On the Left: Gertrude Coore - 1900's Center: Joseph Knox - Father of Sir Errol Knox and grandfather to Peter Knox, Pamela (Knox) O'Connor and Patricia Steele On the Right in order from left to right: Ivy Jasmine Gwendoline Knox, Errol Aubrey Galbraith Knox and Joseph Milton Hosking Knox

So what, you may say! Everyone has web sites these days and this is just one more - even if it is a Knox one and our particular Knox one - but come and have a look. Jane and Ed have done a great job setting it up and it is a way for all of us to come to know each other better wherever we are in the world. It is also a marvelous opportunity to find out more about where we come from and those who went before. So welcome and to use a bad pun Well Come!

My excuse for writing this introduction is that I am now one of the “elders” of the clan and my roots are firmly Australian as are the roots of our branch. (Can roots have a branch?) . The name however is not an uncommon one and there are many families of this name in Australia as, indeed, there are throughout the world. Ours, however, is a comparatively small group and we are not, as far as I know directly related to the others though undoubtedly if one went back far enough connections could be made.

To find out more about the origins of the name, I consulted the Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. It says that Knox is the family name of the Earls of Ranfurley but offers no other explanation of its derivation. . It was certainly made famous by the religious reformer John Knox and that has particular relevance for us as one of my father’s brothers was named John Calvin Knox in his honor, for my grandparents came from strong committed Presbyterian stock.

I have always understood that the family came from Scotland and, like so many Scots migrated to Northern Ireland, where they lived for 2-300 years. Certainly my grandfather gave County Tyrone as his place of birth but all this is very vague. Forced as I am now to commit my knowledge to print, I have to confess that I have not followed the family trail back further than my immediate grandparents and even that is hazy as both my grandparents were dead long before I was born and my contact with the uncles and aunts ceased except for a few letters when we moved to Melbourne when I was 10. Therefore I can only share with you my limited memories and hope someone else will take up the genealogical challenge. It would certainly be great if anyone has done any real research into this area and could share it with us. Isn’t that what web sites of this nature are supposed to be about? However they are also about the present for as T.S. Eliot said so well Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. I’m certainly looking forward to the future of getting to know and meet you all Pam (Knox) O‘Connor Mount Gambier, South Australia.

Errol Knox

As an Australian Knox, my interest is in the first of the family to come to this country and in their experiences here. Unfortunately (this is becoming repetitious) we have little concrete information to go on besides names on official documents such as birth, marriage and death certificates. Therefore because, as far as I know no letters, diaries or any other written or even oral accounts exist, we have to go to historians and historical fiction to flesh out and lend color to these dry facts.

As I said earlier, both my Knox grandparents were dead long before I was born and my father talked little about them. This, in some ways, is not surprising for, during much of my life, my father was working on morning newspapers, which meant that I saw comparatively little of him. It is of course now a matter of great regret that we therefore have so few first hand stories and the ones that I do remember I cannot substantiate so whether they are legend or reality I do not know and I pass them on with this proviso. They will appear under a separate heading as Tales My Father Told Me!

Unfortunately my memories of my father’s brothers and sisters are also limited. The Knox family had been disappointed about my father’s marriage to an Englishwoman and one who was also a Catholic for religious divides were deep in the beginning of the 20th century.