In the year 1879, William and Jane Burns from Durham, England, migrated to Newcastle, Australia, in the hope of finding a better life for themselves and their two children, Joseph, aged three, and Elizabeth, aged one.
During this time, he befriended a German.
William, like his father, was a coal miner and found work easily in a Newcastle colliery.
Stormy seas, interspersed with weeks of boredom, made their three-month-long voyage on the sailing ship, William Stonehouse, anything but pleasant.
In the year 1879, William and Jane Burns from Durham, England, migrated to Newcastle, Australia, in the hope of finding a better life for themselves and their two children, Joseph, aged three, and Elizabeth, aged one