Genealogy Research

Was my ancestor a passenger on the Storm King Clipper?

Geoff Anniversary gathering, Genealogy Research, Storm King 0 Comment

Storm King in London

 

Was your ancestor an immigrant to Queensland (Qld.) on board the Storm King arriving Jan 1870

There were 5 visits of the storm King.

They were in 1868; 1870; 1871; 1872 & 1874.

The full passenger lists for these voyages are detailed in the Queensland Family History Society CD; Queensland Customs House Shipping 1852-1885: Passengers and Crew available on line.

The list that is available on this website is only for the 1870 arrival of the Storm King and is provided courtesy of QFHS and has been modified a little to make it easier to search.

Who was the most famous individual to come on that arrival?

For most of us, it is our own ancestor. For me it was Thomas Wood Hawson, hidden for years because of a typo in his name preventing me from finding him by a simple search on a resource such as this.

However, undoubtedly it was Alfred Midgely, engineer, Methodist minister, poet and a member of the legislative assembly in Queensland. It is also because of his journal that we know about the trip from England despite my GGF not having written anything. It also points out some of the information about events on board that did not make it in to the light of day of either the courts or the newspapers. Information not generally known for the last 148 years.

 

Please feel free to access this database courtesy of QFHS.

Please go to the list by clicking on this link!.

If you find your ancestor, let me know on my contact page.

If you are interested (in whatever way) of celebrating the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Storm King in Jan 1870, please sign up to receive more details

Fake news or no news!

Geoff fake news, Genealogy Research, Storm King , 0 Comment

Reporting of immigrant ships arrivals and events on board

The arrival of immigration Ships was reported in the local newspapers of the day.

Various pieces of information were recorded but not necessarily the information you want about your ancestor.

My journey for information was halted because of the misspelling of his name. A clue from a presenter at a library allowed me to find his land order and therefore find his ship. Finding the block of land that he purchased has been a challenge that is ongoing.

How do I find Journals of immigrant shipsThe story of the ship was not recorded by Thomas Wood Hawson, but was by 2 people on that voyage. I was able to discover them via a resource called Trove which listed the 2 stories that were held by librarians in Australia. Unbeknown to me, there was a resource even in my local library that could have led me to this had I known the ship’s name. This series is called  “The Log of Logs” It is  3 volumes of records of logs by people who have been on those ships.

Even then, getting the resource and reading it can be daunting. One of my logs (Midgley’s) was written in good, relatively easy to read handwriting. The other was in closely handwritten 4 pages per A4 page on pdf that was difficult to read, and impossible to manipulate in any software packages. Contacting the library again was helpful, as the item was able to be scanned as a tiff image which is much clearer to read. Later, this record, as well as Midgley’s log will be transcribed for a more complete record of the journey.

 

Reading Midgley’s manuscript and the amazing story of the attack on Captain Holden, would make you believe that this would automatically be reported in the papers. Instead, we have the story of the complaint of lack of faREcords in the Qld State Librarycilities for the non-Anglican people on board and not a mention of the attack. A trip to the Qld State Archives allowed me to find a record of a court appearance on 20 Jan 1870 about James Sinclair (was he the Yankee Boy) attacking the Captain on 25 December 1869. James was an able bodied seam. He pleaded not guilty and the case was dismissed. On the same day 5 other sailors pleaded guilty to disobedience on the Storm King the previous day and were convicted and sentenced to 4 weeks in goal with hard labour. However, a few days later, he was sentenced to one months hard labour for disobedience on board the Storm King on 22 January.

Where’s the justice and where is the reporting?

Without Midgely’s log we would never have known of the occurrence of the Yankee Boy attack. His real name was never used in the journal, but the State Archives police records records the event, but no mention of a gun.

Vagaries in sentencing are nothing new, but 20 days for disobedience but nothing for a gun held on the Captain.

Was this an example of early fake news or even no news?

 

Thomas Wood Hawson : How did he get here?

Geoff Genealogy Research, Storm King, Thomas Wood Hawson , 0 Comment

Problems I have had in finding out about my ancestor

It started with the family bible

which had Thomas Wood’s date of birth, date of marriage and date of death. Finding out about his family was a bit more difficult. I did find people in Australia who had the same surname and it was a little hard to get good details (remember this was the pre internet era and letters were the way to communicate).

Gazetter excitement

I remember how excited I was when I found the small village of Wombwell listed in a Gazeteer. I thought it might all fall in to place. Alas, it was not so.I did find a person who had the name Dr Harry Reginald Wombwell Hawson. This was the same name as the town that TWH was born in it seemed to be appropriate to contact him. I did not get a lot of information but did hear that there was a relative of his, Harold Hawson who travel led to Mildura and later went back to England.As this correlated with another source in Australia who had the same information, it seemed that we had started hitting pay dirt.

Solicitor’s letter from Yorkshire

My father received a letter from Rotheras solicitors in Yorkshire talking about the will of a George Hawson deceased and this filled in some more details. Unfortunately, the amount of money left in the will after being distributed was very little.

Contact with cousins etc and the internet

I was able to get a birth certificate and establish some details and make contact with a cousin Judy Binns (nee Hawson). Nothing gave me any details as to how and when TWH arrived in Australia. The computer age has delivered some rare findings and coming across the website of Les Thornton allowed for a connection that goes back to a Richard Hawson died 1621 at Torworth near Blyth, North Nottinghamshire. In his genealogy, he states that Thomas Hawson (son of George Hawson ) married a Hannah Wood and this I knew from the birth certificate on TWH that these were his parents.

That doesn’t help find out how he got here!

Wonderful, but how and why did he get here? Searching the immigration logs of ships was not helpful, and I did not know the dates. TWH’s death certificate stated that he was 17 years in the colony which gave an approximate year, but still nothing definite.  He seemed to be the only child (grandchild) of George Hawson who appeared to not get an inheritance of money in George’s will. About 2 years ago, I attended a talk by Carmel Joyce in our local Library and she said that many people of that time had received land orders. I searched for this and found a Thomas Wood Hawson who had arrived on the Clipper ship Storm King.

The puzzle was almost finished. How but not why!

Was he not listed on the Immigrant ships to Qld?

Well of course he was. Only his name was transcribed as TW Hanson He left England just before his 21st birthday. I have no idea what caused him to make that decision and I am hopeful that one day I might find some newspaper evidence as to why or indeed a relative form the UK may have a clipping in a shoe box that explains it all. There is no oral tradition in the family as to why and other descendants of George and Thomas do not know. Perhaps something caused him to fall out of favor with George, and to escape the embarrassment of not receiving his 200 pounds inheritance on his 21st birthday, he decided to escape to Australia and start a new life.

What is the moral of this story?

Start early in life if you can. Use the internet. Join a Family History Society (FHS)and attend some courses.Talk to your older family members while they are still alive and can still remember details. Then record the details and ensure that the information is not lost as not everyone is interested in your Family Tree. If so, maybe arrange for your research to be forwarded to your FHS.