21ST FUSILIERS
TO THE
21ST CENTURY
THE STORY OF COLOR SERJEANT JOHN SMITH
AND HIS DESCENDANTS
by J.E & E.A. McLENNAN
In the interests of further research this work is uncopyrighted except where copyright continues to exist in some quotations of other previously copyrighted works. Most of these are held in the Battye or Alexander Libraries.
This copy contains all information gathered up to 30.11.1999
THANKS
Any work of this nature relies on the goodwill and assistance of vast numbers of people. Many have contributed details of their own branches of the family. Others have done independent research extending further than that and have shared their work with us. Still others have been able to point us in directions we would never have thought of.
It would be an injustice to fail to mention some of these generous people.
Ian Hooper and Rae Calvert who gave us a start many years ago, Gillian O'Mara and Sue Badderly, both experts in their fields. All the staff at the Battye Library for their assistance and knowledge of our State's history. Murray Gresswell Smith and Dolores Booth who helped with the South Australian connection and freely supplied the fruits of their own research. Without their assistance we would have never reached this stage.
But especially, thanks must go to all the relatives who responded so marvellously when their telephone rang and an unknown voice said:
"Hello. You don't know me, but my name is Liz McLennan and I am doing some family history research. I think we may be related."
These are the people who have made this a book of the living as well as a book of our ancestors.
Any errors or omissions in the lists and details of our family are our mistakes. Either we misunderstood a fact or did not do quite enough research.
AN EXPLANATION
One difficulty faced by genealogists in the modern world is the shift away from lifelong partnerships between husband and wife. As a consequence many people have more than one partner through their lifetime and pedigree lines can become confusing.
In previous times when life was more dangerous and a man could be killed in war or a woman could die in childbirth and either could die young from diseases which are now easily cured the remaining partner normally remarried. These days marriages probably last as long but the spouses choose to end the relationship, leaving both free to find new partners. Because of the laws of the land a divorce and official remarriage is often not the easiest solution and so the term 'De Facto Marriage' has come into common useage.
This is an awkward term and can be used as a condemnatory phrase.
The authors of this volume have decided that, regardless of the legalities of the situation, 'if it looks (or looked) like a marriage then it is (was) a marriage'. After all, the Scots had a very simple ceremony which involved no priest, minister or bureaucrat. The two who intended to create a home and family simply jumped over a broomstick together. The modern Australian version seems to be 'moving in together' and if this sets up a situation where all the requirements for a marriage are fulfilled, except the legalities, then it is a marriage!
If a date is shown for a marriage it means that the relationship was formalised. If no date is shown it can mean that there was no formalisation or it could simply mean that the authors have not dug deeply enough.
