Author Topic: Thomas Hood Bentley to Sydney late 19th c.  (Read 5210 times)

Offline MarieC

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Thomas Hood Bentley to Sydney late 19th c.
« on: Thursday 17 November 05 06:32 GMT (UK) »
Could I put this one up, in the hope that someone can help?

My g-grandfather, Thomas Hood Bentley, was skippering a barque called the "Earl Cadogan" as a trading vessel around the world in the early 1890's.  He was still captain in 1896.  Fairly shortly after that, he emigrated from England to Sydney where he was a marine surveyor.  He died in 1905.

I am trying to find how and when he and his family came.  They were not assisted immigrants, and living in a Queensland provincial city, I don't have access to unassisted immigration records.  I would guess that he may have come between 1896 and 1898.

Any help gratefully received.

MarieC
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Martins in London and Wales, Lockwoods in Yorkshire, Hartleys in London, Lichfield and Brighton, Hubands and Smiths in Ireland, Bentleys in London and Yorkshire, Denhams in Somerset, Scoles in London, Meyers in London, Cooks in Northumberland

Offline Mungbeans

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Re: Thomas Hood Bentley to Sydney late 19th c.
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 19 November 05 05:18 GMT (UK) »
For immigrants the best place to start is their death certificate.  The NSW certificate shows the number of years they lived in Australia.  This will give you the year (or thereabouts) of when they arrived.

After that there are a couple of internet sites you can use to narrow the search down.
(was 'spunkymungbeans') Price (Bristol), Pow (Scotland), Neilson (Scotland), Cooper (Yorkshire), Laister (Yorkshire/Nottingham/Lincolnshire)
Lookups:  NSW & Norfolk Musters to 1828; Rookwood Cemetery and Woronora Cemetery transcriptions and grave photographs - post at Australian Emigrants board

Offline MarieC

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Re: Thomas Hood Bentley to Sydney late 19th c.
« Reply #2 on: Saturday 19 November 05 13:24 GMT (UK) »
Thanks, spunkymungbeans!! ;D

Silly me, I have a transcription of his death cert from NSW and forgot about that little section that says "Time in colony/state".  If the information given by his son was correct, it looks as though he may have arrived early 1897.  Puzzlingly, the cert. says he had a year in Qld and 7 1/2 years in NSW.  I am not aware that he ever was in Qld.  Maybe I need to check Qld immigration records also

I don't believe information on unassisted migrants is on the Net.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't found any.  I believe I will have to access the records on these from the NSW Archives. 

Thanks again,

MarieC
Census information is Crown copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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Martins in London and Wales, Lockwoods in Yorkshire, Hartleys in London, Lichfield and Brighton, Hubands and Smiths in Ireland, Bentleys in London and Yorkshire, Denhams in Somerset, Scoles in London, Meyers in London, Cooks in Northumberland

Offline trish251

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Re: Thomas Hood Bentley to Sydney late 19th c.
« Reply #3 on: Saturday 19 November 05 21:25 GMT (UK) »
Hi Marie

If you ever make it to the Qld State library (Cannon Hill) they have some of the NSW unassisted indexes - not sure about how much detail. The Qld records are mainly at the Qld Archives. I visit both on rare occasions.

Trish
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Offline MarieC

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Re: Thomas Hood Bentley to Sydney late 19th c.
« Reply #4 on: Sunday 20 November 05 10:41 GMT (UK) »
Thanks Trish!

I get to Brisbane rarely, but there is a possibility in February next year that I may get to the Queensland State library.  Don't think I'll have time to go to the Archives as well, though. 

If you do happen to go to either and have a bit of spare time to look, I'd be very grateful! :D

I do seem to have him pinpointed to early 1897, now - but unsure whether NSW or Qld.

Marie
Census information is Crown copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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Martins in London and Wales, Lockwoods in Yorkshire, Hartleys in London, Lichfield and Brighton, Hubands and Smiths in Ireland, Bentleys in London and Yorkshire, Denhams in Somerset, Scoles in London, Meyers in London, Cooks in Northumberland

Offline grub

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Re: Thomas Hood Bentley to Sydney late 19th c.
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 17 December 08 20:38 GMT (UK) »
Hi Marie
Thought we'd bring this up to the forefront....perhaps you can let us know if you have solved your query, or not??

