Welcome to The Belford Family Tree. My name is Ian Belford and I am the  administrator of this website. 
 I have traced our tree on my fathers side through my Grandfather Robert James Belford  back to JAMES BALFOUR born Muckross Ireland 1784-85 who 
 sailed to Australia in 1840 in the "CRESCENT". He settled in the Newcastle  area and worked as a Stone Mason and is buried in Millers Forest, HEXHAM near  Newcastle.
 His brother ROBERT BELFOUR born in Drumkeerin, Co Fermanagh, Ireland in 1805  came to AUSTRALIA in 1838 on the "PARLAND" as a stone mason. I have entered as much information as I have, please feel free to send me any  information you would like added to this site.

My G.Grandmother on my fathers side, Mary Martha Heinrch's family settled in South  Australia after leaving Silesia in Prussia in the 1830's. They were part of the Lutheran separatists who fled religious persecution by the  Prussian authorities to start a new life in the fledgling colony of South Australia.

These events were brought about by the following........On 27th September 1817, in an  attempt to unite the protestant movements of Calvinism and Lutheranism, Frederick  William III announced his intention to create the "Church of the Prussian Union" His  reasoning was to close the confessional gap between the Monarchy and the people, as  he was prevented from taking communion with his late Lutheran wife, Luise. He also  believed it would help stabalise Protestantism in face of the greatly enlarged  Catholic minority in post-war Prussia.
 He was met by increasing resistance from the Lutherans and by the mid 1830 the  situation had escalated to the point where the authorities had taken to fining and  imprisoning members of what was known as the Old Lutherans.
 There was an argument that the state had no power to impose these actions against the  separatists as ?Wollers Edict of Religion? of 9th July 1788 affirmed the right  of ?the three main confessions of the Christian religion? to the protection of the  monarch. As the jurist Carl Gottlieb Svares had explained to the future Frederick  William III in 1791-2, the authority for such action rested not with the state, but  with the individual religious community. Furthermore, the right of Lutherans to  tolerance in the province of Silesia had been guaranteed by Frederick the Great in  1740 and confirmend by Frederick William III in 1798. Separatist petitions frequently  cited key passages in the ?General Code? and presented their stance as grounded in  the dictates of conscience ?Gewissen?. For these and many other reasons the efforts  of Interior Minister von Rochow to put and end to the Old Lutheran movement were a  failure. 
 The conflict was defused only in 1845 when Frederick William IV offered a general  amnesty and granted the Lutherans the right to establish themselves within Prussia as  an autonomous church association, upholding the legal stance they had maintained from  the beginning. 
 A deeply embarrassing chapter for the Prussian authorities, and widely reported in  the press at the time, occurred when Prussians living along the banks of the river  Oder were treated to an astonishing site: barges full of law-abiding, hymn-singing  Lutherans on their way to Hamburg for transfer to London and then to South Australia,  fleeing religious persecution. Taken from "Iron Kingdom the rise and downfall of  Prussian, 1600-1947" by Christopher Clark penguin books c2006.

Photo's are great as they often show a family resemblance passed down through  the years.
 I hope you enjoy this website and return to it regularly as your piece of the  puzzle can help to unlock a wealth of information for other members of our  tribe.