Sunday 21 July 2019

What a trip! Elizabeth Macquarie's journey to Sydney in 1809

While researching for a future blog post I've been reading Elizabeth Macquarie's journals that are held at Sydney's Macquarie University. Both Elizabeth and husband Lachlan Macquarie's diaries have been digitised and grouped into years for ease of searching.


Elizabeth Henrietta Campbell Macquarie, ca. 1819 - watercolour on ivory miniature.
Courtesy of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
   http://digital.sl.nsw.gov.au/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?embedded=true&toolbar=false&dps_pid=IE3193357


Their ship Dromedary departed Portsmouth, England on 22 May 1809, stopping along the way at the Island of Madiera, the Cabo Verde islands off the west coast of Africa, Rio de Janeiro, and Cape Town, arriving in Sydney Cove on 28 Dec 1809, a journey of 220 days. Also on board was my ancestor's husband, Joseph Bigge, who was their coachman and groom, earning him the nickname 'Joe the Coachman'.

During this voyage Elizabeth suffered a few shocks, and encountered some interesting situations.
Only two days into their journey she thought they were being chased by two pirate ships which "occasion'd much uneasiness to me & the other Ladies". These ships turned out to be friendly, but I'm sure Elizabeth was wondering what she had let herself in for.

On 4th June she saw three sailors drown from the Hindostan due to the Captain of that ship sending out a smaller boat into rough seas to retrieve their letters and packets from the frigate Magicienne.

On 18th June while anchored at Madiera Elizabeth toured around the town and went by chance into a church where a young woman was taking the veil. She describes it like this:

A second ceremony took place at the door of the convent, but the crowd was so great that I could not see it, at this moment there was a noise made by a Person pressing forward thro' the mob, she was soon known to be the Mother of the young woman, there was room made for her to pass, & she arrived at the spot where her Daughter stood, to take her last embrace! -- till that moment the Nun supported herself, but the sight of her Mother totally overcame her; her head fell on her breast, & she sob'd aloud in an agony of grief; she was then hurried forward, & I saw her walk on follow'd by those dreadful looking black nuns, who threw rose leaves at her. ---I saw her no more! but I understood that her head was immediately to be shaved, she had a great quantity of fine hair, and I saw the dress carried in which she was to change for that she had on, it was an extreme coarse brown heavy stuff, which I suppose she was to wear till she took the black veil. ---I cannot say that I ever felt so much distress at the fate of a stranger, as I did on this occasion; the impression was not that I could not hear the subject mention'd without considerable emotion for sometime after. I hope her situation does not feel to her, as it appear'd to me. 

Elizabeth found it quite distressing to be on board a slave ship for a while from Bengola to Rio de Janeiro.

[O]n the third of August we boarded a Portuguese Brigg [sic] from Bengola to Rio Janiero [sic] laden with female slaves, this was a more hazardous service than we had any idea of, the officers found on getting on board that an infectious fever prevail'd among them, to which the Captain and a great number of the slaves had fallen victims -- to put a stop if possible to the complaint, they had resorted to a precaution at which humanity shudders, namely, that of throwing the unfortunate slaves overboard as soon as they were taken ill. 

Soon afterward she watched a seaman fall overboard. Thankfully he was rescued.

During this voyage one day when the Ship was going at eight knots an hour, a sea man fell overboard -- he fell over the poop & past our Cabbin [sic] window, I saw something fall, but had no idea it was a man till I hear'd him cry out, which he did in the most disturbing manner. Coll.. Macquarie ran forward and encouraged him by every means in his power to keep a hold which he had fortunately caught of a fishing line, which hung over the stern -- the Ship was put about, and a Boat lower'd, by which the man was saved.

