Margrett, My grandmother had been told by Ellen DAVEY that she had run away from home, and I'm pretty sure that's what happened, but Ellen never revealed why. She was certainly young, far too young for parents to send to the antipodes. She had to lie about her age to get on the ship, because they did not take single people under 18. I don't think she knew the PEETs before the voyage. She told my grandmother she had fallen in love with young Frederick on the trip, but had married Richard when they arrived, perhaps because he was older and better protection. We don't know why the PEET brothers ran away either; surely they would have had a good life in London ... but there are many intriguing enigmas in the PEET family. It seems Richard PEET may have been back in touch with his family in later years, but tragically it seems poor Frederick, his younger brother, died young (aged 26) in Sydney from a lung disease, and it appears he had never had contact with his family again. Ironically his father Charles Septimus PEET, after spending 6 years in America and marrying off most of his remaining children, and then another couple of years back in London, had come to Australia bringing his wife and youngest daughter Jane Virginia (who married and stayed in Australia). After making huge fortunes as a silk merchant, resort owner and banker, Charles seemed to have got greedy and came out to find gold! Or perhaps it was just his adventuring spirit ... he is said to have been a friend of Charles Dickens and the Mr Pickwick character is supposed to be loosely based on him:) Anyway, while he was seeking his fortune in gold, his wife, mother of his 14 children, died of dysentery on the Bathurst goldfields. At the same time, not far away in Sydney, their son Fred, seemingly unknown to the rest of the family, was dying alone in Sydney Infirmary. I don't think the family ever knew what became of Fred ... in fact I may have been the first to find out. I shed a little tear when I saw his death and burial certificates. Through the help of Rootsweb and other great "connectors" several of the descendants of Charles Septimus PEET's 14 children are now in touch, piecing together what happened to all the different siblings on three continents who lost touch with each other way back then. It's great. We've found letters from one sibling to another, and some great old family heirlooms and photographs, and have been able to piece a lot together. Charles Septimus returned to London after his wife's death, then migrated to St Louis Missouri with his eldest daughter Ann and her family (BROWN) in 1866. We don't know why they went there. He died there shortly after, in 1868. The year before, one of his sons in NY state had fathered a child by the maid, murdered his wife, escaped from jail, been recaptured in Canada, and committed suicide by slitting his own throat!! ... but that's another mysterious story! I just wish I could get further with Ellen's identity ... this mystery intrigued my grandmother too, and she tried to find out more about it when she went to England in 1920 ... but to no avail. These are big mysteries which have been in the family for generations. When I first started contacting PEET descendants last year we reunited parts of the family who had never been back in touch since Richard and Fred ran away in 1849, and it felt quite touching and significant, because my ancestors from previous generations who were much closer to these people had been trying to find them without success. Some of the US PEET descendants had stories written down that Charles Septimus and family had gone to US "in search of a lost son", but their bibles only had about half the siblings listed ... like they didn't exist anymore, with the exception of one complete list of names/DOBs from a US family record, which tallied perfectly with another list in Richard PEET's bible in Australia. Finding Ellen's real family would feel like things being put right again. Sorry about the length of this. Margrett, I wish you luck with your John WILLIFORD ... another darn good mystery! Ruth >Ruth, > What a fantastic story. Poor Ellen, > I always thought Genealogy was a logic puzzle, and you sure >seem to have covered all the possibilities. I have learned we always give >clues when we try to deceive. and the naming of her son was a big clue. >The people of long ago followed such a tradition in naming children it was >hard to break from. Our ancestors were strong people and what it must have >taken for this young girl to do what she did, I wonder also if she maybe >didn't really run away but with the parents knowledge did leave her home >land for better things. >Good luck to you, I wish I could suggest another avenue but you have done >well. >I also have a Miller line I can not trace to far back. >Margrett