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Midgley Family Branches in Australia
An Australian is a Yorkshireman with a suntan. 1. Samuel Midgley the First Fleeter. The hard way to emigrate! His origins are reasonably understood but his final whereabouts, perhaps in England, are less so. From the Colonial Secretary Index,1788-1825 : 2.Samuel Midgley of Hunter's Hill,
Sydney. 23rd April 1814 4. John Midgeley 8th September 1821.
5. John Midgley September 8th 1821
6. Sarah Midgley and Richard Skilbeck1. 
DOWNLOAD E-Text, a zip file of the book "The Diaries of Sarah Midgley and Richard Skilbeck. A story of Australian settlers 1851-1864" [3.1mb] 
You will
need WINZIP 7.0 or later Sarah wrote two diaries which were published in 19671. She married Richard Skilbeck in Victoria and they settled at Koroit, near Warnambool about 164 miles from Melbourne. In her diaries Sarah mentions that she is born and raised at Bardsey Grange, Bardsey, West Riding, Yorkshire. She sailed with her father and mother and six brothers and two sisters: *John Midgley (Father) born 1800. There are wonderful family photographs2 in the book of the
Midgleys and the Skilbecks commencing 1851 with a photo of Sarah aged 20.
The family photo of 1856 has the father, John Eliza, Edwin (the youngest
son), William (eldest son), Mary (mother), Martha and Sarah and Alfred (second
youngest son). Richard and David are not included in this photograph. There
are individual photos of the Midgleys in the book also along with their English
and Australian homes.
7. Midgley's
of Tasmania. Click here for more detail on the Midgleys of Tasmania from Shafton and Felkirk in West Yorkshire 8. Samuel
Midgley the fisherman and the Midgley fishes! 9. Midgley's
of New South Wales Also see Arthur
Midgley who was an early immigrant to N.S.W. [Van Dieman's Land]
9. James Midgley to N.S.W. Richard Midgley was a gunner in the 7th Batallion Royal Artillery [1801]. His son James Midgley [b. 1807 Clonfeacle nr. Moy, Co. Tyrone Northern Ireland] was transferred to Corfu, Greece and then migrated to Australia in 1852 on the ship "John Gray". Contact: Arthur Midgley Also see an Australian Diversion- Midgley's of Wollongong, N.S.W. 10. Elizabeth
Midgley married John Morris Kelso in London, England.
Their son Charles married a French vigneron's daughter [Agathe
Josephine Elodie Boucherie-Papineau]. The family migrated to Australia
to join the Frere family and start a wine business in Victoria.
If you have an outline of your emigre you would like to include or you have your own page to link to let me know by email. 11. Lt. Col. Stephen Midgley CMG DSO. Born: 29 May, 1871. McLeay River, NSW, Australia Died: 25 October, 1954. Brisbane, Australia Lived in South Africa 1900 – 1913. Soldier, Labour Contractor, Mine Owner and possibly police officer. Arrived in Capetown, South Africa 24th February, 1900 as a Sergeant with the 2nd Queensland Mounted Infantry. Possible police links: Perhaps Transvaal Mounted Police or the British South African Police. This fits with his association with law firms in Australia 1 April 1901. Stephen joined the Bushveldt Carbineers and Peitersberg Light Horse. Fellow officer of 'Breaker Morant' who was later executed. Delivered Kitchener's dispatches to General Muller in September 1901. March – April 1902: DSO, field promotion and mentioned in dispatches for operations east of Pietersberg. 1906. Officer in Royston’s Horse during the Natal rebellion. Supplied contract labour from Mozambique to the mines. Friends/ Associates included: * Ivor Thord-Gray. Fellow officer in Royston’s Horse and lifelong friend. * Watt – goldmine owner and fellow officer in Royston’s Horse during the Natal Rebellion – Watt, Midgley and Thord-Gray known as the Three Musketeers. . * Bernard Winter (partner in a gold mine – possibly on the Umsweswe River, Zimbabwe). Winter retired to George in the Eastern Cape. Returned to Australia 1913 with Blackwater Fever. Served with distinction with the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) in WW1 on Gallipoli and the Western Front. His language in Australia was peppered with African vernacular – dingus, Kopje, Toola, Sakabone, wena. One of his favourites was “ Fungorz Nkoz bizulu” –an oath which is apparently used in court – similar to “So help me God” suggests some sort of police association. Stephen his grandson is assembling a biography for his grandfather who he describes as " an extraordinary man and a gallant and decorated soldier who was present as a participant at a number of high points of Australia's modern history : The