In September 1905 my dear James suffered from influenza. August and September is a time of the year when people often get the dreaded flu, even though here in Australia we are in the first month of Spring. No Influenza vaccinations back in 1905! The small article published in the Chronicle (Adelaide) state that “Influenza is the popular complaint. Mr Heneker, the oldest resident who came out to this State in 1839 is just recovering from a severe attack. The old gentleman remembers Adelaide as a little village, and the surrounding country a scrub land. He has not seen Glenelg since he landed. He is hale and hearty, though 80 years of age, and not long ago completed the contract for a school fence.”
“Chronicle (Adelaide SA: 1895-1954) Saturday 9th September, 1905 page 13.”
Being considered the “oldest resident”, [presumably of Beltana] often seems to get a mention in the newspapers of the day, whether he is appearing in court [see my previous post], or suffering from Influenza. It seems that James was healthy enough to recover, as he did not pass away until 1916. The long, busy, industrious life that James had, appears to have enabled him to live a healthy life for an 80 year old man. Good on you James. You truly were a pioneer and a man to be admired.
I previously worked as a Library Technician at the State Library of South Australia and then Noarlunga Library Services. I was lucky enough to work at the State Library in the Archives department, which is now a separate entity and housed at a suburban site. I've always loved English and Australian history, and began my Heneker family history in about 1980, before the advent of the internet, and now o with so many digitised records online there is a treasure chest of information out there, and it just keeps growing. One of the most wonderful treasures we have here in Australia is the Trove website, the free digitised newspapers of nearly every place in Australia, provided for free by the National Library of Australia. This has opened up so much day to day information for people searching for further information about their ancestors. I chose to write a blog as a way for me to put down a lot of information I had that wasn't necessarily easy to slot into a "family tree" as such. And I wanted to record some of the stories of the Heneker clan, and especially James Heneker (1826-1917) who arrived in South Australia as a 12 year old boy with his family. Like most of us in the genealogy community I have become obsessed and this is a never ending story. The community of bloggers, and also Facebook specialist pages has allowed me and many of us to learn from each other, and to use some of the many amazing tools that are out there now for us to use and enhance our research. My one wish?? dad Neville Laurence Heneker 1929 - 1987, this is for you, for all the things you told me, and the stories you related, often when we were up north in the Flinders Ranges, at Beltana, Hawker, Blinman and many other amazing places. I wish you were here, so I could share all this new information that has come to light. And of course for you Pa (Laurence Douglas Heneker), your stories were incredible and watching you sleep out under the stars at Arkaroola with a rock for your pillow is an image I will never forget. Oh if only we had digital cameras back then...I think of you both every time I write my words and read my books. I love you both.
