Hi List, There's an interesting discussion going on in the Australian media at the moment regarding the claim to aboriginal ancestry being made by a Tasmanian politician. A similar claim was made in 2002 in an appeal made by some people to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, a claim which was upheld. The claims centre around an alleged marriage between Margaret BRIGGS and Thomas HITE. Margaret was a daughter of George BRIGGS and a sister of Dalrymple BRIGGS. On the other side, Thomas HITE is reputed to have been a whaler and a brother of Samuel HITE who was a convict per Malabar (1821). A lot of the problem with supporting the claims is that there is no hard evidence that Thomas HITE ever existed. The Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office (TAHO) have published their findings on the matter: http://www.scribd.com/doc/239126702/Tasmanian-Archive-and-Heritage-Office-Lambie-Family-Research The issue I'm really interested in here is whether Thomas HITE actually existed. Putting the collective wisdom of this list to work ... can anyone provide any confirmation of this one point? Douglas

I cannot supply any evidence Thomas Hite existed. I am not of aboriginal descent myself and I supsect that there will be few, if any, records of birth or baptism, marriage or death of those of aboriginal descent. However, I can state that there is no hard (documentary) evidence in Tasmania to the birth or baptism of my grandfather, he was born between 1870 and 1875 in northern Tasmania, there is evidence of his marriage to my grandmother and he is shown as father to their children. As far as Tasmanian records go my grandfather did not exist because there is no birth or baptism record. As far as documentary evidence goes there are many descendants of people who live(d) in Tasmania who cannot find BDMs, shipping records etc. so no proof is available of the existence of their ancestors. It is very sad for those descendants caught up in these disputes. Patricia > Hi List, > > There's an interesting discussion going on in the Australian media at > the moment regarding the claim to aboriginal ancestry being made by a > Tasmanian politician. A similar claim was made in 2002 in an appeal made > by some people to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, a claim which was > upheld. > > The claims centre around an alleged marriage between Margaret BRIGGS and > Thomas HITE. Margaret was a daughter of George BRIGGS and a sister of > Dalrymple BRIGGS. > > On the other side, Thomas HITE is reputed to have been a whaler and a > brother of Samuel HITE who was a convict per Malabar (1821). A lot of > the problem with supporting the claims is that there is no hard evidence > that Thomas HITE ever existed. The Tasmanian Archives and Heritage > Office (TAHO) have published their findings on the matter: > > http://www.scribd.com/doc/239126702/Tasmanian-Archive-and-Heritage-Office-Lambie-Family-Research > > The issue I'm really interested in here is whether Thomas HITE actually > existed. Putting the collective wisdom of this list to work ... can > anyone provide any confirmation of this one point? > > Douglas > ------------------------------- > AUS-Tasmania Mailing List Website http://www.rootsweb.com/~austashs/ > Contact Admin AUS-Tasmania-Admin@rootsweb.com > Search the Archive (type AUS-Tasmania in the list box) > http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUS-TASMANIA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Hi Douglas and Julie, As I don't receive emails from the list individually, I didn't realise that both of you were doing the same as me, though I realised that you would already have a huge amount of detail Julie. In addition to what you have posted Julie, I've some more - the most pertinent, I think, being the fact that Samuel Hite's father James Hite, who had a brother Thomas, was transported in 1805. I've searched for James' arrival as a convict, but haven't been able to find him - he possibly may have his father's name as an alias. (If you recall, in the first decade or so, convict records weren't sent out with the convicts themselves, and knowing this, many convicts changed their names and sentences to become free earlier.) Here are some of the details: "James Hytt was christened on 28 Apr 1776 at Colmworth, Beds. He married Ann Stringer on 27 Mar 1795 - she was buried at Colmworth on 11 March 1833 aged c55. On 25 May 1805 aged 27, he was committed to Bedford Gaol charged with sheep stealing, and was found guilty on 24 July 1805, and was sentenced to death, reprieved for life, and was delivered on board the Hulks at Woolwich. Any children born after Mary could not have been James' as he had been transported. 1817 - BASTARDY - Recognizances: Thomas Wagstaff, Colmworth, bastardy. (Woman's husband has been in foreign parts under sentence of transportation for some years.)" and: "Samuel Hite was born circa 1801. He was christened on 18 Jul 1819 at Colmworth, Beds. On 8 Nov 1820 aged 19, he was committed to Bedford Gaol charged with burglary, and was sentenced to death, reprieved for life, and was delivered on board the Justitia Hulk at Woolwich on 8 May 1821." I've found a few references to Mary/Margaret Briggs in the newspapers as well, so will send the entire doc. to you Julie, to add to your files. Re. an aboriginal section in a cemetery - at first, I thought that would have been a complete fabrication, but, thinking about it more, I wouldn't be surprised, as there were paupers' sections, and denominational sections in the cemeteries - just maybe an aboriginal section was so "normal" in those days, that no-one ever mentioned it. Best wishes, Carol Brill. -----Original Message----- From: Douglas [mailto:douglas@burbury.net] Sent: Thursday, 11 September 2014 5:19 PM To: aus-tasmania@rootsweb.com Subject: [AUS-Tas] Thomas HITE Hi List, There's an interesting discussion going on in the Australian media at the moment regarding the claim to aboriginal ancestry being made by a Tasmanian politician. A similar claim was made in 2002 in an appeal made by some people to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, a claim which was upheld. The claims centre around an alleged marriage between Margaret BRIGGS and Thomas HITE. Margaret was a daughter of George BRIGGS and a sister of Dalrymple BRIGGS. On the other side, Thomas HITE is reputed to have been a whaler and a brother of Samuel HITE who was a convict per Malabar (1821). A lot of the problem with supporting the claims is that there is no hard evidence that Thomas HITE ever existed. The Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office (TAHO) have published their findings on the matter: http://www.scribd.com/doc/239126702/Tasmanian-Archive-and-Heritage-Office-Lambie-Family-Research The issue I'm really interested in here is whether Thomas HITE actually existed. Putting the collective wisdom of this list to work ... can anyone provide any confirmation of this one point? Douglas