Continuing from Part 1 I would sometimes look at the document and try and figure out what it said, I have even looked at the reel it was on, with no luck in working it out. I concentrated on building Thomas' family, from his marriage in 1854 to Mary Torpy to today.
FASTWORWARD TO 2022.
In the past two years, while Covid-19 has kept us very close to home, I've continued my family history research and this year though I'd try and crack the mystery of 'Catherine's' arrival.
Now Ancestry have digitised the New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896, Catherine This is what I found.
While it is a better copy than the one I have, it is still hard to read, so I downloaded it and tried to lighten it.
Still not the best but I can now see that Patrick paid for his brother and two sisters to come and that a Margaret Hickey took Catherine's place. Why? Still no closer to the answer.
A discussion with friends, lead to the suggestion that I contact New South Wales Archives and Records, for their help. I did and was surprised to receive a reply, with the margin note transcribed and a comment that the Colonial Secretary's Letters held more details.
Below is the transcript.
"Patrick Abberton who resides at Goulburn called at the office this morning for the address of his brother Thomas who arrived by this vessel. He showed me a letter written from the ship to him by Thomas Abberton stating that he and his sister Ann had arrived together with a girl named Margaret Hickey who was waiting to hear from a friend of hers. I asked him if he had any other sister beside Ann, he replied he had, but on enquiring her christen name he said he thought it was Margaret but was so forgetful he could not exactly remember. He did not know her age either, so I presume that Hickey must have come out in the name of Catherine Abberton. The man was here at nine o'clock, when on ascertaining these particulars I told him to wait until you came. He left anyway stating he would call this afternoon'.
Very interesting, so what happened to Margaret Hickey? Well that has opened up a new line of research and the short answer is I don't know. She vanished once she left the ship. I have searched for a marriage and found nine between 1852 and 1872, but did she do another name change? Did she go to another colony or New Zealand? More questions than answers, so Margaret is shelved.
I did get a copy of the General Report* of the ship Joseph Somes and point nine mentions " Two of the unmarried females named Margaret Hickey and Bridget Ryan obtained passages by assuming the names of Catherine Abberton and Bridget Flannigan."
It still didn't answer the question.
1854.
More research lead me back to the Immigrant Index 1844-59 and the arrival on the Caroline in 1854, with both James and Catherine Abberton on board and that Thomas had paid for their passage.
Now those questions I asked at the end of Part 1,
Was Bridget widowed again and James and Catherine stayed to look after her?
Was Bridget ill and they stayed until she passed?
These two were answered by the comments that father dead, mother in Ballinakill.
Did Catherine have a beau and stayed for him?
I don't know!
Now having cleared up the circumstance of Catherine's arrival, I think I'll see what she got up to.
*CSIL/ITEM 52/3550 Container 4/3076 (makes for very interesting reading.)
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