Judy’s father, Vince and his siblings, five brothers and two sisters grew up at Bellbird outside of Cessnock in the Hunter Valley, and during the gloomy 1930s, an uncle John Francis Farnham went to California seeking his fortune.

Various family members maintained sparse contact with each other by mail over the years, and it was not until 1965 that Brian and Judy knocked on Judy’s uncle John’s door in San Francisco, that face to face contact was established.

At the time, Brian and Judy were on the final leg of their 12 month global honeymoon trek and close contact with whole new generations of cousins etc. became a reality.

As families on both sides of the Pacific continued to expand, it was decided a reunion might be a good idea, as by this time many had never actually met their kin.

With a close cousin living in Hawaii, it was agreed that Kona would be ideal, and so it was that some 20 Aussies and some 30 Americans got to whoop it up for a week together on the Big Island.

To celebrate and commemorate the unique occasion, the American side of the family had compiled a 40 page bound family tree, with extensive genealogical references and archival photographs.

Hard to believe that had not Thomas Farnham been born 1736, in Clavering, Essex, England, with the family history dating back to one Richard de Farnham who had received land in the area in the 13th century, none of us would be here today.

So thanks to a little help from a family member who was ‘transported’ to NSW in 1836 on a bum rap (weren’t they all?), the Farnhams are now planning to get together again in Bellbird where it all really started for ‘us’ all those years ago!