This is my revised, first posting. Thanks, Marg M. I've read with great interest what you've said about seamen in the 1800s and their documentation . My interest is between 1840 and 1870. Our family story says that my great-grandfather, THOMAS LLOYD EVANS (born about 1840) was an engineer, who went to sea to further his experience in the maritime area. I have a hospital entry form, which states he came to Australia on the SCHAVINA. I have found no ship with that name and conclude that he must have had an accent, as well as the person who recorded the information. So I don't know when he arrived in Australia, or at which port. He died in Charters Towers, Queensland in 1905. I've looked for him among deserters listed in Victoria, Australia and thought the ones I found did not match his age, not even close. I have tried to find a crew agreement for him. The one agreement I thought likely, had a signature which did not match the one on Thomas' wedding certificate in 1870 in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, or on the documents when his daughter died. I have found a Thomas Evans, son of William Evans and Margaret Owen, born in Anglesey 1840, who was married to Catherine Jones and had three children with her by 1864. On the 1871 Census, Catherine and the children are living on her father's farm, with no mention of her husband. By 1881 she and the children are still there and she is listed as a widow. If my Thomas is the same man who left a family in Wales, he may have been less than truthful about his coming to Australia. As I've made no progress with information from the family story and what Thomas Lloyd Evans supplied, himself, in his chirdren's birth certificates I'm distrusting what he said and trying to cast the net a bit wider. I have one authenticated photo of him. I'll be grateful for your ideas. Can you suggest anything? Miriam O'D

Hi Miriam Just a thought on signatures on certificates - in England and Wales, and it may be the same in Australia, a certificate is not the same as the original register but usually a handwritten copy, so the "signatures" you see on certificates are not the original signatures. To see the original signatures made at the marriage ceremony you would have to look at the original register, if that's possible. Just so you don't dismiss the marriage solely on the grounds that the signatures differ. As for Welsh ancestry, it's worth looking at the National Library of Wales website (http://www.llgc.org.uk/). Best wishes Tony Holkham www.tonyholkham.org Cool and bright Pembrokeshire On 7 May 2011 05:17, Warren & Miriam <warren.miriam@bigpond.com> wrote: > This is my revised, first posting. Thanks, Marg M. > > I've read with great interest what you've said about seamen in the 1800s > and their documentation . My interest is between 1840 and 1870. > > Our family story says that my great-grandfather, THOMAS LLOYD EVANS > (born about 1840) was an engineer, who went to sea to further his > experience in the maritime area. I have a hospital entry form, which > states he came to Australia on the SCHAVINA. I have found no ship with > that name and conclude that he must have had an accent, as well as the > person who recorded the information. So I don't know when he arrived in > Australia, or at which port. He died in Charters Towers, Queensland in > 1905. > > I've looked for him among deserters listed in Victoria, Australia and > thought the ones I found did not match his age, not even close. I have > tried to find a crew agreement for him. The one agreement I thought > likely, had a signature which did not match the one on Thomas' wedding > certificate in 1870 in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, or on the documents > when his daughter died. > > I have found a Thomas Evans, son of William Evans and Margaret Owen, > born in Anglesey 1840, who was married to Catherine Jones and had three > children with her by 1864. On the 1871 Census, Catherine and the > children are living on her father's farm, with no mention of her > husband. By 1881 she and the children are still there and she is listed > as a widow. > > If my Thomas is the same man who left a family in Wales, he may have > been less than truthful about his coming to Australia. As I've made no > progress with information from the family story and what Thomas Lloyd > Evans supplied, himself, in his chirdren's birth certificates I'm > distrusting what he said and trying to cast the net a bit wider. I have > one authenticated photo of him. > > I'll be grateful for your ideas. Can you suggest anything? > > Miriam O'D > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >