My Everard Blood

My Everard blood comes to me compliments of my paternal line, through my paternal grandmother Mafra Pearl Bruce (pictured above with her elder brother, William Robert 'Bill' Bruce). Mafra's mother was Sarahann Everard, who was born and raised in Warrnambool, Victoria, as was her father, John David Everard. It was John's father, mystery man John Everard, who came to Australia from Ireland, although whether he hailed from Sligo or Kildare has yet to be proven.

I had initially planned to simply include my Everard research within my Draper and Sanders Blog...in fact, a great deal of it already exists in that blog. The Everard line is proving a very difficult one to make headway with, however, so I have decided to give them a blog of their own. There are many Everard descendants scattered all over Australia, particularly still in the Warrnambool area, so hopefully those that are curious about their family's history will find this blog and perhaps be able to solve some of the many mysteries that surround our ancestor, John Everard.

I will be covering the story of John Everard (as little of it as we know) and his wife Jane Sanders, as well as their children Eliza/Elizabeth, John David,Mary Ann, Thomas and Annie Everard. Because John Everard Senior varied between recording his birthplace as Sligo or Leixlip, Kildare, I will include any research that I have done into the Everards at both places.

I have also not been able to find the means by which he arrived in Victoria, so I will add the records of the several John Everards that I chose to research in the "process of elimination" approach. While none of them were "my" John, I was at least able to eliminate them from the possibilities list, and in the process learn something of the origins of the other Everard lines in Australia.

I urge any other Everard researchers to please contact me with any information that they may have on this line, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. We really know so very little about John Everard, and even that is either contradictory or opens up more mysteries.

I usually start my blogs with the eldest known ancestor and work forwards, but because nothing is known beyond John Everard Senior, I will use a different approach with my Everard Blog, starting with his children and working backwards.