Melbourne Family History Project

(includes Milbourn, Milborne, Melburn . . . )

Last Update: 30 October 2012
Update Log

Study Links

Milbourn, John (1821? - 1899?) and Hughes, Anne (1833? - 1896)

Melbourne, Edward (1860 - 1919)and Strange, Polly Elizabeth (1867 - 1953)

Melbourne, Leonard Edward (1890 - 1970) and McGill, Sarah Marie (1906 - 1980)
Melbourne, Elsie Maud (1893 - 1985) and Scott, Frank (1889 - 1962)

The Descendent Tree

As we add more information to the study the tree of descendants of John Milbourn (b. abt. 1805) and his wife Anne Hughes continues to grow. This tree is maintained in a Family Tree Maker File and can be made available as a GEDCOM file to interested family members. In addition you can download and examine a descendant tree for John Milbourn and Anne Hughes. Please forward corrections and omissions. This file is managed separately from the pages that appear on this project site and it is possible that there are inconsistencies. Your help is needed to make this tree as accurate as possible. Please note that this file will be updated from time to time and that modifications to this page are dated.

What the Project is About

Two of my great great grandparents were John Milbourn and his wife Anne Hughes. Together they had at least 12 children, at least 10 of whom survived into adulthood, and at least 9 of whom had children. This family in its early days lived in Thames Ditton in what is now the south west part of London, England. Some of the family emigrated to Canada but many family members still remain in the Thames Ditton area. Interestingly, because different children of John and Anne spelled the surname differently, those living in close proximity often do not know they are related.

This project is an attempt to trace all of the descendants of John and Anne and to gather images of the people in the family and whatever items might prove to be of interest. We also hope to write biographies of the various family members who have passed on. By now, none of the children of John and Anne, or even their grandchildren, are alive. It is, however, possible within the memories of living family members to record something of the passing of these forebears. YOU ARE INVITED TO CONTIBUTE!

We are looking for the following:

photographs, particularly any that go back into the period 1850 - 1950. These could include photos of people but also of places of work or homes or play. If possible it is nice if the persons and places are identified, but it is not necessary -- if you do not know perhaps someone else will be able to tell. We have some photographs, but not of all of the children. If you have photos and can scan them (get the young people in the family involved to do this) please send high resolution jpegs to me by email (see below for contact information)
images of certificates. In particular we are looking for images of birth, marriage, death certificates and wills. We are also looking for locations of graves.
biographical sketches of John, Anne and their children. Tell us about their lives, what they did, where they lived, what their work and hobbies were. Tell us about their military service if they did some. Particularly interesting and which moves this to a study of family history beyond mere genealogy, are annecdotes that give some sense of who these people were.
diaries of any of these earlier family members; they will be published as part of this project.

Just a comment on privacy: Although I am indicating locations and addresses of homes where people lived decades ago, I will not be putting current contact information on the internet. If someone contacts me wanting to contact you I will check with you before passing that information on.

My connection to John and Anne is this. One of their children was Edward Melbourne. He married Polly Elizabeth Strange. They had two children, one of whom was my grandmother Elsie Maud. This family emigrated to Canada in 1908-09. A friend of the son, Leonard, was Frank Scott and he traveled to Canada with them. Elsie married Frank Scott in 1917 and my father, their second son, was born in 1922. My efforts in this project are in tribute to my father and grandparents and will, in time include their biographies.

The best way to contact me is by email. I travel a lot and so my various phone numbers in three different countries are often not answered.

E-mail:ken at kenscott.com

Genealogy and Family History

The major difference between genealogy and family history is that genealogy tends to focus on the documentation of births, marriages and deaths to provide lineage information. Family history goes far beyond that to talk about the personalities of the people involved, their likes, dislikes, hobbies, careers and the things that caused the defining decisions of their lives, whether those be personally made or imposed by outside forces. This study will become interesting when the bare genealogical information is augmented by family history information. And who will provide that information? It is best provided by individuals themselves. In this regard it is interesting to reflect on the Winston Churchill's response to the question of a reporter who asked how history would view him. Churchill's reply indicated he would be favourably viewed. When asked why he could be so certain, he informed the questioner that he would write it himself -- which he proceeded to do. The lesson here is that if you write your own story it will at least reflect how you view your life. For those who are deceased it would help if those close to them, their survivors, could make the effort to record their lives. If you are collecting information from yourself and from older family members here is a website that has an interesting list of the questions you might address.

I am a great great grandson of John and Anne. My great grandfather Edward Melbourne died in 1918, before even my father was born, however his widow, Polly, lived until 1952 and I have a very few childhood memories of her. I have limited knowledge of these greatgrandparents, particularly of their early lives. My grandmother did recount some stories of her parents but she did have a habit of embellishing her tales. There are few now alive who have any first hand knowledge of my great grandparents, much less Edward's parents. These pages are an attempt to collect and assimilate what information does remain.

Photos

The best way to get photos to me is to scan them and email the scanned images. Alternatively if you have a digital camera you might find it easiest to photograph the images. Please look at them before sending to ensure they are well focused. For greatest flexibility please use a fairly high resolution when you copy the image. Please store your images in jpeg format.

Note: If these comments do not mean anything to you, it is very likely that some of the younger members of your family can interpret and do this for you!

Suggestions

This is intended as a family project. Please contribute what you can and please be assured that I am open to all suggestions. And, particularly, please point out my errors!

published 2012