Frederick Lansdown was born circa 1849 in New South Wales, Australia and died 20 December 1910 in Merriwa, New South Wales, Australia of Cancer. He married Maria Gosper (1844-1910) 24 November 1875 in Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
Frederick's name
It is possible that Frederick was born as Frederick Thomas Digby - see below in "Who was Frederick's father?",
Frederick first appears in the records, as Frederick Thomas Lansdown, when he marries in 1875. In records after that date for the births of his children he is recorded as either Frederick Thomas Lansdown or Thomas Lansdown. Later in life he dropped the name of Thomas altogether, and became Frederick William Lansdown, the name under which his death is registered. By the time of his death the spelling of his surname had also become LANSDOWNE, the spelling also used by most of his children.
Frederick's occupation
Frederick was illiterate and worked as a station hand all his life. Even though his wife Maria inherited farmland from her sister Mary Ann in 1880 this land was sold to her brother William Henry Gosper rather than farmed by Frederick.
Who was Frederick's father?
No birth registration exists for Frederick. At his marriage in November 1875 he stated that his mother was unknown but that his father's name was Thomas Lansdown. According to the age that he gave when he married, Frederick was born in 1849. (In contrast his family stated his age at death to be 55 giving a year of birth of about 1855, which is now known to be incorrect.) No parents were listed at his death. Frederick's stated birthplace at death was Goulburn, which had been the place of residence of the man who we now know was his father: Thomas Lansdown (1817-1885) of Boxers Creek near Goulburn. Confusingly Thomas Lansdown of Boxers Creek had 2 sons named Frederick.
DNA evidence has now proven that Frederick was the natural-born son of Thomas Lansdown of Boxers Creek. Descendants of Frederick who are not also descendants of either of Thomas Lansdown's wives Jane Kelly or Rebecca Best are DNA matches with descendants of Thomas Lansdown through both of these 2 wives, with the only common denominator for the DNA match being Thomas Lansdown of Boxers Creek. Born in about 1849, but with no documentary evidence of his birth, has Frederick Thomas Lansdown born, probably as Frederick Thomas Digby, before the birth and death of his younger brother Thomas Digby in 1850, and as the son of Thomas Digby of Yass and his 1st wife Ann. Thomas Digby of Yass was later known as Thomas Lansdown of Boxers Creek.
Prior to this DNA evidence becoming available it was not known if Thomas Lansdown of Boxers Creek was Frederick Thomas Lansdown's father or not. Stories in the families were contradictory.
Two of the Thomas Lansdown's grandsons, the sons of his son Robert Best Lansdowne (1864-1945), married two of Frederick's granddaughters, the daughters of his son Henry Thomas Lansdowne (1878-1959), in Murwillumbah in 1934. From that time onwards these two Lansdowne families became intertwined. This then provides an explanation for the origin of the following stories.
There is a story that has become folklore within the family. In this story Frederick Thomas Lansdown was adopted by Thomas Lansdown, and Thomas Lansdown was not his father. This story states that Frederick Thomas Lansdown's birth surname was either Day or Faithfull. Even without the DNA matches that have disproved this story, this story is not credible. It is known that Thomas Lansdown worked on the "Springfield" Stud of pastoralist William Pitt Faithfull (1806-1896) at Tirrannaville near Goulburn, the only Faithfull family associated with the Goulburn district in that period. William Pitt Faithfull (1806-1896) had been granted land in the district in 1828, and married in 1844. One version of the story states that Frederick was the son of a Miss Faithfull and an employee by the name of Day who became scared of what her family would do to him and absconded. Thomas was then given some land as consideration for adopting this child who was an embarrassment to the Faithfull family. There was, however, no Miss Faithfull of child-bearing age in the Faithfull family in that period. Neither has a record of transfer of ownership of a piece of land been found. In 1838 William Pitt Faithfull (1806-1896) did himself father an illegitimate son, Henry Pitt Faithfull (1838-1896), with a female employee working on his farm. This child was raised by his mother and given the Faithfull surname which he retained even after his mother married. He then married one of his Faithfull cousins. This is the exact opposite of a precedent of adopting out illegitimate children of the Faithfull family, or of being ashamed of them.
Contradictory, for a long time in both families, it had instead been believed that Frederick Thomas Lansdown may have indeed been Thomas Lansdown's son. This was because it was believed that Thomas Lansdown had married Sophia Todd (1831-1916) in 1850 after which it was believed that she must have died, possibly in childbirth, and it was believed that Frederick may have been her son. Frederick Thomas Lansdown, however, was not the child of Sophia Todd, and Thomas Lansdown of Boxers Creek was never married to her. It is now known that Sophia moved to Melbourne and lived to the age of 85. It is also now known from records associated with her death in Victoria that Sophia had no children. It is now known, from new research undertaken in 2013, that Sophia Todd did not marry Thomas Lansdown (1817-1885) but married another different man by the name of Thomas Lansdown and moved with him to Melbourne. Also Thomas Lansdown (1817-1885) was literate (as proved by a court case in 1857, and his marriage to Rebecca Best (1834-1921) in 1873 where he signed the marriage register), and Sophia Todd and her husband Thomas Lansdown were both illiterate (as proved by the marriage register which they both signed with their mark, that is a cross). Although Sophia Todd was not Frederick Thomas Lansdown's mother, it is now confirmed by DNA that Thomas Lansdown of Boxer's Creek was his father.
There are also stories within the family of Thomas Lansdown (1817-1885) that Frederick share-farmed with his "half-brothers" Henry Thomas Best Lansdowne (1858-1918) and Robert Best Lansdowne (1864-1945) at Murwillumbah, New South Wales before Frederick moved to Colo, New South Wales before his marriage in 1875. This story shows the correct relationship between Frederick and his younger brothers, even though the details of this story are untrue, as at this time Robert Best Lansdown would have been only 10 years old. Marriage records show that the following generation was definately associated with Murwillumbah.
Children
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Frederick Thomas Lansdown (1849-1910) | 1849 New South Wales, Australia | 20 December 1910 Merriwa, New South Wales, Australia | Maria Gosper (1844-1910) |
| Thomas Digby (1850-1850) | 18 May 1850 Yass, New South Wales, Australia | 29 June 1850 Yass, New South Wales, Australia | |