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Note that this page is not the result of an active research into the Roy name in Australia. Rather, it simply gathers bits and pieces that come to my notice.

If you look at the surname occurrences in this family tree you would be forgiven for thinking that Royes is a more common surname than Roy in Australia. But the reverse is the case. I am aware of only one other Royes family other than the descendants of Edward Hougham Royes, and indeed they may be related.

But there are Roy pockets around Australia not related to the descendants of Samuel Russell Roy and this page seeks to identify the stories behind these other Roy families: Palmwoods near Nambour QLD, Bendigo VIC, and Perth WA. There may be a Roy family in Tasmania.

I am interested mainly though not exclusively in the Anglo-Celtic Roy name, perhaps with the vain hope of eventually finding family links if we can go back far enough! Roy also occurs in French (France and Canada), Indian (Bengali), South Pacific and West Indian cultures.

There is a separate collection of Roy-related families of interest called Roy Miscellaneous.

Early State Records

The following table lists information available on the web (sort by clicking on the head of a column - click again to reverse the order):

NSW SRO = New South Wales State Records Office • SMH = Sydney Morning Herald shipping lists • QSA = Queensland State Archives

Convicts

The Bendigo Roys

Dianne (Roy) Wickham is a descendant of the Bendigo Roys and says of her family: Her 2G grandfather was William Roy, born in Kentucky to Lewis Roy. Lewis was African American - possibly a freed slave - in Kentucky, a horse trainer, which is as far back as her research has taken her.

William Roy was born in 1824 in Kentucky, came to Australia and eventually settled in Bendigo VIC, where in 1892 he married Mary Harrison, born 1826 in England. They had seven children all born in Bendigo. They are buried in Eaglehawk Cemetery, Bendigo. There is a family tree here which itself has links within people's notes to more data on other sites.

William Roy of Ireland

Who's Who