The Mysterious Mr Thomas KEVEN

[taonga1]

I think I need some Aussie genealogy detective help!

My 3x Great-grandfather, Thomas Keven, was a prominent settler in early Auckland, New Zealand. He came over from Australia in 1841, was a bootmaker and then deeply involved in goldmining.

BUT I've been trying to trace his life before New Zealand, hoping to identify his parents, and Mr Keven does not add up!

There's a curious cluster of mentions I've found recently on Trove, which are making me question whether he really was who he said he was:

• 12 Jan 1841: Sydney Herald  pg 3. List of unclaimed letters - Keven, Thomas (formerly Richard)
  14 Jun 1841: The Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser: Marriages - On Thursday the 10th instant, by the Rev. Mr Williams, Mr Thomas Keven, to Miss M Birmingham of Gundaroo. 
  21 Jun 1841: Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser: Passenger list for the Shamrock, in steerage - Thomas Kevan
  10 Jul 1841 Arrived in Auckland from Sydney on the Shamrock
  30 Oct 1841: Australasian Chronicle (Sydney)  Died: At Auckland, New Zealand, on the 20th September last, from the bite of a mad dog received in Sydney, Mr. Thomas Keven, bootmaker.
  27 Nov 1841: The Omnibus and Sydney Spectator. Marriages: On the 29th of October, at Auckland, New Zealand, by the Reverend M Birmingham, Mr Thomas Kevan, boot and shoemaker, (late of Sydney) to Miss S. Pausey, of same place.
  

I can't find evidence that either of these two marriages, or the death from a dog bite, were true. The first bride's initial and surname match the supposed priest in the second marriage.  There is nothing in NZ papers about these.  Maybe he's referring to Miss M Birmingham as a mad dog! 
===
In New Zealand, Thomas Keven married Emma Otto in 1845 and had several children. 

He died in 1877, apparently aged 70, ie, born 1807.  According to notes from the marriage register, he was 28, ie, b. 1817.

Unsourced comments from other researchers say he was born in London,  knew the Otto family when they were in Sydney, and came to NZ initially in 1839 with them, but went back again

He apparently had properties and business in Australia, but I can't find anything.

He also, somehow, must have had substantial cash (before his goldmining days) to purchase the palatial house the family lived in, and also to rebuild it without insurance after a fire.

I'm in the middle of analysing DNA matches, and his surname doesn't feature.  I do see small clusters of Irish Flatleys and Roche/Roush.

Can anyone help me with uncovering the truth about him??

[wivenhoe]

"In New Zealand, Thomas Keven married Emma Otto in 1845 and had several children."

What church did he marry in...denomination?

What names do you see for witnesses?

I see this birth, NZ -
KEVEN Edward Costley   ps. Emma / Thomas

Is COSTLEY a family name in Emma's ancestry?

Try....PAWSEY...I see this name in NSW BDM, and two deaths in NZ.

[ciderdrinker]

Good Afternoon
If he did come from London.It may have been that Thomas was transported.
There is a Thomas Keven who was convicted of stealing a silver bowl from the One Tun Pub Haymarker London 9.12.1830 at the Old Bailey.
He was sent to Australia for 7 years. He was supposed to be 28 and a labourer.
https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18301209-39?text=keevan

It was a second offence.He had been found not guilty )in  1820 of attacking a joseph Merton and mugging him for a watch ,2 keys,3 seals and a ribbon.

There are  Thomas Kevens born 5.10.1810 bapt 14.10.1810 and 23.2./11.3.1803 s of Edward/Edmund and Catherine nee Walsh at Moorfields catholic chapel which may be him.
Edmund Keven married Catherine Walsh minor with consent of father James Wlash at Finsbury 8.2.1797.Edmund was from St Giles Cripplegate.
Other children Maria 11.9/bap 12.8.1798
Edward a child buried St Giles 31.8.1802
Catherine 24.8/8.9.1805
James 8.10/25.10.1807
Elizabeth 30.7/30.8.1812
James 3.10./17.10.1813
Anna 12.8/25.9.1814
Edward born 1.8.1818 bap 30.1.1820

Of course they could be 3 different men.
But you do have to ask how Thomas Keven got to Australia in the first place.
George Otto married Elizabeth Nicolle 1832 at St Giles Cripplegate (banns Ancestry) which I know is after the birth of their older children  and the family seem to have gone to Port Jackson 11.8.1833. Did they know each other in London?

Ciderdrinker

[Dundee]

Good Afternoon
If he did come from London.It may have been that Thomas was transported.
There is a Thomas Keven who was convicted of stealing a silver bowl from the One Tun Pub Haymarker London 9.12.1830 at the Old Bailey.
He was sent to Australia for 7 years. He was supposed to be 28 and a labourer.
https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18301209-39?text=keevan
Ciderdrinker

You can count that one out.  He drowned in 1831 by the upsetting of a boat at Yellow Bluff.  His convict records name his father as Edward and he had four brothers and four sisters.

https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON14-1-2/CON14-1-2P65 (images 65 and 66)

https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON23-1-2/CON23-1-2-P156

Debra 

[cupoflife]

Looks like only 1 wife Emma
This article on Emma’s death states that Emma married Thomas KEVEN in 1842 (but in his probate below Emma states she married Thomas in Auckland on 23rd April 1845 by Rev Walter Lawry)
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19081109.2.73

Thomas KEVIN probate (Emma his widow and children named) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9R7-T9SZ-M

[cupoflife]

Under OBITUARY is Thomas KEVEN and below that is some info on Rev Walter LAWRY and wife
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18771218.2.3

[taonga1]

I momentarily got excited about the Walsh names!  I did see two or three DNA matches clustered with Walsh as a name. 

The DNA trail is showing he was clearly Irish in ancestry - lucky for me Emma was purely German/Channel Islander, so I'm able to make an easier determination about which small matches are his side.

In NZ they married at the Wesleyan chapel, and he was prominent in fundraising and facilitating the building of a new Primitive Methodist church.  He was also on the committee of the abstinence society.

Checking the dates - he arrived in NZ in July 1841, and by August 1841 was advertising being in business with Thomas Byrnes, boot and shoemaker.  I'm wondering if they knew each other/worked together in Australia.

Emma's father George worked in military supplies in Sydney - I wondered whether he was doing bootmaking work for them, rather than having a shop.  George died in 1836.

I'll try to get hold of the marriage register entry - it's very early for NZ records.  The info comes from a handwritten annotation on a list of early settlers.  The note says he was a butcher, but I'm thinking that may well be a transcription error.

ciderdrinker - omigosh!  You really found the Otto/Nicolle marriage?!  I can't tell you how many years many researchers have been trying to find that!  Their children were born all over Europe with the campaigning.  I doubt anyone thought to try such a late date.

wivenhoe - yes, I'd looked at alternative spellings for Pawsey, and figured out Costley, hoping it might be a family name - He had a friend Edward Costley, who was contributing sums of money to causes he was involved with. 

[taonga1]

Maaaaaaybe he assumed the name of the Thomas Keven who died?