De La Rue
Keith November 19th, 2008
Welcome to the De La Rue genealogy page! This is the central point of reference for the genealogy of the De La Rue families of Australia. (Alternative spellings: Delarue or de la Rue.) If you are a member of any of the families listed below, this page is for you!
Caroline Agnes
My main interest is to document the descendants of Thomas and Tabitha De La Rue, of Leicestershire and Surrey, England, who arrived at Point Henry, Port Phillip District, NSW (now Victoria), Australia on 28 Jun 1849. They arrived with eight children as assisted migrants on the Caroline Agnes, after departing London, 24 Feb 1849, and settled in Geelong, Vic. Two more children were born in Australia after they arrived. Thomas was my great-great-grandfather, and was born in Linghton, Leicestershire on 5 Dec 1808. I have records of over 2,000 descendants (including spouses) of Thomas and Tabitha.
Other De La Rue families of interest include:
- William de la Rue of Forest, Guernsey (born 15 Nov 1822), who arrived in Melbourne, Victoria in Jun 1854. He arrived with his two younger brothers on the Saldanha, having left Liverpool in Mar 1854, and settled at El Dorado, Victoria. William married Louisa Augusta Borchers of Goslar, Hanover, Germany on 4 Sep 1867 at El Dorado. It seems that most of the De La Rues of any note in Victoria are descendants of William and Louisa; I have records of over 155 descendants (including spouses) of this family.
- Hippolyte Felix Ferdinand De La Rue, of Berck, Normandy, France, who came to Sydney in 1840. This family is documented in the books A Bunyip Close Behind Me and Ladies Didn’t, by Eugenie Crawford. Hippolyte established a jewellery shop in George St, Sydney in 1850.
- Charles Delarue of Colmar, Alsace, France (born 1824), who arrived in NSW between 1824 and 1860. He married Emma Hines (or Hinds) at Murringo, NSW on 31 Oct 1860; they had eight children. This family includes sports presenter Dennis Cometti in its ranks. I have not yet documented all the recent information on this family.
- Thomas de la Rue, of Forest, Guernsey (born 24 Mar 1793), who moved to England and set up as a printer. The company he founded is still in existence - see the history page at delarue.com. This is available in more detail in Lorna Houseman’s book The House that Thomas Built. It is not clear how many descendants of this family are in Australia, but there is at least one in New Zealand. Although Thomas was born in the same village as William, as yet I cannot find any family connection.
A number of members of the families are also engaged in this research. I am also researching my own ‘pedigree’ as much as possible - other family names of interest include Kelly, Westwood and Lamb. There is convict ancestry here - the De La Rue family is linked to the Thorowgood family, and the Kelly family is linked to First Fleet convicts Nathaniel Lucas and Olivia Gascoigne.
GEDCOM Files
Information on the above families is available on request in two files:
- DeLaRue - The families of Thomas and Tabitha De La Rue and William de la Rue. This also includes all information on my own pedigree.
- DeLaRueX - All other available De La Rue information - the families of Hippolyte Felix Ferdinand De La Rue, Charles Delarue, Thomas de la Rue and some records found that are not yet connected.
Please contact me or use the comment field below if you would like a copy of these files, and I can email them to you.
More info
A public copy of my family’s GEDCOM file has also been uploaded at Ancestry.com; although I have since acquired more information. You can view the database here - but you may need to register with them first (free).
Please contact me for more details. I am happy to load any information on the families here.
My genealogy software of choice is FZip Family Tree.
Shortcut to this page: http://delarue.net/gen/
Hello there
This is mainly a ‘what’s in a name’ sort of hello message. My daughter’s name is Sarah - but I don’t know whether it’s her featuring in your blog. I am a professor in electronic engineering in the University of Glasgow in the U.K.
I know of one other person in the U.K. who is called Richard De La Rue. I have no known U.K born ancestors, since my father was born in Russia - and our ancestry connects back to someone who is believed to have gone from France to Russia in the late 18th Century. Before that, who knows? The way that my surname is written is the result of a choice by my father and/or grandfather. In Russian it was written as a single word.
best wishes,
Richard De La Rue
Richard -
Nice to hear from you. I have not previously struck any De La Rue connection to Russia! We certainly seem to be a cosmopolitan lot…
The Sarah that commented here previously is based in the USA - does that help?
- Keith.
Hi
My grandma is 92 soon and she is Grace De La Rue in Gembrook, Vic. My mother is her eldest daughter and she then had seven sons. There is a very large family and I noticed there is very little information on the ancestry website about this part of the De la rue family. Hope I can help to fill in the gaps with my mother’s help.
Regards, Carol
Carol -
Thanks for the info. Yes, we are in the same family. I will drop you an email. Look forward to filling in those gaps!
- Keith
Hi
I was researching my family tree when I found the name “Rue” in it. When I looked further I discovered their name was Delarue, De La Rue, La Rue, Rew etc.
I was really interested in the reason why they varied their name? I also found because of the name variations some of them are hard to trace. The Rues in my tree come from around Carcoar, Molong, Canowindra, Orange etc. Is there a connection to your mob?
Robert Edward married Phoebe Lucinda Plunkett in 1875 at Carcoar. The line then works back into the Rayners then into the Nelsons etc.
Well, that’s all for now.
Regards, Jennifer
Jennifer -
Thanks for your comment. I can’t find a direct connection to my family, but given the place names, it is likely that you may be connected to the family of Charles Delarue of Colmar, Alsace, France. A number of other people have done work on this family.
You may find that the variations in the name are due to varying levels of literacy. I have observed this a number of times. There are a number of alternatives for spelling the name. Apart from the choice of case and number of words (Delarue, De La Rue and de la Rue are all common), there are a number of alternatives that make life even more difficult. Some of these we know are related, others are not certain: De La Rew, De La Roux, De La Reu and more. Then there is the question of the relationship to La Rue and Rue. In some cases in Europe, prefixes like “de la” are just sometines ignored.
As my family came out to Australia via England, I assume that the capitalised spelling that we use is an Anglicisation. One branch of my family deliberately adopted the single-word spelling about three or four generations ago as a further simplification. The other families, having come out directly from France or the Channel Islands, tend to have retained the original lower case for the “de la”.
- Keith.
Hello,
After reading your Family History site, I believe we are related.
My great great great grandmother was Mary Maria Delarue who married John Wilson. I come in through their daughter Mary Jane, and in turn Daniel Gordon and then my grandfather Stanley Gordon Wilson.
Cheers
Matthew -
Thanks for your note, and for your patience! Yes, we are definitely related. I haven’t previously had any details on the descendants of Mary Jane, your great great grandmother. Would love to compare notes on your branch of the family!
- Keith
dear keith
where are you connected in the de la rue family? i am connected to william robert ballagh and irene de la rue if you need any more info do email me.
from lynda watson
Lynda -
We did correspond some time ago, and I do owe you an email! Irene was my father’s first cousin.
- Keith.