Anne Ransom
Married Francis Walter Stieglitz ( Brother of F L Stieglitz) Avoca District , Tasmania, 7 May 1840, declared age 22- so born between 7 May 1818- 6 May 1819, . (Tasmanian Pioneer Index)
Died 1 October 1892 at Launceston , as Ann Vonstieglitz,,age stated as 75, so born before 1 October 1818 (TPI)
On this basis, she was born between 7May 1818- 1October 1818 which would eliminate Thomas Amos as the father, either by Ann Cummings or Catharine McNally. As the Land Muster for October 1819 shows a wife in Thomas’ household but no child , and the wife is assumed to be Catherine McNally, then the child can be presumed not to be Catherines. Knopwoods Diary refers to Amos several times during his 1819 visit, but nothing earlier in 1817-1819, and as Amos was a solicitor,and Knopwood was a Magistrate on the bench almost daily, and daily hob nobbing with the Judge Amos would have been mentioned had he been to VDL previously- Bobby logged everybody!!
It could however still be a daughter of Ann Cummings who was asserted by husband John by Notice in HTG 25/9/1819 “ to have absented herself from me for some years past “. On July 27 1820 she was drowned at Port Dalrymple with her 11 year old daughter and 3 year old son ,Phillip, who must have been born before 27 July 1817 in Launceston. So if she scooted off to Hobart with post partum blues in latter part of 1817 with her companion Catherine NcNally, they were on the loose together during 1818 and the best part of 1819., at least 22 months.
Cummings Notice was in September 1819, and she drowned back in Launceston in July 1820, so she returned to Launceston. John Cummings travelled per Martha back to Port Dalrymple in early October 1819, some 2-3 weeeks before the land Muster showing a wife with Thomas Ransom. It must be assumed that both Ann and Catharine had been staying with Thomas Ransom- possibly in the neat little house he had added to the Joiners Arms in Murray Street which he later advertised for sale- Maybe he took them both on as barmaids! Ann was located ( Hobart was not very big) and returned to John Cummings and Catherine stayed with Thomas, leaving John NcNally with 8 year old John in Launceston. Cummings would have told John Mcnally where Catherine was, hence the record of John NcNally travelling Hobart to Launceston about this time.
. If Ann was a daughter of Ann Cummings conceived (but not by Amos)and born during the 22 month plus period in Hobart, her birth name was neither McNally nor Ransom. As she was married as Ransom and not as Stieglitz( her adopted stepfather after 1830)she was either called Ransom from the start rather than Cummings or Boynton ,or she followed her adopted brother’s lead (Thomas 1820) and took on the name of Ransom because he was the de facto father in whose house she had grown up
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OK,-its just a construct, but it incorporates all the known fact to date- pick holes in it and lets see if it hangs together
DAVID
