My grandfather, Waters Eveleigh ("Leigh") Rankin was born in Australia in 1908, and had an eventful and very interesting life. With the encouragement of his children, he bought a computer in 1987 and wrote his autobiography. He completed it before his death in 1989, and his son, Mike Rankin, had it printed as a book in a limited production run. Mike was kind enough to pass copies of the files on to me, and for the benefit of family, friends and any others who may be interested, I have published his story here.

In the course of his research into his family and ancestors, Leigh found an account of his father's childhood, a fascinating story of growing up in "pioneer" Australia. William Edmund Rankin's story is also reproduced here - the original is with the Clarence River Historical Society.

He also did a good deal of family history research, and in 1987 wrote a paper on this entitled "The Rankin Story so Far." Much of the Rankin detail in my family genealogy comes from this source - unfortunately I do not have the original documents on which he based this research, but hope to obtain copies of it one day. I have published a verion of this history here, omitting the lists of children and family trees, as these are incorporated in the genealogy.

I am also putting together brief bios of the more interesting members of this side of the family, and will include them here, together with links to interesting documents, pictures and any other materials I feel are relevant or interesting.

Should anyone be interested in copies of these documents or extracts from the family tree (print or GEDCOM) please email me at alex.rogers@geseaco.com. To see the formal genealogy site, click the Genealogy icon at the bottom of the page.

Click on the links below to read the papers or return to the Home or Family Tree pages.

• "The Rankin Story so Far" A Brief History of the Rankin family from emigration from Ireland to Australia, to W.E. Rankin
• "Surgeon's report - Parland 1838" The official surgeon's report to the voyage of the "Parland" from Ireland to Sydney, with George Rankin and Mary Anne Graham on board
• Partial passenger list - "Parland" Extract from the disposition of passengers off the Parland, showing George Rankin
• Letter from James Dempsey 1838 describing his experiences on another ship leaving Derry that year for Australia - gives some of the flavour of the voyage
• The "Java" description, notes and partial passenger list, including the Whitehead family from Kent in 1853
• "The Boyhood & Youth of William Edmund Rankin" The partial autobiography of William Edmund Rankin
• "Its Been A Great Life" The autobiography of Waters Eveleigh Rankin
• "The Story of Abraham James Carr and Maria Burdett in Australia" Their story as told by Yvonne Johnson.
• "The Story of Domingo Gressier" A brief history of one of our more interesting ancestors.
• "The Story of John Baker" A brief introduction to John and Diana Baker. John was a pioneer gardener and between them they founded a large family in NSW from 1828.

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