Camerons from Prince Edward Island

[DonM]

Samuel isn't a common given name amongst Cameron's but there are references to a W. Cameron in PEI from the 1800 which "if" William was the eldest son could reference his father. 

Scot's in PEI arrived there as former military personnel who opted to take advantage of some land grants following the colonial war; from the clearances in Scotland where crofters emigrated to Canada.  So you could look at these records (Loyalist and Emigrant Ships) which are available online. 

The other is the PEI BMD Database http://www.gov.pe.ca/parosearch There is no birth of a Samuel Cameron but there are references under "Textual Items" which is where you will find W. Cameron and even a handful of S. Cameron's.

The other thing to remember there were a lot of Loyalists who arrived from the U.S. so you need to take that into consideration as the families place of origin. 

Cameron is a very common surname throughout all of the British Isles so his family might not even be from Scotland.

Don

[Lisa in California]

I’ve been trying to find references to Cameron’s in PEI but have so far found nothing helpful.  Something to keep in mind during your search: he might have had siblings.  [When I was searching for a Stuart ancestor I thought she was an only child. Many years later, with the help of some RootsChatters, we found out that she had many siblings.  Had I thought of looking for possible siblings, I might have found her years earlier.] 😉

[Lisa in California]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned…

Millipede found a hospital admission for a Samuel Cameron. Looking at that image…
His age is recorded as 21.
Admission date: 23 June 1842.
Years at sea, Merchant’s Service: 8 1/2.

While I believe vessel captains did employ young lads, I wonder why he would have left home at that age? Was he carrying on family tradition, did he lose his family, or was there some other reason?

[garstonite]

I live in Liverpool - the busiest Sea Port in the world mid 1800's -
a quote from Liverpools Seaman records

Cabin boys were usually 13–16 years old, but sometimes as young as 8, and also helped the cook in the ship's kitchen and carried buckets of food from the ship's kitchen to the forecastle where the ordinary seamen ate.

so that has surprised me - as young as 8 ??   still babies 

[Lisa in California]

I didn’t realize they would have been that young nor did I know what their duties might have included. Thank you garstonite for the explanation. What a difficult life.

[garstonite]

I don't know the answer - but I do know many many families in Liverpool mid 1800's had between 10 and 20 children - so an 8 year old going to sea was one less mouth to feed ??  possible explanation ??

[Colecam66]

Thanks very much everyone for you’re insight’ its so good to hear from you all’ and i need to definitely widen my search’ for years i have imagined Samuel just jumping on a ship to come to Australia in or around his 20s on his own maybe following dreams of finding gold’ i still have so much to learn with family researching 🤦‍♀️    Never would i have thought of Samuel possibly as a young lad starting his adventures and Don’ thank you also’ i just naturally thought Cameron being Scottish and following that lead’ Its always been on my mind that there are no more Samuels down the line of descendants’ all first born sons were William John and or Alexanders and Thomas.   Ive even wondered if maybe Samuel and Martha knew each other before Australia’ as they were married within months of Martha arriving’ also strange to me is there were no babies for the first 3 years of marriage???    Ive noted during my other family research that a babe was usually on its way soon after marriage(no birth control etc)

[Lisa in California]

…Ive even wondered if maybe Samuel and Martha knew each other before Australia’ as they were married within months of Martha arriving’ also strange to me is there were no babies for the first 3 years of marriage???    Ive noted during my other family research that a babe was usually on its way soon after marriage(no birth control etc)

Could they have met through their church? If times were tough, marrying a church member might have been an option for Martha.

Is there a chance that the first child died? Or, could Samuel still have worked on a ship and was possibly sailing for a year or more after they got married?

[Colecam66]

Lisa’ yes thats what i thought’ that Samuel was away for a time after marriage.  They wedded in a church but with only 2 witnesses’ Ive never been able to find any wedding notices’ their witnesses were a John Holland and a Mary Taylor’ Im wondering if John was a fellow seaman as in Samuels insolvency case it stated that he loaned $50 pounds to John for his passage to England.