INTRODUCTION:FROM MILLER TO ROPE, THE MATRIARCHS
INTRODUCTION Beginning with Eliza Ann this series presents as much is as known of my direct maternal line, from Ardstraw, Ireland to Mudgee, NSW Australia. The original research, which included birth, marriage, death, land and cemetery records, was undertaken by my mother, Madge Rups (nee Rope) in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s. I have extended her work in an effort to view these women’s lives in context of what it may have been like for them at the time. Before embarking on these stories I would first like to acknowledge the First Peoples of Australia and their elders past and present, especially the Mowgee clan of the Wiradjuri nation on whose country Eliza Ann and her family made their home. I would also like to acknowledge the devastation of Australia’s First Nations which was the result of British and other arrivals, especially the massacres that were part of the settlement of Mudgee with orders being given to shoot on sight, and honour those who fought and died to protect th