I have been very fortunate with my research into the Davidson side of my family, Davidson being my mother's maiden name. My grandfather, Edward Davidson, left my grandmother in 1958 when I was only 3 years old and never had contact with his wife or daughter (my mother) again before he passed away in 1982. From my mother I learned I had a host of Davidson relations, but because of the family rift, she had lost contact with them after her father left, something I think she always regretted as she had been very close to her aunt and a lot of her cousins throughout her growing years.

 

Not long after I commenced my research in 1988, I visited the Latrobe Library in Melbourne and placed a number of enquiry cards into a card index they held there. One of the cards I placed was for the name Vanderbilt. There were only a few free cards available that day so I decided to enter the more unusual names I had and did not enter one for Davidson. Months later, I received a phone call from a stranger one night in relation to that card querying whether or not we may be connected. My caller introduced herself by saying, "You don't know me, but my name is Lydia Davidson". I replied, "No, I don't know you, but I'm certainly interested in your surname!"

 

A quick discussion revealed that we were indeed from the same branch of the Davidson family, although Lydia's connection was by marriage. My great grandfather, Joseph Henry Davidson had married a Catherine Isabella Henrietta Vanderbilt and they had 7 children, 2 of them being my grandfather, Edward, and Lydia's father-in-law, William. I realised very quickly that whilst I knew nothing whatsoever about any of them, Lydia knew of me when she asked "Are you Ned's grand-daughter?"
 

Very excited by the prospects, we arranged to meet at Lydia's home in Point Lonsdale. As I only had a couple of very early childhood memories of my grandfather, it was an eerie experience meeting kinsfolk who knew him in his later years as whilst he had no contact with us, he kept in touch with his brothers, sister and their families. Lydia's family were in possession of family photo albums that had been kept by an aunt and passed to them upon her death. It was wonderful looking through them and seeing photos of my mother and her cousins when they were young together. It was particularly strange when I came across a photo of a chubby little girl without a name and asked them who the child was. They didn't know and I was able to tell them it was me, I had exactly the same photo! We both realised that as time was passing, so were our relatives, and with them the precious recollections of our heritage.

 

A few months later, eager to begin collecting as much information as possible, we held a gathering of our direct line, the Joseph Henry Davidson branch of descendants, in Queenscliff. It was a very moving time for me, meeting these folk for the first time. I lost count of the amount of people who said to me "so you're Ned's grand-daughter!" Following this successful reunion of close family, we felt it was necessary to include all the branches and hopefully expand our knowledge of our other Davidsons. A big task this, given that Joseph was one of nine children! In 1990 and 1991, reunions of the descendants of Robert Telford Davidson, (Joseph's father), were held in Queenscliff, with the discovery of more relations each time.

 

As a result of a desire to return to our beginnings, as well as numerous requests, a bigger and better reunion was then held in Mt Egerton in January 1993. Mt Egerton, near Ballarat, is where the Davidson family settled a few years after their arrival in Australia. This was an extremely successful and fruitful event, with nearly all branches represented and well over one hundred in attendance. In October 1994, the fifth reunion was held, again at Mt Egerton and, despite fairly ordinary weather was just as successful.

 

Throughout these years Lydia and myself had visited numerous research facilities collecting information, and had also travelled around Victoria visiting relatives and collecting their stories, photos and memorabilia. As a result of the reunions and many hours of research and visits, the time was right to commence the publication of our family history. Our only regret at that stage was that a lack of contacts with several lines resulted in some lines being more extensively covered than others. Unfortunately this is one of the frustrations of this sort of research.

 

After months of typing, collating, designing, editing and re-editing, our "baby" finally was "put to bed". It was indeed a very exciting day when Lydia and I took delivery of the final product. Our sixth reunion held at Mt Egerton on October 7 and 8, 1995, heralded the launch of The Egertonian - Kith and Kin of Our Clan Davidson. A weekend event attended by relatives who came from across Australia, it included the official launch of the book, a dinner and bush dance on the Saturday night and the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on the main grave at Mt Egerton Cemetery on the Sunday morning in a moving ceremony, accompanied by a piper. This reunion was by far the most significant, timed not only with the book launch but also as a commemoration of the 140 years of the Davidson Australian heritage.