Upper Blessington is a rural locality about 50 kilometres east of Launceston, Tasmania. There is another locality called Blessington which is about 30 kilometres south east of Launceston and adjacent to Upper Blessington.
In the 2016 census, Upper Blessington had a population of 61 while Blessington had a few more at 93. The two towns are on Blessington Road C401.
Upper Blessington is at the junction to Ben Lomond Road which leads up to the ski resort on Ben Lomond.
Much of the land to the south and east of Blessington Road is now pine plantation rather than the open farmland it was when my ancestors first lived there.
The map below shows the area my family lived in and Upper Blessington is just off the top right corner of the map.
The numbers represent:
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- Evandale
- Clarendon
- Nile
- Deddington
- English Town
- Blessington
- White Hills
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Distance from Evandale to Blessington is approximately 25 kilometres.
My family and the Blessington area
The first two Colgrave generations (18 chn) were born in 5 of the 7 towns above. 1840-1890
The first two Davey generations (20 chn) were born in 5 of the 7 towns 1860-1914
The first Dixon family (5 chn) were born in 2 towns 1842-1850
The first Boyd family (9 chn) were born in 2 towns 1842-1861
No children born at Clarendon in the above numbers.
Evandale – 17, Nile – 4, Deddington – 9, English Town – 5, Blessington – 9 and White Hills area – 8
I drove my mother, her sister and a cousin to Evandale to have a look at the area. We had lunch in the local pub and my cousin called out, “Anyone here a Davey or Colgrave? If so we are your cousins from Hobart.” We got a positive reply and ended up for afternoon tea and another drive around the area looking at places related to the families.
I also had a big day out in the area as my first trip since Covid began. I wrote a post about it and included images.
I have also run two family reunions in the 1980’s and 2000’s at the Evandale memorial hall for the Davey and Colgrave families. At least 200 people turned up at each reunion where I had my computer to add information but also had a paper copy of the tree put up around three walls of the hall.