomas was one of 11 children. He was born in Australia to Frederick Thomas who migrated in 1857/58 as a wee lad.

A rough calculation tells me that if the issue of children for Henry George was typical (and I think it is actually a bit below the average) then it means we probably have 11 x 37 = 407 cousins who share Frederick Thomas as a common ancestor.

Grandfather Frederick Thomas was also one of 11 children. He was born in Cornwall to Richard Thomas who actually migrated to Australia a little earlier (1854). Most of Frederick's siblings stayed in Australia and raised families. I say 'mostly' because I know there was some early mortality and some went back to England. If we use the same multiplier effect, the number of cousins is in the order of 4,500 ! I think we could apply a conservative 10% error factor, but it is in the ball park.

This probably explains why it has been relatively easy (please excuse the awful pun) for me to locate like minded cousins researching common family roots.

The genealogy data-base was given a dusting leading up to the reunion. It was refreshed on the day with the very latest information on who's who in the zoo. The long term plan is to make the information available to all. On reflection however, I still need to come back to some folk for more information.

I would love to publish the family tree on Internet but privacy of information prevents that going to the air in such a public space. Sorry about that. As an alternative, I propose to make it available on CD as an easily useable computer application pitched at our younger family members. This together with a bit of a history should be useful and interesting. Maybe it will be available later this year for Windows users. I'll set up the family tree data so you can add your own detail for other ancestoral branches, and delete those branches not relevant to your own lineage.

By the way, my genealogical research has been running for almost 20 years now. It goes in fits and starts. Over the years, I have managed to gather quite a bit of detail which I am sure will be enthusiastically received by all who have Thomas roots. I have managed to get detail all the way back to the 16th century with certainty and at the same time I can put a bit of human interest on the story; you know life style, where they lived, what work they did and so on. It is possible to go back even further for example to when the family appears to have come from Wales, but the detail is a bit speculative. As a family historian, I don't want to publish anything that can't be verified from trusted records without putting a lot of caveats and cautions on it first.

Just to finish off, here is a bit more trivia: A new gem of information was discovered for the family records - (not so much new info as something long-forgotten). Uncle Adrian Thomas was fondly known by the nickname 'Chark'. Yes - that's right; sort of a cross between 'Shark' and 'Chalk', or 'Shark' and 'Chaff'. (Thanks for that Jeffrey Raglass).

So the question for the family slueths is how did Uncle Adrian come by such an unusual 'nick?

I can remember him being called that by Ross, Pop and my own Dad but it was a term I would never have used - that would have been much too familiar, indeed cheeky in those days coming from a young nephew. Anyways, perhaps you can help. Maybe Brian, Raymond or David Potter could offer some insight? Over to you lot.

Here are some of the nice photos the head and shoulder pics were extracted from ....

PLEASE CLICK ON EACH PHOTO FOR A 640 X 480 PIXEL VERSION

PLEASE EMAIL ME IF YOU WANT A HI-RESOLUTION IMAGE