The Lutge Family in Australia

Joyce was the older child of Denis (Dinny) Lutge and Margret Shaunghnessy.  Joyce was born on 6 February 1919 at Mosman.  Dinny and Margaret married in 1917 following the death of Margaret's first husband, Frederick Walkley in 1913. Frederick and Margaret had two children - Margaret Anne (1906 to 1979) born in Balmain and Marie Ivy (1906 to 1978) born in Mosman.  Dinny and Margaret had a son, Denis James, who was born on 11 November 1920 and died 11 days later. Margaret died on 11 April 1926 and the death was registered at Darlinghurst.  Joyce was just 7 years old when her mother died!  Dinny died on 18 February 1953 when Joyce was 34. Joyce married Victor Leslie Kelly in 1940 in Mosman.  They had one child, Denis John, known as John about 1942.  Victor enlisted in the Second World War and died in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp on 12 September 1944.  This is the only photo I have of Joyce with Victor from the Australian War Memorial collect...

On a lighter note, we find many references to John Henry's work as "The Poundkeeper" for Mosman Council.   John Henry was born in 1866 at Cumberland Street in The Rocks.  When he was a youth, the family moved to Military Road Mosman.  His father, Peter Benson, ran a stevedoring company with Richard Moran.  John Henry worked as a stevedore in the Lutge & Moran business.  The partnership was dissolved after Peter Benson died in 1890. In 1895, John Henry entered the NSW Police Force.  His initial placement was in Balmain.  After a couple of years, he was moved to Moree with his wife, Matilda, and young son, Cliff.  Their next son, Kelvin, was born in Moree in 1898.  John Henry left the police force and returned to Sydney in the early 1900s with his family.  They settled in Gerard Street Cremorne where the youngest child, Helene, was born in 1906. John Henry started working for the Mosman Municipal Council.  In 1914, he was ap...

From an early age, I knew that John Henry Lutge, my great-grandfather, had been drowned in the bombora off Dobroyd Point opposite Balmoral Beach.  Growing up in Mosman, Balmoral was our local beach and the story was repeated many times by my mother, Beryl.  She was only 10 months old when her grandfather died.   This event appears to have changed the life of the Lutge family.  John Henry's wife, Matilda, sold the family home at 84 Gerard Street, Cremorne, within two years of John Henry's death and lived with her daughter, Helene, and granddaughters.  Helene's husband, Elton Phillips, died in August 1930.  The extended family lived at Northbridge and later Willoughby. John Henry and Matilda's oldest surviving son, Cliff, lived with his family at Roseville.  The youngest son (my grandfather), Kelvin, lived with his family at 82 Gerard Street, Cremorne. My mother had no memory of meeting Matilda, her grandmother, her uncle or aunt or t...

You can read all about it at my travel blog  HERE ... A great experience to be the first of the Lutge cousins to visit the home town that Peter Benson Lutge, out many times great grandfather, left in 1862!  If you're planning a visit to Denmark or Germany and would like to visit Aabenraa, please contact me for details and leads.

Well, the time is fast approaching when I'll be standing in the very square in Aabenraa where my 2nd great-grandfather, Peter Benson Lutge, was born and lived from his birth on 15 March 1837 until he left his parents and seven younger siblings in 1862 to settle in Australia.  Peter married Mary Bonner in 1864 and they had 10 children.  All us "Lutge cousins" are descendants of Peter Benson and Mary. You can read about Peter Benson Lutge here. We have quite a heritage in Aabenraa!  Here are our ancestors that I've been able to trace.  All the births shown in the chart were in Aabenraa - apart from one!  Peter Benson's father, Johann Friedrich Lutge, was born in Copenhagen.  So, Peter Benzen (or Bentzon), my 6th great-grandfather, was born in Aabenraa in 1718 - 300 years ago!  I'll be visiting Copenhagen but family history research will have to wait for another visit. Peter, his parents and siblings are shown as living at Vaegterpladsen, Aaben...

You've probably heard how DNA was used to apprehend the alleged Golden State Killer. Knowing that I use genetic genealogy in my family history research, friends and family have spoken to me about how this unfolded. Upfront, I should say that the Police didn't use one of the commercial testing companies like AncestryDNA. They used  GEDmatch.com  which allows people to upload their DNA data from the commercial testing companies to a common platform. Roberta Estes, a US based gene tic genealogist, has published a very detailed article today that some may be interested in reading. Roberta makes the point that there's been little coverage of the same process being followed to identify a murder victim just 13 days earlier. The victim, known as the Buckskin Girl, was found in 1981 and identified as 21 year old Marcia Lenore King earlier in the month. At the end of the article, Roberta details why she's keeping her DNA online. Mine's staying online as well. Plea...

Anzac Day goes beyond the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915. It is the day on which we remember all Australians who served and died in war and on operational service past and present. The spirit of Anzac, with its qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity. Clifford John Stanley Lutge enlisted on 12 July 1915 in the 30 Battalion, C Company of the Australian Imperial Force.  We know him as Cliff but he's recorded as John in his military records and his age at enlistment is shown as 22 years and 8 months but he was 2 years younger.  His occupation at the time of enlistment is recorded as grocer. His unit embarked from Sydney on board HMAT A72 Beltana on 9 November 1915.  Cliff arrived in Suez on 11 December 1915.  Within a month he was admitted to hospital suffering from varicose veins.  Cliff saw little active service.  He retuned to Australia on 3 March ...