St Helena Island South Atlantic to England

[Digas1]

Does anyone know how I could find when My GGGrandmother arrived in England from St Helena and which ship she arrived on.  She may have gone via S Africa.

Her Name is Henrietta Thomas and she married Thomas Kelly 1879.

[jorose]

Inward passenger lists are not indexed and also start in 1878.  http://www.sthelena.se/genealog/genealog.htm - according to this there are no passenger lists for arrivals in St. Helena either.

It seems like Thomas Kelly was a mariner - perhaps if you traced his career you could find out if he sailed on any ships going to St. Helena, and perhaps brought her back from there.

[Digas1]

Thanks for your reply.  Yes Thomas Kelly was a mariner but I can't find anything about him before his marriage to Henrietta.  I thought perhaps if I could find at least one ship that he sailed on then the clues might start emerging.  Family lore says that Henrietta met him on board the ship but what was she doing on the ship in the first place?  I have found 2 of her brothers in America, 1 sailing from SA and wondered if Henrietta was in the care of her brothers and got side tracked!  I really don't think it was the done thing for a young woman to travel on her own in the last part of the 1800's.  It's very frustrating.  The shipping records are a really big brick wall.