Crees of Taralga, NSW, Australia

[Melissa Smith]

Hi everyone,

I am the daughter of Sheila Mary Cree who is the daughter of William Selby Cree and Rosaline Pearl Whipp formerly of Taralga NSW Australia.  I have noticed she is not listed as their child on the Cree One-Name Study site.  She was born on 4th September 1939 and is the only remaining child still alive today.

Is it possible to add her to the family information please?  I would love to hear from anyone who may know of the Crees of Taralga.

Thank you :)

[Mike Spathaky]

Hi Melissa - and welcome to the Cree Family History Network!

I am not the main organiser of this site - that's Trevor Cree - but I do the Cree Surname website which as you have seen, focuses on Cree genealogies. I live in Sydney much of my time - my wife Marian is Irish-Australia - but also spend time in England where I am now. Marian has a daughter living in Rathmines near Toronto not far from you and a granddaughter who has just finished her masters at Newcastle. Small world!

Some years ago I was was following up the ancestry of Australian Crees who had migrated from Ireland and came across the Taralga Cree branch. Then a couple of years ago Marian and I visited the place for an afternoon. I described our visit on a page of the Cree Surname website. To see that page click here: http://cree.one-name.net/ireland/taralga.htm. Click on the photo of Green Hills to see the enlarged picture of your family honestead. From there you can click on more links (gold text) to find out more about your ancestry.

I didn't realise (even though I searched) that one of the Taralga Crees was still alive today. Please show your mother the article - print it out if it would help. I would be most interested to hear of her reaction.

I am happy to add more information about this line to the Cree Genealogy Database and have already added your Mum's birth details. Data laws restrict us from publishing data about living people so it won't appear online, but I can add details to the text article. Please send me details of all Cree descendants that you know of, with dates and places of births, marriages and deaths.

I would also be interested in any stories you can tell me about them. You can email me at [e-mail] or post here on the Network website. If I mention that you are from the Cree line of Bangor, County Down, Ireland you may hear from distant cousins who still live in that area.

I look forward to hearing from you,
Best Wishes,
Mike Spathaky

[Melissa Smith]

Hi Mike,

Thank you so much for your reply. I am very new to the geneaolgy side of things and didnt realize that living people were not included on such sites. Thank you for the clarification.

I believe it was my great grandparents that lived in Green Hills. My mother often talks about staying there as a child and we have driven past there about 10 years ago. It is such a beautiful old home, yet I believe there was much despair there with the TB epidemic. Interestingly we have just arranged a visit there in May with my mother and sister which we are very much looking forward to. The man who lives there got in touch with my mother some time ago as he has a keen interest in the history of the property and has kindly invited us to bring Mum for a visit. As her health is declining quite rapidly, we felt it was important to take the trip sooner rather than later. I believe there is slso a museum in Taralga that has lots of historical items and information from years gone by. My mother was the youngest child in her family although i believe there were a couple of stillborn children born after her birth.

I read your article on your visit to Taralga and found it very interesting indeed. I read it to Mum as she had very low vision and she was so pleasantly surprised to hear of others looking into the Cree family line. As i am new to this, I didnt event know what line we were from. I would be delighted to hear from anyone that may be related in some way to us. My mother has two daughters, of which I am the youngest at 46. My older sister Sharon is 49 but lives in Queensland. I live with my husband and 2 small children in the town of Pelaw Main of NSW. Its not too far from Rathmines where you mentioned your wife's daughter lives. It is indeed a small world!

Thank you so much for getting in touch with me. I would welcome any tips you have for me to learn more about our family line etc. I must admit I dont get a lot of time to research with 6 year old twins and working part-time but it's something I've become more interested in as I've gotten older which I'm sure is quite common. Your kindness and time in replying is very much appreciated.

Kind regards
Melissa