Hi to all you super-sleuths out there!,
Well, here’s a conundrum that some of you may be able to help with?
I am just tiding up the last details of a family history, which like all families, threw up one or two skeletons along the way! The family concerned is one of the Littlejohns family, formally from the Parish of Buckland Brewer in Devon, of which the husband, Emanual, was deported to Van Diemen’s Land for stealing a sheep.
After gaining his Ticket of Leave he applied to have his wife and children to be sent out under the governments “Free Passage Scheme,” in which they were successful. As the Assisted Passage Free-Settlers were sent on female convict ships (depending on space), it cut down the possible choices in the two-year timeframe I was working to considerably. Unfortunately, as many of you reading this will know, Free Settlers names never appeared on passenger manifests, thus making researching that much harder. What we do have however, is the surgeons’ records.
After scouring all the possible voyages, I found one voyage with 3 Littlejohn’s (Free Settlers) marked down as needing medical attention, one a Mrs Littlejohn, another a 17-year-old Hannah Littlejohn and an infant, James Littlejohn. I am more than sure that this is the correct family as there were 5 Convicts sent to Australia during the 1800’s with the name of Littlejohn/s, two of which were deported to NSW (the ship, the Navarino terminated its voyage in Hobart), the other 2 being listed as single on their convict records.
The reason for this post is that the toddler, James, was a big question mark to me as he never appears in any records nor past family trees etc. He was completely unknown to me and family…and here’s why….
James has no baptism records and was born out of wedlock, most likely to a very young Hannah (so the local curate might not have performed the ceremony if he violently objected anyway). James died on the voyage out to VDL, suffering from severe case worms and diarrhoea, dying on the evening of 24th December 1840.
As his name doesn’t appear on Emanual’s application to have his wife and children sent out (as he wouldn’t have known of the child’s existence), so far I have been able unable to locate any death certificates for the child.
Does anyone know how I could locate any death certificates, as the Admiralty must have kept records and may confirm my suspicions in terms of mother?
Cheers,
Bruce
