My Name

My first name, Donna, came from a Spanish dictionary, meaning 'female'.

My surname, Williams, comes from a street sign in Horsham, Victoria, Australia.

Whilst I have a wonderful Welsh name (my grandfather clearly had good taste and I have married a Welshman) I have no ancestors by the name of Williams.

Born in the depression in 1936, my father was the youngest of seven children (all half brothers and half-sisters). His older brother, ten years his senior, recently told me that when my father was a toddler, there was only him and my father left and they lived, with my grandparents in the hollow of a tree in a forest where my grandfather sought to get work during the depression. At age 6 my father moved from the bush to the city where he didn't attend school beyond grade 2 primary education.

My father was born Ellis John Keene. As my father's parents were not married, he carried the name of his mother's ex-husband - a man unrelated to him and whom he'd never met. So my birth name was Keene. My father later changed his name by deed-poll to John Williams (called Jack or Jackie, though by late childhood - for up until then I generally didn't call my parents anything - I called him Jackie Paper, after the song which he used to sing). Now, with the name Williams, it matched that of his father (who had taken on the name Williams from the street sign in Horsham).

A few years after I was born, my parents later got married under the name Williams (I was the second child). I lived, however, as Donna Williams and my Second Schedule Birth Certificate is dated 1970 (I was born in 1963) which was the year by which both my paternal grandparents had now died. After a meltdown at the Department of Births Deaths and Marriages I was taken to a little office and it was explained that my certificate was that used when people were adopted. But instead of finding my parents weren't my birth parents, I found I'd been adopted by my own parents at the age of seven.

That may sound crazy, but it seemed I had acquired the name Williams after being in the custodianship of my paternal grandparents since infancy. As an adult, when I tried to ask about this I was told two stories. One told to me by my father, two aunts and an uncle was that I had needed new custodians and rather than me being put into a children's home I was adopted within the family - a common practice in some families. The other story I was told was that it was 'done for tax reasons', which of course never made sense. In any case, people are people, they make the decisions they do when they do, based on their lives at those times. When the last of my paternal grandparents had died by 1970 (when I was seven), I was effectively an orphan with living parents! Hence, instead of going up for adoption in the outside world, my custodianship now went to my own parents, for whom circumstances had changed enough for this to be a possibility. They were, by now, married under the name Williams. Hence, I became Williams.

My father, who was a strong supporter of my books and music, died from cancer in 1995, aged 59 when I was 32 years old. In the last two weeks he had to live, I called him Dad for the first time. He was a colorful, surreal and often manic autie-friendly character with limited reading and writing skills, who used characterization and gesture and spoke through story telling. Many of the techniques he used in interacting with me have informed what I call 'an indirectly confrontational approach' in my work with people with autism. Today's RDI (Relationship Development Intervention) approach used with people with autism has been informed by the indirectly confrontational approach my father used with me.

Bonnell

Generation 1 - Henry Roy Bonnell

My grandfather, 'Harry Williams' loaned the name and lived under it till his death in 1968.

My grandfather was a solitary and private man who returned from WW1 in 1920 where he'd been a driver and grave digger with the ANZACs in Villers Bretonneux. He then spent 14 years as a 'swaggie' (itinerant, moving to wherever he could find work) and then met my grandmother, Ruby Sherwell in the 1930's. His name was Henry Roy Bonnell.

The name Bonnell descends from the French name, Bonneau, from the area of Lorraine, France, meaning 'little one'.

The first Bonnell immigrants were refugees from religious persecution during the French 'war of religion' in the middle ages.

They later appeared in the US and Canada. There are only a few Bonnells in Australia.

Henry had only two surviving children;

  • a daughter named Williamina Bonnell (aka Williamina Mary Young, born 1916 in Malvern, Victoria and who married John William George Oxworth - aka Jackie Oxworth - in 1934) who Harry had to his ex wife Mary Douglas. Williamina had 6 children: Shirley Doyle, Alexander Young, Mavis Thornell, Joyce Warneckie, Alfred Muready, and (adopted) Sue Nott;
  • my father, known by me as 'Jackie Paper' (after the character in the song) who was born to Ruby Sherwell in 1936, the last of her 7 children she'd gathered in her travels.

Henry Roy Bonnell was born in Kew, Victoria, Australia in 1894 to James Henry Bonnell (born 1856 in Victoria) and Emily Richards (who he seems to have married in South Australia where they had some children before migrating to Victoria).

