Peter Frederick Thomas Giles was just nine years old when he emigrated to South

Australia from Cornwall with his parents and brothers aboard the Art Union in 1864 from Cornwall [1]. They settled with members of his father’s extended family in the Adelaide Hills after arrival.

Roseanna Glass by contrast was born in  South Australia. Her parents had emigrated from Gloucestershire in 1858 aboard the Bee [2]. She was the oldest surviving daughter of her parents. Her birth record tell us she was born in 1868 in Mount Arden, a remote town in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia.

Peter would eventually go north, presumably in search of work. He would take up employment with the South Australian Railways. At that time, the Railway lines were being laid to allow establishment of a Railway network within South Australia.
Peter and Roseanna married in Blinman on September 1st 1882. The marriage record gives Rosanna’s age as 16, but if we calculate her age, using the birth record, she was in fact 14 years old [3, 4].

Theirs was a marriage of mobility and frequent movement through remote areas of South Australia where Peter was employed as a ganger on the Railways. The back breaking work of laying railway tracks. Much of their journey around South Australia is documented in the birth locations of the 14 children born to this couple over 25 years [5]. Many of the birth locations were not towns, but railway sidings, temporary in their existence. Seven sons and four daughters survived.
A life lived in harsh remote locations is never easy, and to have raised a large tribe of children who thrived is evidence of a strong bond.

      Rosanna – Blinman April 29 1883. Blinman, SA.
Ellen Mary – Feb 8 1885. Norton’s Summit, SA
Mabel – October 6 1887. Camp Hergott and Peake Railway camp, SA
John Henry – April 18 1889. Blinman, SA.
Jane Mary – May 21 1891. Wangiana, SA
William George – April 25 1893. Tintinara, SA.
Fanny Elizabeth – June 28 1895. Gulnare, SA.
Thomas – June 6 1897, Gulnare, SA.
Philip – April 25 1899, Gulnare, SA.
George David – June 5 1901. Oodla Wirra, SA.
Ernest Charles – August 22 1903. Oulnina siding, SA.
Richard – August 1 1904. Oulnina siding, SA.
Peter Frederick Thomas – July 9 1906. Petersburg, SA.
Samuel Rye – December 5 1908. Rose Park, SA.

 

A Diamond Wedding Anniversary celebration took place in 1942, to mark 60 years of marriage [6]. At the time of this celebration, there were 55 grandchildren and 26 great – grandchildren. They are remembered by their grandchildren as being a ‘pair of old lovebirds’. The legacy they leave is large.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References –

[1] The Ships List – Art Union 1864. http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/artunion1864.shtml  Accessed Feb 16 2019.

[2] The Ships List – the Bee 1858. http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/bee1858.shtml Accessed Feb 16 2019.

[3] Birth Record of Roseanna Glass, born March 20 1868, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, South Australia, 61/298.  Accessed online at Genealogy SA online database – https://www.genealogysa.org.au/ Accessed Feb 17 2019.

[4] Marriage record of Roseanna Glass to Peter Frederick Thomas Giles, September 1 1882, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages , South Australia, 132/1011. Accessed online at Genealogy SA online database – https://www.genealogysa.org.au/ Accessed Feb 17 2019.

[5] Genealogy SA online database https://www.genealogysa.org.au/  Accessed Feb 17 2019.

[6]Anon.  ‘Diamond Wedding.’  The Times and Northern Advertiser, Peterborough South Australia, Fri 25th Sept 1942. Page 4