Margaret Jane Hume was born on June 21, 1876, at Narrabri (NSW), the second in a family of ten children of Charles Hume and Catherine Gegan.

By 1878 the family had moved to Nerrigundah (on the far south coast of NSW) in search of gold. Maggie left school in Nerrigundah at the age of 11 and went to work. She was working as a domestic for Elijah and Catherine Bown (Henrys parents) at Turlinjah when she met and married Henry at the age of 17.

Henry Bown was born on July 16. 1872 at Cobargo, NSW, the third son of Elijah and Catherine Bown (Elijahs second of three wives).

Henry and Margaret married at Cobargo on October 31 1893. By 1900 Margaret had born four children on the selection at Dry River, Quaama. Dry River was true to its name and Margaret and Henry had to move back to Turlinjah, to Henry's fathers farm. Four more children were born here, and all the family, Margaret and Henry and 8 children as well as Margaret's father, Charles Hume, lived in a slab walled hut with some timber floors and the rest of crushed ant-bed. In 1907 the whole family moved to Bergalia where four more children (including twins Joyce and Eunice) were born.

Maggie was a great worker, who milked cows, raised 12 children, made cakes for fetes and entertained friends with her piano playing. She with numerous traumas including the untimely death of sons, David (6 months), Charles (at 15) and Stanley (at 21) and a daughter Gladys (at 27) whose disabled son, Jack Payne, she then cared for. He did not walk until he was 5 years old.

Stories about Henry are numerous. Alan Greig, a family friend, related the following stories in the early eighties. One day Henrys son Elijah (known as Jim) and Alan Greig were stripping wattle bark for a contract price on the farm at Bergalia. Henry had taken the milk down to the cheese factory and came back to the barn. His task for the morning was to scuffle potatoes (that is drag a tool behind the draught horse to clear the weeds and loosen the ground between the potatoes). First he called the mare up and fed her some hay while putting her in harness. Before he actually got her harnessed he sat down until it was lunchtime. After lunch he set off again to scuffle the spuds in the paddock. On the way home that afternoon Alan saw Henry lying down under a tree beside the road talking to a passerby, with only one row of spuds scuffled. The theme of this story is that Henry may have been slow to act but he was a great talker!

Stories of his absent-mindedness are also common. Eric told the story of when he left home in 1923 Henry gave a cheque of ten pound to help him on his way. Henry however forgot to sign it, but the local storekeeper who knew Henry well cashed it for Eric and then sent it out for Henry to sign afterwards.

In 1937 when all the family had left home, the Bergalia farm was sold and Henry and Margaret moved to a poultry farm at Prospect (near Blacktown). The Bergalia farm was now infested with rabbits which was common in those days and could only manage to carry 30 milking cows. The poultry farm was not much better and although Henry was old enough for the pension he was too proud to accept it. Maggie became ill so they sold this farm and moved to Merrylands in Sydney in 1942 where Maggie died in September that year aged 66 years. Henry spent his last years living with his eldest daughter Ethel at Moruya, and visiting his family, including the long trip to Lismore where Eric lived. He died in 1950 aged 78 and is buried in Moruya.