This next seaman didn't fare so well:

[A]bout the end of the month we had a great deal of rain, and on the night of the 31st.. our Cabin was quite in a float; owing to a leak in the Deck. George Tiers having gone to bed, a Carpenter Charles Tonkins was sent to caulk it, I observed as he pass'd me what a very pleasant handsome looking man he was; after doing what he could to the leak he said that for want of materials he could not do it completely that night, but that he should finish it in the morning. --- Poor young man he little knew that that morrow, was to be the last he should ever see in this world. The Soldiers suffer'd much inconvenience from some of the ports taking in water, it was blowing pretty hard, and the Ship was going 9 knots, when Charles Tonkins went over the side of the Ship unattended & unobserved by any person, to caulk in those ports; a service which might have been perform'd with perfect safety if the man had been properly attended, one of the officers in the gun room hear'd a cry, & saw the poor young man fall into the sea [---] he was never seen again ---The Ship was brought to, a boat was sent from this ship, & one from the Hindostan but they could not find him. [T]his melancholy accident shock'd us all very much; next day (as is always the custom on board Ship,) there was a sale of his effects & his papers were examined by the Captain; he found a great many letters from a young woman who was engaged to him, which in my opinion contain'd more pure affection, express'd in a more natural & affecting manner than any I ever read; there were also copies of some of his in return, which were also very interesting -- what her sufferings will be when she hears of this event it is dreadful to think on. ---The man who fell overboard sometime ago might really have lost his life owing to a joke, as when Capt.. P. saw the Ship in confusion, & the men busy lowering the boat, he ask'd what the matter was, & if any one had fallen; the Sailors call'd out Sir, Nobody has fallen overboard; that being the name he went by in the Ship, tho' known to Captn.. P. by his proper name of John Smith.

On 31st October after leaving Cape Town another sailor died in sad circumstances:

On the 31st.. in the evening Coll.. M. & I were walking on Deck when Thomas Jackson fell from the fore top Mast Rigging on the Forecastle, and fractured his skull; which occasion'd his immediate death. [H]e was a very active good temper'd young Man, and a great favorite with the Sailors; they were much affected with the accident, & some of them shed tears. This young Man had been rather addicted to drink, when Coll.. M. & Captn.. P. passed him at quarters the Captn.. said I dont think you are quite as you should be. [H]e seem'd offended, & said, you always look hard at me Sir. [I]t is supposed from this circumstance that his being in drink occasion'd this dreadful accident. [N]ext morning his Body was committed to the deep.

Curiously, on 5th November at 11 o'clock at night a large fire ball was seen not far off, passing in a S. W. direction
I'd love to know what this was!

Ten days later yet another sailor lost his life:

[A]t 2 o'clock this day the Commodore hove to, & made the Signal for a Man overboard; we lay to, but did not go to him; he had his boats out for two hours but to no effect, the Man was unfortunately drown'd — he was one of the best Seamen Captain Pascoe had; it was his birth day, the other sailors had treated him to a share of their Grog on the occasion he went to his station on the yard arm to look out in a state of intoxication, & fell asleep; another man was half way up to releive [sic] him when he fell. — This disturbing accident detain'd us three hours during which time the favorable wind lasted but shortly after deserted us. 

Elizabeth had such an eventful voyage to an unknown future as the wife of the Governor to New South Wales.





Sunday 7 July 2019

So much for bagpipes................how I used DNA to find Henry's family

I have long been fascinated by my maternal ancestors, Henry TUCK and his Irish bride, Catherine FALVEY. The family legend had it that Henry was born on the Isle of Skye in 1810, and my family fully embraced the Scottish connection. One of my uncles and a cousin even bought kilts and learned the bagpipes, joining a local pipe band. Another cousin named her daughter Syke.

