Hi, Chuck Have you tried ships crew lists? I had one ancestor come from a whaling ship from New Bedford, Mass', USA, another from Cornwell,his family were shipwrights and shipbuilders. Cheers Glen On Sun, Apr 4th, 2010 at 1:02 AM, Chuck May <ChuckMay@may-engineering.com> wrote: > Not unless you can figure out where my Thomas MAY came from and > how/why they > went to New York. This has had me seriously stumped for decades now, > and I > suspect I am seriously hampered by the distance from Massachusetts > to > Melbourne <g>. > > Here's the short story on him: > > Thomas MAY was born about 1806 somewhere in the British Empire. > Though I > can't find him in any convict or assisted immigrant lists, in 1843 he > was in > Melbourne, and married Sarah Ann CLUBB (an assisted immigrant about > whom I > have a relatively good picture) in St James Church. In 1845 he was a > baker > in Geelong and in 1849 the family probably lived at Marabool Street. > There > were three children: Thomas Melbourne MAY (1845 in Melbourne), Sarah > Ann MAY > (probably about 1849 in Geelong), and Robert MAY (1846 in Geelong, > died 1850 > at sea). The marriage was at least somewhat troubled, as "Wild and > Wondrous > Women" indicates that the couple appeared on Geelong police blotters > with > complaints of mutual abuse and drunkenness. > > In December 1850 the entire family (less Robert, who died that > April) > arrived in New York on a ship from London (since Robert died April > 14th "at > sea", I assume the departure from Australia was before the middle of > April > 1850). Some time between then and 1861 Thomas dropped from sight > under > circumstances which prompted the family (as shown in Thomas Melbourne > MAY's > letters from 1861) to concoct a story of him having been lost at sea > (obviously false, since he shows in the passenger list of > "Devonshire" in > 1850). > > Sarah Ann (CLUBB) MAY re-married in New York before 1866. Sarah Ann > MAY > eventually married, possibly to someone named Linford. Thomas > Melbourne MAY > became my Great-Great-Grandfather. > > The obvious questions are: > Where did Thomas come from? > When and how did he arrive in Australia? > Why did the family leave Geelong just at the height of the gold > rush? > How did they get the resources to make the journey? (Sarah's family > in > London would not have had the resources to help). > Why did they choose New York as a destination? > What happened to Thomas between 1850 and 1861? > > Sorry to take up so much bandwidth, but this has been a real stumper > for me > for a long time. > Thanks. > > Chuck May > Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA > ChuckMay@may-engineering.com > http://www.may-engineering.com > > > Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 14:31:26 +1000 > > From: "ROSALYN SMAILL" <rstruttonsmaill@bigpond.com> > > > > Hi Chuck, > > What a pity. Is there anything else I can do to help? > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > For on-line indexes and information on Geelong and District > http://zades.com.au > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUS-VIC-GEELONG-DISTRICT-request@rootsweb.com with the word > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the > message > > >