The Lisa Jackson Pulver Story - Her Father's Family Tree - Part 4
The Alleged Family Tree of Professor Jackson Pulver’s Father
In Part 3 of the Story of Lisa Jackson Pulver, we established that Raymond Leonard Llewellyn Jackson was the Professor’s father.
In this post, we will trace his ancestry back to its origins and determine whether he is indeed Aboriginal, as is claimed by the Professor.
In an interview, on the 25th of February 2013[4] at the University of New South Wales, Lisa Jackson Pulver told her interviewer that,
[I’m] “Lisa Rae Jackson Pulver. I've got two lines of [Aboriginal] ancestry that I'm aware of and I'm covering more – thank you very much Ancestry.com !
… [on] my dad’s side, people were Wiradjuri mob, Jacksons and the Angels and all the rest of it, and they apparently came some generations before from South Australia, and that’s a new bit of information that I've recently found out. So I'm happily rooting through the archives, looking at all the Australian Jacksons and trying to work out who they are and are they related and where did that name come from because there’s always a story behind how the English imposed their names along with their ways upon the mob. So, yes, so I think I basically identify as Wiradjuri”.
The Professor has provided what genealogist researchers call ‘markers’ - small hints about her family that enable us to get a trace going on her family tree. Starting someone’s family tree is the hardest part because we have to be sure that we select the correct Jackson family out of the hundreds that exist in Australia.
The markers that the Professor has provided are that, her father’s family were named ‘Jackson’ and ‘Angel’, and that they were from South Australia. These markers are important. If we can independently find these markers in the family tree that we are constructing, then that confirms that we have the family of Lisa Jackson Pulver and not some other Jackson family. [The Professor married Mark Pulver and thus carries his name in addition to her family name of Jackson].
The Male Line of the Jacksons and Angels
Our genealogists followed the paternal line of Professor Jackson Pulver’s family tree and they have confirmed, from the records, that the Professor was indeed correct when she claimed that her father’s family are named ‘Jackson’ and ‘Angel’ [an additional spelling of Angell was also found], and they are from South Australia. The paternal family tree we have constructed is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 - The Alleged Paternal Family Tree of Professor Jackson Pulver showing her father’s ‘mob’ originally come from South Australia. Her grandfather changed his name from Angell [Angel] to Jackson. Her father’s ancestor, her great-great-grandfather, John Angell was English, not Aboriginal. Sources: public records
Readers will note that the male line of this family goes back to the patriarch John Angell, who was born in England, as was his wife Mary Ann Hawkins.
They are not Aboriginal.
Thus, Professor Jackson Pulver is wrong to claim that the family on her ‘dad’s side’ were ‘Wiradjuri mob’ - no they weren’t. By the male line, they were 100% English.
The wives of these men in Figure 1 were also of 100% English descent. Mary Ann Hawkins was born in England in 1824 and migrated to the colony of South Australia in 1849 (Research file here), and Sarah Ann Meggs [Maggs] was born in 1856 in England and migrated in 1877 (Research file here).
The third wife in this branch of the family was Hazel Marion Milne, whose original ancestors were the Milnes from Scotland (Figure 2), and the Haywards who were from England and Scotland (Figure 3).
None of these women were of Aboriginal Wiradjuri descent. They were not even born on Wiradjuri Country in NSW.
Figure 2 - The Alleged Milne Family Tree. Hazel Marion Milne was Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s grandmother. The records show that she was not Aboriginal but her ancestors were from Scotland, and from Scotland and England via her grandmother, Elizabeth Haywood (See Figure 3). Sources: Research file here
Figure 3 - The Alleged Haywood Family Tree. The records show that there were no Aboriginal people in this branch of Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s family - they came from England and Scotland. Sources: Research file here
Thus, the records show that Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver is completely wrong to claim that on, ‘my dad’s side, people were Wiradjuri mob, Jacksons and the Angels.’
Is the Professor Hiding the Real Story of the Jacksons and Angells?
Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver has publicly provided the following family ‘markers’ (in bold),
I’m “Lisa Rae Jackson Pulver. I've got two lines of [Aboriginal] ancestry that I'm aware of and I'm covering more – thank you very much Ancestry.com !
‘… my dad’s side, people were Wiradjuri mob, Jacksons and the Angels … and they apparently came some generations before from South Australia and that’s a new bit of information that I've recently found out. So I'm happily rooting through the archives, looking at all the Australian Jacksons and trying to work out who they are and are they related and where did that name come from …’ ( Source )
It is our speculation that the Professor actually knows a lot more about her ‘dad’s side’ of the family than she is letting on about.
Our research found that the Professor’s grandfather, a George William Leonard Jackson, was actually born as George Charles Alfred Angell - and the Professor seems to know this. [See the Further Reading Section at the end of the post on how and perhaps why George Charles Alfred Angell changed his name to George William Leonard Jackson].
Normally in genealogical research, one traces one’s name back via the father’s line - in this case Professor Jackson traces her dad back to the Jacksons of South Australia during her own Ancestry.com work. But she also seems to realise that there is a name change to the Angel[l] family name as her research progresses up the paternal family tree. The Professor could not really know this unless she had studied her family ancestry in some detail, for example by being on Ancestry.com as she freely admits.
It is our contention that the Professor must really know that her ‘dad’s mob’ are not Wiradjuri.
In our opinion, we think that the Professor really knows that the Jacksons derived from the Angells, and that she really knows that the patriarch of her ‘dad’s side’ of the family is one, John Angell, who is 100% English, having been born in Wiltshire, England in 1822. John Angell and his male descendants were not Aboriginal, let alone Wiradjuri.
In our opinion, it is untruthful and unethical for her to claim that she a descendent of a ‘Wiradjuri mob’ from South Australia as there is no evidence, which we can find in the records, to support this claim of hers.
For one thing, this claim of hers is an oxymoron - how can her father’s paternal line be Wiradjuri if his father and grandfather were born in South Australia (Kaurna Country) and his great-grandfather was born in England? Where is the connection for any of these men to the Wiradjuri Country and Wiradjuri culture of NSW?
In our opinion, Professor Jackson Pulver’s claims are a total misreading of what the historical records actually show.
Figure 4 -
’Professor Jackson Pulver is an Aboriginal woman and the first known Aboriginal person to receive a PhD in medicine at the University of Sydney.’
Figure 5 - In fact, the records show that the patriarch of the Angell family is John Angell, who was born in Wiltshire, England in 1822. He had emigrated to the colony of South Australia, along with his English born wife, Mary Ann Hawkins and an infant son, in 1849 on the emigrant ship, the Duke of Wellington.
John Angell was a good, solid Agricultural worker from Wiltshire - he was not a part of a ‘Wiradjuri mob’, as Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver tells us,
‘…[on] my dad’s side, people were Wiradjuri mob, Jacksons and the Angels … they apparently came some generations before from South Australia… and… there’s always a story behind how the English imposed their names along with their ways upon the mob. So, yes, so I think I basically identify as Wiradjuri” (Source).
Rather than being a Wiradjuri warrior, John Angel instead became one of the premier agricultural and civil works contractors in the early Adelaide suburbs of Unley and Mitcham. (See Further Reading below for some history of John Angell).
As further evidence to support the allegation that Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver may be manipulating the records to suit her own narrative that her family was Aboriginal, consider the following.
In 2020, we understand that Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver prepared an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health research Showcase. She did this in her capacity as the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Indigenous Strategy and Services at the University of Sydney.
Two pages of the presentation slides or notes are reproduced in Figures 6 and 7 below, and a full copy of the presentation can be seen here. We do not have a recording of her talk, nor a transcript, but page 2 of the presentation (Figure 7) is intriguing.
