By Marion Sargent
My interest in family history began in the early 1970s when we were "discovered" by a long-lost cousin in England. Canon Alexander (Alec) Sargent, who lived in Canterbury, Kent, knew that he had some cousins living in Tasmania, Australia. He had been visited by one of these, Amy Sargent, in 1911. When he retired from his duties with the Church, he wrote to the Bishop of Tasmania enquiring about any Sargent family members who might have been living near Wynyard on the north west coast. My Uncle Charles Sargent's name and address were sent to Alec - and then began the journey of searching for our roots.
In 1980 we were "found" by another branch of our family in Western Australia. Forebears of these two families were heading for Tasmania in 1886 on different ships. My family reached here but and the others disembarked in Perth.
Several members of our Australian family have made the pilgrimage to Canterbury to see Alec, or since Jan 1989, his plaque in the Cloister wall of Canterbury Cathedral. Other places of significance to our family are Battle, Oxford, Henley-on-Thames, Eythorne and Whitfield.
This website gives a brief outline of the Sargent family,
whose known history began in Hastings, Sussex, England, in 1540.