Interesting history needs help!

[kicksfour]

Thanks Amy, not much seems to exist eh!

Thananks for the interest, I'll keep searching!

[kicksfour]

Would love to, once I have time! Trying all online avenues first

[Gardener]

I'm not sure if you have this?

http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=7_ozAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RyMIAAAAIBAJ&pg=6739,2755565&dq=kitty&hl=en

it says that two boats were set out from the Kitty:

a long boat with master Alex. Ellis plus 10 men
a skiff with Mr Armstrong plus 4 men

Armstrong did not know the name of the men in the long boat apart from Alexander Ellis but named the men in the skiff as:

Benjamin Groom (a Dane)
Martin Monson (a Norwegian)
George Stewart of Greenock, Scotland
Jacob Markham of Hamburgh


It seems odd to me that the chief mate (Armstrong) did not know the names of more of the men!

[toni*]

the National Maritime Museum has records online

[Gardener]

http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=mqI0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=OTsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3831,5876550&dq=barque+kitty&hl=en

spelling of the names vary a bit. This one has

Benjamin Groom, Martin Munson, George Stuart, and Jacob Markman

[kicksfour]

Fantastic find Gardener!

And you've introduced me to Google news! Lots of trawling through to do there! Getting closer to the whole crew being named.

Thanks for your help.

Did you search the Yarmouth news or find it through a general search?

[Gardener]

Glad it helps you!

I just searched for "Kitty" and then looked at 1859/60

Sometimes interesting things turn up in unexpected papers. For example I once looked for a Staffordshire-related topic and found it reported in a New Zealand paper.

And often things turn up much later than you would expect. In the summer I spent a few hours trawling through micro film looking for a report of a death in Trinidad. I found it just as I was giving up, it had taken the local paper weeks to report on the event!

[dmollison]

Coming to this very late, but if it's still of interest I have information on the captain Alexander Ellis. He was the youngest of three brothers who were all master mariners - I'm descended from his brother Robert (1816-95).
They were born in North Leith; their parents were Robert Ellis, a plasterer, and Chirsty Mackenzie, daughter of Donald Mackenzie (d 1801) who farmed at Morangie - now the site of the whisky distillery of Glenmorangie.
Andrew (b 1 Mar 1815) and Alexander (b 2 Feb 1823 (not 1824 as it says on his Master's Cert.)) are both in ..
1858 - Directory for Nort'd North Shields lists
Ellis Andrew, master mariner, 27 Nile Street
Ellis Alexander, master mariner, 87 Norfolk Street
but I haven't found any later trace of Andrew, so perhaps he died soon after or emigrated  ??
I haven't found a marriage for him either; I have some details of Robert and Alexander's families.