Today I discovered something magical and rather riveting about my family heritage. All my life I have been told that, I am descendent from Australian, Spanish and English on my mother’s side of the family and, Irish, Scottish on my father’s side.
History tells us that when the Queen of England had ownership of Australia, the residents of England did not want to migrate to an uncharted-foreign place; so in efforts to establish Australia, the Queen decided to send people who committed any kind of crime (as minor as stealing a loaf of bread) to Australia, which was originally established as a penal colony. All my life I thought, my great, great, great relatives were in fact, criminals! However, today I have discovered an important part of my heritage that astounds and amazes me!
I came across this new information because, my cousin is a huge singer, songwriter in Australia and her career and celebrity there are massive. She has been an Australian superstar since she was 16 years old. Recently, Australian television invited her to participate in a new show called, “Who Do You Think You Are?” The show sets out to find out if Kate, my cousin, knows her heritage. Now, my heritage and Kate’s heritage are the same, on my mother’s side. Kate is my mothers, sisters, daughter. I watched the show tonight and I am blown away to discover why most of my family are driven towards the arts. It turns out….it is in our blood….literally….
On both sides of my family there are numerous, musicians or painters. I have always been compelled to paint. I mean it is a compulsion. Just something I could always do. Some of my earliest and fondest memories are of staying with grandmother and painting with her for hours and hours. She would let me use her oil paints, which was a big deal….Since I was only 8 years old and my mother would only let me paint with water colors, because I made such a mess…but my grandmother, she let me have at it with the oil paints. I remember my first serious painting I did at her house; it was a black and white window with light shining through. I wish I knew where that was today. I was always proud of it.
I have always been told that my great, great, great grandfather, (on my grandfathers side) was a Spanish sailor who came to Australia in the 1800’s and committed mutiny. It turns out; he was in fact an Englishman, invited to Australia to teach music and art at a prestigious all girls’ school in Tasmania. He was a famous portrait artist and musician. His portraits actually hang in the Australian Museum. Who would have ever known! I am not a descendent of Spanish sailor, or criminal! In fact, I have no Spanish blood at all……..It is still a mystery to me why I tan so easily…never once have I had a burn….I have always tanned….just naturally go brown…that is strange considering that I am English, Irish and Scottish…..maybe it’s that weird Australian mongrel in me………
History tells us that when the Queen of England had ownership of Australia, the residents of England did not want to migrate to an uncharted-foreign place; so in efforts to establish Australia, the Queen decided to send people who committed any kind of crime (as minor as stealing a loaf of bread) to Australia, which was originally established as a penal colony. All my life I thought, my great, great, great relatives were in fact, criminals! However, today I have discovered an important part of my heritage that astounds and amazes me!
I came across this new information because, my cousin is a huge singer, songwriter in Australia and her career and celebrity there are massive. She has been an Australian superstar since she was 16 years old. Recently, Australian television invited her to participate in a new show called, “Who Do You Think You Are?” The show sets out to find out if Kate, my cousin, knows her heritage. Now, my heritage and Kate’s heritage are the same, on my mother’s side. Kate is my mothers, sisters, daughter. I watched the show tonight and I am blown away to discover why most of my family are driven towards the arts. It turns out….it is in our blood….literally….
On both sides of my family there are numerous, musicians or painters. I have always been compelled to paint. I mean it is a compulsion. Just something I could always do. Some of my earliest and fondest memories are of staying with grandmother and painting with her for hours and hours. She would let me use her oil paints, which was a big deal….Since I was only 8 years old and my mother would only let me paint with water colors, because I made such a mess…but my grandmother, she let me have at it with the oil paints. I remember my first serious painting I did at her house; it was a black and white window with light shining through. I wish I knew where that was today. I was always proud of it.
I have always been told that my great, great, great grandfather, (on my grandfathers side) was a Spanish sailor who came to Australia in the 1800’s and committed mutiny. It turns out; he was in fact an Englishman, invited to Australia to teach music and art at a prestigious all girls’ school in Tasmania. He was a famous portrait artist and musician. His portraits actually hang in the Australian Museum. Who would have ever known! I am not a descendent of Spanish sailor, or criminal! In fact, I have no Spanish blood at all……..It is still a mystery to me why I tan so easily…never once have I had a burn….I have always tanned….just naturally go brown…that is strange considering that I am English, Irish and Scottish…..maybe it’s that weird Australian mongrel in me………
His name was Henry Mundy. http://www.balgal.com/?id=mundyhenryportraitof The story of my great, great, great grandfather is not without scandal…as is with most of my family! He fell in love with one of his students, Lavina Lord, my great, great, great grandmother, she was merely 16 years old, he was 20 years her senior. He was fired from the school and had to work full time as a portrait artist, but during the great depression, when work was scarce, he became so depressed, he committed suicide on March 24th, 1848. Sad to think that his angst towards his passion to paint and the arts was overthrown by money problems...really, sad….
I am blown away………this truly amazes me………that our DNA can actually have influence over who we become and what interests we are drawn to in this life……….. blood is thicker than water~
3 comments:
that is sooo cool!!! it doesn't surprise me really..you being the artist and creator that you are..i am surprised that you don't come from criminals...coulda sworn that was true...what a cool thing to find out...makes me want to do that...you are so cool Conley.
I must have a little criminal in there somewhere!!! You should....you have artist blood for sure......
We may have one of your great, great, great grandfathers oil paint portraits. It is a portrait of a lady wearing pearls and holding a fan. Quite beautiful...we got it as a gift years ago. We are taking it to our local museum next week to have it appraised and to see if it is authenic..from my internet research, he did mostly potraits and mainly of women.
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