rachel brown martin - passenger list - england to usa

[alli_burnie]

Hi,

I know that my ancestor Rachel Brown Martin was born about 1837, and I know her father was James Martin, mother probably Margaret Grieve.

She had a whole range of brothers and sisters I think (from 1850 USA census I believe):
James Martin aged 38 married born Scotland
Janet Martin  15, born Scotland
Rachael Martin   13 born Scotland
Mathew Martin   13 born Scotland
James Martin   10 born England
Mary Martin   7 born England
William Martin   24 born Scotland
James Martin   20 Born Scotland

James Martin and Margaret Grieve married in Dumfries, Scotland in 1835 - I have that marriage cert.  No chilluns registered in Scotland that I can find though?  Despite the census entry saying otherwise.

They must have travelled to the USA (settled in Maine) between 1835 (earliest) to 1843 (latest) and 1850, and then Rachel and her siblings left for Australia on the Ocean Steed in 1853/54.

Does anyone have access to USA incoming and/or outgoing passenger lists (from New York I'd say) which might show the movements of members of this family?  If I could determine that Rachel travelled TO the USA, I would feel more comfortable that she really was born in Scotland.

Any help regarding the US side of this story would be so very helpful! 

[patticake]

I will dig more later but I found them on the US 1850 census in Bangor:
James age 38
no wife
and the children: Janet, Rachel, Nathan, James, Mary, William, and James.

A free site to check is Castlegarden.org.  These are the immigration records for the years prior to Ellis Island and the search options are very good.

[patticake]

I have found Rachel on the Ocean Steed, departing NY, arriving 20 March 1854 in Melbourne.  It appears to have left NY in Nov 1853.  That might be wrong but the time to sail that distance would have been long.

[patticake]

Sorry for the piecemeal effort.  I have found the following siblings on the same ship as Rachael:
Janet age 19, Matthew age 17, Mary age 11, James age 13, William age 27.

Unable to find the elder sib James.  I don't see him in the 1860 US census either.  No luck finding them in passenger records to the US.  Given the marriage record date of 1835 and the age of William (27= born ~1827) I wonder if Margaret was a second wife.

Good luck

[IMBER]

Hi

Do you have some special reason to think they would have travelled from England rather than Scotland?

http://www.scotlandsfamily.com/ships-passengers.htm

[alli_burnie]

Thanks so much for all of these bits of information!  US research is a completely new field for me - so the castlegarden site is a great tip off!

I had assumed they sailed from England simply because the youngest children had been born there... I assumed they must have lived in Scotland, then England, then from there sailed to the US then to Australia.  But nothing to say they didnt sail from Scotland - I'll give that a try! 

Thank you!

I had wondered about the older child and the number of marriage James may have had.  I wondered, with the absence of Margaret in the 1850 census, whether she had died when they were still in Scotland - but I found no death record.  Apparently she (Margaret Grieve) was the mother of the youngest Mary - maybe Margaret died in England? 

And I wonder whether the only reason I can't find the birth rego for Rachel is simply due to her being baptised in a different, breakaway church, of which records didnt make it to ScotlandsPeople? 

Too many possibilities - so frustrating! 

[patticake]

There is always the possibility that Martin was spelled differently in Scotland/England.  Somewhere along my searching, I did see a variant spelled Marten or along those lines.  I know frustration in looking for records and not finding them.

Good hunting.

[IMBER]

And I wonder whether the only reason I can't find the birth rego for Rachel is simply due to her being baptised in a different, breakaway church, of which records didnt make it to ScotlandsPeople? 

You say you have the certificate for the 1835 marriage.  Where did you find that?  And what clues does it provide about their religion?

[Lisa in California]

To clarify the 1850 Bangor, Maine census:
James Martin, 38, (cannot read occupation), Scotland
Janet Martin, 15,  Scotland
Rachael(?) Martin, 13,  Scotland
Nathan(?) Martin, 13,  Scotland
James Martin, 10, England
Mary Martin, 7, England
Wm(?) Martin, 24,  Scotland
James Smith, 20,  Scotland
I cannot read the three adults' occupations, but they are all the same.  It could possibly be Clerk?

Have you found this family in England in 1841?