My grandfather, Henry, had at least six sisters, my aunts:

  • Eva Bonnell born 1889 in Victoria who married John Donaldson and had a son, Jack Bonnell Donaldson in 1917 and a daughter, Lorna Grace Donaldson in 1914 (who married Anthony Joseph Haddad in 1938).
  • Mabel Grace Bonnell born 1891 in Victoria who married Norman Leslie Taylor in 1926.
  • Annie Lillian Bonnell born in South Australia in 1886
  • Nellie Selina Elizabeth Bonnell born in South Australia in 1883
  • Elsie May Bonnell born in South Australia in 1881
  • Charlotte Elizabeth Bonnell born in South Australia in 1879,

Generation 2

The parents of James Henry Bonnell were James Bonnell and Charlotte Brown.

James Bonell

My great great grandfather, James Bonell was christened on the 26th of December, 1802 and had a brother, Charles Bonell born on the 7th of December, 1806, both christened in St Michael's Church, Lichfield.

James Bonell was convicted in Staffordshire on August 21st, 1819, for stealing a brown mare valued at twenty guineas at Morville, which is just over the Shropshire border, hence his being tried in Shrewsbury. He was sentenced to death, reduced to transportation for fourteen years, and arrived in Sydney on the convict ship Mangles 1 in 1820. He had spent a period on a convict hulk, an old Napoleonic Wars battleship called the "Retribution", where he was punished for being difficult or "of bad character".

In New South Wales, James Bonell was assigned to William Guise on the Murrumbidgee.

In the convict-indent, James is described as quite slight, with dark hair, dark eyes, and a dark complexion. He was a farm hand.

In 1835 he married my great great grandmother, Charlotte Brown (born 1817 in the UK).

Charlotte Brown

Charlotte Brown came to Australia as a Bonded Immigrant or Bounty Immigrant, one of the "free" women who were brought out to make up for the great shortage of females in the colony of NSW. She is listed as one of these women who was brought out on the ship, the DAVID SCOTT, which left Gravesend, UK on Thursday 10 July arriving in Sydney, Australia on 30th October, 1834.

The ship's arrival was advertised to such an extent that some of the women had offers of marriage before they actually stepped ashore. Convicts on Tickets-of Leave, such as James Bonell, as well as free settlers, had a chance to find a bride.

Charlotte was living in Menangle, NSW. She and James Bonell married on the 4th of July, 1835. in St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, Australia. The children of my great great grandparents, James Bonell and Charlotte Bonell (nee Brown, alias Mowbray) include:

  • John Francis Bonnell, born 29th April, 1836
  • Charles Bonell, born 4th July, 1838 in Collingwood, Victoria.
  • Charlotte Bonnell, born 16th April, 1840 in Collingwood
  • Mary Bonnell, born 5th August 1842, in Collingwood
  • Charlotte Elizabeth Bonnell, born 11th May, 1845, in Collingwood

Then James (now an ex-convict) and Charlotte returned to the UK for 1848-49 with four of their Australian born children. In the UK they had Joseph Bonnell in 1848 in Walsall.

They then returned with five children to Australia on the Childe Harold in 1849 to assume a 'respectable' life of 'free settlers'. They then appear in South Australia in 1850 where they have several more children.

  • William Bonnell 1850 born Brompton, South Australia
  • Anna Bonnell 1852 born South Australia
  • Martha Lucy Bonnell 1853 born Balhannah, South Australia
  • James Henry Bonnell 1856 born nr Balhannah, South Australia - my great grandfather
  • Emma Bonnell 1860 married in South Australia but not seeming to have been born there

Back in Australia, Charlotte Bonell also used the name Charlotte Mowbray. However, although she appears to have traveled using this name, she was, nevertheless buried as Charlotte Bonnell listed as having died in Walkerville, South Australia, 24th April 1912 aged 95, and her gravestone is intact and she is buried with her daughter Charlotte Reed (nee Bonnell). The date of death for Charlotte Mowbray the 'free settler' is the same date and there seems to be no gravestone for Charlotte Mowbray.

Generation 3

The parents of my great great grandfather, James Bonell were, my great great great grandparents, John Bonell and Mary (nee Smith), who married at the parish church of St Mary's on the Market Square.

