John Eastment – Later Life

In 1896, John and Salome travelled to Freestone Creek, Warwick, Queensland, to attend the wedding of their son Henry Thomas to Emily Smith, daughter of Henry Smith and his wife Elizabeth, of Freestone.  The Smith family had also emigrated from Somerset in 1858 and had settled immediately in Queensland.  Emily was their ninth child and had been born at Freestone.  This photo was taken at that wedding and is taken from a larger group photo, showing many members of the Eastment and Smith families.

In about 1908, John and Salome decided to retire.  They purchased land at 16 Elliott Road, South Lismore, close to the Wilson River, and transported a cottage from their farm at Wyrallah to the land in Lismore, by bullock dray.  The house still stands at 16 Elliott Road, and has not been altered very much, except to raise it above the level of most floods.

In 1912, John and Salome Eastment paid a visit to their son Henry Thomas and his family, where they lived at Sladevale, just outside Warwick in Queensland.   Their granddaughter, Elsie Taylor (nee Eastment, daughter of Henry Thomas), who was four at that time, remembered Salome as a “little old lady in a black bonnet”.  Her older brother Eric, who was eleven, remembered her as a “cranky old bugger” who “gave me the rounds of the kitchen”, but admitted that he probably deserved it.

In 1915, at the age of 77, John Eastment was one of 166 registered owners of motor vehicles in the Northern Rivers district.His granddaughter, Elsie lived in Lismore at this time, and remembered him learning to drive.  She loved to tell the story of how he drove his new car into the garage, shouting “Whoa! Whoa!” to it.  Of course, the car went straight through the back of the garage and into the back yard.  Undaunted, John built doors for the back of the garage as well as the front and continued to drive, becoming a competent driver despite his age.  Of course, with only 166 cars on the road in the district, traffic wasn’t a problem, and licence testing also wasn’t an issue at that time!

On 25th January, 1921, Salome died, at the age of 77.    She was buried in the Methodist portion of the East Lismore Cemetery.  On 27th March, 1921, a memorial service was held at the Methodist Church at Wyrallah in her honour.  The church was draped in black and purple and many beautiful wreaths were placed in the Church.

After Salome’s death, John’s daughter, Florence Emily, ran the house at 16 Elliott Road as a boarding house and took care of John and also took on the raising of her niece Elsie.  Elsie described the John she knew during this time as a “gentle old man”, who would say, “Sizzle-a-bob (sic) here you are girl, here’s two bob, don’t tell your Auntie Flo I gave you two bob”. and  give her two bob (two shillings, or twenty cents) to spend.  “He was a dear old man, I loved grandfather”.  At this time, he was well over eighty years old.

John died 2 August, 1926, at Warrawee Hospital, Lismore, of senile decay.  He was buried with his wife, Salome, at East Lismore Cemetery.  Their daughter Florence and sons Charles Richard and Henry Thomas are also buried at the East Lismore Cemetery and their oldest daughter Ann, is buried at the North Lismore Cemetery.

John Eastment – Wyrallah

John Eastment still owned the land at Wyrallah at the time of his death in 1926  The land is described by the Land Titles Office of New South Wales as Portions XVI and XVII in the County of Rous and Parish of South Gundurimba, comprising one hundred and thirty seven acres.  By 1884 John had paid the complete purchase price of 137 pounds and met all other conditions of the original Crown Grant and received a clear freehold Certificate of Title to the land.  The land was mortgaged to the Bank of New South Wales in 1887 and the mortgage was discharged in 1891.  In 1925 the land was leased to James Quillian Kernaugh of Wollongbar, Farmer.

Two views of the Eastment farm at Wyrallah (1979)

With the acquisition of farming land on the Richmond River at Wyrallah, John and Salome’s life became more settled, although John did re-enter the carrying trade for a short time from about 1872.  The land at Wyrallah was virgin land and considerable effort from the entire family went into clearing the land and developing it as a viable farm.  In the early days, the main crop was maize, but in later years he took up sugar growing, and even later, dairying.  John was well known as a breeder of draught horses, and for many years was a successful exhibitor at local agricultural shows, being rarely beaten in draught horse classes.  The district grew to be one of great prosperity, and John was one of the leaders of the community.  Salome’s parents also selected land at nearby South Gundurimba and lived and farmed there until their deaths.

