William Justin Beauchamp Cameron - HELP!!

[PrueM]

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

[MarieC]

Thanks Prue!!! 

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!! 

Marie

[PrueM]

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

[MarieC]

Thanks Prue!  Will do.

MarieC

[WJBC researcher]

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

[deeiluka]

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     

[MarieC]

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

[WJBC researcher]

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

[MarieC]

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