hi Folks putting off going out into the ice covered garden here on the goldfields ...... Sam wrote: snip: am wondering whether the TIMOR cemetary and TIMOR TULLAROOPSHIRE are of the same place? I have a relative with the surname SAMPSON nee ORGAN who I believe to have died and be buried there.... My reply: yes, they are, Tullarooop Shire becoming part of the current Central Goldfields Shire in the amalgamations not too long ago. The early Cemetery records were lost by the usual process, in a house fire. Other listers and the Midlands (Maryborough District) Historical Society ( who have a website) will have more info., on the area as well. There are many surviving headstones in the cemetery, including those of my ggggrandmother, and alleged gggrandfather. The last one and a bit of the very fancy timber Art Nouveau grave surrounds were still standing a year and a bit ago, but most other timber headstones have gone. A map from c.1900 exists of the location of the houses for Timor-Bowenvale Note that there was almost continuous settlement, following the mining leads, from the edge of the Crown Land where Dundas Road and Pekin Road from Maryborough meet, through Leviathan Reef, to Chinaman's Flat to Bowenvale to Timor, all in about 4 km, maybe less, with lateral settlement across to Lower Alma (where my gggrandmother lived) to Alma itself. There was also reef mining in the area, with one minor reef being named Hastings Reef, and mined by my ggrandfather of that surname. There's the remains of considerable lead mining in the area, including those of puddling machines, some of the mullock heaps, and the huge arches which supported the cornish pumps. There's also evidence of much later cyaniding. There will be lots of information on Alma, Timor, etc in the List Archives. They're at http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=AUS-VIC-GOLDFIELDS but don't blame me if you get stuck in there for hours! Discipline, Doris! Tom