The Eastment family also grew during these years, Ann, Edward and John being joined by Charles Richard (1867), Mary Jane (1870), Henry Thomas (1872), Florence Emily (1876), Alice Salome Letitia (1878), Alfred Ernest (1881) and Maude Cedelia (1888).  An unnamed daughter was born and died in 1884, and there were also two stillborn sons.

On 25 November, 1874 John purchased a parcel of land at the corner of Hoof and Bruce Streets, Grafton.  On the Transfer document he was described as “John Eastment, of the City of Grafton, Carrier”.  This land was sold on 25 February, 1875.

John’s signature, 25 November, 1874

Then, on 30 December, 1884, he purchased a block of land in Dawson Street, Lismore,  for the sum of 200.  This land was held in its entirety until 1911 when a part of the land was sold to his son-in-law, Alfred Edward Latter.

During these years, Salome developed her talents as a nurse and midwife, in addition to raising her own large family.  Many babies in the Wyrallah, South Gundurimba and Tucki Tucki districts were delivered by Salome, without the assistance of a doctor, and the Eastment home also served as the district’s hospital, to enable Salome to more closely care for the sick and injured in the community.  For so many of her own children to survive to adulthood, at that time and in such a remote locality, is a testament both to Salome’s skills and to the hardiness of the family.

John was involved, with many others in the community,  in the establishment of the Methodist Church at Wyrallah in 1885

The Eastment sons appeared to inherit their father’s itchy feet.  They eventually settled and raised their families in places far removed from Wyrallah, John in Charleville, Queensland; Edward in Ipswich, Queensland; Charles in Byron Bay, NSW; Henry in Warwick, Queensland; and Alfred in Port Douglas, Queensland.

By approximately 1908, at the age of 70, John was ready for retirement and the next stage of his life.

Wyrallah Village (1979)

John Eastment – the Early Years in Australia

Of John’s early years in Australia, almost nothing has been discovered yet. By 1859, the family were living in the Hunter River district of New South Wales. We do not know why they left South Australia, although it has been suggested that conditions in South Australia were not as promised by the immigration agents in England. Jobs were not available for immigrants, and living conditions in Adelaide at that time were poor. This is, however, conjecture and we do not know the Young/Eastment’s true reasons for travelling to New South Wales or when they made the move. At Maitland, John was apprenticed to the blacksmithing trade, but did not complete the apprenticeship. Instead he was involved in the carrying trade between Maitland, Armidale and Tamworth.

Mary Eastment was married on 12 July, 1859 at Hinton in the Hunter Valley, to John Partridge and on 22 May, 1860 John was married at Holy Trinity Church, Lochinvar, Hunter Valley, New South Wales, to Salome Whitney. John was 21 years old at the time, and Salome was 16. Salome was born on 8 August, 1843 in the village of Chicheley, Buckinghamshire, England, the oldest child and only daughter of James and Ann (nee Brooks) Whitney. The Whitney family emigrated to Australia in 1848 on board the vessel “Walmer Castle”. (The photograph shows Holy Trinity Church, Lochinvar, built in 1890. This church stands on the same site and has the same name as the church in which John and Salome were married). A sketch of the original church appears below.

For the next few years John and Salome lived in rural New South Wales, apparently gradually heading north along the coast.. The birth of their first child, Ann Elizabeth, was registered at Morpeth in the Hunter Valley in 1861. The next two children, Edward James (born 1864) and John William (born 1866) do not appear to have been registered, suggesting that the family was perhaps living in isolated areas at those times. During this period he apparently owned a horse team and again took up the carrying business, basing himself in Grafton, and carrying merchandise from Lawrence to Glen Innes and Tenterfield.

In 1866, John Eastment acquired land at Wyrallah on the Richmond River where he settled.

