Blog Post #3 - A Name That’s Lasted 200 Years
👨👧👦 Stonestreet Family Reunion
In 2024, the Stonestreet family marked 200 years since three brothers from Sussex first arrived in Australia. That milestone wasn’t just a number — it was a reminder of everything that’s happened since: births, weddings, funerals, fires, floods, sheep sales, Sunday roasts, and the occasional ghost in the hallway.
To celebrate, a Stonestreet Family Reunion was held in November 2024 at the Golden Memories Millthorpe Museum, with over 200 people in attendance — a fitting place to honour the family’s 200-year Australian story.
Ours is a name that’s stuck.
We’ve seen it carved into wooden gates, stitched into church honour rolls, etched into war memorials, and scribbled on the backs of recipe cards.
Special thanks to Rosemarie Amos, Vicki Andrews, Amanda Stonestreet, Martin Andrews, and everyone else who kept the ball rolling. (And a shout-out to Aunty Alice, who was arranging family reunions in the 1970s — well before it was cool.)
Highlights from the 2024 Stonestreet Reunion
Photography by Merrille Photography, Martin Andrews and Kin & Keepsakes ©️2024 Stonestreet Family Archive
📖 A Family Book 200 Years in the Making
To honour the bicentenary, dozens of Stonestreet descendants contributed to a remarkable family book titled The Stonestreet Brothers: 200 Years in Australia.
Inside are:
Stories of the early convict years
Family recollections from Springdale, Rainecourt, Fairview, and Greendale
Memories of shearing sheds, school days, wedding cakes, and greyhounds
Tributes to people like Arthur, Dorothy, Joan, and Dimp, whose quiet efforts kept the family connected
Photographs spanning six generations, capturing everyday life across the decades
🧒 Why the Stories Matter
This blog is our way of keeping those stories alive especially for younger generations who didn’t know Levi, but may have inherited his forehead.
We want cousins and great-grandchildren (and even “double cousins twice removed”) to be able to:
Search their surname and find a memory
See what the old houses looked like
Read a story that makes them laugh
Discover where the name came from — and why it mattered
🧭 Looking Forward
The name Stonestreet will keep going through children, new marriages, hyphenations, and maybe even the odd rebrand. But wherever it appears, it carries 200 years of memory behind it.
And this site, like the book, is a place to hold onto it.
🇫 Lets keep building our tree, join the 200 Years of Stonestreets in AustraliaFacebook Group.
🛍️Shop the Stonestreet Collection
📘 Read the full Stonestreet family story Stonestreet Family - 200 Years in Australia
Downloadable family ebook for $10, and browse the apparel and keepsakes inspired by the Stonestreet legacy in Australia.
💬 Have you got a favourite story or old photo to share? Email us — we’re building this archive one memory at a time.
📚 Next up: A Murder at King’s Plains — Colonial justice, bush drama, and Levi caught in the courtroom crossfire
