By Marion Sargent

My interest  in family history began in the early 1970s when  we  were "discovered" by a long-lost cousin in  England.  Canon Alexander  (Alec) Sargent, who lived in Canterbury, Kent,  knew that he had some cousins living in  Tasmania, Australia.  He had  been visited by one of  these,  Amy Sargent, in 1911.  When he retired from his duties with the Church,  he wrote to the Bishop of Tasmania enquiring about  any Sargent family members who  might  have  been living  near Wynyard on the north west coast.   My  Uncle Charles  Sargent's  name and address were sent to Alec  - and then began the journey of searching for our roots.

In  1980  we  were  "found" by another branch of  our  family  in Western Australia.   Forebears of these two families were heading for Tasmania in 1886 on different ships.  My family reached here but and the others disembarked in Perth.

Several members of our Australian family have made the pilgrimage to Canterbury to see Alec,  or since Jan 1989,  his plaque in the Cloister wall  of  Canterbury Cathedral.   Other  places  of significance to our family are Battle,  Oxford, Henley-on-Thames, Eythorne and Whitfield.

This  website gives a brief outline of the Sargent family,  whose known history began in Hastings, Sussex, England, in 1540.