WHERE:
Murray Memorial Room at the Evandale Community Centre (followed by lunch at the nearby Clarendon Arms hotel restaurant)
ABOUT:
Most of Kennedy Murray’s many Australian descendants remain unaware of recent new DNA and related evidence of KM’s royal and MacGregor Scottish ancestry. Whilst many of the family historians who have helped to put together related family trees over the last 50 years are no longer with us, a younger generation of descendants should be able to (a) get a free copy of the most complete family tree record of KM's Australian descendants, (b) learn about the new DNA and other related documented revelations of KM’s significant Scottish ancestry as well as (c) the related genealogies beyond KM back to Sir James MacGregor and his Clan Gregory links to 9th Century Scottish royalty. Evidence of residual interest is typified by the 1022 ancestry.com family trees linked back to KM (aside from many others with different sites or programs). Yet many if not most of these are either inaccurate or incomplete. Therefore, there is clearly a need for a common database of Kennedy Murray descendants that can be updated as well as corrected and be a general ‘standardised’ resource available to all. One family historian (Terry Browne) - who has built on ’50 years of KM genealogy and family history research’ (also across the descendants of KM’s distinct Tasmanian and Sydney families) to collect an integrated record - has agreed to make this available to all descendants via the assistance and monitoring of an assisting ‘committee’ of interested family historians from different lines. Taking up Terry’s generous offer we have therefor agreed on a proposed 2/4/2022 gathering at Evandale (the site of the KM memorial and burial site, etc) for the following purposes:
PURPOSE
1 A unique opportunity to share key stories, existing information and new developments from a number of active family historians and genealogists past as well as present from different sides of the KM family tree (to also pay tribute to key figures in '50 years of Kennedy Murray family tree & history research' - Harry Hunt, Joe Cocker, Terry & Kaye Browne, Rob Murray, etc)
2 To receive a copy of the fullest and most up-to-date version of the Family Tree of all Kennedy Murray Australian descendants - and also KM's recognised Scottish ancestry back to 13th Century Scotland in light of new DNA tests and related genealogical research including by the Clan Gregor Society DNA Project (those attending get free a USB stick with a 'Gedcom file' of KM's descendants and ancestry that can be integrated into any standard genealogy software or websites - ranging from Family Tree Maker to ancestry.com to Family Search, etc).
3 To form a 'circle' to agree upon and support a process to try and further correct and possibly update at least one main version of the family tree into the future (e.g. many of the 1022+ KM family trees currently on ancestry.com are not just incomplete but often inaccurate as well).
4 Also receive a copy of a working draft of a family history e-book The royal and ‘MacGregor’ Scottish ancestry of Kennedy Murray’s Australian descendants (part of 26/3/2022 program will involve short talks or presentations by e-book chapter authors [additional contributions invited
The royal and ‘MacGregor’ Scottish ancestry of Kennedy Murray’s Australian descendants
Kennedy Murray arrived in Australia with the third fleet in 1792. He lived to 82 before dying at the Prosperous House residence (Evandale, Tasmania) of his eldest son Kennedy White Murray in 1853. He had a reported 59 grandchildren from both his two children with Ann White (Kennedy Jr and Elizabeth Murray) and two of his four children with Ann Parker (William and James Murray). And in this way his descendants are now thought to be alongside the Lucases (a family Elizabeth married in to – see Peter McKay's "A nation within a nation") one of the bigger modern Australian family trees - in the 10,000s (e.g. Murray, 2002). Notable KM descendants include his great-grandson Evandale-born Lieutenant-Colonel Harry Murray VC [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Murray] who remains Australia’s most decorated soldier] Recent Y-DNA tests have helped confirm that KM was really from one of the main lines of one of the fiercest and most pivotal Scottish highland clans the MacGregors. The Clan Gregor society has further confirmed in recent years (e.g. http://glendiscovery.com/gregor-genealogy-83.html) that KM’s direct ancestral line (re-named Murray during the 200 year political proscription from around 1603 against the use of the MacGregor name by Rob Roy and others) is descended from Sir James MacGregor the author/compiler of the celebrated Book of the Dean of Lismore (c.1526 ) – a book not only famously valuable in Scottish history for other reasons but also with its Clan Gregor genealogy traced back to King Kenneth MacAlpin (the first to unite both the Picts and Gaels into one Scottish nation) in around late ninth Century Scotland - or Alba as it was also then known.PROPOSED 2/4/2022 PROGRAM (To be confirmed)
8.45-9:00 Introductions
9- 10.15am 1 the Kennedy Murray story – i. coming to Australia, ii. his Norfolk Island, Sydney and Evandale adventures, and iii. The related stories of his 'wives' Ann White and Ann Parker, etc.
2. the Kennedy Murray family tree of Australian descendants – i. paying tribute to the family historians and genealogical (family tree) 'researchers' who helped put together the KM family tree, ii. Sharing this and related ideas for working together to both correct and update one main version of a KM family tree in a shareable format
10.15-10.45 morning tea
10.45-12
- the DNA tests and related inquiries that showed KM and his Australian descendants are really MacGregors who took on the name Murray during the 200 year Scottish proscription after 1603
- related stories of how DNA plus additional family history and genealogy were able to directly link KM's Australian descendants to one of the main Clan Gregor lines in Scottish history (the Fortingall line of Sir James MacGregor – whose 15th Century book traced his genealogy to King Kenneth MacAlpin who was the first to unite the Scottish kingdoms of the Picts and the Gaels, etc, around 900ad.)
12.30-1.30pm lunch Clarendon Arms Hotel restaurant
2-3.30pm Optional meeting for those KM family tree researchers interested in working together into the future to not only share one main version of the family tree but also to correct and update this.
[To Be Announced – possible 3/4/2020 dinner and possible other related activities or meetings around the 2/4/2020 meeting]
For local Evandale accommodation enquiries go to https://www.evandaletasmania.com/accommodation-in-evandale.html
And for any further updates or additional information about this 'get together' please contact me at cameronkrichards@hotmail.com