I happened upon this very old thread today and assume, therefore, that all questions are solved and that contributors have probably, by this, dotted all i's and crossed all t's. Nevertheless, one comment caught my eye, the question of the pronunciation of 'Sophia'.
Indeed, there was insistence in our part of the family and by the holder of the name that 'So-'fire' it was.
To put this in context: The first Beilby arrival in Australia in our line was James, husband of Elizabeth. After 1848/9 Festive Season cheer, they married in about March (I write from the top of my head) and John, first child, was born (if I remember rightly) in early October. I thought their ship was the SS Caroline - The Downs to Geelong, arriving in either late June or early July of 1849 (but as I have no records with me, I stand to be corrected). John married one of the Johnson girls, Hannah. I think that was about 1880 and to 'get away from the arguing' they took wagon and team to Charleville in Queensland, James being born shortly after departure in Stawell in 1880. John and Hannah's children - James, John*, Thomas George, Elizabeth, Laura, Mary, Rebecca.
Mary (born, I think, in 1898) was named Mary Sophia who spoke pontifically regarding the family pronunciation of Sophia.
No doubt correspondents on this thread have all answers worked out by this. I am overseas and such records as I have are stored away in Australia - hence, I write from the top of my head. However, while my memory of some points I've mentioned here is a little fuzzy, I too can write pontifically regarding old Mary's insistence on So-fire.
* I think Jack was given a second name but I don't recall it now. Jim was plain James. Tom was always known as Thomas George but he used to tell me a story (whose details I have now forgotten) in which he was either supposed to be registered as George Thomas or someone was given the task of registration and reversed Thos. Geo. to Geo. Thos. I can swear to nothing. As to the order of the children, I'd have to consult my Australian records for that. Suffice it to say, however, that John's children's names mirrored those his uncles and aunts, i.e. James and Elizabeth's children.
Old James, the original migrant to Australia, boarded the ship with his 21-year-old wife, Elizabeth Baker, who, one of the relatives told me, worked in one of the pubs in a village near Swanland. But as he was only 19, he 'upped' his age and the ship's passenger list shows his age as 21 also - and I think he may have answered to that 'advanced' age throughout his life. What caused the sudden upsetting of the usual pattern of village life for James and Elizbeth, I do not know. I know only that Seasonal Cheer, hasty marriage and even more hasty hot footing it to The Downs and Australia occurred. Whether they too wished to 'escape the arguing' or were banished, I have no idea but I find the latter idea unlikely for, after all, the family was not necessarily 'of the quality' at the Swanland Mill and a Season's Greetings marriage was hardly likely to have been a rarity.
Anyway, thank you for the surprise of the 2011 posts. I have printed them out and will add them to my records box in Australia when I visit in a couple of months' time.
(Delving deep into memories of some research some 40 or so years ago - I found that whether the name was spelt Bei or Bie depended upon the taste of the clerk at the baptising church. No doubt more recent researchers will have found the pattern. Bei/Bie families of the area got Bei uniformly at one church and Bie uniformly at the other - nearby but of a differing spelling persuasion. I take it that the family and the district were of no strict views in the matter of spelling. Which reminds me of the village, Beilby Bielby in Yorkshire. I have photographs that show the town name sign at one end of the village as Bielby and another at the other end of the road showing the name as Beilby. Perhaps since when I was last there some standardization has taken place).
