Hi Listers; For some time now I have been attempting to track down a William NOSWORTHY, born c1811, in Devon. William emigrated c1846 to South Australia. He had married Jane (born c1805) presumably sometime before 1846, and together with at least two of his three sons, sailed for Australia. William died in 1872 at Bald Hills, South Australia. Jane died in 1879, also at Bald Hills. I have searched my NOSWORTHY database and cannot locate a match for William. Have also tried the other spelling variants of NOSWORTHY without success. The info known for the three sons may provide some clues. 1) William George NOSWORTHY, born c1837, died 1912 Bald Hills, South Australia 2) George Drew NOSWORTHY, born 1838 Okehampton, Devon, died 1907 Lucindale, South Australia. George had his 8th. birthday on the ship on the way to Australia. Unfortunately I don't have the ship's name. 3) John NOSWORTHY, married Catherine GARDNER, and had at least 7 children. William has been the stumbling block to linking this family with the major Devon NOSWORTHY family lines. I have considered that perhaps William was not his first name, but instead the name he was known by (perhaps a middle name). However, as his first son was also named William, seems to provide supporting evidence that William was probably his correct name. The most often first name used in the NOSWORTHY family through the years was by far, John. The second was definitely William. This makes the task even more difficult! If there is anyone on the list who could possibly assist, or provide lookups for Okehamption, it would be great to hear from you. Len Heyward
Hi Len Do you an autosomal DNA test? (AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA(family finder). If not the time period you are looking at is all right for looking for cousins. A larger number of people of Devon ancestry have tested in the USA and a rapidly increasing number in the UK. I have solved two long standing Devon ancestor problems using an AncestryDNA test & the Devon parish registers this year. Both these were baptisms in the late 1700s and early 1800s I could not find & had been working on for 20 years. Mike Fisher