The Professor includes what looks like some photographs of her family and an acknowledgement where she pays her ‘respects to the people of this Land, - the Kaurna People’.
Now, the Kaurna people are the Aboriginal people from the Adelaide plains in South Australia. The site of the presentation we understand was at the University of Sydney. So why is the Professor acknowledging Aboriginal people in South Australia?
And why does she include what appear to be two family photographs, one of which has the caption “Jackson, Campbell and Llewellyn families of Vic and SA. Welsh G-G father”?
Figure 6 - Title page of a 2020 presentation by Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver (Source here).
Figure 7 - Page 2 of the 2020 presentation by Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver (Source here).
Figure 8 - A cropped section of the original photograph below in Figure 9.
The photograph originally appeared online in Ancestry.com in 2018 when it was posted by a ‘LizzySmiths’. The cropped section was subsequently used by Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver in her 2020 presentation (Figure 7). This prompts us to speculate - Is ‘LizzySmiths’ an alias used by the Professor when she is on Ancestry.com? (Source: here).
As a speculation on our part, we suspect that Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver appears to be the same type of story-teller as Professor Bruce Pascoe - she selectively takes threads from her own, real family history and uses them to spin her own ‘Aboriginal’ story. In other words, she is ‘just making stuff up.’
In the example above, we believe that she knows that her father’s family are predominately from South Australia. She also appears to have ‘photo-cropped’ a selected family photograph in which she acknowledges the, ‘Jackson, Campbell and Llewellyn families’ and the fact that they are from ‘Vic and SA’.
Thus, she quite possibly made the decision to publicly acknowledge her links to South Australia by paying respects to the local Aboriginal Kaurna people. It is well known that ‘box-tickers’ [non-Aboriginal people who tick the ATSI box on application forms] always try to make as many ‘connections’ as they can to Aboriginal tribes around the country.
We are not at this stage saying that Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver is a ‘box-ticker’, just that she seems to be displaying a common trait of the ‘box-ticker’ - the desperate search to find as many ‘connections’ to Country and Aboriginal tribes as they can. Australian author, Bruce Pascoe, provided a good example of this. He claimed connections from all over the country - Yuin, Bunurong, and Tasmanian Aboriginal man and Wiradjuri - all of which were denied by the true custodians except for a small clique of Yuin who say Pascoe has been, “initiated into Yuin” and that he “carries Yuin law”. Ultimately, it seems that ‘tribe-fishing’ for a ‘connection’ has paid off for Pascoe despite the fact that it appears all his ancestors were from Britain and none were Aboriginal by descent.
These little facts about her family’s origins, as presented by Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver, are all true - there are family members from SA and VIC with the names of Jackson (Figure 1), Campbell (Henrietta Campbell Milne, Figure 2) and Llewellyn (believed to be the Welsh partner of Henrietta and the Welsh ‘G-G father” of Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver - See below for details).
However, none of these ‘little facts’ support the Professor’s claim that on, ‘my dad’s side, people were Wiradjuri mob.’
It is our contention that the Professor knows that her ‘Aboriginal descent’ story is all ‘just made up’. In our opinion, she really knows the full details of her family from her own research in Ancestry.com. She knows as much about her father’s family as our researchers do.
We believe that she knows she is not of Wiradjuri descent by her father’s family.
For in fact, we have come across a researcher and contributor on Ancestry.com who goes by the name of ‘LizzySmiths’. In our opinion, this ‘LizzySmiths’ could well be an alias that Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver herself uses when she goes onto Ancestry.com to do her own research.
We believe this because on 11 Jun 2018, Ancestry.com user ‘LizzySmiths’ shared a 1950s photograph, titled, “Nan Jackson and GrandPa Jackson” about 1950's, Sydney - Mums wedding”
Figure 9 - Photograph of a wedding party, with caption “Nan Jackson and GrandPa Jackson, about 1950's, Sydney - Mum’s wedding” Source: Ancestry user LizzySmiths_ancestry originally shared this on 11 Jun 2018
If our speculation is correct, then ‘LizzySmiths’ [Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver?] is claiming that her ‘mum’ in the wedding dress is Merle Joan Smith, and the couple on the right, “Nan Jackson and GrandPa Jackson”, are Hazel Marion Milne [Llewellyn] and George William Leonard Jackson [the ‘name-changer’ born as an Angell] (Figures 1 & 2).
