Hi,
David Ferguson Greig is my great grandfather on my mother’s side. I have some information about him,. as shown below:
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He was a carter. The death dates and so forth are now correct. The death certificate shows him as father John Greig, Labourer, and mother Mary Greig (but his Marriage certificate shows her as Sarah, but that also appears to be a daughter's name, so perhaps Mary is correct) nee McArthur. John and Sarah are the only two on the passenger list for the Northumberland, no sign of daughter (?) Sarah or son David. But see notes below.....
Added 22 Nov 2009
Well this change in our weather here in Melbourne has let me do a little bit of work on genealogy, and I must say that I am very frustrated.
I have been chasing out David Ferguson Greig who was Alexander Greig's father (my grandfather), and thought I had it all down pat. I had David arriving on the Northumberland in 1864 with his father John, and mother Sarah, from Ardrossan in Scotland.
So I put out a few requests into various genealogy sites, trying to find out
(a) more information on John and Sarah in Scotland, and
(b) whatever happened to John and Sarah when they came to Australia ( I was unable to find anything at all about them).
I got quite a few useful replies indicating that the John Greig who was on the Northumberland is buried at Mintaro. But the only data that they had was no mention of wife's name, and only a daughter Sarah was mentioned as a child (I originally thought she may have been named after her mother).
Now one of the problems that I have is that the passenger list for the Northumberland only mentions John Greig and Sarah Greig (who I presumed was John's wife...), but no mention of either Sarah the child, or more importantly, no mention of David at all. I then wondered if David ( who would have been about 16 at that stage), came out separately. I did know that the Northumberland landed in Victoria, and David spent a lot of time in Victoria, so what was his father and daughter doing at Mintaro SA??
I tracked down a copy of David's death certificate (he died at Trentham in Victoria) , and it makes very interesting reading, and a lesson to me not to believe all that is in the records.
Firstly, his mother is shown as Mary McArthur, but in his marriage certificate to Bridget McCloskie, his mother is shown as Sarah McArthur.
Secondly, he died in 1927, and his death certificate states that he was in the State of Victoria for 76 years, which means that he was about 3 on arrival. Now from the dates on these certificates, David would have been born in about 1848 (which is right from other data), but would have arrived in Australia in 1851, a far cry from the 1864 arrival of the Northumberland! So when did he come out?
I have asked for a copy of the death certificate of the John Greig from Mintaro, and perhaps this will clear matters up, particularly if David is or is not listed, So frustrating.
I have also been onto Scotland's people website, but to date no success in getting any more information. I can't find any records of David's birth at all.
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Also a few notes on his father, John Greig...............
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Sawyer. He and his wife Sarah came to Australia, presumably with their son David, arriving on the Northumberland from London to Adelaide, arriving on 10/1/1864.
To date , I can find no information regarding their passing - of interest is that their son David was married at Sandhurst, Bendigo in Victoria.
This is probably incorrect - see notes on David Greig!!!
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As you can see, it is quite confusing, and I have not been looking at it at all for the past two or three years, and have just started up again.
I hope this is of interest – I do have various dates and so forth of deaths, and some indication of births. I’d be very interested to hear if you have any information!
All the best,
Greig Zadow
