HI Anne, thankyou for your offlist reply. I have a Seaman in my husband's DeAngelis family who came from Italy to Middlesex some time in the 1840s I believe. He married in Middlesex in 1852, had a daughter born there in 1856. Then in April 1858 he had a son born at California Gully Victoria where the birth registration shows him as a miner. By 1861 he was back in Middlesex and noted as a seaman once more. I have never been able to find out when exactly he and his wife and child went to Australia, during the period of 1856 - 1858 nor when he returned to the UK. I have no idea which ships he sailed on each way. I think he might have worked the passages for himself and his family perhaps, but can't be sure about this. Maybe your William Horne signed on for the outward voyage, from England but didn't sign on for the return voyage. He no doubt sailed to AUS with the intention of trying his luck on the goldfields. If he had been in the Royal Navy then he might have jumped ship over there. But not a merchant seaman, he was paid by the voyages that he signed on for, I believe, so no need to jump ship. The idea of getting rich on the Victoria goldfield must have been very attractive to most men at the time, especially a young single man with a taste for adventure and who was used to being at sea for long periods of time. Regards Jenny DeAngelis Spain. <<> Thank you to Anne, Nivard, Nan and a special thanks to Jenny whom I > have answered off line this morning. Please accept my thanks to anyone I > have missed from this list. > A new piece to the puzzle came to life yesterday with the discovery of > a William Horne, miner with a miners right, on the Victorian Goldfields at > Creswick, just north of Ballarat for 1856. (Electoral Roll). "Our" > William would have been 22 at that time and certainly old > enough to > vote>>.