My family history quest began over 30 years ago when I realised just how little that I knew about the history of my surname BLOND. Discussions with my father ALFRED JAMES BLOND revealed small basic details but it became obvious that a serious effort was needed to unearth more than basics. I started to obtain birth and death certificates and these allowed me to expand some of the basic known information and, more importantly, travel backwards and add good detail.
Like a lot of family researchers, I was in possession of a number of family stories about my forebears. The first and most consistent was that the name BLOND was originally LEBLOND and the second was that the name was of French origin.
My father's father was EDWARD JOHN BLOND who was born in Brisbane, Australia on 1 NOVEMBER 1869. His Queensland birth certificate indicated that his father was GEORGE BLOND, aged 32 years of age, occupation was lighterman and that he was born in Jersey, England. Now that was getting close to France as Jersey is one of the Channel Islands close to the west coast of France! However, no closer to solving the BLOND/LEBLOND question! The same certificate also gave me my grandfather's mother's name of "JOHANNAH formerly MULCAHEY", aged 32 years of age and her birthplace was Co. Tipperary, Ireland. ( Please refer to separate blog for more detail regarding JOHANNAH MULCAHEY )
The other very important detail obtained from the Queensland birth certificate for EDWARD BLOND was that his parents GEORGE BLOND and JOHANNAH MULCAHEY were married on 20 SEPTEMBER 1862 in Sydney, NSW. and.......that EDWARD BLOND also had two brothers GEORGE BLOND aged 5 and JOSEPH BLOND aged 2.
Next step - obtaining a copy of the NSW marriage certificate of 20 SEPTEMBER 1862. A very informative document it was:-
GEORGE LOUIS BLOND aged 25 with a conjugal (!) status of bachelor and with a 'usual occupation' of Mariner, who was born in Jersey and whose 'usual place of residence' was Queensland married JOHANNAH BEAUMONT aged 26 with a conjugal status of widow and with a 'usual occupation' of servant and whose 'usual place of residence' was Forbes Street, Sydney. ( JOHANNAH was previously married to RICHARD BEAUMONT in Sydney, NSW, Australia on 31 March 1859 )
This certificate provided two surprises for my father ALFRED BLOND. The first that his grandmother was Irish and the second that his grandparents were married " according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church "!!
I also obtained from this certificate the parents for GEORGE and JOHANNAH these being GEORGE L. BOND (as shown) and JANE MONACK and JAMES MULCAHY and MARY DONOGHUE.
So, at this point I took stock of what I had unearthed about my family in a very short time! I now had a grandfather, great grandparents ( with Irish and Roman Catholic backgrounds ) and even great great grandparents and one of them with a surname ( Monack ) that sounded very French!
In possession of all of this new information, I decided now to find out more about my father ALFRED JAMES BLOND.
ALFRED JAMES BLOND
Date of birth: 28 June 1913
Place of birth: Stewart Street, Paddington, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Parents names: EDWARD JOHN BLOND and ELLENOR MARKS
Siblings names: LILIAN ELIZABETH BLOND, SYBIL NELLIE BLOND, EDWARD REX BLOND, PERCIVAL MARKS BLOND, VICTOR RUPERT BLOND, ROBERT GEORGE BLOND, WILLIAM BLOND, THELMA BESSIE DOROTHY BLOND, ESME EILEEN BLOND.
Wife: ENA ANNIE LAWRIE
Children: BEVERLEY AVIS BLOND, HEATHER ELLENOR BLOND, GARY JOHN BLOND.
