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.