This branch of the Peckham family came out to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia from Cardiff, South Wales, U.K in August 1986. You might say we came from old South Wales to New South Wales.



The family consists of myself Colin Arthur, my wife Marie Therese nee O'Brien, sons Marc and Christopher, and daughter Michelle (who taught me how to create home pages such as this one!). We have no immediate family living here in Australia, though we do have some little "new Australian Peckham's", as our son Christopher, and his partner, Tana, now have two children; Huxley and Ella. They currently live in Darwin, Northern Territory. My eldest son Marc was a Senior Geologist now an activist mainly campaigning against uranium mining and dumping. Marc is also an underground DJ, and composer of music etc.

My branch of the family mainly live in Cardiff, though having looked at the family I have traced them back to Romsey, Hampshire. That is as far as we have got in our family history, and that is due to my mother-in-law Madge O'Brien nee Farrant, who did this research at Cardiff Library whilst researching her own family history. (She is tracing the Farrant family history and has gone back as far as 400 years - so we have lots of catching up to do). After hitting a brick wall trying the Hampshire Roots Web. Then the lovely Sandra Turner stepped in to help she's sandra.turner@one-name.org, and a professional genealogist. Sandra has helped heaps but we haven't been able to go back any further. The Thomas Peckham married to Catherine in Portsea 1851 was another Thomas. So we are as far back as young Thomas Peckham of 9 months living with his mother Catherine age 24 at 20 Abbey Romsey. Catherine was born in Gibralta. The husband was not at home at the time of this 1851 census and all we know is that he was a hostler. The head of the house was a George Paddock and his wife Eliza with their 2 daughters Rosanah 9, Matilda 4, plus sons William of 2, & Henry age 1.

I have drawn up a family tree, click here to take a look.

This is our own family history so far:

I am Colin Arthur Peckham, born at 181, Moorland Road, Splott on January 26th 1948, the youngest of four brothers; John Anthony, Phillip George, William Henry and me!

My father was Charles Alfred Peckham (Alf), who died in December 1971, and was one of thirteen children. He used to say that theirs wasn't the biggest family on the street, there was a family of twenty-three living in the steet by the name O'Sullivan. The area in which they lived was called "Little Ireland" but was really Newtown. The houses no longer exist, but I remember them, they were very small terraced houses and how everyone fitted in is a miracle. The World Boxing champion Peerless Jim Driscoll came from there, a generation before my father, who in his time was a Welsh Schoolboy boxing champion.

This is the information straight from the census 1891.

58, Cairns St, later in 1935 renamed Rhymney Street, off Salisbury Road, Thomas Peckham, head of the family, aged 40, occupation rigger ship R, born Romsey, Hampshire, England.

58, Cairns St, Mary Peckham, wife, aged 35, born Berkely, Gloucester, England.

58, Cairns St, Mary Peckham, daughter, aged 13, occupation scholar, born Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales.

58, Cairns St, Kate Peckham, daughter, aged 11, occupation scholar, born Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales.

58, Cairns St, William Peckham, son, aged 8, occupation scholar, born Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales.

58, Cairns St, Joseph Peckham, son, aged 6, Glamorgan, Wales.

58, Cairns St, Charles Peckham, son, aged 3, Glamorgan, Wales.

58, Cairns St, Carolyn, daughter, aged 1, Glamorgan, Wales.

Thomas was therefore born circa 1850/51 at Romsey, Hamshire, England and would be my Great, Grandfather

Charles would be my Grandfather, born in Cardiff circa 1888.

My father Charles Alfred, or Alf to everyone, was born in Sandon Place in 1919/20.

My mother-in-law, searched in the Cardiff Street Directories of 1886-1947 and Thomas appears in:

1886 book at 13 Merthyr Street, Cathays (must have married at 18, first child is 13)

1905 book at 91 Daisy Street, Canton.

1910 at 4, Fern Street, Canton.

1914/1915/1916 book at 104, Ethel Street, Canton.

Alf appears in 1918 at 13, Sandon Place, Newtown (later changed to Adamsdown).

until 1937 (Hobbler) at 13, Sandon Place, Newtown (later changed to Adamsdown).

All the above is from Street Directories.

These entries are from the IGI Hampshire (Mormon records):

Cardiff Central Library.

IGI Hampshire

color="#FFFEDF">Thomas Peckham born 1850/51.

Charles Peckham born 1888.

Alf born 1919/20.

Colin Peckham(me) born 1948.

Marc Peckham born 1972(girfiend Izzy Brown)

Huxley Peckham born 1997 (twin with Poppy who sadly died at birth).

Huxley's sister Ella Peckham born 1998

My eldest brother John (Clares father) just sent me this information: "All I can add to help Ian is that Grandad Peckham (also a 'Charles Alfred') seems to have come from Ringwood, Hampshire and I believe there were Peckhams in Romsey, Hants in the eighteen hundreds. Other Peckhams in England were in Denham, Bucks and/or Chalfont St. Peter/Chalfont St. Giles also in Buckinghamshire. There was of course the famous Archbishop John Peckham who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th or 13th century, and who wrote several English hymns(his tomb is near Thomas Abeckets in Canterbury Cathedral. I do know of several existing Peckhams in Winchester and many in the Southampton area, especially on the edges of the new Forest. Grandad peckham, I believe, stole a horse in Ringwood and was a notorious chicken thief !!! There is an actual place called Peckhams village near Ringwood."

Thanks John, but I have found no evidence of this, shame though it would have made things interesting.

As you can see there's lots to do yet.

This could be a ladder to find or correct ??

If you have any further information, or are a Peckham living in the world and would like to drop us a line, you can e-mail us at: co@zip.com.au.

You can check out my old 1966 convertable on its homepage: http://www.oocities.org/splottboy1.

This web site was designed by my daughter Michelle's web site design company, which you can visit at http://envy.nu/stardustwebdesigns.

This Home Page is looked after by Colin Peckham 1

There is a Colin Peckham 2 living in Cardiff, a good mate and my cousin, living near Cardiff, Wales, you can email him on: Colin Peckham 2

Ian Peckham, my cousin is starting to try and get Peckham information. You can get Ian on Ian Peckham