Foreword
My mother, Lilian Florence
Eleanor was born a "Punch". Her father was Frederick Laban Punch.
I barely knew this grandfather. My only memories are that I
saw him on the occasions that Mum went to Oakleigh to visit her
mother, Florence Ruby. We were living at Bungaree in country
Victoria and I was between 10 and 14 years old. In those
days, Fred spent his entire life in bed. I used to go into his
room and chat with him. He was friendly and I think glad to see
me but he only lived in that room.
Apparently
this had gone on
for many years and continued until he died. Because of this
negative early
impression of him, I had not spent much time on my Punch family.
It was not until a cousin of mine, Sue Punch, mentioned an
interest and I realised I had almost nothing. I have since
been working on this family and found many persons for the family
tree and
discovered that they originated in Dorset, England and much of the next
generation lived in the Docklands area of London. Some emigrated
to Australia to try their hand at gold mining in the Bendigo area.
Bendigo and surrounding districts and as far as Kerang and Swan
Hill had a substantial number of Punch residents. Fred's family
moved to Melbourne and so he met my grandmother.
The earliest Punch I have traced was Thomas Punch,
a Shipwright who was baptised in Dorset, England and married Ann Brown
in 1824. They moved to the London Docklands with their first
child (my great-great grandfather) and they had 11 more children.
Some of these children emigrated to Australia, some stayed in
England. My great-great grandfather was one of the emigrants.