Other possibilities

It occurred to me that W M Sutherland's name might not be William Morrison at all. I asked my mum how we actually knew his name was William Morrison, and she said "Well, we just know". I can't really argue with that.

I've emailed a guy at the University of Australia in Canberra. I know they hold a Pacific Manuscripts collection and that that contains church and Justice Department Records from Tonga for the time WM was there. I haven't heard back from him yet - (I wish people would at least confirm that they've got your email!!!).

I've also written to the Department of Justice in Tonga - snail mail - So I'm not expecting a reply in too much of a hurry.

Apparently the University of Auckland holds manuscripts from Tonga - all to do with the colonial government keeping tabs on immigration. At the time there were a large number of ship jumpers and other itinerants who made a living from beachcombing and trading around the islands. This sounds promising because Dad said that WM and his brother Robert were traders. Actually this does fit if I think about the birthplaces of WM's children. They were born in a number of quite disparate locations around Tonga - The older two were born in Namuka, William Morrison Jnr was born in Lifuka (wherever that is - I should look at a map), Walter Stringer was born in Niuafo'ou and the youngest were born Nukulofa.

Anyway, I digress - The Librarian in charge of the Collection at AUT is away until 19 February so I'll have to wait til then to go up and spend some time there. I'm looking forward to getting back in amongst some old documents again.

In the meantime, I can't keep away from this. I've spent God knows how long searching Scotlands People for possible clues in the families of the various Sutherlands/Morrisons/Middlemas's. There are, not surprisingly, an awful lot of Sutherlands in Scotland. Lybster, where Robert Sutherland (1827) was born, has the highest concentration of Sutherlands and Sinclairs in the British Isles. There are records of Sutherlands marrying Sutherlands and Sinclairs marrying Sinclairs. But this doesn't necessarily mean they're marrying their cousins. I think the origin of Sutherland is clan/district-based - so anyone from the Shire of Sutherland would have taken that name - in the same way that a number of English were named for their occupation ("Smith", as in blacksmith, for instance).

The closest to William Morrison Sutherland I found was Walter Morrison Sutherland (1871) - a sailor from Aberdeen - whose son was Walter - Yay!!! I thought this might be it! - a few things kind of worked. Mother's name Mary ne Pirie (maiden name doesn't fit but Aunty Georgie's middle name is Mary - and perhaps Walter Snr's mother's maiden name was Middlemas - actually it was Morrison) And anyway Walter Jnr grew up, became a butcher and settled with Mary McLeod in Aberdeen. He's still there in 1901 when my man was well and truly ensconced in Tonga.

Oh well ... back to the search engines tomorrow