Gloria Many thanks for your reply, I have a copy of the Probate papers as he and Mary Ann appear on the Real Estate from Tranmission of Deaths microfiche published by the Southern Suburbs Branch of the Genealogical Society of Qld of which I am member, my mother's father was 6 months old when he died, there were two young children from her first marriage and Archibald Mathieson was her younger son at the time. I hadn't thought about looking at the newspapers other than for a Funeral notice as we have copies of the funeral directors records and he was buried by K M Smith to South Brisbane Cemetery (unmarked grave of course). I have been trying for 20 years to find where he came from, as we only have the information he gave when he married. One of my cousins granddaughters has put the family information on Ancestry and she has made several mistakes but of course it is hard to get changes made. I will look at State Library as I also want to find what the bit about him being in Rockhampton Gaol and probably won;t find much on why he deserted his ship, and if he was working on a Coastal ship he may have been here some time before 1870s. Thank you Barbara -----Original Message----- From: Gloria Sheehan Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2012 6:41 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AUS-QLD] Re a William Wathen deserted from the Kate Conley 1875 HI Barbara I had meant to mention that date of that newspaper report regarding the function held for a William Wathen. It appeared in the "The Queenslander (Brsbane)" on Sat 26th August 1882. You mentioned that your William died in 1882 and in "The Queenslander" of 29th July 1882 appeared the names of "persons died in the Brisbane Hospital during the past month". These included a William WaRthen (an extra 'r') aged 37, of South Brisbane, who had died from cirrhosis. I have seen Wathen miss-spelled as Warthen once before and the fact that he appears to be a similar age, and lived in South Brisbane, suggests that it may be he. The function mentioned in my earlier post took place the following month. If Mary Ann had other children from a previous marriage, maybe they were grown by the time that William died in 1882 and no longer being supported by her so is it possible that the 'three children' mentioned were only the younger ones still at home? In the "Brisbane Courier" of 23 Sept 1882 appears " In the LAND and GOODS of WILLIAM WATHEN, late of South Brisbane, in the Colony of Queensland, Labourer, Deceased, Notice is hereby given that, after the expiration of fourteen days from the publication hereof, application will be made to the said Honourable Court that LETTERS OF ADMINISTRATION of all the land, goods, chattels, credits, and effects of the above named William Wathen, deceased, who died intestate, may be granted to MARY ANN WATHEN, of South Brisbane aforesaid, Widow of the said deceased. Dated at Brisbane this Twenty-first day of September, A.D. 1882.11 Nov 1882. Probate was granted in November. Gloria ********** Please remember to snip most of the earlier message before you post any reply...... Thank you! ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message