Hello,
I’ve been searching for an ancestor of mine for a while though to be honest it was always in the too hard basket.
I’m not asking people here to look things up for me as i basically have nothing much to go on.
Due to the fact indigenous people in Australia didn’t have official records everything i know has been passed on through word of mouth.
I was always told i had African heritage, something i always believed but of course had no proof. The family tree that got passed around from about 40 years ago had three men listed in different branches saying “American whaler” or “American sealer”. Some (though not directly linked to me say “American Indian” or “Mexican Indian”).
One particular ancestor for me said “American Negro or “West African”.
My sisters and I have searched with the name we were given and haven’t come up with anyone who this man could be, until i found an American whaler with a similar name (probably pronounced the same but different spelling) being in the right area at the right time. We can’t seem to find anything on that man to rule him out. We’ve searched crew lists from New Bedford and New London etc and although there’s similar names none of them are the two names we’ve been told or that i found on the whaler’s index.
My dna matches connected with several people in the US, and one of them replied to my message saying it does look like we’re related 5 - 6 generations back which fits for this ancestor. They haven’t replied to my last message so i guess i won’t be getting help from that angle.
Since would have been born around 1820, and on a ship in 1840s with his daughter born in Western Australia about 1850, and because of slavery i’m guessing there probably weren’t records for him anyway, or for his parents.
I don’t know where else to look for information. If anyone can suggest where else to search that would be great but i’m wondering if, in your experienced opinions, yous think i should just let this one go. I guess i would like to know what his name was, and where he originated from in the US. maybe i should just be content with the dna test showing the word of mouth stories were true.
Hi,
you comment that indigenous people in Australia didn't have official records .... May I mention that it was not only Indigenous Peoples who were without Official records.... Australia is a federation and it dates from 1 January 1901, so it was only the name of the Island in the years from say 1820 to 1900... the Scotsman, NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie, used the label 'Australia' in the 1810s after Flinders had circumnavigated and offered 'Australis' .... as a name.
Each of its founding states was once a separate British Colony, and each colony set up, at various times prior to federation, their own institutions for registering and recording of BDMs..... that state based system remains to this day. New South Wales BDM registration process was established by NSW parliament to commence in 1856. Western Australia's BDM registration process dates from around 1840s, Victoria's from early 1850s, Queensland was not hived off NSW until 1859, Tasmania was VDL until mid 1850s, but bdm dates from 1830s, and South Australia from its foundations in late 1830s.
Many volunteers continue to provide support to various not for profit groups who concentrate on transcribing long hand records of remote communities in NSW and include the now offensive race based words showing if full, half, quarter etc .... I suggest WA BDM web site shows its current policy allows it to dedact those words when issuing certified copy of BDM.
I am not sure when compulsory registration was first enforced in Western Australia, but the tyranny of distance from registration offices would be a significant factor until perhaps very recent years.
JM