Welcome to The Hungerford & Associated Families Society. We’re a not-for-profit association which researches the history of the Hungerford family in Australia and New Zealand. We connect current-day family with each other and generations of the past.

Why we’re here

In 1828, Emanuel Hungerford and Catherine Loane migrated from Ireland to Sydney on the Alexander Henry, bringing their family, servants, animals and equipment. They settled in today’s Hunter Valley, where three of their sons married daughters of Tom White Melville Winder and Ellen Johnson. Later, Hungerford and Loane cousins arrived, so we trace and welcome all these associated family lines.

The Hungerford history dates back to medieval times in southern England, followed by migration to Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the USA and Canada. We have articles on Farleigh-Hungerford Castle through to manors in Ireland and houses in New South Wales.

Keen committee members gather copies of photos, letters and other records, visiting Hungerford descendants near and far. Transcriptions of birth, marriage, death records are obtained to update our records and help with your research.
We produce two journals each year, which contain articles on people, places and other topics of interest. These are sent to paying members and later released for public research. Two newsletters are produced each year and various articles are posted on our website. There are nearly 30 years of articles online now.
In more recent years, we’ve been using DNA tests to check the stories handed down and discover missing information. We’ve found missing ancestors and discovered people and relationships we never knew existed. Current projects are to discover the ancestors of Tom Winder and Ellen Johnson and to see if we can link Australian and American Hungerfords back to the Irish and English Hungerfords, using Y-DNA.

What’s Coming Up?

In 2027, we hope to have a book by Dr Peter Sherlock on the origins of Tom Winder – not a son of the Duke of Wellington as family had believed.

In 2028, we’ll celebrate 200 years in Australia with a book on Captain Emanuel Hungerford (also by Peter Sherlock), and an updated version of “Hungerfords Down Under”, which is our attempt to record every descendant of Emanuel and Catherine, so members can trace their own ancestors and cousins. This will be the first major revision since 2013 and only available to members.

We’d love you to join us and keep the family thread going for other generations. We welcome you whether you’re descended by blood, adoption, accident, marriage or friendship. We value your contribution whether it’s a research article, funny family story, DNA discovery or a working bee in our archives.

Join Us today

As a not-for-profit association, we rely on the enthusiasm of members and financial contributions through subscriptions and donations. Most importantly, we need younger generations to carry on the threads of history.
So please keep up your connections with the Hungerford and Associated Families Society today and encourage other family members to join. It’s an easy online application and payment. We don’t automatically charge renewals, but you can pay for several years in advance and we do send reminders each year in August.