At the Furneaux Museum (Emita) last week, discovered on reading the Collis/Willett history recently donated to the Museum by Faye Lowe, descendant of Henry and Hannah Collis, more information.

Faye’s information filled in a few gaps about Henry and Hannah’s migration to Canterbury NZ,  telling us the times were unsettled and being peace loving people they chose to relocate to the Colony of VDL.

After some time in VDL – they returned home to the UK, you can follow these course of events on Henry and Hannah’s page.

Faye explains why they then returned to live in the Colony of NSW from the UK…….. Henry had 2 brothers and 2 sisters living in the colony of NSW and explains the reason they ended up back in Tasmania via NSW, which always seem odd when first investigating. Apparently one brother was a butcher the other a saddler, his sisters started a school for young ladies. Maybe the Dean connection lies here!!

Apparently Henry was not able to tolerate the heat, hence the move back to Tasmania from NSW.

Hannah whilst in the UK undertook her teachers training thus explaining why she had written on her teachers application trained at Westminster…….funny how the pieces start to fall into place. I certainly understand the heat issue, I made the move back to Tassie after living in central Vic for 20 years, glad to see the back of those hot summers.