Like many Australian immigrants of her time, Josephine Muntz Adams had strong family ties to Northern Ireland.
Her paternal grandparents, Joseph Munce (1795–1893) and Margaret Bingham (1796–1867), lived in Kildare’s Crew, County Down.
Josephine’s mother, Jane Jamison (1836–1901), was born in Belfast. Her father, Thomas Bingham Muntz (1835–1908), originated from Ardglass, a coastal village near Killough.
In 1854, at the age of 19, Thomas set sail for Australia. The 1850s saw significant Irish immigration to Australia, as many sought to escape poverty and cultural repression in Ireland and were drawn by the lure of the Victorian goldfields.
Josephine maintained a connection to her familial homeland, visiting Killough in the early 1900s (and possibly earlier). This collection was inspired by that journey.
