#52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2021-Week 2

Week 2 - Family Legend

When trying to think of something to write for this prompt, I kept on coming back to one Ancestor. I have written creative non-fiction stories about her before but thought I would share a few incidents that wave the flag of “legend” in front of me whenever I go back to researching her.

I would like to introduce my paternal Great Grandmother Louisa Barker (circa 1849 - 4 December 1915.[1] 

Louisa was married to Alfred Brandt and had seven children with him, the first in 1870 and her seventh in 1882.⁠[2] It was after the birth of their seventh that she and her husband were married in 1883.⁠[3]  That in itself is not legendary but when you also add the fact that they travelled from Gunnedah NSW to Launceston, Tasmania a distance of approximately 1600 kilometres including a dangerous body of water the Bass Straight (500 ks) you could be forgiven in thinking this lady was slightly legendary!

After this marriage this couple are found back in Gunnedah with their children. You would expect that things would now be fairly ordinary for Louisa. But no. Within six months Louisa’s husband fell down a well to his death in July 1883.⁠[4] 

Louisa takes over the licensee of the Sugarloaf Inn which up to this time, she had been running with her husband. Now she was on her own with seven children.⁠[5] 

Things looked up for Louisa a couple of years later when she married August Engstrom in 1886 and they had one child a girl in 1887, before her second husband died in 1888.⁠[6]  

This is a snippet of Louisa’s life. A Family Legend? I am not sure but she certainly is worthy of a story!
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1 NSW Family History Transcription Pty Ltd, NSW Death Registration Transcription Certificate Ref No 1915/152391, for Louisa Engstrom, printed 27 September 2016

2 Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922 Index Reg #44 Alfred L BRANDT [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, http://www.ancestry.com.au

Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922 Index Index Reg #17610 Ethel BRANDT; [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010 accessed 12 August 2015 http://www.ancestry.com.au

3 Australia, Marriage Index, 1788-1950 Index Reg 685 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Accessed 12 August 2015, http://www.ancestry.com.au

4 Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985, Index Reg#8157 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, accessed 18 August 2015 , http://www.ancestry.com.au

5 Government Gazette Notices (1884, August 29). New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), p. 5884. Retrieved May 26, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225588522

6 NSW Marriage Registration Transcription, Ref No 1886/7445 Louisa Engstrom, Ref No 8938233 Printed 30 January 2017, http://nswtranscriptions.com.au

Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922, Frances Engstrom (Provo, UT, USA,,Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), http://www.ancestry.com.au

Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985, August Engstrom, (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), http://www.ancestry.com.au