Welcome

This site holds family history information for two family groups, held in two separate family trees.

The first family group is that of the BROWN and SMITH families, together with many branches of these families (including BUTLER, FLOWER, GLAZIER and many others). The BROWN and SMITH families came together with the marriage of Percy Geach BROWN to Avis Myrtle SMITH in 1925. Both families had a long association with the Pakenham district in Victoria, Australia.

The second family group is that of the NICHOLAS and WOOLCOCK families, together with their many branches (including EVISON, GRAY, KEEBLE and many others). The NICHOLAS and WOOLCOCK families came together with the marriage of William Wallis NICHOLAS and Ruby Grace WOOLCOCK in 1924. Both families are of Cornish origin with strong links to the tin and copper mining people of far western Cornwall.

There is a growing base of people and information included in each family group, and this will continue to increase over time. You will find family trees, photos, stories, copies of documents - in fact, anything relevant to recording where each family came from, how they got here and who they currently are.

Much of the information on the BROWN and SMITH families has been sourced from the extensive research undertaken by Alan Leslie Brown and George James Smith, descendants of each of the families. Sadly, both are now deceased, but this site will hopefully provide an ongoing legacy of their work for current and future generations of the families to enjoy.

Your user logon will determine which family information will be available to you. Enjoy discovering your family history!

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Brown Family History Overview

Like many Australian families that started from ancestors who came to Australia in the 1800s the Browns have a mixture of English, Irish and other European bloods in them. There is a predominance of English with the Browns, Stephens, Glaziers, Flowers and Antills but then there is the Irish Dwyer and the Swedish Stenbom families making a contribution to the genes. Most of them came as free settlers escaping from the harsh life of England and Ireland of the 1800s while others possibly came because they had a spirit of adventure and the attraction of the life they had heard about in the new Colony. Others came by order of the government, one as a convict and the other to spend the rest of his life in exile.

MICHAEL DWYER

The first of them to arrive was Michael Dwyer and his wife Mary. Much has been written about Michael Dwyer because he was the leader of the Irish Rebellion in 1798 and was sent in exile to the new Colony for the rest of his life in 1806. He chose exile to America in preference to standing trial, being convicted and shot, and he was upset when he found he was being sent to Australia instead. He left two sons and two daughters in Ireland with a view to them joining their parents after they had got settled.

Being in exile and not a convict, Michael was treated as a free settler and by Governor King but Captain Bligh became Governor and almost immediately had Michael arrested with some other Irishmen for suspected sedition and in the summer of 1807 Bligh had him sent to Norfolk Island for six months and then to Hobart Town where he stayed until 1809. Fortunately Bligh did not last very long and was deposed by Lt. Governor Paterson who allowed Michael to return to Sydney and granted him 100 acres of land at Warwick Farm.

He was not a very successful farmer and soon came on hard times. He was appointed as Constable in charge of Cabramatta police in 1813 but again this did not last as he had an alcohol problem and it cost him his job with the force. He then decided to try his luck as a hotelkeeper and mortgaged his property and borrowed money to build the Harrow Inn but two years before he died in 1825 he was forced to sell everything to pay his bills and he died penniless.

ELIZA DWYER

The important member of the Dwyer family was the youngest daughter Eliza who is a real mystery, in where she came from and where she went to. Like many of the Dwyer children, there are no records of birth but descendents who have researched the Dwyers agree she was a part of the family. In 1827, at the age of 15 she married a 34-year-old French catholic free settler Peter Bodecin and had two children to him. In the early 1830s she left Bodecin and her children and went to Tasmania with Walter (or George) Butler and started another family but she did not marry him. It is thought that her husband used the name of Walter early in the marriage and George in the later part of his life.

ROBERT WILLIAM BUTLER

The second son of Eliza and Walter was Robert Butler, who was born in 1838, When he was 16 he got a job with his elder brother, George on the "Billabong" station on Lake Cowal, in western N.S.W. Some four years later James Glazier and his wife Emma, together with James' young sister MERCY AUGUSTA GLAZIER came to work at the station. A friendship started between Robert and Mercy that lead to the birth of a boy, Enos. Mercy was 15 and Robert 21. They apparently decided not to get married and Mercy kept the baby and called him Enos Glazier. Four years later Robert Butler married Elizabeth Edwards.

MICHAEL ANTHONY BROWN

Michael, the son of a convict, had taken over the cartage business of his father who had disappeared, wagon., horse and all somewhere in the bush while conducting his business. Michael was a 33-year-old widower who had two children from the marriage. His work took him into the Lachlan area where he met Mercy Glazier at "Billabong" station. They decided to marry and Michael took his bride and her young son to live with his mother at Lambing Flat, now known as Young.

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The lives of these people and many others are covered in more detail in the Featured Articles section above.