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My Grandparents were Danish, Norweigan, Irish and Australian from English and Irish parents. My Danish Grandfather Ole Soren [Samuel} Christensen left Denmark in 1871 bound for Australia. He did not surface again until he married my Norweigan Grandmother in the gold mining town of Croyden in 1888. I have never found where he was during the missing years. At age 70 plus he decided to visit Denmark and the family who had not heard from him for 50 years. He took Sophia and his youngest son Ernie who was to become my father. I have Grandfather Chtistensen's family tree dating back to 1738 and Gadbjing Parish in Jutland,Denmark. We are in close contact with our Danish relatives.
Grandmother Johanna Sophia Skaug was born at Dramman, Norway. I have traced her family tree back to 1798 at Nadeland and Trondheim Norway. After the death of her mother she travelled to Croyden Queensland in 1884 with her sister Ragna. Grandmother was 17 and Ragna 8. They made the long journey alone to join their mother's brother John Nerstad at Croyden in North Queensland. Samuel and Sophia were married in 1888 and became pioneers of the Sugar industry in North Queensland.
My maternal Grandfather was William Kells who arrived with his sister Mary Jane at Townsville, Nth Queensland in 1885. William was a son of James Kells and Mary Ann Finlay of Ballymaguran, County, Cavan. They were married in St Peters Church of Ireland,Templeport in 1856. This Kells family tree supposedly dates back to the Piedmont Valley in the Italian Alps. Our ancestors are said to have fled Piedmont during the Reformation and eventually found refuge in the border country between England and Scotland. I have spent the last 15 years trying to prove or disprove the theory. I lean in the direction of it being fact. William married my Grandmother Mary Jane Moss at the mining town of Cooktown in 1888. He was a tin miner at Mt Romeo at the time. He later later worked on the building of the railway from Cairns to Herberton then had horse teams in the timber industry in the hinterland behind Cairns,Nth Queensland. He finally had a sugar farm out side Cairns about 6 miles from the Christensen family. My father Ernest Peter Christensen married Elizabeth Kells in 1830.
My maternal Grandmother Mary Jane Moss was the daughter of an Englishman George Moss from Middlesex and Jane Daly from Tipperary, Ireland. The story goes that George helped his mate to build a hotel in a Queensland coastal town and when it was finished his mate suggested that he go down to the immigrant ship which was in port and find a girl to work in the hotel. George came back with Jane Daly and they were married shortly afterwards.
My grandmother was of the same fibre as her mother. Her marriage certificate said she was 21 at time of marriage and her birth certificate said a few days over 17. It is also believed Mary Jane Moss eloped.
Such was the immigrant scene of the 1800's. I believe I am a typical Australian. I carry the blood of many nations and most other Australians can say the same.
Rod Christensen
Brisbane
April, 2004.
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