Plan and description taken from New South Wales Land Grant Volume 727 Folio 249

John Eastment – Immigration

The "Shackamaxon" was described as a frigate-like vessel of approx. 1200 tons (various tonnages ranging from 1119 to 2500 quoted by different sources) belonging to the Port of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was launched on 10 July 1851 and went to sea on 2 August. Length 175 feet overall, 37 feet 6 inches beam. Height between decks 7 feet 3 inches.  On 7 Feb 1853 an auction of her fittings was advertised, so she may not have made further runs as an immigrant ship. But she was obviously very new at the time. There is also reference to a change in the English law about that time regarding the conditions under which immigrants could be carried, and that was given as a possible reason she left Liverpool hurriedly with a number of passengers who were already sick/dying. -

The Shackamaxon in Liverpool Harbour

The United States Ship "Shackamaxon" (Capt. West) sailed with almost 700 passengers from Liverpool, England on 4 Oct 1852, arriving Adelaide, South Australia on 19 Jan 1853. Included in that number was the combined Eastment/Young family.  On the shipping records the family appeared as follows:

• YOUNG, John, Agricultural Labourer, from Somersetshire, aged 35
• YOUNG, Jane from Somerset, aged 44
• YOUNG, Elizabeth, aged 5
• YOUNG, Thomas, aged 2
• EASTMENT, John, aged 12
• EASTMENT, Mary, aged 10

Listed separately, travelling as a single adult, is:

• EASTMENT, (Eastman), Edward, Farm Servant, from Somerset, aged 15

The ages of the Eastment children as given are incorrect.  At the time of embarkation John was actually 14, Mary 12, and Edward approximately 16.

Unfortunately, the voyage was not a smooth one for many of those on board.  Approximately 10% of the passengers, mostly children, died during the trip.  One of those was young Edward Eastment, then aged 16 years.  A report was written by the Religious Instructor of the Shackamaxon to the South Australian Colonial Secretary complaining about the incompetence of the surgeon Superintendent of the ship (Dr Allison).  In that report Mr Fawsett quotes from a letter from one of the sailors, Thomas Moore, as follows:

"… Underneath the Steward (?), lay a boy named Richard Eastment (sic) about 15 yrs old, if he had been a dog he could not have been worse looked after by Dr. Allison. On the Wenesday (sic) night I asked for something for him, he gave me one powder for him – from that time till Monday afternoon he did not get one single thing from the doctor. Several times I sent his mother off to ask for some sago or medicine for him but she could not get anything. I one day sent her off to him for some sago; he told her to give him biscuits; she said her son was dying and could not eat biscuits. "Soak it, woman." & he contemptuously walked away from her. The poor woman’s son died about 27th October a complete skeleton…"

The South Australian Register of Wednesday, 26th January, 1853, reported as follows:

"THE SHACKAMAXON" – We hear  that a petition signed by more than 100 of the adult emigrants by the Shackamaxon, has been presented to the Governor, praying for a investigation into the manner in which the Surgeon-Superintendent of that ship discharged his duties during the voyage. The circumstances certainly warrant the strictest enquiry, and the Surgeon-Superintendent will probably see his own interest in supporting the application which is said to have been made; while the new Immigration Agent is called upon to establish such a character  for  the effectual discharge of the duties of his office as may afford the public a guarantee for his future career."

An enquiry was held into Dr Allison’s competence, but I have not found any published results of the proceedings.

John Eastment – One Man’s Life

John Eastment was one ordinary man who lived an interesting life in the development of Australia. It has amazed me how much information is available on this man’s life and I have tried here to describe his life and times, in words and pictures.

John was my great great grandfather, born in England in 1838 and died in New South Wales in 1926. His lifetime encompassed great changes in his world. Please, join with me in my look at his life.

EARLY LIFE

John Eastment was born on 20th August 1838, in the small village of East Coker, just outside the town of Yeovil, Somerset in the southwest of England. He was the second son of Richard Eastment and his wife, Jane, formerly Cox.

Richard and Jane had also been born in East Coker, Richard in 1812 and Jane in 1809. Richard gives his occupation on John’s birth certificate as a weaver.

East Coker is a typical west country village, but has two claims to fame. Firstly, it was the birthplace of the English pirate and adventurer, William Dampier (1651-1715), who was the first English man to set foot on the Australian mainland. Secondly, it is the ancestral village of the American poet, Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965), who named one of his poems after the village. There is a memorial to T.S. Eliot in the parish church at East Coker.

Richard and Jane Eastment had five known children:

Edward, born 1836
John, born 1838
Mary, born 1840

There were also Francis and Martha, who both died in 1846

Richard Eastment died on 5th July, 1845 of a chill, leaving his widow Jane, with three small children. Little wonder, then, that she quickly remarried, to John Young, also of East Coker, on 13th October, 1845. Two more children were born to Jane, namely Elizabeth in 1847 and Thomas in 1850.

