I have a dilemma I've be trying to solve for a while now.
My ancestor Richard BALFOUR (aka BELFOUR or BELFORD) was born in Drummond, Co Derry, northern Ireland, around 1795. He was a soldier in the 1st Regiment of Foot (The Royal Scots) and was pensioned out in 1816 with "scrofulous opthalmia" (
) - I have found his pension papers in the NA and found he had been serving since 1811; we think he was involved in Waterloo but more research is required down that avenue.
ANYWAY...in 1832 he and his family (wife Ann and several children) emigrated to Van Diemen's Land on a Chelsea Pensioner's scheme. He set up shop in Launceston as a Dyer and I have found several advertisements from newspapers of the time.
Now I only found out about the Tasmania connection when I found the births of some more children there in the 1830s. Until then, I had thought that the family arrived in Sydney in 1838 on board the "Parland" from Londonderry. It turns out that they DID arrive then, AFTER they had been in Tasmania for several years. Richard died in 1845 in Sydney. His son Charles Linton BELFORD is my 3xg-grandfather.
I have no record of the family leaving Tasmania, so my question is this: Has anybody heard of anyone emigrating, then returning home, then emigrating AGAIN within about a year, to a different colony? What might the circumstances have been to encourage this? or am I barking up the wrong tree, and they just hitched a ride on the "Parland" as it passed by Hobart or Launceston on its way to Sydney?
Help please!
Prue