Mr Pelu has finally come through - well, actually, he didn't. I gave up waiting and phoned again. I talked to a very helpful lady who found the my g-grandfather's death certificate and promised to send it that day. It arrived a week later.
This is very exciting because it provides the link between him and the Edinburgh/Sydney Sutherlands and gives me something more to search on.
My Great-grandfather - William Morrison SUTHERLAND died aged 46 years of Heart Failure in Lifuka, Haapai, Tonga on 9 April 1915. He worked from the Tongan Government (a civil servant!) and he had been in Tonga 19 years when he died. He married Neomai Mahe in Namuka, Haapai, when he was 28 years old.
This means:
He arrived in Tonga in 1896 aged 27 (I'd always thought he's arrived as a young man). He married in 1897.
My family bible was given to him by Mrs Burt in 1894, so that must have been given in Sydney.
Where to from here?
I'm really interested now in what he did there. I had thought he was a merchant - particularly as his father was an importer and I had an idea that this was all a family importing/trading operation.
I guess it's back to the Western Pacific High Commission Archives to try and find something about Tongan Govt Civil Servants.
Monday 28 May 2007
Monday 7 May 2007
Thomas M Sutherland and Others in NSW
Although this information needs to be cross-referenced to my Sutherlands, these are records I found in the NSW registry - linked through the NZSOG website.
Thomas M SUTHERLAND(1858)
died 1887 Penrith
married Maria O'SHEA Paddington 1875 (ref: 1428/1875)
children:
Rose (1876)
Clara (1877)
Agnes (1881)
Maria (1884)
Robert George (1879)
Christina (1865)
married Frank SYER 1885
died 1886 St Leonards (ref 6104/1886)
no children *Christina died only a year after marriage. I think she may have died in childbirth
Annie Dilworth Simpson SUTHERLAND (1865)
married John SCOTT 1884 Sydney (ref 1865/1884)
died 1965 (ref 37282/1965) *parents entered as Thomas/Maria
children:
John (1885) Ashfield
Robert S (1893) Burwood
Lina Lindsay SUTHERLAND (1879) *On earlier records as Eliza
married David VALANTINE 1903
died 1952 Mosman (ref 3249/1952)
Georgina M SUTHERLAND(1873)
died 1927 Mosman (ref 19848/1927)
* I don't think she married
Thomas M SUTHERLAND(1858)
died 1887 Penrith
married Maria O'SHEA Paddington 1875 (ref: 1428/1875)
children:
Rose (1876)
Clara (1877)
Agnes (1881)
Maria (1884)
Robert George (1879)
Christina (1865)
married Frank SYER 1885
died 1886 St Leonards (ref 6104/1886)
no children *Christina died only a year after marriage. I think she may have died in childbirth
Annie Dilworth Simpson SUTHERLAND (1865)
married John SCOTT 1884 Sydney (ref 1865/1884)
died 1965 (ref 37282/1965) *parents entered as Thomas/Maria
children:
John (1885) Ashfield
Robert S (1893) Burwood
Lina Lindsay SUTHERLAND (1879) *On earlier records as Eliza
married David VALANTINE 1903
died 1952 Mosman (ref 3249/1952)
Georgina M SUTHERLAND(1873)
died 1927 Mosman (ref 19848/1927)
* I don't think she married
Wednesday 2 May 2007
What happened to James and Thomas?
I know that Robert, Christina and the children - except for James and Thomas - went to Australia on the Ben Cruachan in 1883. James would have been about 26 and Thomas about 23. They weren't on the passenger list and I haven't been able to find them in the Scotland census for 1881. So what happened to them is a bit of a mystery.
There are a couple of James whose ages fit in the census - one is an Advocate's clerk (a law clerk) but he is listed as born in Orkney (my James was born in Dundee and while we can apply a little license, I think Orkney is just a little too far out of the way).
The other is a Plumber. A sensible trade but unlikely since my James trained as a clerk. Just on the off-chance I checked this James' marriage record - he's married to Susan - and the parents don't match.
Thomas doesn't appear in the marriage records at all.
One thought was that they both died. In the 19th century Scottish city this is a possibility and it would make my search a little easier. But while the mortality rate was high, it would have been unusual two young men who had reached adulthood to just die - particularly young men from a middle class family - the mortality rate tended to be higher among children and the poor. Besides, I've searched the Death register on www.Scotlandspeople.gov.uk and they don't show up at all.
Which just leaves emigration. They're not in the UK Census, so I guess that they didn't just head south. I haven't looked at LDS for the United States and Canada - the prospect of trawling through all those names seems rather daunting.
I spent this afternoon looking at http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au in particular, Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters. There are a lot of Sutherlands but one that looked like a possibility was James Sutherland 35, of Scotland, who was a crewmember (storekeeper) on the Talune which sailed from Hobart to Sydney.
hmmm. I shall have to go away and think about what I can do with this information. Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted.
There are a couple of James whose ages fit in the census - one is an Advocate's clerk (a law clerk) but he is listed as born in Orkney (my James was born in Dundee and while we can apply a little license, I think Orkney is just a little too far out of the way).
The other is a Plumber. A sensible trade but unlikely since my James trained as a clerk. Just on the off-chance I checked this James' marriage record - he's married to Susan - and the parents don't match.
Thomas doesn't appear in the marriage records at all.
One thought was that they both died. In the 19th century Scottish city this is a possibility and it would make my search a little easier. But while the mortality rate was high, it would have been unusual two young men who had reached adulthood to just die - particularly young men from a middle class family - the mortality rate tended to be higher among children and the poor. Besides, I've searched the Death register on www.Scotlandspeople.gov.uk and they don't show up at all.
Which just leaves emigration. They're not in the UK Census, so I guess that they didn't just head south. I haven't looked at LDS for the United States and Canada - the prospect of trawling through all those names seems rather daunting.
I spent this afternoon looking at http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au in particular, Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters. There are a lot of Sutherlands but one that looked like a possibility was James Sutherland 35, of Scotland, who was a crewmember (storekeeper) on the Talune which sailed from Hobart to Sydney.
hmmm. I shall have to go away and think about what I can do with this information. Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted.
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