Frederick Truscott (Hugh's father)

Frederick Truscott was born in Cornwall England on 18 Oct 1856. He was the first child for James and Mary Ann Truscott.

He came to Australia at the age of 17 with his parents and his brother David and sisters Elizabeth & Ellen Jane.

Frederick was a miner in Charters Towers and there are no records to show anything about his father James Crowle's activies in Queensland. But we do know that his name was on the passenger list for the Alexandrina.

David Truscott married a lady named Ann Evans and they had many children: John, David Jr, Isabel, Maud, Alfred, Beatrice and Ivy. All of their children were born in Australia except for Beatrice, she was born in Bisbee Arizona. They actually travelled back to Australia in about 1908 and this was when Ivy was born but the little girl unfortunately passed away three days later.

David and Ann made their first journey to Arizona in 1905. David's brother, Frederick travelled with them this time, perhaps it was that their own father James for some reason could not go and therefore Frederick, being the eldest had taken on the responsibilty of looking out for his brother and went along to see if he thought David and his family would be ok. Or perhaps he just went along to see if he thought it was worthwhile to move his own family to America. He did have 10 children and his mother to care for so it would have been an enormous move.

Needless to say he returned to Australia and continued with his mining in Charters Towers.

However when David and Ann went back to Bisbee in 1909 they took along Frederick's two eldest children, James Crowl and Robert Frederick Truscott.

I guess Frederick was never to see these boys again as I cannot find any records to show that they came back home to Australia. They both married and raised their families in California, USA.

Elizabeth Truscott never married and she lived with her mother Mary Ann, brother Frederick and his wife Margaret and all of their children in what seems to be a tiny little house in Aland St Charters Towers Queensland. On 27th Oct 1914, Elizabeth was accidently hit by a train as she was on her way into town to sell Warcrys for the Salvation Army. She was profoundly deaf and even though the driver has whistled as he approached the crossing, she unfortunately did not hear it. The driver was sitting on the opposite side of the tender and did not see Elizabeth. It was a terrible accident and Elizabeth died that day from her injuries. She was barely recognizable.

Ellen Jane Truscott married Herbert Leonard and they had three children: James, Edith May and Ethel Pearl. Herbert was a baker who then became involved in newspapers. The family travelled around Queensland a fair bit and even to South Africa were James and his wife Grace began their family and I believe Edith eventually settled there.