L is for leaving Liverpool

My husband's great great grandfather George Young (1826-1890) was from Liverpool.  Unfortunately we don't know any more than this about him until he arrived on the Victorian goldfields at Beechworth.

George seems never to have left a document stating who his parents were. We have not been able to find a shipping record that gives this information.

The informant on his death certificate was his sson-in-law John L. Tunks, and John Tunks did not even know how long George Young had been in the colonies, let alone who his parents were.

The surname Young makes it difficult to trace him. There were at least half a dozen boys born in Liverpool and called George Young in the estimated year of birth of our George Young. It was before civil registration so that is not an exhaustive list.

George most likely left for Australia from Liverpool. He would have been 26 years old in 1852.

In the Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists to Victoria 1852-1953 available through the Public Record Office the only likely passenger based on age, is a George Young, adult with age not listed, who arrived on the Kalmia in 1852. I checked and the Kalmia did indeed sail from Liverpool: the Kalmia is listed in From Liverpool. (1852, October 9). Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875),  p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60136652 . Unfortunately there are no shipping records available for unassisted passengers earlier than 1852.

The shipping list for the Kalmia, viewable through ancestry.com or available on microfiche shows that George Young was Irish. On the slight information we have, he doesn't seem to be our man.

The following records from the Assisted Immigrants index from 1839 to 1853 are possible matches for our George based on his age.

Family Name Given Name Age Month Year Ship Book Page

YOUNG GEO age 20 month and year of arrival MAY 1847 ship SIR THOMAS ARBUTHNOT book and page 2/3 262

YOUNG GEORGE age 27 month and year of arrival DEC 1852 ship THEODORE book and page 7 78

The ship Theodore sailed from Liverpool. VICTORIA. (1852, December 20). The Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List (NSW : 1844 - 1860), , p. 351. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161036112

The George Young who arrived on the Theodore appears to be accompanied by a wife and child. This does not appear to match our George Young as he seems to have acquired a wife and family only after his arrival in Australia.

The Sir Thomas Arbuthnot was a convict ship that sailed from Spithead. One of the convicts was a George Young whose crime had been sheep stealing. He was from Wells which does not match what we know about George Young's origins.

All in all it seems that our George Young is not listed in the shipping records that survive from the period.

Shipping records other than the indexes of passengers include letters of thanks from passengers to their ship's captain that were sometimes  published in the newspapers. Some hospital records include the ship of arrival. Unfortunately I have not been able to trace George's arrival through records of this type..

Other members of our family who arrived by ship sailing from Liverpool include:

• My third great grandparents, Daniel and  Mary Cudmore née Nihill, sailed from Liverpool in 1835 on the John Dennison
• Margaret Rankin née Gunn, my third great grandmother, who sailed with her children and second husband from Liverpool aboard the Dirigo in 1854
• The Ralph family, my husband's third great grandparents and children, arrived from Liverpool in 1854 on the Bloomer

Sir Claude de Crespigny, the fourth baronet, visited Florida sailing from Liverpool in 1887.

I have no record of the arrival of another of my husband's great great grandfathers, James Cross, who was born near Liverpool and arrived in Victoria about 1853.

SS Great Britain leaving Prince’s Pier, Liverpool, for Australia, 1852. ANMM Collection retrieved from http://waves.anmm.gov.au/Immigration-Stories/Immigration-history.aspx

Related posts

• Beginning to look at my Irish family history
• Margaret Gunn (1819 - 1863)  
• B is for the barque Bloomer arrived 1854  
• Trove Tuesday: a splinter (about James Cross)
• Tropical Hotel - Kissimmee, Florida (an 1887 visit by Sir Claude de Crespigny) 

Australia Day: Climbing our family's gum tree

CLIMBING OUR FAMILY’S GUM TREE, a blogging challenge from Pauline Cass for Australia Day 2014

My children have fifty-one direct ancestors who were immigrants to Australia. It has been quite a job to gather and arrange this information about them.

My first ancestor to arrive in Australia was my fifth great grandfather George Taylor (1758 - 1828). He came to Tasmania in 1822 with wife Mary née  Low (1765 -1850) and his family. His descendants still run Valleyfield near Longford, the property he and his sons farmed.

"Valleyfield" Epping Tas. The "Taylors" have lived here for over 100 years. , about 1914 - about 1941 Photograph in the collection of the State Library of Victoria. Accession number H22546. A.C. Dreier postcard collection. Retrieved from
https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/gid/slv-pic-aab47005

Were there any convicts? There are no convicts on my side. On my husband Greg's side we know that Caroline Clarke, his great great grandmother who married George Young, was born in New South Wales about 1835. We haven't been able to trace her parents, so perhaps they were convicts.

Where did our ancestors come from? Twenty-six from England, seven from Scotland, two from Wales, eight from Ireland, and four from Germany.  One of our English forebears was born in India. There are at least four immigrants in the list of fifty-one that I know nothing about.

Did any of our ancestors arrive under their own financial steam? Many paid their own passage, and there were some assisted immigrants.  Only one seems to have worked his way to Australia. This was John Plowright, who stated when admitted to Maryborough Hospital in 1873 that he had arrived in the colony on the Speculation from London about 1853 and his occupation was mariner.  He wasn't listed as a deserter but perhaps he signed off to go to the goldfields.

How many ancestors came as singles? couples? families? Thirty-two of the fifty-one immigrants, or sixty percent, came as families. Thirteen came as single immigrants and there was only one couple without children: John and Sarah Way.

Did one person lead the way and others follow? There are quite a few instances of this. 

• The de Crespignys probably came because Charlotte's brothers had been given jobs by Governor Latrobe. 
• The Edwards probably came because Mary's sister Sarah and her husband Francis Tuckfield were already in Australia. 
• Philip Chauncy followed his sisters, who had arrived in Adelaide two years previously. 
• The Plaisteds followed Ann's sister and brother, who had arrived twelve years earlier in Adelaide. 
• Isabella Hutcheson née Taylor followed her parents and brothers to Tasmania in about 1833 after the death of her husband.  She came with five young children.
• My grandfather came first after the war and his wife and daughter joined him ten months later. My grandfather was the only immigrant to arrive by air.

Which state(s)/colony did our ancestors arrive? Eight arrived in Tasmania, eighteen in Victoria, fifteen in South Australia, two in Western Australia and four migrated to the Australian Capital Territory.

Forty-two, or ninety percent, of our forty-seven immigrant ancestors arrived before 1855, one arrived in 1888, and the remaining four arrived in the middle of the twentieth century after World War 2.

Number of arrivals by year of arrival:

1822	1833	1835	1836	1838	1839	1840	1849	1850	1852	1853	1854	1888	1949	1950	1960
2	2	3	1	2	2	3	6	3	3	6	9	1	1	2	1

Did they settle and remain in one state/colony? No, for example

• the Ways moved from South Australia to Victoria and then to New South Wales
• the Ralphs moved from Victoria to South Australia
• the Plaisteds and the Hughes moved from South Australia to Victoria
• the Cudmores and Nihills moved from Tasmania to South Australia
• the Hutchesons moved from Tasmania to Victoria
• Philip Chauncy moved from South Australia to Western Australia to Victoria

Did any of our ancestors leave Australia and go “home”? William Snell Chauncy visited his children in South Australia for only twelve months before returning to England. Gordon Mainwaring and his wife Mary née Hickey both died in England as did their son-in-law, Wentworth Cavenagh-Mainwaring. My grandparents and mother visited Germany.

generated by https://www.tagxedo.com inspired by the image by Sharon at https://shazlex.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/australia-day-challenge-2014.html who also responded to the challenge