I am in the process of setting up the McNeil/Denney Family Tree. Learning as I go but hopefully I will have many updates as time goes on.

Extract from the book
 THEY CAME TO STAY
 			……….THE DENNEYS

“If we don’t sight land tomorrow, you can say we are lost!”  This statement by the Captain of the tiny vessel did nothing to lift the spirits or calm the fears of the nervous and near panic stricken passengers.  For the past two months the weather had been very bad, indeed it had been over four weeks since the weary travellers had sighted land and all were feeling the effects of the rough voyage.  However the Captain had the situation well in hand and on waking the following morning the relieved passengers found they were in sight of the Tamar Harbour.

John Denney and his brother Thomas Denney were among the passengers who eagerly disembarked that day.  John settled in Launceston where he worked as a plumber and painter.  He met the lovely Elizabeth Maria Thompson who was born in Launceston in 1824; just six months after her parents arrived in Van Diemans Land.  Elizabeth’s brother John Burns Thompson arrived later as he stopped over in Victoria where he tried his luck at gold prospecting.  After arriving in Van Diemans Land he became a very prominent businessman.  John Burns Thompson was the founder of the Equitable Building Society and was also one of the first directors of the Mutual Fire Insurance Co of Tasmania Limited.  He died in 1899 aged sixty nine years.  Elizabeth Thompson later became the ward of Mr Gleadow a banker.

John Denney and Elizabeth Maria Thompson were married in the Wesleyan Chapel, Launceston on June 4th 1846.  The Minister was Mr William Butters.  Their marriage was witnessed by John’s brother Thomas Denney and Elizabeth’s parents John and Maria Thompson and her brother John Burns Thompson.