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Thanks for your help.

Hi Rootschaters,

Could anyone please date this photo. It may be of my Hawkes family - Richard Neville Nettles Hawkes senior (died 1900), his wife Jean Hawkes, nee Black (died 1919) and nine of their children. It was possibly taken in Dunedin or South Canterbury, New Zealand between 1890 and 1918. There were family deaths in 1900, 1904, 1907 and 1917 which may be the reason for the black armband (on the man who may be my great-grandfather).

Thanks for your help,

Sue

Dear Rootschat,

My great-great grandfather, Richard Neville Nettles Hawkes, was a midshipman aboard the Resolute in 1851, (Advertising (1851, November 7). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 1. Retrieved April 16, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12931874).

Would he have been able to leave the Resolute (not a naval ship at that stage) in Sydney or would he have been bound to a certain length of service? By the 21st November 1856 he was a miner in Tarrangower, Victoria, Australia.

Would his ship been counted as Merchant Navy?

There is a family story that "he was an officer in the Royal Navy and resigned his commission to join the goldrush in Australia." I have checked merchant navy sources on ancestry, FamilySearch and Findmypast with no luck (not many sources go back as far as 1851).

Thank you,

Sue

Mary's entry in the burial register says she was aged 65 at her death in 1791 - if that's right she can't be Joseph's mother. Could you tell us where the 3 April 1791 date comes from? Is it a birth or baptism? Could Joseph have been the child of Hugh and May's daughter Mary?

Sorry, I may not have been very clear. I think he was most likely born between 1763 and 1772 and before his mother died in 1791 (and most likely before she was 45). I presume he would have been an adult when he was named in his grandfather's will otherwise presumably it would have said "when he reaches 21" or something similar.