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Topics - Aus325

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Armed Forces / Alexander George of 2nd Btn Royal Artillery 1801-1822 & the mystery wife
« on: Sunday 31 December 23 03:53 GMT (UK)  »
I have a decades long brickwall concerning the name of the 2nd wife of Alexander George of the Royal Artillery 1801-22. Born 1781 Clayfolds, Alvah, Banffshire, enlisted 2nd Btn Royal Artillery 1801, discharged 1 Mar 1822 Woolwich Kent for pension. Appointed as convict overseer and embarked to Van Diemen's Land aboard Jupiter in June 1823. Accompanied by wife only known as Jane, son James b.1813 and daughter Jane Jr b.1821 Woolwich. The son was from his first wife Isabel Raeburn who died in childbirth of twins in 1813. A new relationship began sometime after this, possibly at Woolwich with a woman known only as Jane with a daughter, Jane Jr born at Woolwich 20 Sep 1821 and recorded in the Gro Regimental Birth Indices (1761 To 1924). These early certificates can be ordered via the GRO which I presume has been done already as the full date of birth is in many trees on ancestry, and like many early records, the maiden name of the mother is not cited. Many descendants of this family in TAS have been trying for decades to determine the name of the mystery 2nd wife Jane, with not even a hint of a result. We have no date of birth and no known death for Jane. After the death of Alexander in 1837 in TAS there is no further record. She may be the woman who was granted permission to marry French convict Francois Calliot (Life convict per Sarah 1837) at Hobart on 31 May 1845. Any ideas or lateral thoughts are welcome....

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Staffordshire Lookup Requests / Willetts, master blacksmith at Wolverhampton c.1822
« on: Thursday 30 November 23 20:31 GMT (UK)  »
Hi all, I'm trying to find the family of two convict brothers Thomas & Charles Willetts, transported to Tasmania in 1823 aged 23 and 22. They were tried at Staffordshire in Oct 1822 for theft of wearing apparel and sentenced to 7yrs transportation. On their convict record made shortly after arrival they stated that their parents lived in Wolverhampton and their father was a master blacksmith. Thomas gave his trade as a door locksmith and was from Brewood. They have numerous descendants here in Australia but nobody has ever managed to identify the parents in Staffordshire and trace the family further. Re-occuring names in their subsequent families are pretty standard - James, Ann Charlotte, Harriet, John, Thomas, William and Charles. I have had a look at the trade directories held by the University of Leicester and also the historic registers with trades cited at the Black Country History site but nothing is really jumping out at me. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome

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Armed Forces / Locating records of a 1775-1787 British Marine Pvt
« on: Monday 01 May 17 09:23 BST (UK)  »
I'm sure it must lay carefully hidden within the UK National Archives catalogue in some form, perhaps in an Adm36 administrative document, or a WO25 Succession list, but I have to say that the website is the most frustrating, confusing, ambiguous, and nearly as circular leading website as a Social welfare department. The search engine seems to have been carefully designed to give you the most obscure and irrelevant results with references to the most random person, with their will, and their pending legal actions etc etc..... when all you want to find is a general list covering the right period of years, with the right Company of Marines. One minute you're in the free digital downloads section, and you think you may be getting close....a click of the mouse and you're unknowingly bounced back into the general section against the brick wall where you need to pay a non refundable £8.40 to see if that list (which was a wild guess anyway) happens to be the right one, and might happen to contain a one line reference to the person you're looking for. Not that they will give you that one line of course. After waiting for a month for them to respond, you'd then have to pay a researching fee to have someone copy that one line for you! 

How does one go about finding some basic information (such as the age) of a British Marine Pvt of the 21st Plymouth Company who likely served at the siege of Boston in the American war of Independance  1775? I know I can download all sorts of data from the National Archives on how many napkins the commander, Major Pitcairn ordered prior to battle but that's not going to help me

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Armed Forces / Unscrambling my ancestor's military record
« on: Monday 17 April 17 02:28 BST (UK)  »
Hi all, I'm a new entry here but it seems this is a place to get some informed advice.

My ancestor served as Pvt in the English colonial force in Australia, the NSW Marine Corps of 1787, soon after known as the NSW Corps, and then amalamated with incoming English relief into the 102nd Regiment. My difficulty is that his name (McCarthy) is a reasonably common one and several other persons with the same name served in the same time periods. Researchers over the years seem to have blended together elements of these persons, resulting in a mixed up Biography.

I've been looking at Musters and Paylists that are available to me here in Aust (originating from the Joint Copying project with the UK PRO) and found various helpful listings. One of them has me confused though. Its a return of the 2nd Regiment of Foot in 1815. In it are two persons with my ancestor's name. The ranking officer is  Serg-Major David Spencer. Stationed at "St John and Moore Island" Even though this is in amongst Australian records it seems to me that it shouldn't be. Surely the 102nd was replaced by the 73rd Regiment in 1810, so how can it still exist in Ausralia in 1815? Does anyone know of this "St John and Moore Island" Regiment?

thanks all

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