I had my first paranormal encounter when I was 8 years old. I was in grade 2 at primary school in Australia. I have a twin brother and live with both my parents. When I was 8, I was very interested in ghost stories and ghost sightings etc, you name it and I've seen it! So I had seen some pretty scary looking ghosts from images and heard about some pretty scary stories too. I'd read about signs if you're house is haunted or not as well. So when I saw what I saw, I drew a conclusion to the most obvious 'thing' it could have been: a ghost.
So the story:
It was around 2 am; in the early hours of the morning. I woke up and (as every 8 year old will most likely need to do) I had to pee. My house is 2 storey and all our bedrooms are on the top floor. My room is closest to the stairs and the first bedroom on the corridor - and also the furthest away from the bathroom. So I turned on my lamp and ran to turn on my bedroom light, which I did normally when I needed to go to the bathroom at night because I was scared of the dark. After turning on the main light, I rushed back, turned off my lamp and then turned off my big light when I'd opened my bedroom door.
I then started to walk up the corridor and I felt something behind me so, as a foolish 8 year old, I looked back.
I saw a strange sandy figure there hovering about a foot above the ground. It looked light Henry VIII (Henry the 8th, the King). I just stood there, not paralysed, just really scared! When I built up the courage to move back I then screamed 'GHOST!' and ran full pelt to my parents' room and jumped in their bed. It was safe to say that I no longer needed the bathroom (to which I drew another conclusion that my pee froze).
I'm not sure if this will count as a REAL ghost encounter but to me, it was real enough and scary enough as well! Tell me why you think in the comments below!
I don't think Henry VIII visited NSW. He died on January 28th, 1547; 223 years later, Captain Cook discovered Australia (August 22nd, 1770) and claimed it for the British Empire. As with most lands 'Discovered' by white explorers during that era, he presumed that any prior discoverers who'd settled down there didn't count because they were not members of a European nation bent on colonizing the planet to control the prices of resources.
Sadly, none of Henry VIII's legitimate heirs, nor his only acknowledged illegitimate heir, had children. If your family is descended from Henry (a possibility, not a certainty) it'd be through one of his mistresses, dalliances, one-night-stands, or opportunistic exploitations which he then forgot or claimed that the woman was of low moral character, and how could anyone trust her claims when compared with the word of a (death-penalty-addicted) king?
Just a few historical musings...
Biblio.