Monday, November 14, 2011

Names, Places and Most Wanted Faces

Following Geniaus' suggestion about adding our "most wanted" ancestors from Australia and their homeland, adapted from Thomas MacEntee's Surname Saturday blog post, I have created a new blog. Here are the (public) answers to my very first meme regarding my most elusive ancestors.

Format:

1. List your surnames in alphabetical order as follows:

[SURNAME]: State/Province (county/subdivision), date range
as in:

AUSTIN surname: New York (Jefferson County, Lewis County, St. Lawrence County), 1830-present; Rhode Island (Kent County, Washington County), 1638-1830

2. At the end, list your Most Wanted Ancestor with details!

Aston, Mary: Armagh, Ireland, ?-1903; Emigrating to Australia at some unknown time

Cook, William Henry or Henry William: Shoreditch, Middlesex, England, 1819-1869, Emigrating to Australia at some unknown time

Dillon , Michael: Baher, Galway, Ireland, 1811-?
Michael Dillon arrived in NSW, Australia in 1848 aboard the "Subroan" with his son Michael and wife Mary.

Jones, Mary: Tredegar, Wales 1831-1889
Mary Jones married Thomas Pugh Morgan in Abergavenny in 1851. Together with their children, they immigrated to Queensland, later settling in Wallsend NSW

King, Olive: Brighton, Sussex, England, 1820?-1898
Convict, Olive King was transported to NSW for 7 years aboard the “Mary Anne”.

Lefroy, James: Ireland? 1804-1884
Convict, James Lefroy was transported to Australia aboard the “Eliza” in 1832 for 7 years.

Matheson, Christiana: Isle of Skye, Scotland, 1815?-1895; 
Emigrating to Australia at some unknown time

Morgan, Thomas Pugh: Monmouthshire, Wales 1827-1881.
Thomas Pugh Morgan married Mary Jones in Abergavenny in 1851. Together with their children, they immigrated to Queensland, later settling in Wallsend NSW

Nicholls Henry: Rochester, Kent, England, 1818-?
Convict, Henry Nicholls was transported to Tasmania for 15 years, arriving aboard the “Gilmore” in 1843. There he met and married another convict, Fanny Norman in 1852. Sometime after 1854, the family moved to, and settled in Sydney NSW. Henry then disappears from the records

O’Connor, James: Ballinalack, Westmeath, Ireland 1837-1902; 
Emigrating to Australia at some unknown time

O’Sullivan / Sullivan, Julia: Boherbue, County Cork, Ireland, 1833-?; E
migrating to Australia at some unknown time

Smith, Owen – total brick wall – only named on son’s baptism certificate as a shoemaker, at Boorolong Station near Armidale NSW, Australia

Wotton, William: Bridford, Devon, England 1830-1870; Emigrating to Australia at some unknown time

My Most Wanted? Owen Smith (see above) and his wife Christiana Matheson by a long shot. My Mother started her search for this couple over 40 years ago, and it was only recently that Christiana's surname and place of birth were discovered. But even contacting a researcher on the Isle of Skye, nothing can identify her parents or when she would have arrived in Australia!






4 comments:

  1. Hello there!

    You’ve got a great genealogy blog and we’ve added it to the list of over 2,000 genealogy blogs at GeneaBloggers (http://www.geneabloggers.com).

    We will announce your blog in our weekly New Genealogy Blogs on Saturday, November 19, 2011. In the meantime, please visit the About ( http://www.geneabloggers.com/about/) section at GeneaBloggers to learn how you can display your GeneaBloggers badge on your blog and also how you can participate in activities such as the Daily Blogging Prompts. If you need technical assistance, please check out Bootcamp for GeneaBloggers (http://fbbootcamp.blogspot.com).

    Don’t forget to tune in to GeneaBloggers Radio – a live 90-minute Internet radio show each Friday evening! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geneabloggers/

    Cheers

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  2. Best wishes on your new blog and in finding your "most wanted" ancestor, Owen Smith...as well as the many other surnames you mentioned! I share your frustration, in particular, in the Irish "convicts" sentenced to transportation to Australia, leaving not much of a trace in official records after departing their homeland. I had one such relative surface, afterwards, in Chicago, USA, with those mysterious tracks still unexplained after years of searching. I have to hope that, with the increase in digitized records, the answers will show up some day soon!

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  3. Did you trying looking on the National Archives UK website for James Lefroy. I was able to find some court records for one of our 'convict' relatives there.
    Regards,
    Theresa (Tangled Trees)

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  4. Hi all,

    I only just discovered your comments to my first post today (21st November)!
    Thank you for your encouragement and tips and support!
    I will try to continue following the various themes and memes and post a lot more regularly

    Regards from Linda

    ReplyDelete