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My Fleming family came from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
to Australia in the 1800s.
They may have been part of the English plantations in Ireland during the 1600s. William John Fleming was a bootmaker and a farmer at various times of his life and he had atleast three children. There were two girls Jane Fleming and (Elizabeth)Margaret Fleming born in the early 1830s of Dromore Parish County Tyrone. Also a son Robert Fleming born many years later in Dromore Parish County Tyrone Northern Ireland. According to the family bible Robert Fleming was born in March 1852.
The girls came to Australia in 1854 and Margaret married back into her mother's family - the Griffith-Griffins. The Griffins were living at Cornamuck in the Parish of Dromore not far from the Flemings and some of them including two uncles (James Griffin & John Griffin) had migrated to Australia prior to the arrival of the girls. Robert Fleming would have been about two years of age when his older sisters left Ireland and he was living with their parents William & Mary Fleming at Drumqin(Drumqueen)in 1854, as recorded in the shipping documents for Jane & Margaret. They arrived in Australia on the ship "China" after a long uneventful? voyage.
Jane and Margaret reunited with their Griffith-Griffin kin in Australia and settled at Orange after a brief time on the South Coast near Calderwood. Margaret firstly married a cousin James Griffith and then after he died prematurely in a logging accident married another cousin Alexander Griffith. Jane married Samuel Priest and both families had many children and lived in the March area near Orange NSW Australia.
Robert arrived on the "Petersborough" in 1879 possible after the death of his father. His mother Mary was still living in Tyrone according to Robert's shipping documents. He settled at Orange near his older sister Margaret and became well known in the area as a local pioneer farmer and later in life won many awards for growing beautiful Chrysanthynum flowers. Robert Fleming married twice, his wives being Rebecca Green and Florence Twiss/Priest. They had numerous children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Robert lived until 1936 and had a love of cricket and flowers and was seen to be up for a game of cricket even in his old age. Coming to Australia in 1879 was no doubt a life changing experience for him and the start of a new direction for his own life and that of his succeeding Flemming families. We appreciate his being willing to leave everything in Tyrone for a better life here in Australia, even at risk of never seeing his own mother or homeland again.
(Note: In Ireland it seems the spelling may have been Fleming and in Australia both Fleming and Flemming has been used in various records)
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