Thus, by 1853, when the family made the decision to emigrate to Australia, the family consisted of:

John Young,
Jane Young
Edward Eastment
John Eastment
Mary Eastment
Thomas Young
Elizabeth Young.
We do not know why John Young made the decision to bring his blended family to Australia, although the most likely reason for that time and place would be agricultural depression in England, which led many farm workers to leave the country and travel to Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

NOTE: This post is taken from the website One Man’s Life which I made many years ago. There is no breach of copyright.

My Grandmother’s Life Part 3

Irene was now comfortable enough to retire, and settled into her home in the Sydney suburb of Mosman.  Her daughter Merle married and moved, first to Tasmania and then to Perth.  Over the next ten years, Irene visited Merle and her family on several occasions, always driving herself in her own car.  In the 1950s a drive across Australia was a daunting prospect, particularly for a woman on her own.  The last car in which she made the trip was a Morris Minor 1000.  The trip was unusual enough to prompt this newspaper coverage in 1954:

 

Ex Perth Newspaper, 10.10.1954:

LONE WOMAN HAD CAR TRIP OF 1,800 MILES

Surprised mobs of wild horses, camels, donkeys, emus and kangaroos scurrying from her path broken the monotony of much of a lone woman driver’s 1,800 mile trip from Alice Springs to Sydney recently.

Mrs. I.M. Michel, of Sydney, who is holidaying in Perth, said yesterday that the trip, which she had undertaken alone when a friend had been unable to accompany her, had been a wonderful experience although it had sometimes been “an ordeal”.

She had had two punctures and had been bogged several times. At the Palmer River crossing she had managed to dig the car out of heavy sand with a Dixie because she had no spade with her. A straw palliasse and branches placed under the wheels had rescued her from a mud bog near Coober Pedy.

Mrs. Michel said that her small utility, which she had bought second-hand in Alice Springs, had proved a bad bargain.

It had developed faulty steering and she had had great difficulty in holding it on the bad roads.

She had taken five days to cover the 800 miles of rough, corrugated stony or sandy road from Alice Springs to Port Augusta although, later, on the bitumen road she had averaged 300 miles a day.

Mrs Michel said she spent the nights at station homesteads, but had slept outside on her faithful straw palliasse at one station where there were no spare beds.

Valmai also married, and she and her husband stayed in the Mosman house until they built their own home at Hornsby Heights in far northern Sydney.  Irene moved to Hornsby with them, and the Mosman house was rented.

In 1958 Irene was diagnosed with breast cancer, and had surgery.  She was cancer-free for a number of years, but in 1966 the cancer returned aggressively and she died on 7 April that year, at 67 years of age.  She was the first of the children of Henry and Emily Eastment to die.

She was buried in the Methodist section of the Rookwood Necropolis in Sydney with her daughter Shirley.

 

My Grandmother’s Life Part 2

In 1924, Irene Eastment was married in Brisbane, Queensland, to Andrew Leslie (known as Les) Michel.  Les was the son and grandson of German Lutheran immigrants, who had settled in Fernvale in south eastern Queensland.  Les’ father owned a general store in the nearby town of Lowood.  the couple immediately moved to Sydney, where their first child was born in 1925.

Irene Merle (known as Merle) was followed by Shirley Mavis , Valmai June and David Francis.  Shirley died at the age of 13 months from gastroenteritis, and Merle was also very sick at that time.

 

Although Irene had little or no contact with her father after she left home, she remained in close contact with her siblings and maintained that contact all her life.  Her children had close relationships with their aunts, uncles and cousins.  The family eventually scattered over the length of eastern Australia, from Melbourne to Townsville, but always kept in touch with each other.

Unfortunately, Irene’s marriage wasn’t as successful and Les left the family in about 1937, when Merle was 12, Valmai 8 and David 6.  None saw their father again until they were adults.

Irene now had to provide for her young family and did so very successfully, in a number of ways.  Initially, she worked as a photographic model for newspaper and magazine advertisements – she was always a very attractive woman.  Later, after the start of World War II, she learnt to drive, and became a successful life insurance saleswoman.  She was able to invest her earnings and buy property, firstly in Agnes Street, Strathfield, and later in north shore Mosman.  She was also able to put her oldest daughter through University, when this was still unusual.

