Hi, Thanks for the reply and subsequent questions. I know that they came to NSW - sorry I omitted to put that in my enquiry. My great grandparents married in Christ Church, Sydney, and her sister married a couple of years later. Parents were not given as deceased on the two marriages, and neither were witnesses. The father's occupation was not given on either although both names were given. I have looked at shipping - nothing there. On asking my father and most of his cousins, none of them could recall knowing them/of them. My greatgrandmother died in 1919, and my grandmother never spoke of her grandparents to me. I had thought about my gggrandmother being a local, and that brings up the same questions. Consular records are very sketchy from Swatow, but I am going to reorder a film from there, but last time I looked I did not find any of my names, but it is worth another look - second time lucky!! There are lots of Henry Johnson's dying in the timeframe that I am looking at, in NSW, and it would appear it will be a matter of trawling through the death certificates one by one. Ho hum!! But I would still like to find out something of his life in Swatow. Do you happen to know what records the Maritime Museum may have for the 1880's for either pilots or mariners in Sydney? Thanks Jennifer Woolard > From: genknut@exemail.com.au > To: jgwoolard@hotmail.com; mariners@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [MAR] pilots in Swatow, China > Date: Tue, 10 May 2011 14:56:36 +1000 > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "jennifer woolard" <jgwoolard@hotmail.com> > To: <mariners@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 2:10 PM > Subject: [MAR] pilots in Swatow, China > > > > > Hi Jennifer > > > > I am hoping that there is someone who may be able to point me in the right > > direction with this brick wall that I have. > > > > My great grandmother and her sister were born (1866 and 1868) in Double > > Island Swatow. Their father was a pilot there. His name was Henry > > Johnson, and I do not know where to find information on him. I do not > > know if he worked for a private shipping company or the English > > Government. Are there any records that someone knows about and where they > > are? > > > > They migrated to Australia prior to 1886 > > How do you know that ??? > > To which State ????? > > Then they died here ???? > > > but nothing in known of them after this. > > > Why is that when you live here ???????? > > > Their names suggest that they were most definately not Chinese, and my > great grandmother certainly does not appear to >have any Chinese blood in > her. > > gg gmother might have been a local ???? > > > > > Jenni Woolard in Australia > > > > > Bye > MargM > Beautiful NSW Central Coast > Australia >