More good "stuff" available research wise nowadays than when this was originally posted.

Regards,
Grub
Bayley, Dorset, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire and others.
Antrobus, Somerset/Glouster
Skelton, Heslington, Yorkshire
James, Norfolk, and London
Delasalle, London area
Gravett/Grevet, Surrey
Also searching the above in Australia

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Offline MarieC

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Re: Thomas Hood Bentley to Sydney late 19th c.
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 18 December 08 10:27 GMT (UK) »
Thanks for this, grub!  :)

No, I haven't solved this one.  He is not an assisted immigrant.  I think it's almost certain that he came in 1896 or very early 1897, and I have trawled through masses of microfilms of NSW unassisted shipping records, for hours and hours, without finding Thomas and his family!

This is one of my baffling ones, that's for sure!  One of the problems is that information on unassisted shipping records is so scanty that even if you find Bentleys, it's very hard to determine whether they are yours or not!

(Sigh!)  Thanks again, grub!

MarieC
Census information is Crown copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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Martins in London and Wales, Lockwoods in Yorkshire, Hartleys in London, Lichfield and Brighton, Hubands and Smiths in Ireland, Bentleys in London and Yorkshire, Denhams in Somerset, Scoles in London, Meyers in London, Cooks in Northumberland

Offline jorose

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Re: Thomas Hood Bentley to Sydney late 19th c.
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 18 December 08 13:02 GMT (UK) »
Have you tried finding them leaving the UK?
http://www.findmypast.com/passengerListPersonSearchStart.action

 - from here I found more about the family:
http://w3.icr.com.au/~mcameron/The%20Bentleys.html

http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ has an article on 5 July 1897 which I think might be about them, even though it refers to "Mrs F. H. Bentley" (should be T. H., but was probably done from handwritten notes), who was at Saxonholme, Ipswich-Road (Brisbane?), and about to leave to join her husband Captain Bentley in Sydney.

There's also an article in the Brisbane Courier in 1895 which lists arrivals including a Captain Bentley.
And in 1893 in the West Australian, a Mrs Bentley arrived from London.
One quite likely one: Wednesday 12 August 1896, into Brisbane from Sydney, passengers including Mesdames Bentley (and others), Miss Bentley, Messrs Bentley (and others) - could be his wife, daughter, and son?
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Offline MarieC

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Re: Thomas Hood Bentley to Sydney late 19th c.
« Reply #8 on: Friday 19 December 08 04:49 GMT (UK) »
Hi jorose

Thanks for all that!  Your post illustrates really well the difficulties I am having with this family:

*  There is no-one on findmypast (and I searched for Bentley leaving UK for Australia 1893 to 1898) who looks remotely like my Bentleys.  I even tried searching for Britain to the Far East (as the family had previously lived there) but no matches there.

*  The webpage you mention is my own, with info entered by me.  (I know quite a lot about them EXCEPT how/when they came!)

*  I had found the piece in the Brisbane Courier about Mrs F. (sic) H. Bentley and yes, I am almost sure this is my Camilla.  She had at least one brother in Brisbane. 

*  Had found the one in the West Australian many moons ago, while plodding through microfilms.  Sure this is NOT her - too early/no children with her. 

* Hadn't seen the 1895 arrival in the Brisbane Courier.  It is from Sydney, which doesn't tell me when he came to Australia - but quite likely to be him.    This may at least mean that I can pinpoint his arrival to 1895, and the family may have come later.  Thanks for this!

*Ditto the 1896 shipping entry for Mrs, Miss and Mr Bentley.  The big problem is the lack of initials - I can't be sure, though the "Captain" in the first one makes it almost certain.

But with all of this, I still don't know when or how any of them came!  Ancestry is no real help either.  And I have ploughed through microfilms for probably 100 hours or more.  According to FindMyPast, they didn't leave Britain!  I'm beginning to wonder if they swam!!!  :( :'(


MarieC


Census information is Crown copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martins in London and Wales, Lockwoods in Yorkshire, Hartleys in London, Lichfield and Brighton, Hubands and Smiths in Ireland, Bentleys in London and Yorkshire, Denhams in Somerset, Scoles in London, Meyers in London, Cooks in Northumberland