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Research in Other Countries => Australia => Topic started by: danal on Thursday 17 July 08 17:17 BST (UK)
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I am trying to trace Emma Spraggs born in Chatham, England in 1856. She appears in the 1881 census and then is believed to have emigrated to Australia sometime after that. I would be very grateful if someone could do a look up for me to verify this.
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Hello there
Please can you supply of with a little bit more information
her parents names, place of birth, was that her married name or her maiden name?
kind regards Jenn
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I think the parents are John and Elizabeth, Jenn - only one family comes up in the census 1851 - 1881 - Elizabeth was widowed by 1861 when Emma was very young
Father John is given as born Maidstone Kent c. 1823 & Elizabeth Charing Kent 1827
Trish
Edit: Mum remarried to a Robert Campbell. Emma was a tailoress in 1881
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Hey there Trisha
yes I had a peek at agree with you parents John and Elizabeth stepfather Robert Campbell,
came up with two maiden name possiblities Duffiel or Raines
SPRAGGS Adelaide Mary Bell father unknown mother Emma Spraggs born in 1887 at Prahran reg no 22689
but cannot find anything as yet for either one of them
Jenn
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Hi Trisha and Jenn
Thanks for all the help so far. Yes, Elizabeth Raines and John Spraggs were definitely Emma's parents. I have also been contacted by another interested party who verifies that Emma emigrated after 1881 and had a child (father unknown) called Adelaide May Spraggs in 1887. Apparently she communicated with her brother and sent photos of Adelaide and Melbourne after arriving, but then stopped for some reason.
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I couldn't find anything else, but I have no access to South Australian records. A few other folks can check there. I doubt the birth certificate would tell much that you don't already know. The name is not common & I searched with without the s. Couldn't find immigration to the eastern states either - sorry - perhaps SA will have the information :) - or hopefully I missed something
Trish
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Hi All,
Am I right that her name was ADELAIDE, not that she was born in ADELAIDE.?
When you say she sent pictures of Melbourne and Adelaide, do you mean the cities, or did she also name a child Melbourne and send pics of her chn.?.
Sorry if this sounds a bit strange.
Sue
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I can't see any sign of either mother or daughter in South Australian BDM indexes, nor on the electoral rolls for the other states. :-\
.....dee
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Hi All,
Am I right that her name was ADELAIDE, not that she was born in ADELAIDE.?
When you say she sent pictures of Melbourne and Adelaide, do you mean the cities, or did she also name a child Melbourne and send pics of her chn.?.
Sorry if this sounds a bit strange.
Sue
Hi Sue, you have made me realise I may have misinterpreted - the Child was called Adelaide, and as Jenn gave registered Prahran (or however that surburb of Mebourne is spelt). I assumed the City of Adelaide in the post by danal, but I may have assumed incorrectly.
Trish
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Trish and Sue.....had a thought.....a long shot......if BELL was the name of the father.....maybe after the birth of the child Adelaide Mary Bell Spraggs, the mother posed as a widow and went by the name BELL. Can we find any likely records in that direction...... ??? :-\
.....dee
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Good thoughts dee.
Or did it just come from Campbell
Her step father
Sue
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Good thoughts dee.
Or did it just come from Campbell
Her step father
Sue
I would think more likely to be the father - I also wondered about name changing - or else she went back to England, or to NZ? They both seem to have disappeared.
Trish
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Another thought! Perhaps she married and the daughter took the father's name as well. Or worse scenario, she/both died. You people are amazing! What a great site! Can't believe people are so prepared to give up their valuable time in this day and age to help others research. Thanks so much!!
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Hi danal
By the 1890s marriages and deaths were 99.9% registered, so this is why we are looking at other ideas. A name change would probably not be recorded anywhere - thus much harder to find. If she simply moved in with a partner & took his name - it is more difficult to find her.
Trish
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Hi,
I have just started doing some family research and believe that Emma Spraggs was my great great grandmother on my fathers side.
Adelaide May was my grandmothers mother.
We are trying to find out more about her and her family from the UK and why she moved to Australia in the first place and also who may have been Adelaide May's father.
If anyone has any information that would be great.
Regards
Anna
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Hello Anna
Emma Spraggs born in 1856 in Chatham was a the sister of my great grandfather on my mother's side. I knew she emigrated to Austrailia after 1881 and had a child there called Adelaide May (presumably after the place she settled in). Her mother remarried and on the 1881 English census she is shown as a Tailoress (aged 25) living with them. Her relationship is given as step daughter. She then emigrated, but I do not know the exact date which perhaps you can help me with. I also know from someone else's tree that she was quite a pioneer (a single woman travelling on her own with convicts!) and made all her own furniture etc. After that, I know nothing about her or what happened to her daughter or family. It would be great if you could help me with the Australian side as you are obviously her descendent. I can help you with some of the English side. As you can see from the other posts, people have been very kind in researching for me to try and solve the puzzle about what happened to both Emma and Adelaide as they both seem to have vanished once they arrived in Austrailia. Would be great to solve our puzzle too.
best wishes Audrey
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Thanks for your quick reply,
For our family Emma seems to be a bit of a mystery woman and I am only now just starting to get a bit more of an idea about her and her history.