The man on left ‘giving away the bride’ is not named. He is not the bride’s father as he was killed in WWII, before the time of the wedding (Figures 10 and 11 and Australian War Memorial).
The fact that the wedding photograph is said to be from the ‘1950s’ matches the marriage records, as the Professor’s parents were married in 1953 while “GrandPa Jackson”, the man on the right, was still alive. He passed away in 1954.
Figure 10 - Part of the Maternal Family Tree for Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver. Shows her mother’s Scottish-born father was killed in New Guinea during the war. (Source: public records)
Figure 11 - Marriage Certificate for Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s parents showing, the wedding day in 1953; the bride’s father, George Smith was deceased and could not have been at the wedding, and the grooms parents, George Jackson and Hazel Milne [Llewellyn - see Figure 2] were present (they are the “Nan Jackson and GrandPa Jackson” of Figure 9). Source: NSWBDM# 20232/1953, Raymond Leonard Jackson m. Meryl Joan Smith
Observant readers will notice that the photograph in Figure 9 is the full photograph of the one that that was cropped and used by Professor Jackson Pulver on the page 2 of her 2020 presentation (Figure 8).
We believe that it is very possible that the person known as “LizzySmiths”, who loaded this full image to Ancestry.com in 2018, is the same person who used the cropped version of the same photograph in the 2020 University of Sydney presentation (Figure 7), namely Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver.
Coincidently (or not?), the name ‘Lizzy’ is a nickname for ‘Elizabeth’ and ‘Lisa’ can be a short form of ‘Elizabeth’. The maiden name of Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s mother is ‘Smith’. Is this another hint that the alias, “LizzySmiths”, is constructed from the Professor’s first name and her mother’s maiden name? This is an intriguing speculation on our part, which only the Professor herself can confirm.
In our opinion, all this evidence indicates to us that the Professor has studied her ‘dad’s side’ of the family in great detail and must therefore know that there is no evidence at all that any of these family members were Aboriginal. It is our opinion that the Professor must also know that these members of the family were descended from the couple, John Angell and his wife Mary Ann Hawkins, who were both born in England and who were both English.
In our opinion, when the Professor claims in public that she, and her ‘dad’s side’ of family, are from the ‘Wiradjuri mob,’ she in fact is ‘just making all this up’ - and she knows it.
Who is Llewellyn - a Welsh Great-Grandfather?
In 1892, in Carlton Victoria, a child was born, Hazel Marion Milne. The child’s mother, Henrietta [Hetta] Campbell Milne registered the child with her surname, Milne, as the records show that the ‘Fathers Name’ was ‘Unknown’. Hazel was thus, illegitimate.
Figure 12 - Birth record extract of 1892 for Hazel Marion Milne - Father unknown. Source: Victorian Births Deaths & Marriages, VICBDM#35689/1892
Henrietta Campbell Milne was Professor Jackson Pulver’s great-grandmother. Henrietta’s ‘unknown father’ to her child was thus the Professor’s great-grandfather.
In her 2020 presentation, the Professor alludes to the family name ‘Llewellyn’ and to a man as her ‘Welsh G-G father’ (Figures 7 & 8).
Elsewhere, the Professor has confirmed that, as well being Aboriginal, she,
‘… also has Scottish and Welsh roots, [and] is one of many Jews and Aborigines who have been building bridges between the two communities for years’.
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 20 June, 2011
Thus, it appears that the Professor also believes she has a Welsh great-grandfather. Based on our genealogical work, we believe that this man could well be the father of the illegitimate Hazel Marion Milne.
