The news is that there is no new news on our Mashford family, but, we will get there....

Photo: Elizabeth Mashford (Lewis) Atkins, mother-in-law of Charles Ross.

Photos (three): John Mashford Lewis, the second-born son of Elizabeth Mashford Lewis Atkins, who died at Gladstone, South Australia and who is buried in Gladstone Cemetery.


In that hope turned to hiccup way of research, my  re-awakened Mashford contact had no information which was of use because the branch of the family is in Lincolnshire and details relate only to Mashford family members in the 20th century.

I suspect there is a good chance that the Devon Mashfords originated in Lincolnshire given the supposed connections with the French, but we have traced a John Mashford back to the early 18th century in Devon and so any useful information out of Lincolnshire would have to be earlier than this.

And so the steady plodding which is the nature of ancestry research goes on. I still have not managed to get to Gladstone to look through old copies of The Areas Express where I hope there might be an article on Charlie Ross, the local fishmonger, but it will be done eventually.

The fact that his obituary was copied over to the Port Pirie Recorder because he lived there for 'some years' - one presumes three or four at least - before moving to Gladstone sometime before 1888 when he married Mary Atkins, indicates that he was a likeable and well-known character.

The Areas Express apparently began writing about local personalities from 1900 and so I am hopeful that in the eight years before Charlie Ross died, that he had his 'moment of fame' in the local newspaper.

I say this also because unexplained references were made in his obituary suggesting that people would know more of his history, which, after many decades as a journalist, I know is an indication that the newspaper had carried a previous story. It is of course sloppy journalism because one should never assume and facts should always be repeated and not hinted at on the basis of presumed prior knowledge.

But, getting to Gladstone which is a couple of hours north of Adelaide when I am in town, which often I am not as we are based in Africa, is a little more problematic than it might be for the moment. But it will happen.

If I have learned anything about ancestry research it is that all happens in its own good time and there is and never can be any desperate urgency. I would however appreciate a bit of help from Charlie Ross if he can make a connection from the next world to this one and tweak the cosmos to cough up some more useful information.

Until then, and to all those following this 'search for Charlie Ross,' we have come a long way and we will get there but it takes time. The work goes on!