 




Photos of Henry Tuck and Catherine Falvey from the Family Reunion booklet
 
My late Uncle Peter in 2011


This legend is evident on Henry's death certificate (1) and a biography written by his grandson, Samuel, published in 1963. It starts "My Grandfather, Henry Tuck, was born on the Isle of Skye in the County of Inverness in 1810, just five years before Waterloo." (2)

Death certificate of Henry Tuck from Births Deaths Marriages Victoria
Image from the booklet:  Henry Tuck and his Descendants: Family Reunion 7th March 1982 (3)

The genealogist in me wanted to find some proof of where Henry was from. Thinking that Skye was the obvious place to start I contacted SkyeRoots, who searched their records and came up with nothing, informing me that Tuck isn't a Skye name.

Looking at a heat map of the Tuck surname in the UK I saw that the county of Norfolk has the highest number of people with this surname in the 1841 UK Census. Norfolk looked like the place to resume my search.
https://your-family-history.com/surname/t/tuck/


I found a baptism record on FamilySearch in Blofield, Norfolk, that looked promising. All of this particular Henry's siblings names were also the names my Henry gave his children. His mother has a relatively unusual first name, Christian. My Henry didn't call any of his children Christian, so the chance that this was "my" Henry was still just a chance.


To find out more about this Tuck family I joined the Norfolk Family History Society so I could view their user-submitted trees, as well as access their large library of records. There were a number of Tuck family branches, and I chose the one that included my potential Henry.

Tuck Family Tree from Norfolk FHS

This Henry matched the baptism I found on FamilySearch, and also this Henry could not be found on the 1841 UK Census, or dying before then in the UK, leading me to believe that he could be the man who sailed away to the other side of the world. I created a tree for this Henry, paying attention to the other surnames that were part of his ancestral family. I had a feeling this was the right guy, but how could I prove that this was the same Henry Tuck who came to Van Diemen's Land in 1830?

Enter the brave new world of DNA testing. I am very fortunate to have both of my parents still living, and I had tested them sometime before with Ancestry. I looked at my mother's DNA matches and searched for the most unusual surname that I could find in Henry's tree, SKEDGE. Unlike with the surname Smith, I knew there wouldn't be many Skedge's out there. I had two men come up as a match with the Skedge surname in common, both in Canada. I reached out and luckily they both replied. Alan is descended from Henry's grandmother's sister, Ann Skedge (b.1762). She married James NORTON and they emigrated to Canada, producing a large number of descendants still living there today. Alan has done extensive work on his family tree, which is how I found Ann and her sister Elizabeth. Our match is only 7 centimorgans, which is down the lower end of results. The other match was with my other Canadian relative, Steve. We share 15 centimorgans, which is an even closer match. He is also descended from the Skedge-Norton marriage. He knew of Alan, but they hadn't corresponded, so I was thrilled to be able to introduce them to each other via email.

 
Ancestry DNA match with Alan showing 7 cM

Ancestry DNA match with Steve showing 15 cM

Without DNA I would not have been able to prove that this relationship existed. I would have been left wondering forever. Using DNA in this way has helped me break down a 20-year brick wall.

Additional y-DNA testing of a direct male line descendant of Henry has revealed the Tuck name going back many hundreds of years to matches in Norway. The name Tuck being of Old Norse origins must be right after all! Thanks to DNA I have found Henry's family of origin and made friends with distant relatives interstate and across the oceans.


If you would like to learn more about how DNA can break down your brick walls, come along to the DNA Down Under event, a multi-city event featuring the best speakers in the field of DNA and genealogy, Blaine Bettinger, Louise Coakley, Kerry Farmer, Michelle Patient, Helen Smith, Fiona Brooker, and Mike Murray. They will be visiting Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra for a one-day event in each city, and a three-day extravaganza in Sydney from 29-31 August 2019.


https://www.dnadownunder.com/


I am honoured to be an Ambassador for this event. Come and see how learning more about DNA can take your genealogical research to the next level.


(1) Death Certificate of Henry Tuck, died 17 March 1890, Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria, 1890/7229.
(2) Samuel Tuck, Biography of Henry Tuck, [Victoria], 1963.
(3) Len Arboit, Henry Tuck and his Descendants Family Reunion 7th March 1982, [Victoria], 1982.