Although we have not been able to determine if this man was born in Wales, we have found his name. He was Henry Hayward Llewellyn, a photographer by trade. He is listed on his daughter’s, Hazel Marion Milne’s, 1916 marriage record as her father, along with her mother Henrietta Campbell Milne (Figure 13).
Interestingly, Hazel has given her maiden name as Hazel Llewellyn, not Hazel Milne as on her birth certificate. Perhaps, she and her mother found this more socially acceptable - perhaps even her new husband George Jackson never knew that his wife was illegitimate? They were to have a long marriage together until George passed away in 1954. By that time, the Llewellyn name had been passed onto Lisa Jackson’s father as a middle name, Raymond Leonard Llewellyn Jackson.
Figure 13 - Marriage record for Hazel Llewellyn (Milne) to George Jackson in 1916. Source: Anglican Parish Registers
This completes our genealogical research into Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s paternal branch of her family tree.
If we assume that this unknown father of Hazel Llewellyn (Milne) was indeed Henry Hayward Llewellyn, who may or may not have been Welsh himself, and if we assume that he was not an Aboriginal man, then our research shows that there is no Aboriginal ancestry in the paternal branch of the Jackson family tree.
There is no evidence that Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver is of Aboriginal, let alone Wiradjuri, descent from ‘her dad’s side’ of the family.
Figure 13B - Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s Alleged Paternal Branch of her Family Tree - All ancestors lead back to England and Scotland. There are no Aboriginal, let alone Wiradjuri ancestors in this branch. File here
Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s Maternal Family Tree.
It is possible that the Professor is Aboriginal by descent via the maternal branch of her family tree, via her mother, Merle Joan Smith. She certainly claims to be, when she tells us that,
‘… I've got two lines of ancestry that I'm aware of … My mother was born a Smith and her mum was born up on the far north coast of New South Wales in an island in the mighty Clarence River and she fled to come down to Sydney and lived in Sydney as a Maori for a while and then, yes, eventually got back with her family and identified who she was…’ (Source)
Now, our readers by now might be just wondering whether this is ‘just another made-up story’ by the Professor. In fact, their suspicions, based on our research, look to be correct because in our next post we will describe the Professor’s maternal family tree.
This next research will be the longest that we have undertaken to date as part of the ‘Deep Fake Project.’ The Professor’s maternal family branch runs to 250, A4 pages of research notes because the Professor comes from ‘Australian royalty’ on her mother’s side - ‘convict royalty’. The Professor’s family runs to many levels of ancestors because, as our research will show, the Professor’s family were participants at the dawn of Australia’s colonisation and had a significant part in the expansion of the colony and its settlement.
This Part 5 of the Lisa Jackson Pulver Story will appear soon.
Further Reading
The Paternal Family Name Change from Angell to Jackson
Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver was correct to claim that her family,
‘… [on] my dad’s side … were … Jacksons and the Angels … they apparently came some generations before from South Australia …’ (Source).
It seems that the Professor’s grandfather, George William Leonard Jackson (GrandPa Jackson of Figure 9) had been born with the name George Charles Alfred Angell. He, for whatever reason, decided to change his middle names, as well as his surname from Angell to Jackson, a surname which the Professor has thus inherited.
His birth certificate in Figure 14 confirms that he was born George Charles Alfred Angell and his father (the Professor’s great-grandfather) was George Angell and his mother was Sarah Ann Meggs.
Figure 14 - Birth Certificate for George Charles Alfred Angell (Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s grandfather). He went on to change his surname to Jackson, which the Professor thus ultimately inherited. Source: South Australia Births 1842-1928 (accessed via Findmypast)
The Professor’s grandfather was born an Angell, but when he came to be married to Hazel Llewellyn (Milne) in 1916, he had already changed his name to George [William] Leonard Jackson, as this is the name that appears in the marriage records (Figure 15).
