James Jordan's Last Journey

3rd Edition

Publication No. 298   Size: A4   Weight: 298 grams

INTRODUCTION

A book can evolve for many different reasons. This one goes back to 1957, when two people were on their way from Melbourne in Victoria to Perth in Western Australia. There being no ship available with space for their car, they were advised that the "Taroona" was the only ship that had a berth at all, and it was going to Tasmania. Not wanting to have to wait around they decided to take it; and so from this unplanned journey many lives were changed.

Charles and Emily Jordan travelled to Tasmania expecting to stay for a short visit only. They stayed twenty years! The fact that Charles's father had been born in Tasmania made their arrival more interesting than it normally would have been. He had hoped while he was there to do some family research. Al 1 that he knew was that his grandfather's name was Thomas Jordan, that his grandmother's was Abigail Hanlon, and that Edwin Jordan, his father, had been born at Carrick about 1850.

Unfortunately he didn't get very far with his research. His work took up most of his early years in the state. Then Emily took sick and he had to take care of her for the first few years of her life. She died in June 1977 and he returned to his original home state of Queensland.

From the time of their arrival in Tasmania I had received letters from them, and for the first time learnt that there was more in Tasmania then apples and snow. (That was a 11 I had learnt about it at school.) Gradually I began to feel I wanted to go and see this beautiful island that I was hearing about and was already falling in love with. My family and I arrived here in 1960 and I knew as soon as I stepped off the ship that I had come home. After my mother's death in 1977, I felt I wanted to do the Jordan family research that had not been done because of her sickness, as a thanks for those years that had been given in looking after her. This I have done to the best of my ability.

As was often the case, nothing was handed down about the Tasmanian Heritage. I got the impression from Charles Jordan that there had been a family split in the mid-nineteenth century and that, as a result, his grandfather, Thomas Jordan, had taken his family to Victoria to live. So of course when I began to unfold the story and found that the Jordan family in Australia had started with two convicts, a second and third fleeter, there was nobody more surprised than Charles, their great grandson.

Having once caught this time consuming, fatal disease called Family History, I became totally hooked. Consequently, when I had done all I could on Thomas' s line, I found I could not give up the habit. Having found that James and Mary Jordan were connected with Norfolk Island, I turned my attention to those who had made the journey from there to Van Diemens Land between 1807-1813, and for the past four years Thelma McKay and I have been writing profiles on all the people who made that journey.

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