RootsChat.Com

Sorry to be late into this discussion, but I have done a lot of research into William Ward and his descendants. There is a bit of misinformation out there about his origins. Based on his convict records, he was probably born about 1799. The earlier date is based on his death certificate, which possibly over-estimates his age. His trial records and marriage records both agree on a 1799-1800 birth.
William served most, if not all his sentence in Tasmania at Georgetown. There are several records of disciplinary actions there and he is listed on the convict Musters in 1820 and 1821. His Certificate of Freedom was advertised in the newspapers in February 1824.
I have recently uncovered evidence that he may have travelled to Sydney as a temporary crew member on the Lord Liverpool, arriving in Sydney in October 1824. He probably started shipping shingles from Brisbane Water some time in 1825.
I have a lot more detail about his career as a timber merchant and his shipping activities if you are interested.

Can anyone help with an approximate date for this photo please. I believe this lady is from an Irish family that emigrated to the USA around 1850. The photo came from an old album from another branch of the same family who came to Australia.
A date will hopefully help be identify which member of the family this is.
The loaded image comprises both sides of the same photo.
Thanks
Bruce Ward

I am looking for a family in Scotland and have encountered something strange when searching marriages. I have noticed several times that there appear to be identical marriages in two Parishes just a few days apart. For example, banns were posted for Alexander McGregor and Elizabeth McGregor at Kippen, Stirlingshire on 11 May  1776 and they were married there on 31 May the same year. Meanwhile, Alexander McGrigor and Elizabeth McGrigor were married at Callander, Perthshire on 30 May 1776. Callander is only 12 km from Kippen. The name spellings vary on different indexes, but the same duplication appears on several sites.
I know that McGregor in all its variations is a very common name, particularly in Perthshire, but I could only find a handful of church marriages of couples with these names anywhere in Scotland with no time limits, so it strikes me as unlikely that two couples with the same names would be married on successive days. I would have put it down as a coincidence had I not encountered a very similar coincidence with Peter McGregor and Mary Robertson married at Muthill, Perthshire on 6 June 1785 and at nearby Comrie two days later.
Is anyone aware of a custom where couples would register two marriages? I thought it might be a custom where the couple came from different parishes perhaps?

If it is any help, I have loaded higher res versions of these two photos, plus some others of the same person, onto my Picasa site for comparison. See https://picasaweb.google.com/bruceward51/SharedFolder?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOajmOP4vfyPowE&feat=directlink

I don't have Eliza's mother's death date recorded, but I am fairly certain it was when Eliza was younger. She did have older sisters - I have similar photos of the next oldest and can pick the difference. I could load those up too if it would help.

Im am sure there is no more detail in the shield - it is not the scan, it is the original image that is deficient. I will try the Masonic site suggested in one of the other threads for the regalia, and if I get no joy there will try some of the other rooms as suggested.

Thanks all. This has been great!