collecting history

OK, this is a little long winded….bare with me…

Pierre LE POIDEVIN was born in 1801 (approx.) in France.
He was transported to Sydney on 28 September 1835 from England.  (he dropped the ‘Le’ and just went by Pierre Poidevin)
He was convicted at the Royal Court in Guernsey on the 13th December, 1834 for base coin forgery and sentenced for seven years transportation to the colony of NSW. (for those that don’t know, Australia started out as a penal colony and all the riff-raff started out here) Pierre was a single man, a cabinet maker and he could read and write. He was also a Roman Catholic. His physical description was described as – 5 foot 4 inches tall, very dark complexion, dark brown hair, greenish eyes. Once he had served his time, he became licensee of the Old Collector Inn, in Collector NSW, until he died in his sixties

He was married to a lady named Rebecca, and they had 7 children, 5 sons and 2 daughters

One of their sons was Francis Poidevin
He married Catherine Turner and they went on to have 12 children, 7 girls and 5 boys

One of their daughters’ name was Beatrice May Poidevin
Beatrice married Henry Bryant, and they produced 4 children, 3 daughters and 1 son

Their only son, Cecil Bryant, married a lady named Hazel
They went on to have 7 children – 5 boys, 2 girls

One of THEIR sons went to the town of Collector today
(You might recognise him)

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And visited this quaint place, full of landmarks named for the Poidevin family

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The pub’s still there

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The general store’s still there

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Today, we got to visit a place where part of our family started
Dad’s Great-great Grandfather, Pierre Le Poidevin, started out as a criminal
And seems like he turned out just fine
I’m grateful for that!

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There’s SO much more to the story, with new stuff we’re learning all the time
We always wondered just where us ‘Bloody Wilsons’ came from
Now we know
We’re from FRENCH ancestry, ooh la fucking la!

For today, it was pretty incredible to stand in that town, visit our ancestors graves

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And be proud of where we came from

Wonder if they’d be proud of us?
Don’t answer that.

I’m in love

I just got to meet my newest best friend for the very first time today
She doesn’t have a name yet, and any suggestions better be clean are welcome
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She’s a beautiful, custom MATON guitar, created by the amazing Andy Allen
I am lucky enough to have several custom Matons, all Australian made, by Andy
Red, purple, sparkly….
So far, every guitar has sounded better than the last
And I can’t wait to pop this one’s cherry at tonight’s sold out Hexham show
‘Cause you know what they say,
“Once you’ve had black
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you never go back you’ll be smiling a lot.”

signed, sealed, delivered

I know, there’s a lot of you our there that are not ready to think about Christmas
Like really, REALLY not
You may want to wander off and make a cuppa or something right now

For everyone else, especially those that have been emailing and asking
This is a reminder that you can get all your F.O.C.U.S. SWAG through the website
(or just click here)

That’s also where you can buy my DVD,  WHO DARES GRINS (filmed live in South Africa)

The main reason I’m posting this info again, is I know a lot of you would like your CDs etc signed.
And if you order within the next week (while I’m still here in the UK) I can make sure all your swag gets autographed.
After that, I’ll be filming the Ireland episode for RHYTHMS & ROOTS and then home, and quite possibly drunk off my arse for the entire month of December
What I’m basically saying, is if you want any CDs, tshirts or DVDs as Chrissy presents or whatever, best to order them now while I’m still upright and I can sign it all

Cool?

Cool.

Also, thanks for making the new album F.O.C.U.S. number one on the CDBABY comedy charts. You guys rock!

AND…the film clip for 50 SHADES has almost hit 20,000 views on youtube. The fuck? And wow!
Christmas has certainly started early for this chick singer
Thanks to you guys.

You sure do know how to add the extra awesome to my world
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