William Porter B: 1802 Halifax NS, Black Complexion

[J.J.]

Do you have your ancestor Thomas Gordon Rippey and daughter Janet et al arriving in 1842...( or is that you answering on the posting below?) She was married within the last few months of 1842  ?
(Sailed Greenock, Scotland 9th June 1842 - arrived Auckland 9th Oct 1842 ) ugh...exactly four months at sea...my tum turns...
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ourstuff/DuchessofArgyle.htm
Do you have the IGI listing for a marriage of Thomas Rippey to Janet Bannington in 1821? There is also a birth...1806for a Thomas...with parents listed...which would match the age at sailing, but would mean the were only 15 years when they married? Wow, that's young...( there is also a birth of an Agnes & Sarah so this may be where those two names came from, if Wm. Rippey & Catherine McKay are your ancestors)

[Obwan]

Yes Thomas Gordon Rippey and Janet Bannington are my ggg grandparents and it's there daughter Janet Gordon Rippey (I have her photo) who married my William (I think very progressive for a young 19yo to marrying a 40 yo black man). I am very proud of my heritage.   As for Rippey and Catherine Mckay I am not sure of this link. I have come across this and wondered.   The timing seems to fit with a cousin maybe.   Janet's father was born 1798.  I have his DC naming his mother as Elizabeth Gordon hence all the children with the middle name Gordon.   Janet Gordon Rippey, Robert Gordon Rippey etc.   How did you get the "last few months of 1842"?  I have not found the marriage record"     

[J.J.]

Sorry if I got your hopes up... From your reply # 2...you had said they married 1842...  You'd forgotten the c. I guess... I had imagined the Gordon was for his mother...but on the ship's list it says age 37 which would make him born 1805...but not the first creative age in history...   J.J.
 

[Obwan]

I know it's been while.  I've given a lot of thought to the Marriage between William and Margaret.  As you pointed out the document does say cold people.  Well they can't be dead, which it has to be coloured/colored  people.  How many William Porter Mariners of Halifax could there be.  I read through the 1838 census and Margaret is listed but not William.  William signed on to the Buffalo in 1840.  So there are 2 years from the census to leaving.

Read through quite a bit of the other information you gave me links to.  It makes me wonder about William, I am grateful he was a mariner and not a slave.  Was it the times or was he it his character.

Had a brief look for records for Yarmouth,  not sure if I will get any birth details but I will give it my best shot.

Thank you for all your help.  I wouldn't have any of this without you.

[valeriec]

Don't give up searching. New information comes on-line every day. Now even family history books are being put on line. That is how I found a great deal of information from my ancestors from Ireland. It was a book by Thomas Miller about early settlers in Colchester County. There is a lot of information in government archive sites that exists but hasn't been released and put on the web. There are also different anthrolpolgy professors who have done their thesis on the genealogy subjects. I know there is a professor at St. Thomas University in Fredericton New Brunswick who has done a lot of research on Africville and blacks in Nova Scotia. I can't remember his name but I know that he is at St. Thomas this semester. He is just finishing his PhD in anthropology.
I'll try and find his name for you.
Every once in a while I will do an internet search with a name, area and date and still find something new. I found my father on a family tree the other day through his second wife that I had lost contact with.
Val