Shearers' strike in 1891, the Boer War with the Second Queensland Mounted Infantry, The Bushveldt Carbineers with "Breaker" Morant and the Pietersberg Light Horse, The Natal Rebellion with the Fifth Light Horse on Gallipoli and the 54th Bn on the Western Front. He finished all this off with several years with the Volunteer Defence Corps [VDC], the "Dad's Army" of S.E. Queensland during WW2". Stephen is trying to gather information particularly on his grandfather's 13 years in Southern Africa. Contact : Stephen Midgley 12. Jonathan Midgley married Sinah Hughes, their child Thomas Midgley b.1772 married Catharine Smedley 19th May 1811 at St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street, London, England. They had seven children one of whom was William born 1882 in Middleton [Yorkshire?]. He married Eliza Dalton 12th June 1842. William and Eliza appear to have migrated to Australia . They had eight children one of whom was John Thomas Midgley b.1861 Prahan, Victoria, Australia. John married Barbara Jane Robertson 22nd Jan 1885 at Petersham, NSW Australia. For this family and Australian born descendants download a zipped Gedcom here. For further information- Contact: Ross and Mary Midgley 13. Alfred Midgley was born 24th Feb 1849 Leeds, Yorkshire and died 25th Feb 1930 Brisbane, Queensland he arrived in Australia in 1870 after spending "most of his youth in Leeds with the exception of three years at a village boarding school. He has written about those years in the poem, Their Native Village and had five works published. After leaving school he served an apprenticeship with an engineering firm" Alfred published one of the first books of poetry ever published in Queensland in 1908. He then journeyed to Australia on the ship Storm King, arriving in Brisbane in January 1870. In the 1870s he served as a minister with the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Ipswich, Toowoomba and Brisbane." and became a parliamentarian. Zoe [O'Leary] who was the daughter of Fyer to whom Alfred was supposedly related wrote a biography of Alfred called The Little Byron : The Life of Alfred Midgley 1849-1930. His works can be found in the book The Poems of Alfred Midgley. Ed. by E.W.H.Fowles. Jonathan Midgley of Brisbane has a line going back to Alfred and would like to go further . Contact : Jonathan Midgley 14. Thomas William Midgley migrated with his wife Amelia Jane Moore Taylor and two younger children, Fred and Annie, to Australia in late 1919 on the Bultana, arriving Melbourne 2nd Feb 1920. After their arrival he and son Fred worked in a galvanising works. Prior to migration who was b. 1864 at Swinton S. Yorks is described as: 1881 - Colliery labourer at 16 years old, 1891 - Blacksmith, 1898 - Wagon repairer, 1911 Labourer. He worked at the No. 1 Colliery Sheffield and later Swinton Colliery.During WW 1 he also worked in a munitions factory. [Cammell Laird] Children of Joshua Midgley [b. abt 9th Sept. 1804 Crigglestone/Sandal Magna, d. aft 1871] and Jane Rogerson all christened at Royston, South Yorkshire:- George Ch. 8th June 1828 Joseph Ch. 25th April 1830 Eli Ch. 12th Feb 1833, d. 22 Feb 1898. Eli married Mary Lee of Balby, Yorkshire who led to a family in Victoria, Australia. Thomas Ch. 10 Feb 1846 Sarah Ch.10th June 1838 William Ch. 2nd August 1840. He married Sara A.___________ of Barnsley. Also see https://www.midgleywebpages.com/barnsley.html A Gedcom file for this family can be found at https://www.midgleywebpages.com/midgedcom.html or directly downloaded as a zip file at https://www.midgleywebpages.com/midgcriggle.zip You will need Gedcom compliant family tree software to view it. Further information can be found in the book In Search of the 'Lost' Shamrock, by Vaughan Duggan Ch. 3, 2010. Contact: Vaughan Duggan regarding this publication and any further information regarding this branch of the Midgley name.
15. John
Midgley migrated to Australia in 1882, his lineage is given by
Bob Kavanagh as :
David Midgley, born 1754, Midgley / Luddenden, West Yorkshire, married Susan Holland James Midgley, born 1782, Midgley / Erringden, married Judith Sutcliffe David Midgley, born 1820, Erringden / Warley, married Mary Helliwell John Midgley, born 1855 Warley, was a joiner / carpenter, migrated to Australia on the Cuzco in September 1882, married Georgina Harrower, lived and had 11 children in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.
Contact: Bob
Kavanagh who has much more information.
Specific Australian Search Sites: Genealogy in NZ and Australia
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