The Jenkins family celebrated their 74th family reunion at the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens last Sunday. The family scroll created by Ray Maxfield in the 1960s measures 25 metres and is proudly displayed on the grass as new babies are added to the historical document.
The first reunion took place in 1948 at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens and now alternates between Geelong and Castlemaine.
Jenny Rule, who has been organising the event for the past 30 years, said, “It’s easy to organise; we have a Facebook page that we share the information on. I love it.”
The family historian, Paul Rule, a wealth of information, told the Times the story of how the welsh miners came to reside in the area.
James and Elizabeth Jenkins immigrated to Australia in 1851. They travelled on an immigrant charter, the Omega, for 1051 days with their two-year-old Thomas James and one-year-old Nicholas John. They first worked in the copper mines in South Australia before walking to Victoria with all their belongings in a wheelbarrow to look for gold.
The family moved around Forrest Creek, Bendigo, Campbells Creek, Daisy Hill, Creswick, Maryborough and Avoca before settling on the Loddon River at Joyces Creek in 1857. Here they stayed for the next 70 years until James died in 1900 and Elizabeth in 1912. Their graves are the first on the right in the Maldon Cemetery, along with their son Nicholas John and their four babies; Elizabeth 1853-1854, William 1854-1858, Joseph 1856-1858 and Mark 1858-1821.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 4 March 2022.
