Albert Whitman Parris was born in Paris Maine but spent most of his early years in Portland where his father was Governor. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1835, and like his father and grandfather he too studied law. He was a Clerk for the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington DC when he married Sarah Elizabeth Virginia Smoot on the 30 May 1838. On the recommendation of Governor Doty in 1841 he travelled to the Territory of Wisconsin where negotiations were underway with the Sioux for part of their land. His return to Wisconsin in early 1842 was due to employment as a Probate Judge in Dane County, and as a Supreme Court Commissioner. Later that year he was the Government Register of the Land Office at Muscoda before it was relocated to Mineral Point, where he was the Register up until 1849. He then started his own business of Attorney at Law & Land Agent in Mineral Point following incoming President Taylor appointing a Whig as his replacement. At the time of Albert's disappearance from Mineral Point in mid-1851, he was advertised as in a business partnership with prominent Wisconsin lawyer Samuel Crawford. During his time in Wisconsin he was actively involved with Democrat politics and held senior positions in the Masonic Lodge. Albert and Sarah had four young children at the time of his disappearance, Edward being the oldest was aged ten and their youngest daughter Helen was aged barely two years old.

Albert's partner, Ellen Temby was the daughter of a Cornish miner from England. She was born in Monmouth shire, Wales in 1832 and her family had traveled to America in 1839 and later settled in Wisconsin by the mid 1840's where her father later purchased a farm at Linden. In 1850, seventeen-year-old Ellen Temby was working as a housemaid to Albert's wife Sarah in the family home at Mineral Point. Eleanor evidently caught Albert's attention as by late 1851 he had changed his name to Albert De Forest when aged thirty-three years old, and Eleanor aged nineteen years old arrived as cabin passengers in Adelaide, Australia on the 20 November 1851. Their first born child also named Eleanor was born in Melbourne in 1852, but sadly died on the gold fields aged 23 months later at Castlemaine. Albert's occupation was recorded as a laborer at Campbell's Creek on his daughter's death certificate, and around that same period his wife Sarah in America commenced divorce proceedings against him.

Albert and Eleanor next moved to Fryers Creek (Fryers Town) where he was reportedly a gold miner for the next ten years. During this period, his partner Eleanor gave birth to seven children with the surname of De Forest and all except one had their birth records showing that Albert and Eleanor married on the 12 May 1851 in Galena, Illinois. The only one exception was George Washington De Forest's birth, which showed their marriage took place on the 30 May 1851, which coincidentally was the marriage anniversary date of Albert and Sarah.

Albert began demonstrating in the mid 1860's that he was a well-educated miner. He was appointed Secretary of the Burke (and Wills) Mechanics Institute at Fryerstown - which was a place of learning in the community for miners and the public to learn to read and write and have access to news and literature from around the world. He was not long afterwards appointed Head Teacher at a newly established Common School at nearby Glenluce. He even joined the Masonic Lodge again at Fryerstown, where he even indicated that he was a past member in the US. He began using his community leadership skills that he had demonstrated in his past. His intention to remain in vicinity of Glenluce seemed most likely when he selected two five-acre Crown Land allotments next to the School and having frontage to the Loddon River. He and Eleanor had another two children born at Glenluce. He opened the first Post Office there in early 1868 and became a British subject there whilst indicating he was born in Maine. He was appointed the Deputy Registrar of Births and Deaths in the Fryers district of Glenluce in 1868. He was the Registrar on his daughter Caroline's birth record on 7 December 1869 and was actively involved in other community activities including conducting night classes to teach reading and writing skills to the local mining and farming community.

The unfortunate brutal murder of a student on her way home from the Glenluce school and the time taken before an arrest was made and subsequent trial hearing changed Albert and his families outlook on Glenluce. The newspapers reported that Albert's salary, which was aligned to student numbers decreased due to their parent's reluctance to let the children walk the long distances to his school. The result was that Albert with his large family to feed had no option but to move on away from Glenluce and take up an offer of Head Teacher at Upper Macedon.

Upper Macedon or Mount Macedon was early on a timber harvesting area, but after the gold rush was fast becoming a summer retreat for Melbourne's wealthy elite to reside at over the hot summers. Student numbers were increasing due to an influx of workers and their families in the area and Albert once again was getting a reliable albeit modest income. He opened the first Post Office at Mount Macedon in May 1870, and he and Eleanor had another two children born there. Tragedy struck his family when Eleanor passed away from exhaustion and heart failure, after the birth of their thirteenth child on 10th August 1873. Albert ordered two graves upon Eleanor's death, and she was buried two days later in the Macedon Cemetery.

Less than two years elapsed following Eleanor's death before Albert married Frances Laura Rose Tate - a widow whose husband had been a Teacher at Chewton. Albert indicated several years later that his children at that time needed a mother, and that Frances filled that role. Frances, like Eleanor at Upper Macedon, had been a Work Mistress at Chewton, where she had continued to take classes until the end of the year. She even gained her License to Teach at Upper Macedon and along with Albert who had earlier gained his Certificate 1 in Teaching there they had planned on moving to a School where they would be better remunerated. However, in an instance their hopes were dashed when Frances died suddenly in June 1877. Frances was buried alongside her first husband at Chewton Cemetery. Albert wrote that all happiness and high hopes were in an instant destroyed by the awfully sudden death of my wife in June 1877. In the following month his eldest daughter Eva was married in Echuca, and then within days Albert abruptly left his teaching position. Albert was to abandon his and Frances school aged children, leaving them behind in the dilapidated Head Teachers residence, which according to him was literally falling around them.

