By LOIS ORR

A FAMILY reunion to celebrate 170 years since Robert and Catherine Threlfall, together with Robert’s daughter Margaret, arrived in Australia is planned for Sunday, November 17.

The gathering will be held at the Longwood Community Centre commencing at 10am.

Related surnames include Earl, Tyrrell and Bell, many of whom are buried in the Longwood cemetery.

Robert and Catherine Threlfall arrived in Victoria in 1854 and, after spending a considerable number of years in the Inglewood and Bridgewater area, moved to Longwood in 1882 together with eight of their nine living children.

Catherine’s sister, Charlotte, was already in Creighton together with her husband Gilbert Halsall and their large family.

Much of the land selected in 1882 by the family remains in the hand of descendants.

Six generations of Threlfall’s are buried at Longwood with the earliest family grave being that of Robert who was born in Lancashire in 1821 and died in Longwood in 1890.

A recent working bee was held at the cemetery to carry out maintenance and clean up family graves in readiness for the gathering.

Considerable research has been undertaken with the assistance of the Longwood Cemetery Trust to identify the location of the graves, and as part of this research many other unmarked graves in the Longwood cemetery were identified.

A reunion held in 2014 for the 160 year anniversary of Robert and Catherine’s arrival saw over 90 descendants get together.

Funds were raised to place memorial plaques on three unmarked graves at the Longwood cemetery.

Another reunion in 2015 saw the official unveiling of the plaques on these previously unmarked graves.

Lois and Marilyn, organisers of the reunion, are keen to hear from any Threlfall descendants and have all nine lines of the family well represented at the gathering.

More details can be found at the Threlfall reunion website: https://threlfallreunion.wixsite.com/threlfall.

There is also a Threlfall Family History Facebook group or you can contact Lois Orr at lois.orr@bigpond.com or 0458 084 170, or Marilyn Threlfall at threlfallreunion@gmail.com or 0429 300 783.