Australia Bound

  Edward Dash c 1840 - Steve's 3xgreat grandfather Edward Dash was born in London on 3 November 1818 and baptised at St Ann, Blackfriars on 28 November 1818 to parents Jacob Dash and Charlotte Lawson.  Jacob and Charlotte had married in Kensington, London in 1809 where Jacob worked as a labourer, carman and brickmaker. Despite eight out of twelve children dying in infancy, Edward seemed to gain a good education which took him into his adult life and soon demonstrated that he was highly literate and numerate much more so than might be expected as the son of a labourer.  As was the times, young Edward became a wheelwright but census records and entries in his notebook show that in the 1840s and 1850s he also involved himself in a number of other occupations such as bookkeeper, grocer and confectioner.  He was a committed member of the Baptist church. In the early 1700's Dash (or Daish) families were living in Hampshire in the south of England but later moved to the Isl...

Albert Clarke Smith was born on 31 May 1867 in Walpole, Suffolk, England.  His birth certificate had no father listed and his mother was shown as Sarah Smith.  It indicated that Albert was illegitimate.  His mother, Sarah Smith married Albert Clarke on 15 July 1867 in Walpole, Suffolk about six weeks after her son, Albert was born. Because of the name she gave to her son, it seems likely that Sarah was naming the father of him so that the village she lived in would have been aware of who should take responsibility.  Perhaps she was shaming Albert Clarke into marrying her.  This is still to be resolved with the use of DNA. Albert Smith birth certificate 31 May 1867 at Walpole, Suffolk England census records for 1871 confirm Albert Clarke jnr was living with his parents and one sibling, George in Halesworth, Suffolk where his father was a wheelwright.  By the time the 1881 census was recorded, Albert and Sarah Clarke were living in Westhall, Suffolk and Alber...