JOHNSON & MURRAY

George Alfred (Alf) JOHNSON and Sarah Rebecca Mary MURRAY

The Johnson and Murray families are the ancestors of my mother’s parents – George Alfred Johnson (Alf) and Sarah Rebecca Mary Murray. Their story can be found here.

Both these families ended up in the Hodgson area, west of Roma in Queensland. One can perhaps understand why from an article in the Western Star & Roma Advertiser in 1893.

Desirable Immigrants.

Roma is a district to which many thoughts are at present directed. That locality is working out its destiny as one of the great agricultural centres of the continent. It is like some of the magnificent districts of Riverina, a place of wool and wheat and wine. The capabilities of this portion of the Maranoa water-shed have been pretty well tested during recent years, and the result has been highly gratifying. Now we find it developing a new feature – that of inducing immigration, and immigration too of a most desirable class.

A year or two ago several southern farmers, good yeomen from Victoria and South Australia, settled in the district, and have so far been well satisfied, and at present there are others from the older colonies at Roma looking for land, and it is more than probable that in the areas to be thrown open for section in May next they will find what they want.

Unlike other agricultural products, there will not be any difficulty in disposing of wheat, which will we presume, be the main crop at Roma. Like wool, wheat is always “gold” to a farmer. It has an export value, and though subject, of course, to market fluctuations is never a drug on the the market. It is a most encouraging experience to note the immigration of th right class without any special effort of our part. We sincerely hope the new element in our population will receive every encouragement from the Government.

By Brisbane Observer – Western Star & Roma Advertiser, 11 March, 1893.

George Alfred (Alf) JOHNSON

Above is an Ancestor tree of the ancestors of George Alfred JOHNSON, my maternal grandfather, going back three generations. On some branches of the family tree, I have been able to trace back to the early 1700’s and even into 1600’s. However, for the purpose of this history, I will only start with these three generations as I have some information on them other than the birth, marriage and death dates and places.

These families include the surnames: JOHNSON; CODD; RHODES; COUPLAND; JACKLIN; STEPHENSON and GAUTBY. These families were nearly all from around Lincolnshire.

The main stories for the ancestors of George Alfred JOHNSON are :

Sarah Rebecca Mary MURRAY

The ancestors of Sarah Rebecca Mary MURRAY, my maternal grandmother, can be divided into two branches. Her father’s side – the Scottish-Irish Connecion with the names: MURRAY; McMORAN; LAURIE and SCOTT. And her mother’s side – the Essex Connection with family names such as; GIBSON; DALE; SHARP and CHALK.

The main stories for the ancestors of Sarah Rebecca Mary  MURRAY  are: