Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Lighthouse Keeper...


OK people, this is how the story goes.... pictured above is John Eastman. Not only was he the Lighthouse Keeper that I have spoken about in a post prior..he is my Great Great Great Grandfather on my Grandpa's Mum's side. (Phew)

The story goes like this. John Eastman's father was an Innkeeper in Bremen, Germany. His name was Herman Ostman, which had been changed to "Eastman" on his arrival to Australia.

John Eastman obtained work as a boatman on Port Phillip Bay, rowing out to ships and taking the new settlers and their possessions ashore. In 1848 he ferried a woman to the shore of Williamston. Her name was Elizabeth Rich (born in Rio Dejanero 1930). It was love at first sight and so they got married.

They made the long journey to Portland by bullock wagon when Eastman was appointed light-house keeper in 1859. Together they raised a large family, including two sets of twins (and I thought I had my work cut out for me here with four kids..yeah). One of their children was named Adeline, she was born in 1876.
Adeline, John Eastman's daughter, met a young man named Peter Dusting. Peter and Adeline married and had a daughter named Loreen, who is my Pop's Nanna. Loreen married a Hartmann and so became my Grandad's family name of Hartmann. They had Arthur, Graham and my Poppy Max.
There are many more stories I have to tell.. and well, there is so much information it will take me days to go through. Plenty of images too.


14 comments:

Anonymous said...

No relation to Kodak Eastman of the camera fame?

Cazzie!!! said...

Andrew..now THAT would be awesome. Alas, I think not. I just found a link on him..which I cannot remember how to hyperlink in comments..so forgive me, here is that link :)

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/kodakHistory/eastmanTheMan.shtml

A very interesting life he led.

Jayne said...

How very cool, Cazzie :)

To link it's the following but without the gaps...

< a href = " put webpage url in here " > put your choice of name for the link in here < / a >

FoxyMoron said...

I love this stuff. Wonder why they had to "Anglicise" their names though?

karisma said...

boom, boom, boom, boom ratta tat tat

Anonymous said...

He was interesting Cazzie. Why did I think he was German and Kodak was a German company.

Ginnie said...

It's always interesting to search back in to our past. Yours is a bit more colorful than many. What fun!

AspergantuS said...

I have German roots as well Cazzie. I like light houses...

Pretty cool stuff Cazzie... good stuff indeed!

Middle Child said...

Thats so interesting... I love delving into family history...and I like the new photo on your profile page...lovely hair and big smile

iODyne said...

Just this second came from a Portland history site - my George Sedgwick was a big deal in Portland and his house is still at 137 Percy St.
I love the story of love-at-firs-sight in a rowboat.

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Unknown said...

Hi, My husband and son are related to John Eastman and Elizabeth Rich. Wow Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. How did you come across this information.

Sandy said...

John Eastman is also my great great grandfather Searching for more information or contact on person who created this blog or who may have any more details

Amy said...

Hi! John Eastman is also my Great Great Great Grandfather. Adelaide Dusting was my Great Gran's Mum (Melba Taylor nee: Dusting) Would love to chat further. Please contact me : amytaylor_2003@hotmail.com 🙂