BOWDEN - NSW, VIC, SA & QLD

[ashleighn19]

does anyone have any idea where I would start to find anything to do with the ship? Would they have needed to keep employment records? I can't even seem to find where the ship was sailing from and to and what they were carrying.

this is what i found in the encyclopedia of australian shipwrecks:

GRATIA: W 2m Brig 175t ON31791. 89.0 x 21.6 x 13.9. B. 1839 Reneuse, Newfoundland. Owners (as at Aug 1866) John Broomfield and Reg Whittaker. Reg Sydney.
Foundered in a heavy gale with the loss of all hands (7) off Cape Hawke NSW Feb 15 1868. **the wreck has never been found**

Capt: Charles Riley
Mate: Samuel Bowden
Seamen: Wm Thompson
               Hy Williams
               Peter Allen
               Norman Jochin
Cook: Hugh McDonald

[SMH Feb 27 + 29 1868] Syd reg 16/1862

[judb]

I think the place of marriage is

St John's xxxxx
xxxxxxxx street
Sandhurst

Google finds St John's  Presbytrian church in Bendigo (Sandhurst), cnr Forest and Mackenzie Sts.  However a history site gives the original address as Myers St which looks a possible for the address in the certificate.  The minister's house of a Presbyterian church is called a Manse so that fits although  the handwriting is awful. 

http://www.bendigofamilyhistory.com/freeindexsearch.htm

Judith

[ashleighn19]

Hi!

I'm just bumping this up in case anyone has any idea of how I could find shipping records for 1868 in NSW... surely there must be some way of proving that this Samuel is or is not my ancestor.

Any ideas/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Ash

[ashleighn19]

Okay... So I got my transcription of Clara's birth today (hooray!) and although it doens't really shed any extra light on my search, there was an interesting anomoly that I thought I would share for discussion

In the previous issue, it states that Annie has had 3 children to 1867.. 1 living (female) and 2 deceased (1 male and 1 female). Obviously the living child is Maria (b. 1865 in Sydney), but now I'm re-confused about the death on board the 'Rockhampton'. We have a death for the couple in QLD which is marine for Annie, aged 10 months, but I cannot find a birth for an Annie in England - presumadly since the journey only took 4 months the child must've been born there. I do, however, have a birth for a Samuel Benjamin Bowden born March 1862 in Bristol which would fit with the Samuel listed on the ship.

Anyone have any ideas on how I can work any of this out?

Also, Samuel's middle name was confirmed as 'Simpson' on the birth transcription of Clara, meaning the marriage we found in Bristol is correct!

Thanks everyone for your help and opinions, it is so interesting to hear everyone's point of view.

Ash