Figure 15 - Marriage record of 1916 for George Leonard Jackson (Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s grandfather) to Hazel Llewellyn (Milne). [Note his father is listed as George Jackson (dead), a gardener. In fact the clerk is in error - his name was George Angell - see below] Source: Anglican Parish Records, Sydney 1814 -2011
Rather confusingly, the father of the groom George Snr whose surname was ‘Angell’, was listed on this marriage certificate as George Jackson (dead) and a gardener by trade. However, we speculate that when the marriage took place at St David Anglican Church, Surry Hills and the groom, George Jnr ,was asked his parent’s names he may have just said, “my father’s name was George” and whoever was taking the information probably would have assumed they had the same surname, Jackson. His father was not actually at the wedding as it was noted that he was ‘dead.’
We know that George Snr was not the one who changed the family surname from Angell to Jackson because, in all the records we located, he was always known as an Angel[l]. He was recorded as being George Angell on his marriage records (Figures 16 and 17 below).
On the electoral roll records, he is still known as Geo(rge) Angel[l] by both spellings of his surname (Angel and Angell) (Figure 18) and finally on his death, his name is still Angell, as recorded on a hospital record in 1914 (Figure 19).
These records consistently list his trade as gardener, which helps to confirm that it is the same man, George Angell, who is referred to in all these records.
Figure 16 - George Angell’s marriage record - Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s great-grandfather who was an Angell
Figure 17 - 1878 Marriage Notice for George Angell’s Wedding
ANGELL— MEGGS.— On the 19th February, by licence, at the residence of Mr. Henry Hawkins, South-terrace, by the Rev. B. P. Mudge, United Methodist Free Church, George, second son of Mr. John Angell, to Sarah Ann, eldest daughter of Mr. Henry Meggs; both of Unley, near Adelaide.
Figure 18 - Excerpts of the Electoral Roll records for George Angell [Angel] confirming that two ways of spelling his name are used in the records, that his trade was as a gardener and that he was known as Angel[l] not Jackson.
Figure 19 - Excerpt of Hospital records confirming George Angell, a gardener, died in hospital at age 60 in 1914. He was not known as Jackson.
Thus, Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s great-grandfather in South Australia was an Angell, but his son decided to change his name to Jackson, a name that the Professor finally inherited for herself.
So Why Did George Angell Change his Name to George Jackson?
Our readers might be wondering why a man born in 1882 in Adelaide would go on to change his name so that by the time he got married at the age of 33 in 1916 he had two new middle names and a new surname - he only retained his first name, George. Why?
In our research, we could find no record from George himself, or anyone else for that matter, explaining why he changed his name.
However, one intriguing story did emerge from the records regarding George’s sister, Violet Clara Angell, who was born in 1890, two years after George. (Figure 20).
Figure 20 - Extract of Birth Record for Violet Clara Angell. (Source:South Australia Births Records via Findmypast)
In 1907, at the young age of 17, Violet Angell, George’s sister, fell foul of the law when she was charged with stealing a gold ring from her employer (Figure 20).
STATE CHILDREN'S COURT.
Friday, July 19, [1907]
(Before Mr. J. Gordon, S.M.)
Clara Violet [sic] Angell, aged 17, was a charged on the information of Susannah Huntsdale, of Mill-terrace, North Adelaide, with with [sic] having stolen, on or about July 6, a gold ring, valued at 7/6, the property of the Informant. Sub-Inspector Priest prosecuted. Susannah Huntsdale said the accused was in her employ. The ring produced was her property, and she did not give the accused any authority to take it. Louis Meyers said the accused pledged the ring in his shop, and gave the name of “Jackson.” A constable said he told the accused that she was making, enquiries about a ring, a brooch, and a sovereign, which were reported stolen by Mrs. Huntsdale. He asked the accused if she knew anything about them, and she replied "Yes I pawned the ring, and I will give you the ticket." The accused told the constable that she gave the brooch to a girl named Bessie Martin. When questioned as, to the sovereign she replied, I spent it in hiring a vehicle, and lost 5/ of it. The accused pleaded guilty and was sent to the Reformatory. (Transcript of the Source: The Advertiser (Adelaide), 20 July 1907, p. 11)
Figure 21 - Children’s Court Report of theft by Violet Angell. The Advertiser (Adelaide), 20 July 1907, p. 11)
After pleading guilty, Violet was sent from the court to the Reformatory on 19 July 1907, where she was sentenced to stay until she turned 18 (1908).
