There are many firsts that I could pull out of my research to discuss in this topic, our 'first convict' the 'first person I researched', instead we will go with a different and notable first: "The first white boy born in this colony was born of black parents." - Sir. J. H. Fisher I have blogged about this little nugget before , and it is of course much disputed as these things are, but I thought it might be interesting to discuss who exactly this white boy of black parents was. William Josiah Black was born on the 2nd of February 1837 'not far from the old gum tree' to William Edwin Black and his wife Mary Ann (nee Bird). The couple had married a few years earlier in 1833 in a recently completed St Dunstan-in-the-West . In September 1836 the couple embarked on the Coromandel bound for Adelaide, South Australia with their 22 month old daughter and William's brothers James and Thomas and their families . The ship arrived in Ho
Have you tried via New Zealand? I've had quite a few who came that way, especially in that period. Well, 1860's, as that is the NZ Gold Rush. You might find them in NZ. Only problem is that often not recorded when coming from NZ to Australia. But at least you could explain the gap if that was the case.
ReplyDeleteThat is my next step, trying to confirm Scottish births too as that will narrow the window
DeleteWonder if they came in a convoy with some of my Irish?
ReplyDelete