1. Introduction

Lynelle and Gary Briggs' family history weaves together various threads of 19th century colonisation of New South Wales. It includes convict transportation, Irish bride ships, movement west from Sydney to the fertile farming land of the Central West, city life, middle class respectability and some living on the margins of Sydney society. There are women with little or no choice, others whose strength, courage and determination ensure their family's survival. There are tales of great sadness, and an Aboriginal family cast out by colonial strictures. There are marriages of love, others seemingly of convenience. There are Catholic and Anglican church marriages, and some of dubious legality.

The telling of this story will combine chronology with the social, economic and political backdrops both in countries of origin, and Australia, as well as highlighting some of the individual characters' stories.

Lynelle's father was Clem Briggs, her mother Gwen Cant.

The first people from each branch on the Briggs side who arrived in Australia were:

1822 - Laurence Moore, an Irish convict;
1824 - POSSIBLY Margaret Moore, daughter of Laurence and Mary Moore;
1826 - Mary, Daniel and John Moore, the wife and children of Laurence Moore;
1830 - Michael Moore, a third son of Laurence and Mary Moore;
1832 - Maria Ring, an Irish woman on a bride-ship, the Red Rover. She married Michael Moore;
1836 - John Briggs, and his brother Joseph, convicts from England;
1840 - The Byrne family of free Irish immigrants, including John and Sarah and daughter Catherine.
1841 - Bridget Dowd, a single Irish woman who was a Bounty immigrant who married John Briggs;
1844 - George Harding, a single man, an agricultural labourer, from Buckinghamshire, England;
1849 - Elizabeth Strains, a single woman from East London who married George Harding.
1857 - George and Sarah (nee Garraway) Weatherley, with daughter Sarah and son George, Bounty immigrants from Pinner, near London.

The first people to arrive on the Cant side were:

1843 - Lutton family
1844 - William and Susanna Cant, Bounty immigrants from Lincolnshire, with several of their children and their wives and husbands;
1844 - Charles and Margaret (née McBride) Lutton arrived from County Down, Ireland.
1852 - John Grieve, an agricultural labourer from East Lothian, Scotland; he married Sarah Young;
1853 - Luke and Eliza (née Franklin) Lawrence;
1854 - Bridget Horan, a single Irish woman who married Francis Cant, son of William and Susanna;
1855 - Elizabeth Franklin & others - family of Eliza Lawrence;
1857 - James and Hannah Young, from Shettleston near Glasgow, with their daughter Sarah;
1869 - Robert and Sarah Cathie arrived in Brisbane from Scotland as assisted immigrants;
1874 - Robert Cathie's mother, Elisabeth (née Shaw) and her husband Charles Deans arrived as remittance passengers