Hello, Aggi-Rose and Listers, I will return here to a question I raised in some remarks posted two days ago by the Administrator on my behalf under the heading “Fogarty/Brophy/Campion? - Templemore & Durrow”. The question being, who was the Private Michael Fogarty who deserted from the British Army`s 40th Regiment of Foot in Melbourne in 1858? I have reviewed some evidence in my records since my last appearance here and concluded that the deserter was my great-grandfather`s brother Michael Fogarty who became a resident of Leyburn in the Darling Downs area of Queensland. I will identify here some points I have considered in the course of forming my opinion. I will try to give some indication of my reasoning. My enquiry posted here three days ago under the heading “Fogarty-Brophy family” said my great-great-grandparents John Fogarty and Margaret Brophy had a son named Michael who was christened in Templemore Catholic parish in County Tipperary in 1836, with the baptismal register giving the family`s place of residence as Ballaheen. I said Michael Fogarty reached Australia by 1864. I said he was married at Warwick in south-east Queensland that year and became a resident of nearby Leyburn. The christening details I submitted were based on a search report obtained a long time ago from Ireland. The search report cited six Fogarty-Brophy baptismal entries registered during 1831-44 in Templemore Catholic parish in County Tipperary. In 1914, when Michael Fogarty of Leyburn died, his son Jim acted as informant in the registration of the death. Jim Fogarty seems to have been a man of a rather fussy or pedantic tendency. Michael Fogarty`s entry in the deaths register remarkably stated the deceased`s age in years, months and days. I calculated long ago that those figures meant Michael had been born on 16th November, 1834, i.e. exactly three years after my great-grandfather John`s christening according to the search report obtained from Ireland. The “40th of foot” website mentioned in my “Fogarty/Brophy/Campion? - Templemore & Durrow” comment said the desertion with which we are concerned occurred in December 1858. It said the soldier was 25 years old. If Private Michael Fogarty had been born on the date I have cited, he would have been in the 25th year of his age when he deserted. That is just a little piece of circumstantial evidence. We all know there was a lot of uncertainty in the old days about people`s ages. I will now turn to a point of considerable weight according to my reckoning. In my reasoning leading to the conclusion that Michael Fogarty of Leyburn was the 40th Regiment deserter, the crucial point has been the similarity between what was said about Michael of Leyburn`s arrival in Australia in a 1914 newspaper obituary and what had been said 10 years earlier in an obituary published on the occasion of the passing of another native of the Templemore area. I am impressed by the similarity between the obituaries` accounts of their subjects` arrival in Australia. I have reasoned that if Michael Fogarty of Leyburn was the 40th Regiment soldier who deserted in Melbourne in 1858, perhaps he sought in later times to cover his tracks by telling people he had come to Australia with a family group of Templemore Fogartys who official records show arrived at Moreton Bay in 1850 by the ship “Emigrant”. That group included a John Fogarty who was said in the “Emigrant” records to be five years old who became mayor of Toowoomba and a member of the Queensland parliament. John Fogarty`s obituary published in “The Darling Downs Gazette” in 1904 said he “was born on board the ship ‘Emigrant’, by which his father, Mr John Fogarty, came to Sydney in 1848”. The obituary then said -- “Very shortly afterwards the subject of our memoir came to the Downs with his parents, who then settled near Warwick for some considerable time, where his father subsequently died.”. The father`s emigration records said he was from Templemore and listed his parents as Michael and Mary, both deceased. John Fogarty senior`s widow Catherine whose maiden name was Leahy married Thomas Stevens in the Macintyre Brook area near Warwick in 1856. John senior and Catherine Fogarty had two other children with them on the “Emigrant”. They were a Michael c. 1839-1905 who married Johanna O`Mara and an Anne c. 1842-1899 who married Daniel Donovan. John Fogarty junior married Matilda Revell. Michael Fogarty of Leyburn`s obituary published in “The Darling Downs Gazette” in 1914 said he “landed at Sydney in 1849, when 14 years of age, and came to Queensland in 1863”, was married in October 1864 and “lived in the Warwick and Leyburn districts since that time”. Michael Fogarty of Leyburn`s death registration said he had resided for 12 years in New South Wales and 53 years in Queensland. Regards, Andrew Fogarty Casino NSW Australia --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com