We know that she arrived in Adelaide, Australia in Nov 1884 and we have a copy of her diary whilst she was onboard the ship. The last entry is follows
Nov 20th 1884
“Such a rush with the ladies this morning for servants most of whom were engage in half an hour. I engage with Mrs Wright went this afternoon with a lady to see Miss Dutton who made me very welcome, sent her servant to see me in the train that I might not loose myself the place very pretty.”
We then know that Adelaide Mary Bell Spraggs was born in the suburb of Parhan in Melbourne 1887. Why she was in Melbourne and who the father was we dont know.
She then travelled at some point from Melbourne to Price in South Australia about 100klms from Adelaide.
Once in Price she opened up a General Store. How a woman/single parent managed to travel on her own across the country and then have enough money to buy and run a local shop is a real mystery especially in those days.
Her daughter Adelaide married and went on to have 6 children one of which was my grandmother.
We do wonder why she left the UK on her own and did she keep in contact with her family? Also you mention about her travelling with convicts could you let me know where I could get some more information that?
Any other information you might know would be greatly appreciated.
Please tell me what I can help you with from our side of things and if you would like a more detailed family history for Adelaide's Family.
Thanks again
Regards
Anna
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Hi Anna
What you have told me is very interesting. My mother's cousin, Joan Spraggs, is the one who did all the research which she originally gave freely and in good faith to other Spraggs' family members in Australia. She spent many years of her life travelling all over the UK to collect information which is now on various people's trees, as she never had a computer and had to do all her research in person. I know she was very angry when the people she informed made it generally available on the web because it was her life's work and she had intended to write a book on the subject. They really had no right to make it general knowledge.
As she never married and had children and her only brother's children did not really have much interest in her research at the time, she passed me a copy of all her notes and research to keep safe with the proviso it was not to be given to anyone without her permission. I had not even shared it with my own brothers. However, that has now all gone by the board because of the sharing of info. by the people she originally gave the information to and the launch of the web sites such as ancestry. She is now a very frail old lady and somewhat confused, but I am still in contact with her. So much of the info. is thanks to her dedication.
Would it be possible for me to have a copy of her diary also? I could then show Joan and this may go someway towards compensating her. I would be happy to pay postage etc. She did get as far as knowing she emigrated to Australia, but beyond that, research became impossible as she could not visit Australia and the research sites did not then exist.
I can also help you with where the English side of the family are now.
I mentioned convicts because, of course, some of the fellow passengers would have been prisoners being deported to serve their sentences in Australian prisons set up by the British Government.
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Thanks again for your reply,
The information that you have given us is very interesting. The reason behind my research is that I inherited a broach from my Nan (Adelaide's daughter) when she passed away a few years ago which was Emma's.
My Great Aunt Carol (Adelaides last surviving daughter) told me a little bit about Emma and said that it would be great if I could find out some more about her as she had always been a woman of mystery to the family. Aunt Carol is getting very old and frail these days we are having a bit of a family catch up with her next weekend so I decided to see what i could find out about Emma. Hopefully some of the information that you have given me might be able to jog her memory a bit.
My father has a copy of the Diary that I can scan and email to you if you like otherwise I can post a copy.
Is it my understanding from you previous post that you are not able to provide me with anymore information regarding Emma and her Family? I read somewhere that she sent photos and letters back to her family in England do you know anything about that?
My research is purely on a small interest only basis and is not being used for any family trees etc. Really just trying to piece together the puzzle about Emma who seems to be a very interesting lady.
Thank you again for taking the time to reply
Regards
Anna
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I am a little confused by the postings here.
Just to clarify information if Emma came to Australia in 1881 she would not have travelled with Convicts, as the sending of convicts to Australia had ceased by then (1868 I think the last convicts were sent)
Jenn
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Jenn, yes you are perfectly correct, of course! Thanks for putting me right! However, I suspect it would still have been quite dangerous and avant-garde for a young, single woman to travel on her own in those times and to support herself once she arrived.
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Many many young women came to the colonies in search of a better life and I would imagine a good deal of them found it.
Jenn
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I certainly support Jenn's comments. The mention of servants etc in the diary may indicate that Emma travelled as an unassisted immigrant ie she paid for her own passage. I have searched the assisted immigrants shipping arrivals and there is no ship arriving Nov 1884 at Port Adelaide with assisted immigrants.
Coastal shipping was very active between the states, not only for passengers but for cargo. Emma mentions in the train. She would have travelled on the first Government built and owned steam railway in the British Empire which commenced in 1856 between Port Adelaide and Adelaide.
Emma was only one of thousands of young woman [including my gggrandmother] who emigrated to Australia. My gggrandmother was unable to purchase a passage to Melbourne, so opted for Adelaide and then travelled to Melbourne on a coastal trader, where she arrived in 1854. Her story is not in a diary but related by her to my father.
Our ancestors were far more mobile that we imagine.
I always find it helpful to read the social history of the era you are researching. South Australia was not a penal colony and as Jenn as already mentioned, transportation of convicts had long ceased.
Just my two bob's worth ;D
Cheers
Cando
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Emma Spraggs was the sister of my great-grandfather. John Spraggs, her father, was born in Maidstone in 1822, married Elizabeth Rains in 1846 and died at Chatham in 1856, the year that Emma was born. She had two older brothers and a sister, besides a brother who died in infancy. She also had a half-brother, George, whose father was her stepfather Robert Campbell. I am indebted to Joan Spraggs for this information.