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In 1969 Victor Hallett gave me his Baulch family tree papers. Fifteen years earlier he had started gathering information needed to build the family tree for Francis and Enoch Baulch. Making sense of all the information he had gathered had become just too difficult for him. No wonder. Victor Hallett’s mother and my Grandpa Baulch were two of more than 180 of Francis Baulch’s grandchildren and while Enoch Baulch had several grandchildren their number was not nearly as many as Francis Baulch’s grandchildren.
Many of Francis and Enoch’s descendants lived, as I did, not far from Kirkstall where both

Francis and Enoch lived in later life. So it is any wonder that I was often asked “You’re a Baulch are you?” Then there generally there is a pause. “Related to the ones at Mount Koroite?” or “The school bus driver’s mother is a Baulch” or something similar.

Indeed, my very first family history visit was taken with my father to Norman Broadwood. Both men had farmed on blocks which were part of the Squattleseamere Closer Settlement Estate. Norman had his father William Broadwood’s block and when I was a small child my father had Jeremiah Gleeson’s block. Jeremiah had previously worked at Dunmore (but I think this refers to the Parish of Dunmore – not my father’s childhood home).

Norman’s grandmother was Mary Ann Baulch. What’s more she had been born at sea. Her parents, Norman said, had emigrated because Mary Ann’s father, Enoch, only received 2/6 a week wages when he could find work in Somerset.

Here were some clues about why and when Enoch decided to emigrate. These clues helped me research the story further.

Since that visit other information I have gathered has substantiated and enriched the stories Norman Broadwood told us at my very first family history visit to another family member.