To find my great grandfather was a real problem but one day a person who went by the name in the first line of this poem contacted me and asked could this possibly be him?
I can’t find a copy of this with the date but it was many years ago when I first met Sue Wyatt on line.
THANK YOU
To TasTeach ,I thank you, for helping us find
an elusive great granddad a convict I’m told,
though no one would speak of him when I was young
sh! we don’t talk of those things near anyone
He came to a strange land, in chains in the hull
Of the ship Somersetshire arriving in May,
In the drizzling rain with snow on the peak
Above Hobart town, oh! place cold and bleak
They were told it was sunny in a place close to hand
So convicts disillusioned were herded to land
Then sent all to places in deep and dense bush cold
One wrong turn could loose them their life they were told.
So they slaved and they waited their time to be done
in the hope that to England they would one day return
to their wives and their children and to their family
but in sadness they realized it was not to be.
7 years was forever, forever for all
this land it would claim, hold them enthrall!
names not whispered in Britain sh! to the young,
We don’t mention them now to any one
but now their descendants will gather again
the generations so proudly and loudly proclaim
we honour our ancestors convict and free
they claimed the South Land for you and for me
Now we trace out our tree and we publish it wide
We don’t whisper now we are proud we won’t hide
Our ancestry now , we ask your assistance
And strangers come forth brick walls give no resistance
So thanks to the many who help in the search
Who use their resources and make our trees work
They grow like an gum planted in the sunshine
Because of your kindness and giving your time
When you get to heaven and your ancestors you meet
If you volunteered there will be a seat
For you to sit down on and the rest they will wait
On you for a change! and me? I think that is great.
Bleggy