Within days of Albert's disappearance, he wrote a letter from Melbourne on the 24 July 1877 indicating that he was going to commit suicide. It was several years later, whilst Echuca that Albert wrote to the Education Department that he had become weary of life and his reason had lost its balance and he left abruptly with the insane intention of finding a grave remote from and unknown to his children. On that same day in Melbourne where he was contemplating suicide, he was shown to have boarded the SS Barrabool as Mr. A. Parris where he travelled as a saloon passenger to Sydney. Two days later he most likely boarded the steam ship SS Zealandia as a steerage passenger, which then travelled to San Francisco where it arrived in California in late August 1877. It was not until after his return to Australia in 1879 that he wrote that God in his mercy interposed (regarding his depression and suicidal thoughts) and he found himself in a distant land (America).

Albert's residence in America (USA) was confirmed on a voters roll in April 1879, which showed that he was a School Teacher at Green Valley, Solano County, California. His stay in California also coincided with his first wife Sarah and daughter Helen living in that State, although they had been there for several years. Helen was recently married to a Stewart, and employed at the US Mint, and her mother Sarah was with her daughter and son in law at Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the City Directory, Sarah was shown as the widow of Albert W. Parris, which seemed at odds with her undertaking divorce proceedings against him in 1854.

Albert stayed in the USA for just over two years before he returned to Australia. He was to write in Echuca that he had an irresistible longing to be with his dear children in the land of his adoption and this had driven him back (to Australia). His return trip to Australia from San Francisco was as Mr. A. D. Forrest, again as a steerage passenger on board the SS Zealandia arriving in Sydney on the 24 November 1879. He made the return journey to Melbourne as Mr. A. Forrest, again as a cabin passenger. He shortly afterwards applied for a teaching position in Echuca in a letter addressed to the Victorian Education Department. In this letter he explained his reasons for departing so abruptly from Upper Macedon in July 1877. The education minister showed no sympathy for Albert's misfortune and reasons for leaving his teaching duties at Mount Macedon and thus ended his Victorian teaching career.

Albert's return to Australia was relatively short lived and though he spent the next six months in Echuca writing several letters to the Education Department, the only positive outcome for him was that they granted him a release to teach in States other than Victoria. At the time, Albert wrote that he had three small children reliant on charity for their sustenance and survival and he too was reportedly showing the symptoms of Phthisis, which according to his death certificate he had for his last six months of life.

Albert was to pass away on 2 March 1881 in Echuca. He was transported from Echuca to Macedon and buried alongside his partner Eleanor Temby in the north-east corner of the Macedon Cemetery. His death certificate informed by his son Benjamin gave no clues as to who Albert's parents were, or the date as to when he and Eleanor were married.

Two years elapsed following Albert's death when his son Alfred recorded on his sister Mary's death record their father's middle name was Whitman indicating a connection with that surname. Albert's mother was in fact Sarah Whitman a daughter of Reverend Levi Whitman of Wellfleet. Records in the USA from Bowdoin College Alumni and those from his two daughters showed that Albert W Parris had died in Australia and in 1881, respectively. News of Albert's death evidently reached relatives in the USA and whether any exchange of information resulted in his past becoming known one can only guess. Whatever was known of his past around the time of his death was forgotten as it was not until one hundred and thirty-five years later that his descendants came to the conclusion that Albert W DeForest was in fact Albert W Parris through the connection with Eleanor Temby.

Albert's mother, Sarah Whitman, survived him and at the time of her death was quite wealthy. Sarah thoughts on her son's chosen path through his life are probably best summed up when she wrote that his share of the family inheritance would be only one dollar. Inheritance is not only determined by the beneficiaries of an estate, since autosomal DNA testing shows that Sarah has been blessed with a significant number of Australian-born descendants from the partnership of her eldest son Albert and Eleanor Temby. We in Australia are most grateful for this union.

Albert descends from four Mayflower passengers who arrived on the east coast of America in 1620. Among his early American ancestors were Isaac Allerton and his wife Mary Norris, and their daughter Mary Allerton and also from Richard Warren whose family arrived in America at a later date.

Albert's descent from the Allerton's:

1. Isaac Allerton and Mary Norris - 6 x great grandparents
2. Mary Allerton - 5 x great grandmother
3. Lydia Cushman - 4 x great grandmother
4. William Harlow II - 3 x great grandfather
5. William Harlow III - 2 x great grandfather
5. Lydia Harlow - great grandmother
6. Sarah Pratt - grandmother
7. Albion Keith Parris - father
8. Albert Whitman De Forest.

Albert's descent from Richard Warren:

1. Richard Warren - 7 x great grandfather
2. Mary Warren - 6 x great grandmother
3. Rebecca Bartlett - 5 x great grandmother
4. William Harlow I - 4 x great grandfather
5. William Harlow II - same order as above.