James harvey
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INTRODUCTION

I remember as a young boy my dearly loved grandmother (Lillie Isabel Harvey) telling me about how my grandfather (Percy Harvey) had gone off to fight in the first world war with his horse and how his Scottish grandfather’s first wife (Percy's grandmother) had died young and that he had remarried his housekeeper.  But she did not know who the second wife was or where James Harvey came from.  And twenty years later when the Walker family held a giant reunion in Westbury and published the book, A Goodly Heritage, she remained a secret.

So it was with real excitement that I recently came across the great work of some of my hitherto unknown Harvey cousins who had researched and documented the history and the Tasmanian families of James Harvey’s second wife.

I particularly want to acknowledge Ian Harvey who has so generously allowed me to reproduce his work in this web site. Sources he used in documenting our history are the memories and research of Phyllis Ingamells (nee Harvey) and Marjorie Harvey (nee Adams) and the substantial Purton family research by Barbara Bolt and Robert Cook.  Databases such as the Tasmanian Archives Colonial Tasmanian Family, scotlandspeople.com, Ancestry.com and findmypast.com all proved extremely useful. 

Robert Cook of Longford, Tasmania has created a full index of descendants of Shadrack Purton and Sarah Smith and it is available on CD.  He also provided some of the photos used in this web site.  Len Fisher of Devonport, Tasmania has also provided information in respect of the Harvey family.

In the family tree the UK and Scottish census information has been used extensively.  In some case the uniqueness of a name (e.g. Frend Adams) allows, with a lot of confidence, researchers to go back generations.  In other cases it is concluded, given common names or the same Christian name being used for generations, using age relativity to either marriage or children and locality to conclude one of those names is the ancestor. 

While this website captures one of so many great and proud history Tasmania family histories, it is nevertheless just a beginning.  It is inevitable that there are some mistakes and omissions within these pages; perhaps a living person exists on these pages and would prefer not to.  It is my fervent hope that people will contact me so that appropriate corrections can be made.  I would like this web site to be a starting point rather than a finished product. I have not attempted to reference every entry, that would be beyond my capacity, although I have checked all that I could and am happy to provide specific references on request.  If  readers have access to additional information or a photo of anyone from this site who is deceased I would love to be able to add that. Please contact me using the email link at the bottom of each page.

Andrew Cocker
Great great grandson of James Harvey and Jane Smellie
March 2010