I am a 60 year Aboriginal woman, living in Melbourne, Australia. I understand my paternal Grandfather, Joseph John Egan, came to Australia in the 1920's with Lord Vesty's cattle company. He went to a place called Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory, and fathered an illegitimate son with a traditional Gurinji Aboriginal woman, my grandmother. The child's name is Joseph John Egan and we think he was born in 1927/1928. My father was taken from his mother when he was 5 years old and grew up in state-run homes. I believe my grandfather, fathered another son to an Aboriginal woman. This man's name is Thomas Kelly - he is deceased. Thomas lived in a town called Katherine, Northern Territory. So, I don't know if J.J. Egan Snr ever returned to his homeland. According to my father(who won't speak about him) the old fellow is buried in Australia. I'm assuming in the NT. I understand there is not much to go on - I would love to know anything about him. He apparently had brothers who came out here at some point - they worked on stations and I understand, they bought their own, eventually. No mean feat I must say! Some of these stations are size of some small European countries! I seem to recall, my father said one of them was called Harry. (I'm not sure if that is a genuine recollection). I hope there is enough for you to make a start with this. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely - Ros Sultan.
Friday 3rd Jan 2014, 01:17PM
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Hello Ros,
I went to www.rootsireland.ie and www.irishgenealogy.ie to search for Joseph John Egan. I found many many John joseph and joseph egan but with so little information to go on, I can't find which one is your ancestor. Normally when we do a search we would have a bit more informtion i.e. parents names, date of birth, place of birth or something that could distinguish your Joseph. I also looked at the irish census for 1901 and 1911, but there are too many.
Most countries have a freedom of informtion act which would allow you to search for any documentation pertaining to you. If as you say your father was illegitimate there won't be a marriage certificate, however most children were baptised and I would strongly urge you to look for your father's baptismal cert. Also, If as you say he was taken into care then there will be a file about him in some office in the northern territory. This file will probably contain some informtion regarding your grandfather. It will mean a little bit of detective work on your part over there, but it is so satisfying when you collect little nuggets of information.
You are entitled to this information so I hope that you follow it up. I believe the Australian government have oficially apologised to all the families that were separated in this way, so I'm quite sure you will be well received by state agencies regarding your search for your family history. I wish you well in your search and look forward to hearing from you again when you have a little more to go on.
Kind regards,
Anne Dennehy
Friday 3rd Jan 2014, 03:08PM -
Thank you so much for trying. I will try to chase up more information for you to work with. For your information, google 'Gurindji walk off from Wave Hill Station' - that will help fill in some of the difficult history of our country. They may have apologised Anne, but there is a long way to go! It will explain why there would be no baptismal record for my father. Again, thank you and I'll be in touch. Regards - Ros Sultan
Saturday 4th Jan 2014, 02:20AM -
Ros,
I have just read the account of the Gurindji walk off and am struck at some of the similarities of both our nations. Outsiders coming and taking our land. The Irish struggle ended around 1900 when the irish people were allowed to buy back our own land from the British settlers. The strife continued for another 20 years. However what shocks me is the timeframe of your struggle. It's difficult to accept that all this happened in the latter half of the 20th century. It takes so long to effect real change.
Are you sure that there are no church records for your dad's birth. The English were renowned for keeping records. I think it would be worth checking this out. Perhaps the Estate records are in your national archive? I know that here in Ireland, many of the estate records can be viewed at the archives in Dublin. From reading the walk off account, I can see that the aborignies were treated as sub humans and possibly didn't warrant the keeping of records. However I'm wondering about your grandfather. He was Irish and white and from a former British colony. There must be some record of when he was hired or what he was paid. Perhaps you could contact your national archives and ask where the estate records for Wave HIll Station are now kept.
Equally, state agencies will have some sort of record of children in their care.
I hope you keep in touch, as I would very much like to know the outcome of your search, and will do all I can to help you on this side of the pond.
Kind regards,
Anne
Saturday 4th Jan 2014, 01:15PM