History Notes - Stevens and Dower family
History Notes
Another busy week for the society particularly on Friday morning when we welcomed two family history researchers to the Dean Room to search for some of their ancestors.
Brian and Marianne were searching for history of the Gulf Creek mine as well as some of their ancestors who lived at Gulf Creek early in the 20th Century. William Stevens came to Gulf Creek probably in the 1880's and his son-in-law, Michael Barrett Dower, worked at the mine for some years.
Two sons of William Stevens, Henry Martin (Harry) Stevens and John James Lachlan (Loch) Stevens also accompanied their father, sister and brother-in-law. Loch enlisted in the Sixth Light Horse in Egypt. He apparently wore outstanding head gear and there is a photo of him dressed in his uniform.
Loch Stevens named his brother, Harry, as next of kin, as his father died in Barraba a few months later on 16th May, 1918 aged 85 years. He is buried in the Barraba Cemetery.
Brian was particularly searching for family connections to the sons and turned to Minnie Michell's book and her connections to the Bell's Mountain family. Fortunately, the Gidden's family who also lived at Gulf Creek revealed that Henry Martin Stevens married Mabel Ann Giddens in 1902. They lived in Bundarra for a while where they ran a hotel before moving to Barraba to run the Royal Hotel.
The other person was researching for a number of families and she actually claimed one of the Myers families, Henry Myers, who also came from the UK but not the building /post office /hotel family.
This Henry had a son Henry born 1843, married Elizabeth Alcorn in 1866 and fathered about ten children between1863 and 1881. The family lived at Menedebri, near Somerton, where he worked as a stockman. Sadly, he was drowned in the flooded Peel River when he was attempting to ride across to his home.
The connection to Barraba with this Henry is through his eldest son and eighth child, Henry Hunter, born in 1876, and aged about 5 years when his Father died. He grew up to marry Emily Faulkner, about 1900.
If anyone can add to either of these family researches, the local researchers will be glad to hear from them - particularly if you know who Lillian May and Ethel Maude Giddens married.