Thomas Nelson - b ~1847 Wigtown

[mdnelson]

G'day,

I'm doing some family research and haven't been able to track someone back to the UK, before they landed in Australia.

The person is Thomas Nelson.
I have an Australian Marriage Certificate (attached) that states:
- Married 25th Nov 1869 (in Rokewood, Victoria, Australia)
- Age 22
- Parents on the Marriage Certificate are stated to be James Nelson and Nicolas Nelson .... presumably one or both of these people are not his parents (since no mother is listed) .... one or both might be brothers, cousins

I am trying to:
- find a record of Thomas (e.g. birth record, census record) in Wigtown
- confirm who thomas's parents are
- then I should be able to determine what ship brought Thomas across to Australia

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've been stuck on this for a while and want to be able to make the "leap" back to the UK.

Thanks

[MonicaL]

Hi mdnelson

Welcome to RootsChat 

Struggling to find anything for you unfortunately.

Just wanted to say that his mother was likely called Nicholas as shown on Thomas' marriage entry, which can also be a female name and more common in the period you looking at. See www.whatsinaname.net/female-names/Nicholas.html  See the notes on the link regarding the use of the name.

Make sure also when you are searching that you use wildcards for spellings where you can. Nelson will have a number of spelling variations on records.

Monica

[MonicaL]

One possible census entry in 1851 that might be worth looking at:

James Nielson 65, Cart Wright, b. Ireland
Jean Nielson 63, b. Wigtown
Thomas Nielson 6, grandson b. Wigtown

Address: East Agnew Crescent, Wigtown

A wright is another name for joiner or carpenter, see www.scotsfamily.com/occupations.htm

I think I can see some of the children for the above James and Jean (McGuffog) Nelson. At least 8 show on IGI at www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=igi/search_IGI.asp&clear_form=true - including both a James chr. 1810 and also a daughter Nicholas chr. 1826. I am wondering whether either son or daughter could be your Thomas' parent?

Monica

[MonicaL]

Possible entry showing for Thomas in 1861:

Thomas Nilson, 15, b. Wigton aboard ship the 'Richard' docked overnight at Whitehaven Cumberland. Refs: RG9, Piece 4524, Folio 21.

Monica

[mdnelson]

Monica,

Thanks very much for the information - much appreciated.

- Good observation that Nicolas could be a female name
- I'll look into that 1851 Census information - it sounds likely
- Where is the 1861 entry from? Census?

Thanks again,

Michael

[MonicaL]

Hi Michael

Yes, the 1861 info is from the English census for that year.

Monica

[mdnelson]

Thanks Monica,

I'll let you know how I go.

Michael