John Bonell

John Bonell was possibly a church-carpenter. Other than James and Charles, John Bonell had another child in Birmingham, yet another in Wolverhampton, but finally settled down for good on the eastern edge of the parish of St Matthew's, Walsall. One of his other sons was Joseph Bonell from Wolverhampton.

In a Wolverhampton churchyard is a memorial stone erected by James Bonell when he returned to England in 1848/9. It has lettering, "In Affectionate Memory ...", and gives the names of both his parents as well as his own as the one who erected it.

William Brown and Margaret Mowbray

There is also a Margaret Mowbray who married a William Brown in 1777 at St Botolph's, Bishopsgate, UK, who may well be the parents of Charlotte Brown (Mowbray).

Important Health Information

I do know that the disease of Haemachromatosis runs on the Bonell side of the family. This disease involves excess accumulation of iron in the blood and causes immune dysfunction, liver and pancreas stress, type 2 diabetes, gut disorders, bowel/liver/pancreas cancers, some forms of epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, food allergies, arthritic conditions, mood and psychological disorders and recent studies have linked it to to 1/3rd of cases of autism.

Some people are carriers, others get the disease. Hence it can appear to skip a generation. It effects gene C282Y. Without treatment, men with this condition begin to deteriorate from age 40. Because of blood loss from puberty through to menopause, the severity of the condition for untreated women with this condition worsens around age 50. My father died, aged 59 from cancer of the pancreas, liver and bowel.

It is treatable via chelation (things like zinc, selenium, magnesium) and a diet low in red meats and alcohol (which raise iron levels) and avoiding excess vitamin C (which causes higher iron uptake). Regularly donating blood several times a year also reduces the iron accumulation.

Having now communicated with the descendants of Williamina Bonnell (Young), I have now learned of others diagnosed on the autism spectrum in the Bonnell side of the family, meaning ASD ran in the families of both my paternal grandparents.

Ruby Sherwell, Sheila Chiltern with baby Helen, my cousin Bill Neil (no, its not my father but they are look alikes) with his wife Val with baby Stephen and Henry Roy Bonnell ('Harry Williams') just peeping around the corner.

Sherwell

My father's mother, Ruby Florence Sherwell descends from a pair of first cousins (fairly common some time back) and another pair of first cousins a generation before that one (there's no running from it, might as well face it). Clearly this isn't good on the old genetics. But saying that they've turned out an abundance of artists, writers, musicians (including my cousin, Paul Plunkett), a champion speed skater and my younger brother 'Duel' won the x-treme games for break-dancing and awards for graffiti murals which I'd like to think was because of what he inherited from these people.

So clearly these people may not be techies, scientists and engineers but they have some wonderful abilities. Within this side is also bipolar, dyslexia, ADHD, two people diagnosed with Asperger's, another diagnosed with autism and MANY diagnosed with Coeliac (and two with Crohns). The older folk in this family grew up in the countryside, what we call 'the bush' and a number of them were referred to as 'feral', something a lot more acceptable among the children of poor, rural families and back then thought of as 'individual' and 'free spirited'. I'd like to think that's an asset, not a disability. The greatest thing my grandmother's side seems to have is a great naturalness, born eccentrics and big hearts. I'm proud of being one of their descendants.

My grandmother's people go back to the poorhouses of Chichester, England and came out to Australia in the 1800s when Britain cleared out its poorhouses, sending the most destitute to Australia the same as it did its convicts. There is a very small, quite ancient town in the Chichester area called Shirwell.

If you are directly related to either of my paternal grandparents then please email me

Samuel

Although I'm known as Donna Williams and use that as my 'professional name', I'm now actually Donna Samuel since marrying Chris Samuel. Chris is a Systems Manager (I.T) from Cardiff, Wales, and like many people born in Cardiff, is from a mixed background - Welsh, English, Irish and Italian. Although we'd both lived in Wales, we'd lived in different parts of Wales, and after 12 years in the UK, I returned to Australia, bringing Chris back with me in 2002. The story of how I met, proposed to (it was a leap year) and married Chris and our migration to Australia is in the book Everyday Heaven.

Thanks

Thanks so much to Val Milgate, a decendant of James Bonell's brother, Charles Bonell, for her wonderful information in solving the mysteries about this family, to Gwen Street for the information about Charlotte Brown and to Sam Doyle for her info on Williamina Bonnell (Young) and her descendants..