Please help? RANSOM Thomas 1820: MCNALLY Catharine; AMOS T: STIEGLITZ

[Wiggy]

Hi Trish,    Thanks for the suggestion!

I have already tried the Tasmanian site you suggested and both Ann and Thomas are there - one as Ransome and the other as Ranson -  all spellings acknowledged as variations.  Neither has parents mentioned.  Problem!  but Ann's marriage with Von Stieglitz and her children are recorded.    We believe Thomas and Catherine only had two children - reckon Thomas might have run out of steam by then!!!       Jnr was only 10 when Dad died aged about 88.   (That's a tremendous age when you think he came out on the second fleet - notoriously bad conditions, went to Norfolk Island for years etc etc.)   It does make you wonder.    There is a pavement in Campbell town in Tassie which has two bricks in it,  both referring to a Thomas Ransom - one of 48, the other of 20.   I wrote to Tasmanian Library to sort out this discrepancy and they say there is only one Thomas registered and think the bricks may be wrong - each brick tells half the story we have been handed down - very confusing.       

Still searching!!     

Wiggy

[trish1120]

Well this one has me beat, although Australia is not my area of expertise even though I live here

Thomas seems quite a lad

WHERE ARE ALL THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERTS, Come in Spinner


Trish

[Wiggy]

Gee that last reply I wrote was confused!! 
I've rectified it I hope!    I am confusing myself never mind anyone else.

Where is your expert area Trish?

Wiggy

[trish1120]

Nowhere in particular but I love the English counties

Its just that I have no one really that stayed in Australia besides me, so I have not purchased Australian records like others have on this board.

Cheers,
Trish

[Wiggy]

Searching for any knowledge of Catharine's roots.   

Born possibly 1790ish.   Where??      
Partner of Thomas Ransom from about 1814-1829 in Hobart and Green Pond Tasmania.  Bore him two children we believe.   See above!   
Married to Frederick Lewis Von Steiglitz  (ie/ie) in 1830; died 1857.  Lived at 'Killymoon', near Fingal during marriage.

Where did she come from, and when, to Tasmania ?    Was she a convict/convict's daughter?

[regross]

How sure are you of the date of arrival of Thomas?

There were  at least TWO convicts by that namea transported  one in 1789 and the one in 1791 in State Library of Queensland  http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/primo_library/libweb/action/search

The one on the Admiral Gambier to NSW that is in the Tassie records may be a third.

One Thomas Ransom received a  conditional pardon in NSW in 1797 ([4/4430]   774   -009)
http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/searchform.aspx

Still no trace on Catherine/Christina. There is always teh possiblity that she was a soldiers child. After ruling out a convict background for one I am researching who arrived in PJ in 1826 aged 7 I began to look at the famlies of soldiers who accompanied the convicts to find their arrival.

From my experience it is very hard to find them listed at all. All documentation to the family I am researching merely lists Sgt **** and family not even a wife's name. Even in correspondence from the soldier it is my wife and children.

It might be worth visiting these sites as a starting point:
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~garter1/tobegin.htm

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-conflicts-periods/other/british_army-in-aust.htm

http://members.pcug.org.au/~pdownes/keenan/index.htm  this gives a look at one soldiers life in Australia.

good luck

Robyn

[Wiggy]

Hi Robyn,

Well we have documentary evidence of him arriving on the second fleet (abt 1791) and going to Norfolk Island - conditional pardon in 1797 and full pardon 1810 (on Norfolk Island)  He assisted evacuation of last convicts from Norfolk in 1814 - to Derwent River Settlement.

It is VERY interesting that you say there are two Thomas Ransom's on the QLD records            because there is some confusion - two bricks in Campbelltown Tassie with two different ages given for Thomas  (on two different ships) - 48 and 20,  and the stories seem to have been amalgamated in the family history - Tasmanian Library says there is only one and has backed that up with newspaper references.   They cannot find reference to the fact that he was superintendent of boat-building in the colony - which we have as part of family oral history.   There is a write-up about Thomas in the Aust Dict of Biog. - I believe there is a web address for that in some stickies under resources.

Anything else you can tell me about the Thomas's you have found would be great!!   

Thanks Robyn,       Wiggy

[Wiggy]

Hi Again Robyn,

Have been trawling through the convict lists for Thomas Ranson(m)- the one we are interested in seems to be there on target - Scarborough/Second Fleet/ Middlesex/life.

 On the third fleet came others -  Robert Ransom and a Thomas Rawson - I wonder if there has been a bit of a mix up somewhere in the telling.     The Salamander is a ship of the third fleet, and this is one on which one of the Thomas' (of bricks fame) is supposed to have come.

Found the lowdown on another marine ancestor while I was there though - thanks for that pointer!!   

I want to attach a photo of the bricks but can't reduce them - don't know how I mean!

Wiggy

[regross]

Wiggy,

Pleased that the military tip was of assitance. We forget about these individuals who had no say in their arrival in Australia. We tend to focus on the convicts but the soldiers faced the same lives and little chance of returning home.

Did you checkout the QLD site? I think that they can provide more information for a fee.

Someone else will have to help with the image information as this is not something I deal with.

good luck

Robyn