Brunner - My Father's Family
I grew up with my Nanna - Amy Isabella Downes, and Grandpa - Charles Oswald Brunner, just living a little over a mile up the road from our house. They had a dairy farm in North Tumbulgum, on the Tweed Valley and I would often walk or bicycle to their place and help with the milking of the cows in the afternoons. My Nanna Brunner had a fun loving personality and I loved being with her. I didn't get to know or personally get close to my Grandpa Brunner, he would just grunt at you and was always behind his newspaper, presumably reading it, so as a child I didn't warm to him.
So, we were country folk living a care free, hard working life on the farm, surrounded by parents, grandparents and a few Aunts and Uncles, with cousins, who came visiting from time to time.....
With a name like Brunner, instinctively I knew we were from somewhere else.....the name had a certain roll of the tongue.....it didn't sound ordinary, like...Jones, North, Southern or Hawkins.
I was told that the family had migrated up from Sydney around 1950 to get away from the big smoke and that was about as much family heritage as I got.
Luckily for us, my Uncle Ossie - Father's elder brother - started the 'Ancestry Journey' about 25 years ago and has filled in the Brunner lineage. I found it so fascinating, that it started my own research journey into the 'lives of our Ancestors', their brothers and sisters and the history of the times they lived. This is what I want to share with you.....the footprints that our Ancestors left behind......some will be scant and others will be full of detail.....
Incidentally, my Grandfather was known as Ossie......like many I have found in my searches, known by their second name.
So, we were country folk living a care free, hard working life on the farm, surrounded by parents, grandparents and a few Aunts and Uncles, with cousins, who came visiting from time to time.....
With a name like Brunner, instinctively I knew we were from somewhere else.....the name had a certain roll of the tongue.....it didn't sound ordinary, like...Jones, North, Southern or Hawkins.
I was told that the family had migrated up from Sydney around 1950 to get away from the big smoke and that was about as much family heritage as I got.
Luckily for us, my Uncle Ossie - Father's elder brother - started the 'Ancestry Journey' about 25 years ago and has filled in the Brunner lineage. I found it so fascinating, that it started my own research journey into the 'lives of our Ancestors', their brothers and sisters and the history of the times they lived. This is what I want to share with you.....the footprints that our Ancestors left behind......some will be scant and others will be full of detail.....
Incidentally, my Grandfather was known as Ossie......like many I have found in my searches, known by their second name.
Didn't my Grandpa make a handsome Groom?
George - in the Wedding photo - known as Walter was 14 years of age when little brother Ossie was born in 1899.
Lizzie, christened - Lily Elizabeth - was one of Amy's older sisters. She was deaf and dumb, in fact Nanna had 2 deaf and dumb sisters. I remember Nanna would often comment on 'Helen Keller' and how she admired her and I never really understood why, until now. She never did tell me that 2 of her own sisters had impaired hearing and speech and sign language was part of everyday life in her growing up years.
George - in the Wedding photo - known as Walter was 14 years of age when little brother Ossie was born in 1899.
Lizzie, christened - Lily Elizabeth - was one of Amy's older sisters. She was deaf and dumb, in fact Nanna had 2 deaf and dumb sisters. I remember Nanna would often comment on 'Helen Keller' and how she admired her and I never really understood why, until now. She never did tell me that 2 of her own sisters had impaired hearing and speech and sign language was part of everyday life in her growing up years.