My mystery man

[acookey]

Hi all

I am back on the trail of my mystery man, William Henry Douglas Cooke.  This group gave me a lot of help last year with the Cooke family, but now I need to track William back if i can.

His Death Certificate shows he shot himself 30/6/1913 aged 81 in Marrickville, Sydney.  The informant was his eldest daughter's common-law husband.  Time in Aust. Colonies, about 2 years Tasmania and 42 years NSW.

This fits in OK with his English activities that we know of: marriage in 1858 to Maria Mary Percival, birth of child 1859, sued by wife for Judicial Separation on Grounds of Cruelty 1860, Possible birth of another child called Thomas William Henry Douglas Cooke, by Eliza Isabel Cooke, formerly Bell in 1864.

I have done a lot of searching for William's arrival in Australia, possibly Tasmania but have not been able to find him.  It would seem he met Catherine Matilda McMinn in Hobart, where her father was a barrister, and they came to NSW.  There is no record of a marriage anywhere and their children are unregistered.

Their eldest daughter was born about 1872, probably in Sydney.

My question is what available records are there to try to find William in Tasmania in the 1866-1872 time period.  I have ample evidence of him in NSW, but I am hoping if I can find what he was doing in Tasmania it might give a clue to when and how he arrived.

Thanks

Annette