I wonder if anyone is able to help me. I have an interesting close (approximately 3-4th cousin) DNA match on myheritage who has a 'match in common' with my grandmother's cousin. This person is not a match on ancestry.com. The last name of the match is Matson. A couple of days ago I got a DNA match with a person on ancestry who also had a common match with the Matson line.
My grandmother and her cousin's maternal grandmother is a big mystery as she was fostered in Geelong and there are no records. She was born around 1870.
Looking at the Matson trees, there appears to be only one link to Australia, through the 'Smoothy' line. My match's ancestor was Edward W Smoothy, born 1840, in Hobart. Parents were John Smoothy and Ann Miskelly.
Edward Smoothy and his wife left Victoria for the South Island around 1866 and is unlikely to be a parent of my great-great grandmother. I found on familysearch a few more Smoothys leaving Victoria for NZ in the late 1860s early 1870s.
According to a shipping record from 1852 when the Smoothy family in question left Tasmania for Melbourne, they had several children - John jnr, Edward William, Mary, Walter and Andrew.
I may be completely wrong, but I suspect one of the children to be a parent of my great-great grandmother as they are the right age and in more-or-less the right place. I am having a really hard time finding any trace of them after they moved to Victoria, and would really appreciate any help you could give in tracking them down.
Hi Sue,
I got confuddled back at the beginning, and so I have been following the thread expecting someone to unconfuddle me....
John SMOOTHY and Ann MISKELLY are the parents of Edward W SMOOTHY, who was born 1840 Hobart
1863 Edward SMOOTHY marries in Victoria, to Annie SPELLECY Edward and Annie are parents to Harriet.
Harriet SMOOTHY married Robert MATSON.
Still in the opening post, I then re-read and became confuddled as I read that :
GeorgiyH’s grandmother was born about 1870 and fostered in Geelong - OR
GeorgiyH’s great great grandmother was born about 1870 and fostered in Geelong and her parent/s could be sibling/s to Harriet, the lass who married Robert MATSON.
Fingers crossed GeorgiyH can help untangle this confuddlement.
JM
