iesSince 2011 I have made 100’s of family history discoveries, and it was a huge pleasure to share these with Audrey which I often did. Actually, she had quite a few memories of her grandfather Edward Charles Lousada, and of course quite a few stories about her father Aubrey and his Truscott in-laws. She also had a Dowel family history which can now be found on my family history website.

I think her sister Mary (my mother) would have had the same reaction as Audrey to many of my discoveries but I will never know that. What I do know is how strongly Audrey reacted. I don’t think she really approved of the otherwise distinguished Sir Anthony Baruh Lousada at age 54 marrying a nineteen-year old New York City ballet dancer (but see note 1 below). Like Mary she loved the frank comments Herbert George Lousada made about one or two family members. But I think she was comforted by the knowledge that there are 3 other thriving branches of the Lousadas in England today – the Bedfordshire Lousadas, the Bacon Lousadas, and the descendants of Herbert George some of whom are in the USA. I also discovered the Yorkshire (now Taunton) Lousadas and the Dutch Louzadas, not to mention the very distinguished Barrows – Edward Charles having a Barrow mother.

She was heartened by the resilience, resourcefulness and business acumen of our once Spanish ancestors as they adapted to a New Christian life in Portugal after 1492, and then once the Portuguese Inquisition hotted up, as they developed a family trading network for 2 centuries across the Atlantic covering Latin America, the Caribbean, Iberia and northern Europe. There is plenty of evidence that the Baruch Lousadas were present in Barbados, Surinam, Jamaica, Curacao not to mention Italy, France, England, Holland and the USA. She was somewhat surprised at how strongly Jewish they were.

She was also heartened by signs that Edward Charles Lousada was a principled man, and one who after a financial reverse in Warragul, was able to rebuild his family’s life by returning to farming, and to make good decisions. Thus he came to Korumburra when it was a strongly emerging dairying district – he came from Toora where he was quite a way from the nearest cooperative butter factory. I think she was impressed by the significance of the Anglican Church in his life, but realized I think that at the time this provided a strong community for his family. At any rate 3 of Audrey’s uncles became missionaries and clerics – Ben, Ted and Horace Frank. There were many clerics in the overseas families as well, especially among the Bacon Lousadas and the Barrows. She felt for her father Aubrey who took badly to her brother Frank going to the 2nd World War and took over his milking for a while. Of course Aubrey had lost 2 brothers in the Western Front in the 1st World War, and his own mother died before he got back to Korumburra. There were quite a few other Lousada and Barrow casualties of war.

With Audrey I was able to meet or visit quite a few relatives. We visited Gwen and Edgar Truscott in Toora, in Korumburra we met Bronwyn Collins Simpson who is a granddaughter of Catherine Frances Lousada (Audrey’s aunt Coonie) and we also met Tiarks Hall relatives - for Beatrice the wife of Edward Charles was a Hall, while in Warragul with Dawn we met other relatives - Kathy Olden who is a granddaughter of Tryphena Lousada (Audrey’s aunt Nina), Lynne Bickers who is an Affleck Hall descendant, and John Bury from England who is a Bacon Lousada. Both in Warragul and Korumburra we met Wilson descendants of Howell Arthur a brother of Edward Charles who came to Australia
before him. Audrey kept an eye out for family news – when Edward Charles White recently died Audrey spotted this – he was a grandson of Audrey’s aunt Ruth whose grave I recently visited in Welshpool. Ruth acquired a step-family when she married a cleric and one person who made contact through the website was part of this step-family – this was Frances Munro who was extremely fond of Uncle Ted. He helped Ruth care for this branch of the step-family in Chatswood. This contact particularly touched Audrey for Ted was Audrey’s favourite uncle and she had some stories about him as well.

I especially remember Audrey at her sister Nancy’s funeral and have some great photos of her with Greg, Gary and Wayne on this occasion. Thank you Audrey for making my family history adventure so enjoyable!

Notes:

1. In these notes I have erred - Sir Anthony Baruh Lousada in his 2nd marriage married a Patricia McBride who was 31 in 1961 and hence 12 years older than the Patricia McBride I describe above. In my defence both Patricias were dancers in the same company. Apologies to all concerned.