Dear List, Hoping someone can help. I'm trying to locate any ships that would transport immigrants between the West Indies and Victoria between 1848 and 1860, more likely after 1850. The family was George Brown, born c1809 Scotland and his wife Catherine Hortense Amelia Grano, born about 1811 Dominica, W.I. They had at least four children: Henriette/Harriet b. abt. 1842, William b. abt. 1845, Warren George b. abt. 1846 and George Brown b. abt. 1848. They were all born in Dominica and were living in Geelong, Victoria, Australia area in late 1860's. George Brown (father) was a clerk. I have checked the Australian Immigration Records between 1852 and 1923 and no listings for these people, that is easily identified. I did locate one entry in 1854 for Mr. G. Brown 42 years, Mrs. G. Brown 40 years and five children ranging from 17 to 4 years of age. The ship was the Ritterkerk. I have no further info. Any suggestions or ideas would be grateful. Many thanks. Jim Tasmania

Hi Jim, Just a comment on the vessel you mention. The spelling was RIDDERKERK rather than RITTERKERK. I checked the unassisted index and found that the ship arrived at Melbourne In Feb. 1854 with Captain T.C. Nolte and only nine passengers. I was puzzled that it had sailed from a (B) British port, so I checked the Sydney shipping Gazette to see what it said . . . not too much unfortunately, RIDDERKERK arrived February 22nd 1854, from London. It is conceivable that they travelled back to England before embarking for Australia. With so few passengers they would likely be "cabin" passengers, which explains the lack of detail regarding names. They do look rather compelling for your family. The Sydney Shipping Gazette, March 6th 1854 issue reported only the arrival date and port of departure, so I suggest you might want to check a Melbourne newspaper to see if they reported the arrival more fully. Good luck, Sue -- TheShipsList Website http://www.theshipslist.com/ >At 09:49 PM 2008-09-23 +1000, you wrote: >Dear List, > >Hoping someone can help. I'm trying to locate any ships that would transport >immigrants between the West Indies and Victoria between 1848 and 1860, more >likely after 1850. The family was George Brown, born c1809 Scotland and his >wife Catherine Hortense Amelia Grano, born about 1811 Dominica, W.I. They >had at least four children: Henriette/Harriet b. abt. 1842, William b. abt. >1845, Warren George b. abt. 1846 and George Brown b. abt. 1848. They were >all born in Dominica and were living in Geelong, Victoria, Australia area >in late 1860's. George Brown (father) was a clerk. > >I have checked the Australian Immigration Records between 1852 and 1923 and >no listings for these people, that is easily identified. I did locate one >entry in 1854 for Mr. G. Brown 42 years, Mrs. G. Brown 40 years and five >children ranging from 17 to 4 years of age. The ship was the Ritterkerk. I >have no further info. Any suggestions or ideas would be grateful. > >Many thanks. > >Jim > >Tasmania

----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Duggan" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 9:49 PM Subject: [TSL] Immigration from West Indies to Victoria, Australia in 1850's >> > > > I have checked the Australian Immigration Records between 1852 and > 1923 and > no listings for these people, that is easily identified. I did > locate one > entry in 1854 for Mr. G. Brown 42 years, Mrs. G. Brown 40 years and > five > children ranging from 17 to 4 years of age. The ship was the > Ritterkerk. I > have no further info. Hi Jim Suggest you try subscribing and reposting this on the mailing list [email protected] Geelong Library has alot of info plus films of early newspapers . Even if you find a surviving passenger list it would give you little info .............possibly just Mr & Mrs BROWN and a number of kids . The world had gold fever back in 1852/3 so record keeping was the least of its worries . There is a large book to be found in some libraries "Shipping Arrivals and departures VIC ports' for the early 1850's that might help . Should give you an arrival date and its always worth checking the 3 volumes of ' The Log of Logs ' books The Melbourne Argus newspaper will be available to search eventually in http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au:80/ndp/del/titles Bye MargM Beautiful NSW Central Coast NSW Australia