From whence they came

John Atherton, son of Edmund and Esther Ainscough

Athomen Paternal Side

Stephen's paternal grandmother was Christina Honoria, O.B.E.(Chrissie) (nee Svendson) who was the daughter of a Danish emmigrant Henry Marinus Svendsen who settled in Cairns, North Queensland (to cope with T.B.). Marinus was married to a Scot, Maria Canning who came to Australia via the U.S. where she had been married to an engineer who was killed in an accident.

Chrissie married Ernest Atherton who was the son of John Atherton, pioneer of the Atherton Tablelands fame (John was from Lancashire- more info via above link and links to the left). John, pictured above seated with the clan, married a tough woman Kate- reputedly a great shot. Kate was from Belfast. As you'll read in the previous link, John came out with his father, Edmund who left with his wife Esther Ainscough, in 1844. Edmund initially settled in Arminale, NSW, but moved to Rockhampton (Headlow) where some of his sons stayed. One son , Richard (1847 -1927), wrote brief memoirs which are historically interesting. Some also settled in the Mackay region (Stephen jokingly refers to these branches of the family as "pretenders to the throne"). Linked are 3 interesting documents regarding John's brothers and family who stayed in Cenral Queensland - extracts form a book of original letters, links to burial plots near Rockhampton and the story of the settlement near Rockhampton and notes on the opening of a memorial in Mareeba (Atherton Tablelands) for John Atherton.

Stephen's Great Grandfather John moved further north to Cairns. Chrissie's family bible has a rough family tree which is interesting.

John's son Ernest was Minister for Mines in the Queensland Government for a short stint in the 30s'. Chrissie latter gained an O.B.E. for work with country women (she was president of the CWA for some time) and "bush children". They had four children - John Richard was Stephens' father. Henry Marinus died in WWII in England - he flew his aircraft into a mountain. He is burried 95 miles north of Wigan (from whence his grandfather came) in Cumbria. Ernest Canning (Chappie) died in 1994 in Cairns and John's sister Lucy Honoria died in the 1980's in Sydney where she lived.

In Jan 2009 Stephen heard that a story had been published in the Sydney telegraph about the woman who cares for Henry's grave. Stephen suspects the photo in the attached story (can't find the Telegraph story) was sent by his cousin Tina (Lucy's daughter). The story has lead to other coverage including back in local UK press. Stephen and his brothers have lost track of Tina and haven't seen her since Chappie's funeral.

Stephen's father John Richard was educated by the Jesuits at Riverview in Sydney. Here is a selection of photos of his early days. His early career was as cadet reporter on the Cairns Post (he ended his career as editor-in-chief of the "Courier Mail", Queenslands' largest rag). He moved to Brisbane where he met Vilma Remington (Terry), whom he married in1952. John died very young at 52 in 1979 about a week after Stephen's 20th birthday. Stephen had a box of his stories, and gave it to his Alma Mater, the University of Queensland in 2009.

Athomen Maternal Side

Stephen's Maternal side has the not unusual Aussie convict leanings. Thomas William Remington married Anne Davenport of Wigan, Lancashire and had numerous children one of whom was Sydney Remington who migrated to Australia and married Ellenor Joyce Donavan in Brisbane. They had two daughters - Stephen's Mother Vilma Joyce (aka Terry, Born 1928) and Desley Carol.

Michael Prior from Waterford, Ireland came to Australia early in the 19th Century (he was "assisted"). He had numerous children but one son was Hugh and one of his daughters Ellen Mary Prior married William Patrick Donovan. Their daughter Ellenor Joyce married Sydney Remington.

Terry was educated by a bunch of wonderfully sadistic nuns. Her father had died when she was young- an artist from (yes! They all seem to originate there) wonderful Wigan in Lancashire. Terry died on Feb 19th, 2011. Despite some pages from 2011 being dedicated to her, here is a montage of photos (seen as a movie here made for her wake).

Four years after Johns death Terry married Semi Lewanirabe in Suva. That lasted from May 1983 until May 1987. She later married Lamine Djanko (b 1961) in Bamako, Mali on 2nd March 1988 and divorced 14th Nov 1990.

To this lovely couple were born three sons. Christopher Ernest was born in 1952, Stephen - head of "AthoMan.Com" - was born October 31st 1959 and Jonathan Francis was born May 25th 1961.

As at Jan 2011 (only the first update of this page since 2002! ) Chris is a solicitor in Brisbane, Jon a stand-up comic and actor in Singapore and Stephen an employee for Apple Australia

From Stephen's 13 year marriage(ending in 1994) to Elizabeth Ellen Powell were born Nicholas Saul (March 1st 1985) and James Henry Atherton (August 25th 1989).

Stephen married the lovely Pauline Joy Turnbull in Scotland in 2009 and she and daughter Olivia gave us the "AthoTurnbulls".