However, she had her sentence extended until she turned 19 years old (1909). She was subsequently released to the care of her father, George Angell, in 1909 (Figure 22).
Figure 22 - Extract of Reformatory School showing Violet Angell’s admission and release information. (Source: Admissions to Industrial and Reformatory Schools, 1849-1913)
The interesting story here is, why did Violet and her father George Snr retain their surname Angell, but Violet’s brother George Jnr (Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s grandfather) change his surname to Jackson? And why did Violet take the stolen ring to the pawn shop and say her name was ‘Jackson’?
Was George ashamed of the ‘criminal’ record of his sister, who carried the Angell name? So ashamed that he changed his own name to Jackson to distance himself from her ‘stain’? Or was George complicit is the pawning of the ring as a ‘Jackson’? Or perhaps even, was Violet rebelling against her name-changing brother George by using his new name at the pawn shop to implicate him in her crime? Who knows.
It’s all very intriguing - perhaps there is a history in the Angell/Jackson family for claiming to be someone who you are not?
2. John Angel - The Colonist who helped build South Australia
Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s great-great-grandfather, John Angel, departed England, his place of birth, on 18 July 1849, with his wife Mary and child Henry, in steerage class on the ship, the Duke of Wellington. They were a young emigrant family bound for the new colony of South Australia on an assisted passage, as John was deemed to be useful to the colony as an agricultural worker (Figure 23). They arrived some four months later on 8 November 1849 (Figure 24).
Figure 23 - Departure record for John Angel, his wife Mary and son Henry from England on the ship the Duke of Wellington. (Source: SA records Passenger Lists and here)
Figure 24 - Arrival record for John Angel, his wife Mary and infant son into Adelaide on the ship the Duke of Wellington. (Source: SA records Passenger Lists)
John Angel and his family arrived during the years of the creation of South Australia as a colony:
The South Australia Act, 1834 created the Province of South Australia, which was to be a colony of free settlers, not convicts. After the colony nearly went bankrupt, the South Australia Act 1842 gave the British Government full control of South Australia as a Crown Colony. After some amendments to the form of government in the intervening years, South Australia became a self-governing colony in 1857 with the ratification of the Constitution Act 1856, and the Parliament of South Australia was formed - (Wikipedia).
Thus, Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver’s family on her ‘dad’s side’ were South Australian settlers, the early colonists of Kaurna Country, through and through.
Numerous records exist showing how John Angel applied his practical skills to the building of the the colony in Kaurna Country, principally in the Adelaide suburbs of Unley and Mitcham.
Some examples of the civil works John Angel was engaged in are as follows:
1855 Tender South Australian Register, 30 May 1855, p. 3
DISTRICT COUNCILS, MITCHAM, Saturday, May 26. 1855
Tenders for different works advertised for were then opened, and the following accepted with conditions, viz.: —
1. John Angell— Making water-tables and forming Mary-street, Unley, and widening and deepening the ditch through Blackler's section.
1856 Accounts Adelaide Observer, 2 August 1856, p. 8
DISTRICT COUNCILS, MITCHAM, Saturday, July 26. 1856
The following accounts, certified as correct, were ordered to be paid. West. £31 5s. 6d.; Torrington and Robinson,£9 6s. 6d.; J. Prince, jun.,£21 12s.; John Angell, £7; J. H. Ayliffc, £20; Sainsbury, £1 Its. 6d.
