Quite how George Thomas Purser managed to evade the law I am not quite sure.  If I can track down where he went after 200 years I would have thought that even the Met of 1911 could have managed it. After all, Australia was then part of the British Empire and shared our King, so was there no extradition arrangement.  Perhaps its just that nobody could get their head around someone going to Australia to escape justice rather than going there because of Justice !  Who knows ? there is no way of finding out now.

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Once there George and his family seem to have prospered, by 1913 his name is on the register off those eligible to vote in Paddington, a very swanky part of Sydney. To be on the register he must have owned his house, not just rented.

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By 1933 George and Elizabeth had moved on and lived at 2 McLean st Auburn. Still in the "nicer" parts of Sydney their old house is no longer there but its replacement can be seen , bottom right hand image. Now this looks a typical house in the 'burbs, however 90 years ago such an address would mark a man out as a cut above the common stream. I have to say I rather feel for his poor old Father, dying alone broken and bankrupt in a cold desolate workhouse, whilst George and family established themselves in Sydney's scene, such as it was. No wonder the "Ten Pound Poms" were not much loved by those born in Australia.

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After this the family somewhat drop off the Radar, or more to the point, I haven't as yet got around to documenting them in detail !  George & Elizabeth's son Frank married Jane Smith, sadly at just 55 she died in 1955, and subsequently he re-married to Dora Crichton, she was a widow and had one son Keith, who was of similar age to James & Jane's two sons, Frank & Cecil. ( how bad do you have to have been in your past life to deserve being re-born called Cecil !! ) Cecil continued the family tradition ion bricklaying as had his Father James, before him.

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Cecil and family ended up living in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, around 50 miles inland of Sydney. This is the same Katoomba where in 1982 I lived and worked at the local hospital.  At the time I had no idea that we had any relatives there, however shortly after my contract finished & I moved on, my Dad remembered that he had some distant cousin  who lived in Katoomba. Bit late !!!