I am researching Thomas ("Tom") Farrell (1837-1888) who was the presumed defacto spouse of Emma Forsayth, "Queen of the South Seas".
One or more authors believe Tom had been married before he moved to Samoa about 1876, after gold-mining in NZ, and I would like to hear from anyone who might know anything of Tom in the decade or so before that time, especially if he had married in NZ.
Tom was born &/or baptized in Chatham, Kent, England when his father, Bryan was in the British Army, and the family had migrated to NZ with the Fencibles in 1847. The family moved to Victoria in 1859 and lived on the land. By then, at the age of 16, Tom had become an apprentice seaman; he spent a decade at sea until 1864, after which there is a gap of some 12 years in Tom's history before we pick him up again in Samoa & the Marshall Islands, with his own vessel. It is possible that after his time as a seaman, he had sufficient success at gold mining in NZ in order to obtain a ship of his own, which he sailed to Samoa, where he went into the hotel business and met Emma.
In late 1878, they moved to New Guinea where they prospered but Tom developed TB and had to move to Australia for treatment;he died in Sydney.
The NZ marriage index records a couple of marriages of a Thomas Farrell during that period, so it would be helpful to know if "my" Tom can be excluded from the following marriages in NZ 1850-end 1879:
1870/8316 Sarah Hodges Thomas Farrell (Dunedin)
1863/7256 Elizabeth Kelly Thomas Farrell
