Stories from Dead Relatives

A couple of years ago, I posted that my first ancestor to arrive in Australia was Samuel Freeman, a convict on the Earl of Cornwallis, who arrived on 12 June 1801. However, more recent research has found that my 5th Great-Grandfather, Thomas Mansfield (also known as Thomas Mansell), was the first to arrive—on the "Matilda," part of the Third Fleet that transported convicts here. Stay tuned for the link to Samuel Freeman! Thomas Mansell was born around 1756 (based on his age of 72 on his burial certificate), around Surrey, England. He's my 5th great-grandfather on my father's side: Thomas Mansfield/Mansell (5th great-grandfather) Elizabeth Sandall (4th great-grandmother) Mary Anne Burn (great-great-great-grandmother) Thomas Freeman (great-great-grandfather) Susannah "Jane" Freeman (great-grandmother) Cora Parsons (paternal grandmother) Terry Sedgwick (father) Another Ancestry member has listed his parents as Robert and Mary Mansell, but I haven't found a...

On my paternal grandmother's side of the family, my grand-aunt Olive has "Lumsden" as her middle name, as does her grandmother (my great-great-grandmother), Elizabeth Lumsden Archibald, who was born in 1856 in Goulburn in the NSW southern highlands before moving up to the Tamworth area and married at 16! Anyway, I always thought it was a bit weird and that it must have been a family name. So, I went searching through records, mostly to be sure fathers and mothers are who they are supposed to be, and hit a few dead ends. Her father was John Duncan Archibald (alas, not of the famous Archibald art prizes fame), who was born around 1836 in Aberdeen, Scotland, and came to Australia from Scotland in 1854 on the "London" - he was listed as a saloon waiter, and gave his occupation as ship steward on Elizabeth's birth certificate. His name combines his dad's surname of Archibald (or Archie) and his mother Catherine's surname Duncan. Catherine was born in 1797...