Hi Judith, My gg grandfather drowned in 1873 and his widow remarried in 1877. Her marriage certificate just states that she was a widow since 1873 and that she was living at the time of her second marriage, in Sandridge, Port Melbourne.
The thing is that I am sure that the man, John Wells who drowned is my John Wells as each piece of information I find validates this so I am comfortable to accept his death date as established. However, I wanted a death certificate for all the other information I might have been able to find. Maybe with your experience, as opposed to my inadequacies, you may be able to point me in the right direction. I am stuck as to when this man came to be in Australia. There are John Wells who arrived as convicts and some who came as settlers and I don't know where to start sorting through them to find my John Wells. I do know that he was born in Jersey, England and his marriage certificate says he was a Baker. However, he made his living as a fisherman in Queenscliff during his marriage to my GG grandmother. Their marriage certificate states that he was 24 and she was 15 and they married in Melbourne. One point of interest is that she was born in 1841 in Hobart, Van Diemans Land. So, I would assume that her parents may have been convicts. They moved to Melbourne after a couple of their children were born and continued to have more kids. The marriage certificate also has both bride and groom living at the same address with her father signing his permission for the marriage. I am wondering if there is a connection with Tasmania and if John Wells may have been a convict who also came to Melbourne and already knew Sarah (that's the 15 year old's name) and her family. Do you know if there is any way to find out what became of convicts after their release from Tassie. I hope I'm not asking too much, but I'm stumped as to where to go with this particular branch of the family.
Anyway, thanks for your interest
