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Research in Other Countries => Australia => Topic started by: MarieC on Sunday 11 March 07 02:53 GMT (UK)
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The one important missing fact about my ggrandfather WJB Cameron (generally known as Beauchamp Cameron) is how, when and where he arrived in Australia!
He was born in Ireland in 1845, and family records say that he was sent to join his Cox uncles in Australia at the age of fourteen. He died in 1928, and the death cert (for which the informant was one of his daughters) said that he had spent "70 years in South Australia and Queensland".
I am not aware of his being anywhere other than Queensland. However, I guess it is possible that he landed in Sth Aus, or indeed anywhere!
I've looked at eastern States records as well as I can without finding him, and posted a request on the now locked Sth Aus lookup thread, which didn't produce any information.
I don't know whether the Society of Genealogists in Sydney would have anything, but I am not likely to be able to get there in the foreseeable future.
The Queensland State Library tell me that their shipping records from 1860 were destroyed in a flood, but he should have been here before that (in 1858-1859). I'm beginning to wonder if he swam here!
Any help gratefully received!
MarieC
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Hi MarieC,
Have you identified who "his COX uncles" were and where they lived? This might at least get you into the right area of Australia as a starting point to refine your search.
Have you looked at the Library Catalogue of The Society of Australian Genealogists which is now online at www.sag.org.au ? There are a number of publications which might be worth you looking at. They do provide a research service for those who can't attend in person.
There were CAMERONs in Broken Hill which is not far from South Australian border.
What was his occupation?
Helen
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Hi Helen
His Cox uncles were Dillon and Pryce Cox. He quarrelled with them shortly after arriving, and they parted ways. I know very little about the Coxes, except that Dillon drowned off Townsville in 1875. As far as I know they were both in Queensland. I don't think that will be a very fruitful line of enquiry.
I will have a look at the SAG catalogue online. What I really need is to find him on a shipping record, but I have so far spent hours to no avail!
The Broken Hill Camerons aren't mine. By the time he married and raised a family, he was squarely in Queensland.
He knocked about quite a bit early on, doing various jobs, but in later years he was a pastoralist.
MarieC
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Hi Marie,
I found a passenger list for an 1866 Brisbane arrival at the National Archives office in Brissie. The website doesn't seem to be working just at the mo' but it might be worth contacting them to see what other years they hold.
Prue
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Hi Prue!
Thanks for that - I'll take a look when the website is working. 1866 would have been too late - all the evidence I have points to an arrival in 1858-59. But where? when? how? If they have those years it will be great. But I somehow fear it is one of those things that won't be easily found!
The SAG website wouldn't work properly for me either - kept giving me blank pages on the library catalogue. Maybe there is a website-destroying gremlin abroad today! So I can't completely tell whether they will have any stuff which could be useful. Hey-ho!
MarieC
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Marie, eventually you will probably be able to see S A passenger lists for the years you want on
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dicummings/
but at present 1858 and 1859 have only one or two ships covered.
Sorry I don't live in the city or I would go to the library and check for you.
.....dee
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Thanks for that, Dee! I'll keep that link and keep checking it. He must be there SOMEWHERE!!
MarieC
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Hi again Marie,
I know mine was a bit later than yours, but as we are always thinking "pre-Federation records are with state records offices" I thought I'd mention my find because that rule obviously doesn't apply to everything! If they had 1866 it is possible they have other years too - I will check tomorrow when I'm at work (If I remember ::) ::) ::) I still owe a lookup to Jenn!! :-[ :-[ :-[ )
Prue
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Great, Prue!! Much obliged! :) :) :)
Marie
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Hi Marie,
Nothing specific for you, but the NAA does hold incoming passenger lists for the period 1852-1864 in series J715. The lists are compiled chronologically so you'd have to sit and go through them. They're held in the Brisbane office - planning a trip down there sometime soon? ;)
Hope that helps
Cheers
Prue
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Thanks Prue!!! ;D ;D ;D
I'd never have realised that the NAA had this info if you hadn't told me!
I'll get myself to Brissie sometime and have a look. I presume that these lists are just the Queensland ones? I would have to look further if I wanted to check incoming passenger lists for other states??
Your blood's worth bottling!! ;D
Marie
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Hi Marie,
Brisbane NAA office would only have shipping records relating to Qld arrivals - the NAA's collection is all considered to be "national" records, but there are some records that are specific to the various states (like shipping records), so each state office holds some of these "heartland" records.
The earlier shipping records (pre-1920s) would normally be held by state records offices, but in some cases it seems that whatever colonial department was responsible for records pre-Federation became a Federal Department rather than a State one, and so the records eventually came to the Federal Archives rather than State Records. It was all a bit haphazard really!
I hope you find your man! Let us know how you go.
Cheers
Prue
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Thanks Prue! Will do.
