Bulletin Board

We will post here items submitted to the Bennion Family Executive Committee which are in good taste and possibly of interest to some members of the Bennion Family. We expect to remove items periodically. E-mail your items to us!


Links with Distant Cousins


One of our cousins, David Jacobsen Bennion of Palo Alto, California, recently received some interesting correspondence from Bennions in Tasmania, Australia, who are undoubtedly related to us, although we haven't quite pinpointed it yet. They found David Jacobsen Bennion by typing "David Bennion" into the Google search engine. Below are excerpts from some of their recent e-mails:

From David & Eileen Bennion (davidbennion@ukonline.co.uk) 13 Dec. 2001

We have traced the Bennion family tree back to 1664 and my line started in Wem flintshire which is next to Hawarden. I have documents stating These and many more names, William, Mary, Israel, Mervyn Sharp are all mentioned in our history. I also have a will from Mary Bennion dated 23 January 1661in the area of Salop which is now Flint/Hawarden. Most of my family " Bennion" emigrated to Australia in 1950 and are still there. My Uncle Eddie Bennion in Tasmania has all the history and I have forwarded your email to him. Without doubt we are related and it is really good to hear from you. I am married to Eileen, have our own electronic companies in UK and Czech Republic, also have 2 sons David and Mark, Doctor and Teacher. My father is Victor and still alive, mother was Leah and sadly died 2 years ago; I'm 53.

Very best regards,
David & Eileen Bennion
From Eddie Bennion (eddieben@telstra.easymail.com.au) 14 Dec. 2001

My name is Eddie Bennion I was born in Manchester U.K. in 1916. My wife and I together with our first 4 children moved to Tasmania Australia in 1948 just after the Second World War in which I served in the Medical branch of the R.A.F. as a NCO. We had 3 more children in Australia. All our family are well as is my wife Elsie; we have been married for 64 years. am of course now retired and living by the sea in a pleasant little place called Wynyard. I hope you can find it on the map!!!

I had an interesting e-mail from my Nephew David Bennion in the U.K. (he is the son of my brother Victor) enclosing an e-mail from you in Palo Alto, California. I have done my own Family tree back to the 1500's in a place called Wem just over the border from Wales and Hawarden !! and I have made a study of one Captain Mervyn Sharp Bennion who died at Pearl Harbour in 1941 as Captain of The West Virginian a U.S. Battleship. I have always claimed him as my Uncle Merve to my kids since I spotted and bought and put together a plastic model of a U.S. destroyer named the U.S.S. Bennion launched in 1943 and named in honour of Capt. Bennion. I wrote to The U.S. Navy to find out where they got the name Bennion from and they were very helpful.

If you are interested I will send you what I have on Uncle Merve. I am sure you must be related; have you done your tree beyond your great grandfather? For now all the best for the Xmas season and hoping to hear from you soon.

Cheers, Eddie Bennion
From Jenny Richardson (richjen@telstra.easymail.com.au) 16 Dec. 2001

Hello and greetings to what we hope is yet another link in our family chain! My Name is Jennifer Carol Richardson (nee Bennion), the fourth child / first daughter of Edward (Eddie) & Elsie Bennion of Wynyard Tasmania. Dad forwarded your message on to us …. At 85 and 84 respectively, my Dad and Mum are remarkable people and held in great esteem, love and respect by their large and ever growing family which is now spreading across Australia with seven children, fifteen grand children, and at last count eighteen great grand children; you can imagine what family gatherings are like.

Dad (Eddie) was always a very active man and after a nasty accident with a band-saw when he was 79, he was told it was time to give wood working away - as this was his great love and hobby, he was quite devastated, but as he had a chronic heart condition, he gave in - then took to computing. He is now a bit of a whiz... total addict I think ... but loves it all - but recently, against all odds and advice, he bought another wood turning lathe and saws etc and is off woodworking in his shed again... having a lovely time.

As Dad mentioned, Mum (Elsie) has been very ill now for about 12 weeks with a ghastly attack of shingles and has been very lucky to survive - but she is also made of very strong stuff as they say, and happily is recovering at last.

The story of Eddie and Elsie's arrival in Australia is quite remarkable, and for many years, I have been busily documenting family stories. Dad and my older brother David are the family tree buffs, I am the creative writer determined to unravel the strange and complicated lives of old John Bennion from England - we were fortunate to obtain several old wills which I have spent many years deciphering - they are in a strange combination of Olde English and some form of Latin we think - but painstakingly I was able to help unravel the olde alphabet and away we went. The wills and lists of " goodes and chatteles" hide what appear to be a mixture of land holders, timber merchants, possibly tavern owners... it is truly remarkable and a fascinating hobby.

I work as a public servant for our Commonwealth Government in what I think is the equivalent of your Social Security department - and to counteract that often stressful job, I write fiction and poetry and am a part time tutor of Adults and run workshops on how to write the family story - factual / fancy / warts and all but in a way family can read and enjoy.

I don't know how much if anything you know of Tasmania - the island state of Australia and last land fall before Antarctica ! It's a small state with a total population of approx. 400,000; it is a very mountainous state with the best and possibly last original virgin rain forests in the world - most of the history of Tasmania was built on mineral exploration and mining and when Eddie and Elsie migrated from the UK in 1948, they went directly to the rugged West Coast which at that time had an annual rainfall of over 100 inches of rain per annum - very little in the way of civilised amenities and life was tough. However, they lived a full and happy life and gave us kids (total of seven eventually) a great zest for life.

My eldest brother Peter, his partner Mavis & I still go bushwalking every year - we do long treks into the most rugged areas and are gone for approx 10 days each time - battling the elements and thriving on it. Tasmania is a truly beautiful state - very slow pace of life but truly beautiful.

Eddie & Elsie's children are :
The grand children are scattered across most states of Australia and separated by vast distances - Australia is a vast land mass with extreme climates and conditions and extremes of living conditions.

That's us - thumbnail sketch - but overall a loving family and we look forward to adding your family names to ours.

Keep well, warmest regards to you and yours,

Jenny Richardson