Anne (or Ann) Nestor (or Nester/ Naster/ Neaster) : Short Biography

Anne Nestor migrated to South Australia in 1854 on the ship Lord of the Isles as a 20 year old assisted immigrant. Five years later Ellen, her younger sister, migrated on The North. Ellen was 18 by this time, too young for the migration scheme when her elder sister left Ireland. Besides, Anne missed Ellen and sponsored her migration.  Anne always told family she came from Clare, while Ellen was said to have been born in Ballymena, Co. Antrim, according to the ship's passenger list. However both had been living in Kings County (Offaly) when they migrated. 

Within two years of arrival in South Australia Anne married a Prussian carpenter, Christian Friedrich Ernst Theel, who had arrived just two months earlier, after jumping ship in Port Adelaide.  The picture shows them both. They settled in Gumeracha, in the hills outside the colony's main town, Adelaide. In the same month of Anne's marriage to Christian, Ellen arrived in South Australia and by the time Anne's second child was born, Ellen had married too, to Englishman Theophilus Talbot.

However Ellen and Anne lived quite far from each other and neither was literate.  The sisters kept in touch by letters written on their behalf by their husbands. One of these letters survives, written in 1864 when each of the sisters had two children. It is clear from the letter that their parents were still alive, presumably in Ireland, as both sisters were keeping in touch with them. Their father was either Patrick Nestor or James Patrick Nestor.

Before marriage both young women had worked in various homes as a domestic servants. Anne was said to be an accomplished needlewoman. Their father was a butcher who was supposed to have worked for either a Lord Tullymore (Antrim) or Lord Tullamore (Kings/Offaly). 

Between them the Nestor sisters left 17 children who survived childhood. Today their descendants are spread across Australia though, of course, none bear the Nestor name.