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Discovering My Australian Past

In 2013 I started a journey of discovery into my previously unknow Australian Ancestors

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My voyage of discovery into my Australian past began in 2013. From an old family photo an adventure of a lifetime began.

‘A ship is safe in harbour but that’s not what ships are for’
– William G.T. Shedd

About

Welcome to my blog. My name is Sue Ruffle and a chance conversation with my cousin, Elizabeth Overton, who was visiting from South Africa in August 2013, set off an amazing sequence of events…

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A 200 Year Celebration! 18 August, 1820 – 18 August, 2020

200 years ago today, my 3rd great-grandfather Captain Joseph Moore, his heavily pregnant wife Ann and their two young sons sailed into Sydney aboard the 237 ton Barque Woodlark, to begin a new life in the Colony of New South Wales. How excited and yet apprehensive they must have been, not knowing what to expect…

Read more A 200 Year Celebration! 18 August, 1820 – 18 August, 2020

Contact

I would love to make contact with other ancestors of Captain Joseph Moore. If this interests you, please get in touch.

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Sue Ruffle

I came to Australia in 2006, unaware that some of my ancestors had settled in Sydney and would become part of an exclusive group of merchants who would shape the future of private enterprise in Australia.

Old family photographs

Sometimes old family photographs can open a world that was previously unknown. This is what happened when my cousin Elizabeth Overton shared with me a rather stern photograph of our great-grandfather Raven Moore Mason taken around 1870. What a journey it would lead to!

Recent posts

  • A 200 Year Celebration! 18 August, 1820 – 18 August, 2020 August 18, 2020
  • A Catch-up at Moore’s Wharf June 13, 2017
  • Meeting Sydney Bailey Moore’s great-grandson April 27, 2017
  • Moore/Mason Homes in Lower Fort Street, Dawes Point, Sydney March 29, 2017

Our Location

Sydney, NSW
AUSTRALIA

ABOUT ME

I came to Australia in 2006. I started this blog with the intention of finding some of my previously unknown Australian relatives, who are descendants of Captain Joseph Moore, a whaler, and also my 3rd great-grandfather. He captained the Brig Woodlark from England to Australia, bringing with him, his very pregnant wife Ann and two young sons. They arrived in Sydney on the 18 August, 1820.

Joseph became one of Sydney's leading merchants and ship owners, at a time when the Colony of Australia was in its infancy. From my research it appears he was a man of great compassion and fortitude and someone I would love to have known. His story is part of my DNA and one that I believe should be told.

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