 

In 1947 her two younger children moved to the Northern Territory, Valmai to work for Qantas Airways in Darwin and David to work on a cattle station,  Undaunted, Irene also went to the Territory, working for a time as a cook on a cattle station.  After two years, Valmai and Irene returned to Sydney by car (an adventurous undertaking in those days), but David stayed in Alice Springs where he spent the rest of his life.

 

View Full Album

Irene and Valmai’s car, in a photo taken on the road from Darwin to Alice Springs.

My Grandmother’s Life, Part 1

My grandmother was an amazing woman, who did many very unlikely things for a woman of her time and place.

Irene Mayfus Eastment was born in Wyrallah, just outside Lismore in north east New South Wales, on 23 November 1898.  Mayfus is not an obscure family surname, but her father’s attempt to spell “Mavis” when he went to town to register the birth.  Great-grandma should really have written it down for him.  In later years, she changed the spelling to “Maffis” – she never used “Mavis”, the intended name,  that I’m aware of.  The midwife at her birth was her grandmother, Salome Eastment.  Her grandfather, John Eastment, had been an early settler in the area and the family was well known in the district.  Irene was the second child in a family of nine.

Irene’s mother, Emily (nee Smith), came from a similar family living at Freestone Creek, near Warwick in south eastern Queensland and, shortly after Irene’s birth, the young family moved to Warwick, where Irene and her siblings grew up. The photo shows the Eastment family home at Warwick, with members of the family on the verandah.  Unfortunately, information as to identity has been lost.

In 1979, Irene’s younger sister, Elsie, reminisced to her niece Valmai (Irene’s daughter) about her childhood in Warwick. 

We had a pony, “Taffy”, for us kids, he was a drafting pony, and he’d be racing after cattle. When a cow would veer away he would turn practically on a halfpenny. Eric could never ride him, he would just go straight off. If Ve or I fell off he’d go for his life, but if Merle and Alan were on him (and one day he went straight under the clothes line and swiped both off his tail) he just turned around as if to say “well, what are you doing down there, hurry up and get on”. He’d wait for them to get on, but if it had been us, he’d have long been gone. He must have liked them better , or perhaps it was because they were little. One day I was after a cow and he turned quickly, and I got round his neck, hanging on with my arms and legs, and he put his foot up on me and pulled me down.

We never rode him to school, we always took the sulky or walked. We walked when we went to the Sladeville school, but when we went to Warwick school we always had the sulky. Either Roy or Les would drive. Aunt Janie Noble lived in Warwick, she had a big yard, and we’d leave the horse and sulky there. That’s how we got to know Auntie Janie so well when we were kids. We didn’t have that far to walk to school from her place. She used to run a boarding house at that stage.

Schooling was at Sladevale State School, just outside Warwick (the area is also known as Eastment’s Ridge), then later at Warwick High school.  The family travelled to school by pony cart, with the pony being released to graze in the yard at their aunt’s farm.  The picture at the right shows Irene, aged approximately 15, with her younger sister Vera, who was about 7 year old.

After leaving school, Irene began studying nursing at Warwick Hospital, with the intention of going overseas to nurse.  This was during World War I and one of Irene’s cousins was a nurse at the Military Hospital at Cairo.  She wasn’t able to finish her training as her mother became ill with heart problems, and Irene was needed at home.

Emily Eastment died in July 1923, leaving her husband and nine children aged from 26 down to 8.  Her husband was not a grieving widower, as he had had a liaison with another woman for some time.  Irene left home the day after her mother’s funeral and went to live in Brisbane.

Dead Ancestors. Or Not?

One of the things a genealogist likes to do is “tidy up and put away” the ancestors.  Have all their vital details, including their death, recorded.  Sometimes it isn’t possible.  People move to unexpected places or marry unexpected people and can’t be found, or these events are just never recorded.

There are three particular vital events we like to pin down – birth (or baptism), marriage, and death (or burial).  All our ancestors were born and, for British researchers, most were baptised.  Most were married, and they all died.  Finding those records isn’t always easy.

I have one ancestor who is being particularly difficult in this regard.  My great-great-great-grandmother, who appears to have never died.

Jane Cox was born, and baptised, in 1808 in the village of East Coker, Somerset, England.  She was the daughter of Edward Cox and Martha Young of that Parish and had a brother named Henry.  Thus, the first vital event, her birth, has been established.

