Our Story
When I first started in genealogy, in the early 1990's I decided to gather all of the Austill information I could,
regardless of whether I knew of any connections or not. Sometime later I was contacted by Reg Barlow, from Australia
He was a friend of Pam Austill Dixon, daughter of Lt Col Freeman J Austill. Born in Australia, Pam had never known her father,
nor did she have information about any other Austill family members. Because I had collected all the Austill information I could find,
I did have some information on Freeman's family, (even though he is not in my direct line.) Together we searched and made more
connections. Later I was in contact with Gary Wallis, a genealogical researcher whose wife was Ruth Austill, another cousin.
We got Pam in contact with Gary and found that Ruth, his wife, had known Freeman & his family. Sadly, by this time Freeman
and most of his family had passed on, except for his daughter Janet. Gary & Ruth were able to help facilitate communications
between Pam and her sister Janet. Since the sisters have gotten acquainted they have become very close, "like they had known
each other all their lives." They have visited together several times and with Ruth (Gary has also passed away now).
but this was the first time I have been able to make the trip down from Michigan to meet them all. It was a great time we had together and I'm so glad we could do it. Here are a few pictures from our visit.
Rich Davis from The Evansville Courier did an interview with us while we were down,
Here is a link to his article published in the Evansville Courier, July 5, 2009
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The Cousins during our first meeting at the Drury Hotel in Evansville
(l-to-r) Dave (website editor), Janet, Pam, Ruth
Janet & Pam are the sisters
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Janet, Ruth, Pam
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The Whole Group: Joanna (Dave's daughter), Dave, Janet, Pam, Ruth
(Courtesy of the Hotel Clerk)
The day after we met we took a trip up to Folsomville, where our ancestors lived. We took a side-trip down Austill Road
Join us for A Trip Down Austill Road
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(l-to-r)
Cousin Ruth, Cousins Janet & Pam (Janet & Pam are sisters), Cousin Dave (editor of this web-site), his daughter, Joanna
(Here we are standing at the corner of Austill Rd & Nickens Rd near Folsomville)
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Ruth, Janet, Pam, & Joanna
Joanna & I also visited Cousin Debbie before our trip back home:
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Joanna & Cousin Debbie
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Dave (website editor) & Cousin Debbie