This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Reid Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.reid/3737/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi everyone I am faced with a curly problem in ancestor tracking which may be of interest to others on the list My wife's Great Grandfather was Robert Reid who at one point was the owner of Robert Reid & Co as well as a major share holder in Buckley & Nunn. The Robert Reid & Co. wharehouse still stands in Flinders Street Melbourne. In 1889 he was interviewed for a article to be published in Table Talk and the following rather startling revelation was made. Table Talk November 25 1889 p 5 to 6 "The name of Robert has been long in the family. When at home on his last visit to Scotland, the subject of this biography was talking with his uncle, an old man of 86, who said to him, "Your mither'll no ken wha your're c'ad after," and proceeded to relate how Mr. Reid's great-uncle, Robert Reid, after whom his father had been named, was a bold, buccaneering sort of a character, who ran away from home and joining service with Captain Cook, was present at the planting of the British flag in New South Wales in 1787. To which the grand-nephew replied that he wished his relatives had told him of his wild, freebooting great-uncle on his former visit to Scotland three years before, as he had since been present at the Australian Centennial Banquet of 1887, when the story then and there told would have some point of interest. "I feel quite as proud of being descended from such a man," said Mr Reid to his old uncle, "as English people do, who date their origin from the coming over to their island of that Norman Robber, William the Conqueror," which sentiments surprised the octogenarian much, as he had been designating the Robert Reid of 1787 a "blackguard and a ne'ar-do-well," but his great-nephew maintains that it is men of such adventurous and intrepid spirit who have made the British Empire what it is, and have laid the foundation of a future colonial aristocracy (the latter used in the best sense of the word) will look back with pride to their brave and glorious forefathers, the first planters of the British Standard on this great Australian Continent, and with it established British speech, laws, energy and enterprise on this side of the globe, all which are fast developing a great southern nation, full of large possibilities and potent influences in the subsequent history of the world." Now as far as I can work out the Uncle would have been either John - who was a merchant with ties to South America or Alexander who was a Master Gardener in Angus Scotland. The Robert Reid I am looking for would have been born in 1846. There are two Reid's in the First Fleet who are not convicts that I can find. Robinson Reid Carpenter HMS Supply Reid H first mate Storeship Borrowdale Now allowing for the difficulty of reading many old records that have been hand written both Reid's could fit the bill particularly Reid H as it would be easy to see a R as H. The first Reid is more problematical as it would be harder to fit Robert into Robinson. Can anyone out there point me to records that may resolve the mystery. Bill Brunswick Victoria