We had a good opportunity to test out the deck for a decent sized BBQ last night, easily fitting a dozen people onto a nice long table, hanging out on the steps talkin’ junk and drinking beer, and watching the (growing) fleet of kids tear around at a million miles an hour on the lawn. All as nature intended…

Book downloadable here.

This may be a bit of a never ending path and a total geek-fest, but I’ve recently scratched the surface of the family tree and it’s great entertainment if nothing else. I remember my grandmother Consie James (nee Forster) pulling out reams of old documents that trace her lineage back to the 10th Century and pictures of the family castle in Northumberland. I also recently had chats with my dad about his family and had my curiosity piqued by a friend of a friend getting in touch and asking if we were related.

I’m not totally sure where to start with it, but will see if I can map it into some kind of logic and build on it over time.

Let’s start with the Lansburys…

Lansbury
This is a relatively uncommon surname, and my father Russell is always keen to make a connection to George Lansbury, head of the British Labour Party in the early 1930s, who is the grandfather of the actress Angela Lansbury. This arm of the family includes Malcolm Turnbull, a likely future leader of the Australian Liberal Party.

However, the only possibility of a link with this arm of the Lansburys would be back in the 1700s at the earliest - not exactly a thick blood line - and they were all living around Suffolk and London, quite a way from Hampshire where our relatives lived.

Our little arm of the Lansburys ended with me until my son Dane was born, and goes backwards accordingly:

Russell Lansbury 1945 > (My father)
Harry Leonard (Len) Lansbury 1910 > 1969 (Grandfather)
Harry Saunders Lansbury 1878 > 1947 (Great Grandfather)
Henry Lansbury 1829 > 1897 (Great Great Grandfather) - Born in Romsey, Hampshire UK and came to Australia in 1849.

The line presently ends with Henry, but we do know he had a brother Charles and I’ve found this listing on rootsweb that shows his other siblings.

Thanks to Google, I found church records from Michelmersh, about 3 miles up the road from Romsey, which is still a tiny town today, so their records for Lansburys are almost definitely Henry’s relatives.

From this we get the following:

Marriages
Mr. (William) Lansbury to Miss (Sarah) Saunders on 21 Feb 1814.
This is almost certainly Henry’s parents, given he named his own son Harry Saunders Lansbury.

Baptisms
Lansbury John - 07 Jun 1801
Lansbury William - 14 Dec 1806 d. 1851
Lansbury Mary - 16 Mar 1818
Lansbury Ann (d.o.b) 26 Dec 1816 - 08 Aug 1819
Lansbury Joseph 03 Sep 1820
Lansbury Harriet 26 Oct 1823
Lansbury Henry 01 Nov 1829
Lansbury Charles 21 Feb 1814

My hunch here is that William & John are brothers. Based on the burials notices, William is the only candidate as being Henry’s father, as John would have only been 13 in 1814, the year of the marriage. It is a bit strange William was baptised so old if that’s the case, so I’m not certain it’s the right assumption. All the others are probably Henry’s siblings - Charles being the only one we’ve got confirmation on.

Burials
Lansbury John 29 Dec 1830 Age 29
Lansbury Mary 25 May 1837 Age 19

And my guess as to why Henry went to Australia? In 1842 a brickworks opened in Michelmersh (and still appears to be operating). I reckon he did his apprenticeship there and then took the chance to go to Australia with his new trade, as there’s a reference to this being his occupation on Rootsweb.

To be continued…

An interesting development in fuel usage is gas-injected diesel. I first read about it in Fast Company where they were using Hydrogen to halve fuel consumption and double engine power.

A company called Lovato appears to be able to do a similar thing for a regular diesel truck using LPG for about $3000, achieving 20% efficiency gains. Not bad once you factor in diesel’s efficiency compared to petrol (25 > 30%), and especially if you’re using biodiesel.

A Google search turned up some other interesting links:

www.dualfuel.org
www.stockholmchallenge.se
www.dieselgas.co.nz

Cool eco-tech to keep an eye on…