Fun with census records

I love the English census records, except when I don't. :-)

Here are a couple of ways the census data can muck you about:

John Suffolk, the case of the man who didn't age

John Suffolk died on the 18th of November 1852 'aged 65' from natural causes related to intemperance, which would make his year of birth somewhere around 1787. (1) But was he actually 69? John Suffolk was illiterate and seems to have lost track of time for the period between his conviction and his marriage in Australia to fellow convict Elizabeth Cockshall.

Joseph Suffolk - Richard Reynolds 1836

Joseph Suffolk arrived in Port Jackson on the 1st of March 1836. He and his wife Jane were unassisted immigrants (posh, compared to all the assisted immigrants and criminals in my family tree) travelling in steerage (less posh) of a barque laden with merchandise and one other passenger.

Podcast: It's About Time

Ancestry.com has commissioned a genealogy podcast narrated by the very marvellous Sir Tony Robinson, available free on iTunes and Google Play. It's About Time is a combination of anecdotes about people and specials on particular things in genealogy (e.g. DNA research). It's a little heavy on the Ancestry advertising, which shouldn't be a major surprise, but the podcasts I've listened to so far are quite interesting AND it's Tony-freaking-Robinson who could make a shopping list sound like the most interesting thing in the world.




Episode 5: A Story of Identity revealed that Peter and I are both genetically much more British than the average resident of England. (I'm spot on for the average English native at 60%.)

John Suffolk and Elizabeth Cockshall, convicts

John Suffolk was convicted at the Berkshire Assizes (Abingdon, Berkshire) in July 1818 for receiving stolen goods and transported for 14 years via the Lord Sidmouth following a sojourn on the prison hulk Justicia from the 20th July to about the 25th of August 1818.

On the 15th of May 1821 John married Elizabeth Cockshall, a needlewoman who had been transported for 14 years on the Morley(3), at St. John's church Parramatta. John was 35 and Elizabeth was recorded as 21 but may have been a little younger.

Tumblr: What did you do in the Great War?

My brother has been live blogging Australia's experience of the first World War on a human scale for the last couple of years as 1stAIF, his Tumblr What Did You Do in the Great War? is a combination of bits and pieces like articles, cartoons and advertising notices gathered from Trove's digitised newspapers, diaries, bits of ephemera, diary entries, and so on. Each day he posts something from exactly 100 years ago.

An Australian soldier writes a letter home from his billet on the Somme front, 1916.

Trial of Peter Maguire at the Mullingar Assizes

Peter Maguire was born about 1806 or 1807 in County Westmeath, Ireland, and was transported to Australia via the Guildford(8) in 1829 for 'Attacking a house.' His convict indent describes him as a farm worker of ruddy complexion with brown hair and grey eyes, 5 feet 6 3/4 inches tall. Peter was assigned to a Mr Stephens in Saint Vincent County, an area which went from the Shoalhaven River to the Deua River in the south, and included Braidwood.

Peter Maguire's papers indicate that he was tried in October of 1828, but I have been unable to find any reports in the British Newspaper Archive which match him for that date. It seems likely to me that his original trial date was in July, and perhaps his sentence was commuted to transportation in October or there was a confusion at some point. He was not able to read and write, and later in life his name was recorded as Peter McGuire.

Westmeath Journal 31 Jul 1828

Mullingar Assizes
Monday, July 28