Dear Big footed Pixie,

You have a lovely ancestory,Celtic music invokes pictures of the mystical nymphs and beautiful woodscenes of which you speak.

My Paternal Grandfather came out here on a ship from England. One of the only things we knew about him is that he hailed from Norfolk. He had an old photo of his brothers and sisters in clothes like they wore in Queen Victoria's day but he would never speak about the old days in England so we never had much information.

On my mother's side there was a strong Swedish connection, and my great grandmother was about a quarter Chinese.

My husband has a well known Irish surname and also some Spanish and French in him. One of my daughters has inherited the thick dark Spanish hair. An aboriginal woman asked her quite seriously one day when she was at work, "What tribe are you from?" We had a good laugh about it because we could see how she might have got that impression.

What a lovely set of posts! My hobby is geneology and I love reading about peoples ancestry and family stories.

My Father's people came out from England in 1840 and landed in W.A.
His great, great Grandmother was 7 years old and waded ashore holding her long petticoats up high!
She wrote a long description about the journey here, and her life living in a 'wattle and daube dwelling' for the first year of their stay!

My Mother's ancestor was sent out from Ireland as a convict. He burnt down a haystack belonging to the resident protestant gentry farmer, and was charged with arson and sentenced to seven years jail 'in the colonies".
I loved finding out how he made something of his life in Australia and eventually worked his own farm and married and had 12 children!
They were obviously pretty tough in the 1800's.

Examinator, I went to moreby as a baby in 63 and we moved to Lae in 68, just before the big guria that half flattened the town (about 7 on the Richter). That was caused by an eruption of KarKar, as I recall. There was a lot of fear that the town would literally "slide off the hill" since the seabed drops almost straight down just offshore, with almost no level land. Periodically, the shallow seabed muck around the town does just that in a sort of underwater land slide.

Went to Bulae school (yep, segregated, but only for the natives - expat kids of all breeds were represented). It wasn't desegregated until self-government in 75, which was the year after I finished there, but it took a while before there were enough natives with a sufficient income to send their kids to "proper" school, rather than the mission schools.

We left in 79, mostly because Dad was in poor health, so I never got to see much of the place post-Independence. i've been offerd a couple of jobs up there at various times, but I prefer to keep my memories of the place in their little time capsule. Just doing the google thing was shock enough, since Lae really didn't change at all betwen 68 and 79.

I've just realised my last post was a bit misleading. I meant to say "no level bedrock", not "no level land". The land surface itself is mostly flat alluvial plain, thanks to the Markham, Butibum and Busu Rivers, but the underlying rock is at a steep angle from the coastal range of hills down into the Gulf

Antiseptic and examinator - interesting to compare your childhood memories of PNG with my more recent experiences of the country and its people. Although I worked mainly in the Southern Highlands (Tari) and Western Highlands (Nebilyer Valley), I travelled quite extensively around the rest of the country for one reason or other during the 1990s.

I've been to Lae several times, but like most urban centres in PNG it's become a quite nasty, dangerous place. A friend of mine was shot and killed by raskols there in 2001. I visited Rabaul not long after the Tavurvur eruption in 1994, and it was eerie - volcanic ash covered most of the Rabaul CBD and I remember thinking that the place looked like photos of Hiroshima.

I stopped going to PNG because of health reasons (I managed to contract typhoid, dengue and malaria at various times) and also because it just became too dangerous to continue working in the Highlands - particularly Tari. I retain a deep affection for the country and its people, but I'm afraid that it's a basket case as far as governance is concerned.

Mum sometimes dumps info on my computer when passing through, I do not understand any of it but here are some of my “tribe”:

JOHN NEWLANDS was born January 16, 1793 in D. 11 March 1834 Botriphnie, Banffshire, Scotland.(At his daughters Annies wedding The parents are recorded as John Newlands Hand loom weaver and C ristian Cruikshanks) He married CHRISTIAN CRUICKSHANK November 11, 1821 in Botriphnie, Banffshire, Scotland, daughter of GEORGE CRUICKSHANK and MARGARET LINDRAM. She was born September 08, 1799 in Botriphnie, Banffshire, Scotland.
She was the granddaughter of Archibald Cruikshank b. 2 Jul 1761 Keith Banffshire and Christian Simpson
Children of JOHN NEWLANDS and CHRISTIAN CRUICKSHANK are:
i. GEORGE NEWLANDS, b. February 17, 1822, Botriphnie, Banffshire, Scotland.
ii. JOHN NEWLANDS, b. April 08, 1823, Botriphnie, Banffshire, Scotland.
iii. MARGARET NEWLANDS, b. August 26, 1824, Botriphnie, Banffshire, Scotland.
iv. JOSEPH NEWLANDS, b. February 16, 1826, Botriphnie, Banffshire, Scotland.
v. JAMES NEWLANDS, b. April 08, 1827, Botriphnie, Banffshire, Scotland.
vi. ANNE NEWLANDS, b. May 30, 1830, Botriphnie, Banffshire, Scotland.

Generation No. 2

GEORGE NEWLANDS was born February 17, 1822 in Botriphnie, Banffshire, Scotland. He married ELEINOR MCBEY December 04, 1846 in Boharm, Moray County, Scotland.

Great Great Great Grandchildren of JOHN NEWLANDS and CHRISTIAN CRUIKSHANK
a. children of GEORGE MCLEOD NEWLANDS and MARY ELIZABETH WALLACE
of Cambridge and Edinburgh and Glasgow

i. STEWART GEORGE NEWLANDS b. 12 Dec 1971 lives in Cambridge
ii. MURRAY ROSS NEWLANDS b. 12 April 1974 lives in London
iii. CRAIG RONALD NEWLANDS b. 22 May 1977 lives in LA

b. children of ALAN ROSS NEWLANDS b. April 1944
m 1 Ann Hogg
i. RICHARD NEWLANDS b 30 March 1969 lives in Isle of Wight
ii CAROL NEWLANDS b. ….. 6 June 1971 lives in Perth
m.3 Pamela Forrest b….. live in Dunblane
iii. KATIE NEWLANDS b. 29 October 1983
iv ALEX NEWLANDS b. 15 March 1987