1857 Tenders Adelaide Observer, 4 April 1857, p. 8
DISTRICT COUNCILS, MITCHAM, Saturday, March 23, 1857
The Council proceeded to the consideration of tenders.
No. 1. Repairs to road near Laser's. John Angell's tender for £47 was accepted.
No. 2. Culvert at Unley. John Angell's tender for £8 was accepted.
1857 Tenders South Australian Register, 28 April 1857, p. 3
DISTRICT COUNCILS, MITCHAM, Saturday, April 25, 1857
The Council proceeded to the consideration of tenders.
No.1. Water-tabling Glen-Osmond-road— John Angell, at 6s. per chain; accepted.
No. 2. Ditto, Goodwood-road— John Angell, at 9s. 6d. per chain.
No. 3. Repairs near Twining’s — John Angell at 4s. per chain.
No. 4. Posts and sleepers, Goodwood-road— John Angell, at 19s. 6d. per culvert
No. 6. Stacking stone on the Mitcham-road— John Angell, at 7s. 6d. per yard; accepted.
1857 Tender South Australian Register, 13 June 1857, p. 4
DISTRICT COUNCILS, MITCHAM, Saturday, June 8, 1857
The Council opened the tenders sent in in reply to advertisement for metalling from Thomas-street, Unley. John Angell's the tender at 6s. 3d. per yard lineal, was accepted.
1857 Letter Adelaide Observer, 12 December 1857, p. 4
DISTRICT COUNCILS, MITCHAM, Tuesday, December 8, 1857
QUARTERLY MEETING.
A letter from Mr. John Angell was read, asking the Council for the acacia hedge in the cross street, Unley.
Resolved, that Mr. Chiles is entitled to the hedge, in consideration of his giving the land for the road, and that an additional pound be given to Mr. Angell for grubbing the hedge.
1858 Council Adelaide Observer, 6 March 1858, p. 5
MITCHAM.
At the annual meeting, held pursuant to Government Gazette notice of February 4, 1858, at the Hawkstone Arms, Lower Mitcham – Mr. Wm. Jones in the chair – after reading the advertisement and explaining the objects of the meeting, the ratepayers were invited to appoint two persons to audit the accounts, when Messrs. Styles and Allen were unanimously chosen as Auditors for the present year.
Mr. James Grimes proposed Mr. A. Blyth, M.P. Seconded by Mr. John Angell.
1858 Tenders Adelaide Observer, 24 July 1858, p. 4
TENDERS FOR PUBLIC WORKS
The following tenders have been accepted by the Colonial Architect: -
For fencing in land and providing and fixing a gate at Government Park Farm
2. John Angell at 7s. 2d. per rod – Gate £12 0 0 - (No. 2 accepted July 12.)
In our opinion, Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver is completely wrong to claim that her family,
… [on] my dad’s side, people were Wiradjuri mob, Jacksons and the Angels and all the rest of it, and they apparently came some generations before from South Australia, and that’s a new bit of information that I've recently found out. So I'm happily rooting through the archives, looking at all the Australian Jacksons and trying to work out who they are and are they related and where did that name come from because there’s always a story behind how the English imposed their names along with their ways upon the mob. So, yes, so I think I basically identify as Wiradjuri”. (Source: interview)
And in true Pascoesque style, she very readily finds a way to slant the narrative to blame the collective British and paint herself as an ‘Aboriginal victim’ so as to virtue-signal and gain solidarity with the Aboriginal political cause. We imagine her thinking,
‘because my family has a confusing name change from Angel to Jackson, which I don’t understand, it must be because those cruel English imposed their names on my Aborginal mob.’
No Professor, you have two family names because, for whatever reason, your ‘GrandPa Jackson’, decided, in his own wisdom, to jettison the Angel[l] name and take up the name of Jackson.
You thus appear to be a complete product of your own family and the weird, false-narrative of a life you lead at Sydney University - that contrived Academy of ‘70 hectares surrounded by reality’.
