Hi Listers I'm still trying to trace how John & Catherine ROBERTSON and 6 children arrived in Geelong from Brisbane Qld.I know they were in Geelong by 1893 when another son Archie was born but have been unable to find how or when they got there /John was a shipwright so maybe they came via Point Henry/ can sks please point me in the right direction as my brick wall seems to be getting harder to knock down/ I live in Melbourne regards Deirdre deirdremc@bigpond.com
Hello Dierdre, As a shipwright /ship's carpenter (a lesser title used as a crew member) it is possible that your man worked for a coastal shipping line. As such, he would travel at company expense on one of the company's ships without appearing on the crew list or the passenger list. It was a separate form (I have seen only one, they were not retained with the passenger lists by customs/ immigration, it seems) The time span 1890-1893 was a time of severe depression in the eastern states, and the West Australian shipping trade suddenly picked up, not just because of WA gold, but because of the WA govt opening up farmland. It may be that his future was on the ships travelling the WA route as a ships carpenter, or that the firm he worked for had infrastructure in Geelong requiring a shipwright. Either is possible. But keep looking, it is a long slow slog through the surviving interstate shipping for passengers at the VPRO, but worth it to close a door and, perhaps, open a new one. Regards Ada At 16:38 17-11-03 +1100, Deirdre McDougall wrote: >Hi Listers >I'm still trying to trace how John & Catherine ROBERTSON and 6 children >arrived in Geelong from Brisbane Qld.I know they were in Geelong by 1893 >when another son Archie was born but have been unable to find how or when >they got there /John was a shipwright so maybe they came via Point Henry/ >can sks please point me in the right direction as my brick wall seems to be >getting harder to knock down/ I live in Melbourne > >regards >Deirdre >deirdremc@bigpond.com > > >==== AUS-VIC-GEELONG-DISTRICT Mailing List ==== >Geelong & District and Bellarine Indexes : >http://www.zades.com.au/geelong/gdbksrc1.asp >http://www.zades.com.au/bellhs/bpnmsrc1.asp regards, Ada Ackerly, Melbourne, Australia formerly Ackerly DocuSearch
thanks Ada I'm off to the pro with my gen group in a couple of weeks so will your suggestion regards Deirdre deirdremc@bigpond.com