This site is by Dr Geoffrey Hawson, a great grandchild of Thomas wood Hawson who came on the Storm King as an paid migrant on the clipper ship Storm King. I have been intrigued by Thomas ever since seeing his family bible that my dad had. There were stories about a family in a large house in England visited by my Auntie Bessie in the early 20th century. Also there were stories of coal mines in the family. After my aunt Bessie died, our family became the owners of Thomas Wood’s bookcase with many of his books and the autograph book taken to England by Bessie. I am now the proud owner of these items.
Because of a misspelling of the surname, I never did find out how he arrived, until a talk about genealogy at our local library. Our tutor suggested I check for land orders and then discovered the ship on which he had traveled from London to Brisbane. I still do not know why he decided to emigrate.
As he died young, there is not much family memory of Thomas Wood, and the last of his grandchildren Alma, died at 100 years of age recently.
I am semi retired and have set up a new business recently. https://cancersecondopinion.com.au/
There are at least 2 other families of Hawson’s in Australia. One settled in South Australia and the other in Tasmania. I have never been able to find a connection between these families and my own lineage. I assume that there are connections across cousins over the years and perhaps DNA might help to clinch the connection.
If you are a Hawson by birth and interested in DNA please contact me. My initial aDNA will probably be done with Ancestry because of their large database and a niece who has at least started with an aDNA with Ancestry. The important results will be a YDNA done by some of the SA & Tasmanian Hawsons to see if their is a distant connection prior to their ancestors leaving England.