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Hi from Louise Watson

I love researching the past, especially when it reveals something about my family. 'Tunaleys in Australia' was created to share what I find with you. Feel free to correct me when I'm wrong, confirm what you think is right, and share what YOU know about the Tunaleys in Australia. Thanks for coming on this journey!

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A Family Story

Do you know about the Tunaleys in Australia? Tom Tunaley emigrated from Manchester, England in August 1911. A few months later, his wife Margaret and their second son William, joined him in Melbourne. But their eldest child, two year-old John was left behind, in the care of his maternal grandparents. John never saw his mother or father again.
Tom and Margaret Tunaley had five more children in Australia. When Tom died suddenly in 1929, the youngest - my mother - was a baby.
The six younger Tunaleys grew up in Collingwood, Australia while their eldest brother John grew up in Manchester, England.
I've heard stories about the Tunaleys all my life. Now I'm writing them down and searching for more. Rare family photographs, excerpts from public records, copies of newspaper articles and anything else I find, will be posted here.
Join me!

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Canberra ACT, Australia

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louisewatsonaustra

Jan 57 min read

1894 - To Manchester

When nine year-old Maggie Simpson left Yorkshire for Lancashire, her first home was in Bradford, Manchester. An industrial suburb two miles east of the city centre, Bradford was called Manchester's "engine room" on account of its power plants, chemical factories, ironworks and textile mills, but also for its Colliery (pictured), the largest coal mine in the Manchester Coalfield . Bradford Colliery, 1928. Image courtesy of Manchester Libraries. In 1894, the Simpsons were amon

louisewatsonaustra

May 30, 20258 min read

1885 - From Yorkshire

Margaret Eliza Ann Simpson was born on the 19th of February 1885 in a tenant farmer's cottage in Ruston, a rural hamlet in northern...

louisewatsonaustra

Feb 16, 20245 min read

1907 - Solidarity Forever

A year after his mother died, Tom Tunaley joined a Trade Union. He was 25 years old and had been a carpenter and joiner for 11 years,...

louisewatsonaustra

Jul 23, 20236 min read

1911 - The Smiths

Tom Tunaley's cousin Bill Smith emigrated to Australia with his young family between 1911 and 1913. Bill and Harriet Smith were lifelong...

louisewatsonaustra

May 1, 20237 min read

1800s - Saints and Sinners

Tom Tunaley was not the first in his family to emigrate to Australia. According to Phil Tunaley's website , a distant cousin from Derby...

louisewatsonaustra

Apr 4, 20236 min read

1912 - "This is our House, Mary"

When Maggie Tunaley arrived in Melbourne with baby Billie in December 1911, her husband Tom took her to a house he had rented in Powell...

louisewatsonaustra

Feb 23, 20232 min read

1911: Off to Australia, but not together. . .

Maggie's ship, "SS Gothic" Tom Tunaley emigrated to Australia in 1911, three months before his wife Margaret (hereafter called "Maggie" -...

louisewatsonaustra

Feb 22, 20233 min read

1929 - Death in the Rate Books

Council Rate Books offer glimpses of the Tunaleys' life in Australia. The 1928 rate book for the Victoria Ward of Collingwood names the...

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