On 1 June 1835 Jane married Richard Eastment in the parish church of St Michael, East Coker.  The couple lived in the parish and their five children were born there (Edward, John, Mary, Martha and Francis).  On 5 July 1845, Richard died, leaving Jane a widow with three young children (the last two having died in infancy).  Jane wasn’t a widow for long, as in October 1845 she remarried, to John Young.  They had two more children, Thomas and Elizabeth.

So, we have the second major life event, marriage, pinned down for Jane – twice!

At this point, another major event intervened when the family emigrated to South Australia in 1853.  We know Jane landed in South Australia with her family (although her oldest son, Edward Eastment, died on the voyage), but nothing more.

When he son John married in New South Wales in 1860, his father is listed as “deceased”, his mother’s status is not given, perhaps giving a clue that she was alive at that time.  Was she living then?  Was she still with her older children?  We don’t know.

By the late 1800s, all Jane’s surviving children, both Eastment and Young, were in the north east corner of New South Wales, with their own families, but no sign of Jane. 

I have search for:

1. Her death in every State of Australia from 1853 until 1910 under all known surnames.

2. The death of John Young in the same places and timeframe.

3. Any possible re-marriage for Jane, again using all known surnames.

4. Made enquiries in England in case she returned there. 

I have found no record of death for Jane, and no record of marriage or return to England.   Tracing a return to England would be difficult with such a common name, unless she returned to her home village of East Coker.  The likelihood of course is that she died somewhere on her family’s pioneering venture, away from civilisation, was buried and her death never registered.  There are many such lonely graves in the Australian bush.

Or – maybe not?  Maybe in some quiet bush nursing home, there is a 200 year old English lady, quietly enjoying her life and laughing at my efforts to trace her.

I would so like to find her, one way or another.

Ship or swim?

If you are researching genealogy in Australia (or, I guess, anywhere outside Europe) one of the things you need to find out is where your ancestors originated and how they got here.

Immigration to Australia could have taken place any time from 1788 to yesterday and, depending on the time, the records vary.  For immigration after World War II, I know nothing – none of my people arrived that recently.  Perhaps, for more recent immigration, family stories exist and are enough.

For those before, there are a number of records available, for search both in person and on line (the wonderful Cyndi’s List has lots of links for Australia).

However, we did it the old-fashioned way.  In the 1970s, many records for New South Wales were held in the Mitchell Library in Macquarie Street in Sydney.  They weren’t indexed, but were microfilmed.  The only way to find a family or an individual was to find a range of possible dates and read the microfilms.

For example, to find the Smith family, we knew they were still in England in 1853 (marriage certificate) and in Australia in 1873 (confirmed birth of child in the colony).  Other children may or may not have been born in Australia, but certificates have always been expensive, and we didn’t buy five or six of them “on spec”.  Today, with online indexes to Birth, Death and Marriage records, we could have narrowed it down further.

So, with our pencils (no pens allowed in the Library!) clutched i our hands, we entered the microfilm room.  On the third day of wading microfilm, and after many false alarms (the name was “Smith” after all!), we found them.  In 1858, Henry and Elizabeth Smith and their two oldest children, William and Mary Jane, arrived in Brisbane on board the ship “Alfred” after a three month voyage.  The rest of their ten children were indeed born in Queensland.

By contrast, checking the details online tonight has taken me less than five minutes.

Using the same time-consuming methods, we tracked down the Whitneys to the “Walmer Castle” in 1848, the Barretts to the “Trafalgar” in 1853, and the Strathearns to the Themistocles in 1921.

By this time, my mother and I were on first name terms with all the librarians, and they let us use the staff lunch room and raid the biscuit tin.

Still,  it’s never that tidy.  We still had families we hadn’t found.  The Eastments, sometime between 1845 and 1958 and the two German families.  We had family legends, but the German method of filling in a shipping list was to say “369 people”.

John Eastment and his family were eventually found when we located his obituary.  It said that he had arrived in South Australia.  A friendly letter to the South Australian Archives found us a friendly and helpful librarian who went the extra mile.  The “Shackramick” mentioned in the obituary was actually the “Shackamaxon” and John and his sister were travelled with their mother and stepfather – so were indexed under the stepfather’s surname, not their own.  Without that librarian who got curious, we’d never have found him.

The Shackamaxon

 

And the Germans?  Well, I have to believe they are somewhere in those “369 immigrants”.  There are clues, but nothing definite.

Or they swam.