MarieC
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hello Marie c,
I'm a friend of a WJBC descendant and doing a little digging on the man myself. Our mission is to find where he is actually buried without driving thousands of kilometres through two states! WJBC got around when he was alive and still seems to be hopping about nearly a century after his death- have three accounts from 3 granddaughters as to the location and one from someone else and they cover a block of a few hundred kilometres!!!
I think I have seen something on his arrival but need to sift for it. Email address removed by moderator if you want to send an email I should have something for you in a day or two.
Which branch of the family tree do you sprout from?
cheers
anne
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Welcome to RootsChat, Anne. :)
You need to post another message or maybe two on here, and then you should be able to send Marie a Personal Message with your email address. Email addresses are not permitted to be posted on the boards, and you should modify your message and remove it. Otherwise a Moderator will remove it anyway.
Dee :)
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hello Marie c,
I'm a friend of a WJBC descendant and doing a little digging on the man myself. Our mission is to find where he is actually buried without driving thousands of kilometres through two states! WJBC got around when he was alive and still seems to be hopping about nearly a century after his death- have three accounts from 3 granddaughters as to the location and one from someone else and they cover a block of a few hundred kilometres!!!
I think I have seen something on his arrival but need to sift for it. My email if you want to send an email I should have something for you in a day or two.
Which branch of the family tree do you sprout from?
cheers
anne
Hi Anne,
In the eight years since my last post here, I have found out quite a bit about WJBC (and I'm sorry,
PrueM, that I didn't note it here, but it was a long and complex search!)
I believe that he arrived in Melbourne on the "Great Britain" in 1860 as a 14/15 year old boy, sponsored by his uncle, Dillon Cox. He then accompanied Dillon Cox to Batavia in Indonesia for about ten years before coming to Queensland. He led a colourful and varied life.
And yes, I know where he is buried and have visited his grave. This was an extremely long and difficult search but I eventually got lucky and two cousins and I went out to see it. Two of his sons drew a soldier settlement block, known as Lot 13, west of Quilpie, after World War I. They worked it for a while, together with their sister, but it is dreadfully poor country and they wouldn't have been able to make a living off it, so didn't have it for too long. At the end of his life, WJBC and his wife went out to join them. He was then developing dementia, and he wandered away from the homestead and apparently perished of thirst, and was buried on the property. One of the people who went out with me is actually Dad's cousin and the daughter of one of the men who owned the selection and buried their father, so it meant a lot to her.
I can't just recall the name of the people who own the property now - a much bigger property than Lot 13. Perhaps Tully? Anyway, Quilpie Shire Council should know.
I am descended from his son Allan (not one of the Lot 13 pioneers!) I wonder who your friend is, and where he/she fits into the family?
MarieC :)
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Hi Marie,
Thankyou for your response, I'm excited by what you say and my friend Judy will be quite surprised by the contents of it. She is a great granddaughter of WJBC. She is the granddaughter of WJBC's youngest daughter Isabella Harriet (1893-1986) who married Cuthbert Griffin. Their four children are
1. Ann Sealy b. 1925 married Brian Walter Bourke and had eleven children,
2. Patricia Warburton b. 1929 married Edgar Dowse and had two children- Judith (Judy) who is the friend wanting to know where he is and her younger sister Frances (Frankie) Judy has a son Bryan who has two little girls.
3. Jill b.1933 m. Ross Donaldson-Smith and they have four children, Ann, John, Alexander and Fiona.
4. Sam Griffin b. 1939 m. Valerie Sharp 4 children- Leanne, Sandra, Kenneth and Sonya and I think Sam lives in Darwin.
Judy one day showed me a book written by her Aunt Ann and I recognised one of the names in it (WJBC's) as being in a book I already had so that was where this all started.
From what I've got the person who arrived in Melbourne on the ship "The Great Britain" was not WJBC but Margaret Anne Cameron, mother of John and Elizabeth etc who married WJBC and it was John who called WJBC "The Wild Irishman".
Ciao for now
anne
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Hi Anne,
Ah yes, I know Judy! I actually boarded with her mother for a year when I began attending school, before I became a boarder at school. Have lost touch with that family. When you have put up enough posts to be able to send me a personal message, do let me know how the family is. In particular, Judy's mother - I think I heard that she wasn't well and don't know if she is still with us.
Yes indeed, Margaret Anne Cameron did come out on the "Great Britain" a few years earlier, but I think WJBC did as well. As you know, shipping records aren't very informative, but that person in 1860 seems to fit the bill and there are no other real possibilities. He was going to his uncle Dillon Cox in Melbourne, so it all works together. As he was only a boy, he must have disembarked where his uncle was. I had been in contact with a descendant of Dillon Cox and we agreed that that person must be WJBC.
There is a book "Strange Bird on the Lagoon" written by Margaret Reeves - some good info but some of it is dubious or wrong so must be taken with a grain of salt. And another book, "Fido and Friends" by Dan Hart which has a lot about the Camerons in it and is more accurate.
Cheers, Marie