Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is Lindsay Sheridan Little and I am a direct descendant of James and Jane Little, Bounty Immigrants who arrived at Port Phillip Bay, from Ireland on the 26th November, 1841.

But more importantly, (to me) I am descended from John Little, the first of our clan to enter and reside permanently in N.S.W.

I hope the information I have presented here is of as much interest to future readers, as it has been to me in the collection of the same.

Sometime through 1995-96 I got the urge to establish my family history, as in my father's side, surname LITTLE. My mother, together with my Uncle Travis, had earlier during the 1980's traced her family roots in respect to both her father (Thomas) and her mother (nee Valentine), back to the 1700's. Any information relating to my father and his family was very conspicuous by its absence, primarily I believe, as a consequence of the fairly acrimonious seperation of my parents when I was about two years of age. During the following years, up to the age of about fifteen, I had no contact with my father or any other member of his family. When contact was resumed and whilst the relationship was harmonious, I didn't see a great deal of him. If he had spoken of his father or if he had any knowledge of his grandfather, I have no recollection of it, not having an interest at that time.

So, with very little to start with, I knew my grandfather's and my grandmother's christian names but nothing else, I launched into my search, with guidance from genealogical volunteers at my local library (Forster). The usual time consuming searches of microfiche records, false leads, and the
obtaining of birth, marriage and death certificates finally led me into Victoria, having narrowed all possibilities down to a couple, James and Jane Little who arrived in Australia in 1841.

From here my research had to take me to the State Library of N.S.W. in Sydney to view shipping records of the period and through a stroke of good luck found them in a short space of time, with a listing showing arrival at Port Phillip on the 26th November, 1841. James, his wife Jane, and eight children. Of course, all of this did not happen overnight, and it was well into 1997 when I obtained this information. I had previously acquired James' death certificate and verified all the children and their birth years, but I had come to a standstill again.

For some reason (desperation, probably) I sent for the eldest son William's death certificate, and from that I was able to obtain his children's birth years and from microfiche records, the place of their birth, the majority being in and around the Morwall area of Victoria. I then checked for the name
Little in the current Morwell phone book and discovered there were still fourteen Littles in that area. I composed a form letter outlining my research into the Little family, chose six names at random, and sent them a copy of the letter. Imagine my surprise when six days later I had a phone call from
Jim Little from Traralgon verifying all I had written and that I was part of a lost branch of the family. The next day I received in the mail a letter addressed "Dear Long Lost Cousin Lindsay", WOW!, was I stoked, it was from a distant cousin Don Little, also from Traralgon. Within a day or two I had
received from Don Little a copy the marvellous catalogue of the 150 year history of the Little Family in Australia, in the form of the book "A Lot About A Little". The result of many years of hard work and research by many people, not the least of whom were John Jennings and James Little.

Well, now I had established a definite line of family, together with a modicum of information as to the movement of John Little, my great grandfather into N.S.W.

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