G is for Great Britain

I thought this would be easy.  I will just find all the ships on which all the ancestors came out to Australia and show the various parts of Great Britain from which they came.

1. (Willoughby) Andover 2. (Ridgway) Nash  3. (Hall)(Drake) Norwich  4. (Moore) Bedworth  5. (Price)(Elliot) Fermanagh          6. (Robbie)(Stephen) Aberdeen 7. (Lock) Sussex (not marked)

Not so easy.  I started with my family. By some strange quirk of fate they were mainly near the end of the litter.  This led them to skip a generation and so I have less research to do.  First came the Ridgways – Mary (nee Willoughby)  and John Ridgway from Andover, Hampshire  and Nash Buckinghamshire on the “Aloe” in 1857 to Sydney. Then came Sarah (nee Drake) and George Hall from Norwich, Norfolk on the “Planter” in 1858 bound for Melbourne.  Henry Lock from Sussex came out in 1861 on the “Anglesea” followed by his bride to be Emma Moore from Bedworth,  on the “Shackamaxon” a year later, both to Melbourne.  Margaret (nee Elliot) and William Price left Fermanagh in Ireland for Sydney on the “Trebolgan” in 1865 and finally Elizabeth( nee Stephen) and William Robbie left Aberdeen for Melbourne on the “Western Ocean” in 1866.  In less than ten years  my entire ancestry emigrated from Britain.

Now John’s family is more difficult but arguably more interesting.  I was completely bamboozled by the first emigrants, John and Ann Paul.  They arrived on the “China” in 1841 but the census records show that their three year old daughter, (Amy) Esther was with Ann’s father in Yorkshire.  I can’t find when she came out but another daughter was born in Australia in 1844.  Alas John Paul also died that year so hours of research remain to solve that problem.

1.  (Paul) (Walbran) (Barrett) Yorkshire  2. (Sutton)  Kent  3.  (Muirhead) (Porteous) Edinburgh  4.  (Burns) Dundee  5.  (Jones) Midsomer, Somerset  6.  (Pring) Wellington, Somerset  7.  (King) London  8.  (Curry)(Patton) Ancroft/Doddington 9. (Todman) Nottingham

James Sutton, from Kent, arrived with his parents John, born in London and Anne (nee Todman), born in Nottingham on the “Marchioness of Bute” in 1842.  Amy Esther Paul must have somehow crossed the oceans because she married him in 1858 in Sydney.

When I started researching the Muirheads I almost had a meltdown.  Hugh, from Borthwick, Midlothian, Scotland, came out on the “John Bunyan” in 1857 and married Jane Porteous from Edinburgh who in 1862 ventured out in the “Peerless”.  Then I found James Burn’s wife Isabella was also a Muirhead so was she Hugh’s sister?  If so she also came out on the “John Bunyan” in 1857.  Her husband James Burns, from Dundee, was a Master Mariner so the references to him at sea are too numerous to mention here.

Next we have Harriet and James Jones from Midsomer in Somerset who arrived in Sydney in 1858 on the “Fitzjames”.  As well as bringing two children from England, Harriet gave birth on the ship to a daughter, Emily, who later became the wife of Andrew Curry.

Fanny Pring, from Wellington,  Somerset, arrived on the “Hornet” in 1859 and George King the following year on the “Cairngorn” after which time they married in Sydney. Their son William married into the Sutton family which married into the Curry family.

Then in 1869 The Currys, John and Margaret, arrived in the “Percy” from Plymouth.  They came from Ancroft and Doddington in Northumberland, brought three children with them and landed in Melbourne just in time to have another.

Finally in 1879 the “Nineveh” brought John and Sidney (nee Waldram) Barrett from Durham, Yorkshire to Sydney, NSW where their daughter Sarah married into the Muirhead family.  The  great migration of John’s ancestors was over.