Hi Everyone. Many thanks for the many responses to my query on the missing John Gast. They have certainly given me food for thought and further investigation. Robert, your information on John as a passenger on the Wonga Wonga from Melbourne is the hottest lead so far. What we know of John so far is that he was born in England in about 1816 and transported in 1836. He spent most of his convict years in Morpeth where he operated a bakery business. He was granted his pardon in 1852. He married Catherine Morrison a Scottish assisted immigrant in 1844 and had the following children all born in the Maitland/Morpeth district: Frances 1845 Mary 1847 John 1848 Donald 1852 Flora 1854 Some time after the birth of Flora he moved to the Victorian Goldfields. On the 1864 marriage certificate of Frances (my GG Grandmother) he was employed as a baker. Frances was living at Kangaroo Ground and married a miner. In the publication "The Diamond Valley Story" Frances is featured as Mrs Heddle (her 2nd husband) and there is a reference to her living at the Caledonian Diggings in her early days in Victoria hence my thoughts that she may have lived there with her parents. All of the Gast children married and settled in the Diamond Valley area. One of John Jun's children came to the WA goldfields in the early 1900's and settled permanently in WA. I have searched for John Sen in WA but without success. John Jun died in Victoria in 1885. His father was not recorded as being deceased and was still a baker. His wife Catherine died in 1895. On her DC she was recorded as "married woman" and John as husband, but doesn't mention the word "widow" or "deceased". She was buried in the same grave as her daughter Mary and Mary's husband. The remaining mystery is the birth of George Gast in August 1866 10 months after the John Gast on the Wonga Wonga sailed for Sydney. I have sought without success a death for John senior in NSW. The age of 29 years of the John on the WW doesn't quite fit but there are very few Gasts in Australia at that time so I am betting that he is our man. Though he was recorded as an alias Robinson on his convict records at trial and transportation, he doesn't seem to have ever used it in Australia. We are now coming to the conclusion that perhaps he wasn't a miner but ran his bakery business around the mining settlements. He may have been returning to Sydney temporarily but where he ended up remains a mystery. Again thanks for all your helpful suggestions I will certainly follow them up Regards Pauline -----Original Message----- From: robert.j [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 4:45 PM To: Pauline Stuart Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: Lost man in Caledonian diggings I had another look - checking the information available via ancestry.com it appears that John GAST was: mentioned in the Australian Convict Transportation Registers - Other Fleets & Ships, 1791-1868 Name: John Gast [John Robinson] Vessel: Strathfieldsaye Convicted Date: 23 Nov 1835 Voyage Date: 11 Feb 1836 Colony: New South Wales Piece: HO 11/10 Place of Conviction: Central Criminal Court PLEASE NOTE: the use of the alias john ROBINSON - so maybe we should look for a Robinson and not a GAST? John GAST was mentioned in the muster -New South Wales, Australia Convict Ship Muster Rolls and Related Records, 1790-1849 Name: John Gast [John Robinson] Vessel: Strathfieldsay Arrival Year: 1836 Date of conviction: 23 Nov 1835 John GAST was also mention in the New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia, Convict Pardons and Tickets of Leave, 1834-1859 Name: John Gast [Robinson Gast] Vessel: Strathfieldsay Piece: HO 10/54 Province: New South Wales Title: Pardons Year(s): 1846-1849 So it seems that GAST had some sort of "pardon" by 1849. BUT this is quite possibly the most tantalizing piece of information - the arrival in NSW of a John GAST from Melbourne in 1865 - New South Wales, Australia, Unassisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1826-1922 Name: John Gast Estimated Birth Year: abt 1836 Age: 29 Port of Departure: Melbourne Port of Arrival: Sydney, New South Wales Voyage Arrival Date: 17 Oct 1865 Vessel Name: Wonga Wonga Origin Location: British Is it possible that this is the missing person John GAST? or somebody else maybe? Could the record keepers have made a mistake about the age? Maybe GAST himself told people that he was born about 1836 - coinciding with his "rebirth" in Australia??? Definitely worth a little more investigation? Was the child born in 1866 born just a few months into the year? hmmm.. should we look for the death of a John ROBINSON in NSW sometime after 1865? ... hmmm good luck Robert in Melbourne. Pauline Stuart wrote: > Can anyone shed any light on the death of John Gast who mined on the > Caledonian Diggings from possibly 1850. His last known address was > Queenstown in 1866 when his last child was born. I can not find him in > either the Victorian or NSW GRO's. He was an ex convict who came to the > goldfields from Maitland in NSW. We know that his family continued to > live in the area of Diamond Creek. His wife Catherine died in 1895. > Could it be possible that he died in a mining accident in the mines and > is it possible that some of these deaths were not registered. > > Regards > > Pauline > > > ------------------------------- > 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 > > >