Thankful Thursday - My Australian First Families

I am extremely thankful to my ancestors for all making the daunting journeys to Australia and New Zealand in the mid 1800s.

ADAMS - my great great grandfather George Adams arrived in Australia from Saffron Walden, Essex, England around 1852.
BARRY - his wife, Catherine Barry arrived in Fremantle, Australia in 1853 on board the ship "Travancore" She came from Limerick, Ireland, daughter of John Barry and Mary Boyle.

BEATON - Isabella Beaton from Edinburgh Scotland ( my ggg grandmother) arrived in Australia with her brother, William and his wife Mary, in 1840 on the ill fated ship "The India"
PIKE - Isabella Beaton married John Pike.  He arrived here in 1840 from Ireland on the ship "Coromandel"

FLEMING - Andrew Fleming and his wife Ellen/Helen nee Findlay arrived in Australia in 1848 on the ship "William Stewart".  They came from Penninghame, Wigtonshire, Scotland with their six children to start a new life here.  Their eldest son William Findlay Fleming was my gg grandfather.

KNIGHT - William Findlay Fleming married Ann Jane Knight.  She came to Australia from Gloucestershire, England in 1847.

MORGAN & BLOUNT -  My ggg grandparents, John Morgan and his wife Sarah nee Blount sailed on the ship "Lady Fitzherbert" from England in 1842.

MORGAN -  I had another gg grandfather whose name was also John Morgan.  He came from West Armagh, Ireland in 1855 on the ship "Calliance"
KELLY - In 1858 he married Margaret Alice Kelly who came from Dualla, Tipperary Ireland some time around 1852.

HULME & LAND -  William Cluff Hulme and his wife Hephzibah nee Land were my ggg grandparents.  They came out on the ship "Blue Jacket" in 1862 from Surrey, England.

BARTSH & NEBEL - Johann Heindrich Bartsh and Anna Dorothea Nebel arrived from Prussia on board the ship "Acmel" in January 1855.

MASON & CARSTAIRS - GGG grandparents Peter Webster Mason and his wife Margaret Leslie Carstairs arrived in Australia in 1848 on the ship "Cheapside".  They were from Largo, Fife, Scotland.

HART -  Peter Hart married their daughter, Agnes Mason in 1870.  Peter came from Huntingdonshire, England about 1854.

FORSYTH, FARQUHAR,  MUSSON & BIRD - My grandfather, James Forsyth (born James Musson) was the latest arrival to Australia in the early 1930s.  His grandparents all migrated to New Zealand from the UK.
William Musson in 1861 from Leicestershire, UK on the ship "Royal Stuart"
Catherine Bird in 1863 from Lincolnshire, UK on the "Lancashire Witch"
Robert Forsyth and Jessie Farquhar in 1874 from Aberdeenshire, Scotland on the ship "Crusader"

Thankful Thursday - Two heads are better than one

I am extremely thankful for my family members who are fellow researchers.  


Not that they have two heads of course.


It is so rewarding when two heads (or more) get together and solve a family mystery.


I am very lucky to have a few wonderful rellies who I can research with, toss ideas around with, argue with,  ask questions of and they all have their own areas of expertise.


Some are "Google masters"


Some have that "gut feeling" about a person we are researching and that gut feeling is nearly always right.


Some can find a story or document in the most improbable places.


Some can decipher the most illegible scribblings on documents


Some know instinctively when "that photo" was taken or can assess every aspect of a photo and give it a very accurate date within a year or two.


Some are great with dates and others can tell an awesome story.


I am also extremely thankful for the family historians who have gone before me and done such a power of research.


Building on the information already found is one hugely rewarding aspect of family history.


One example of this sort of teamwork that really sticks in my mind was the finding of information for my Great Grand Uncle, George Adams junior.


Christine is my fellow family researcher of the Adams line and we only had a birth year for George jnr. 


He was born in North Melbourne in 1856; the second child and first born son of George Adams and Catherine nee Barry.


From his father's death certificate in 1921 we knew he was already deceased and wondered how he had died so young.


Anyone who has ever tried to find information on a George Adams in Australia will know that you first of all have to claw your way past all the TATTERSALLS information!


I had gone through the Vic BMD indexes endless times searching for Geo Adams deaths in those years.  We left it, deciding he would show up one day somehow.  Every so often it was re-visited.


Christine was searching the newspaper archives and found an article about the death of a young labourer named George Adams.  This death took place at Dookie, way North of where they lived at the time.  We just sat on that for ages.  Then one day I decided out of the blue, as I do, to have another search through the Vic Indexes.  I narrowed down date, ages etc and was left with only a couple of Adams that could fit.  
Interestingly one of these was a Page Adams.  Weird name!   With father George and mother Catherine.  

Death certificate for Page Adams

The date of this death registration was the same year as an Inquest was held for a George Adams.  1876 not only tied in with how old our George jnr would be but it also tied in with the newspaper article that Christine had found ages ago.

From The Melbourne Argus 18th January 1876

With team work we had found our George junior.   A relative we could relate to as being a fun loving Aussie Larrikin.  I would love to have known him.


Now we just have to find his brother DAVID ADAMS ............ arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!