Thursday, September 04, 2008
Fwd: YDE & WELLS
¶ 8:36 PM 
Dear Mr Wells, (or should it be Winters?)
My name is Robert Hughes but more important to you would be that my mother-in-law's maiden name was YDE.
She was descended from Isidor YDE who was born 1820 / 1821 in Vervicq-Sud on the French bank of the river Lys. Opposite it on the Belgian side is its twin town, called Zuid Wervik.
Isidor YDE migrated to Port Philip Bay in Victoria where he disembarked from the "MARIAN MOORE" on the 10th of March 1854.
In 1860 in Buningyong, near Ballarat, he married Emma WELLS, whose family had migrated to Adelaide, South Australia in 1848. In 1854 they migrated overland to Victoria where they originally settled near what is now called Lake Wendouree. They became a well-established family in that district but descendants later spread wider, mostly throughout Australia, but one, John, left the area in 1865 and founded a family in N.Z. He must be an ancestor of yours.
Naturally, I am most interested in the Ydes but there are gaps in my knowledge and some things which are probably correct, but do lack definite proof.
For instance, I believe Isidor's parents were a Jean-Baptiste (+ possibly, Louis Francois) YDE and a daughter of a VERSAVEL. Her second name was Therese. (We shifted house recently and I've not been able to find my folder of YDE family notes.)
I know that somewhere I found that Isidor's father owned a livery stable in Calais (or in the Pas de Calais).
My brother-in-law, John Murphy, tells me that ;- 1. Isidor had been brought up by a pair of maiden aunts.
2. He saw service in the Spahis, in the French army --- a camel corps, not necessarily in the desert, although the French Foreign Legion did have French officers.
3. Isidor was a secretary to the French Consul in Australia. This I've found a bit hard to swallow; however there could be a fact(s) of some sort that might give us an acceptable reason for what he was told
All three of the above were told to John and / or to Glenis, my wife, by their mother, Dora, and if you have some knowledge of them, and better still, evidence, I'd be very happy to hear of it.
I suspect that a cousin of Glen, by the name of John GOLDSMITH, has already been in touch with you, because he recently sent me a copy of Isidor's naturalization papers from 1878 when they were resident in Stawell, Vic. At the same time he attached a full history of the WELLS family originally from Nottingham (lacemakers), later France, then Australia.
Among Isidor & Emmas's children was Armand / Amand who had a son named Rene whom I suspect was the first YDE of the family to come to Western Australia --- He managed a soap factory in North Fremantle. One of their daughters and her husband also settled in Fremantle.
About three or four years ago I became aware that there was an YDE Family History Society in N.Z. so I wrote to its given address but I got no reply.
I look forward to hearing from you and to being able to answer any questions you might have for me.
Yours faithfully,
Robert (Bob) Hughes.
