There is no real news but research continues

Photo: Gladstone, South Australia.


I am still waiting to hear from the Gladstone researchers who are looking into copies of The Areas Express in the hope of finding an article about Charlie Ross. If only, if only.... what a gift it would be to have a place of origin confirmed and even better, but less likely, a surname.

I have also taken on a Scottish researcher to see if we can take the Muirhead line back further than Livingstone Muirhead, my GG7 on my father's maternal side. Beyond that nothing much else has happened or seems to be happening. But who knows what the ether holds to bring forth.

And while I have done little, other family researchers have been adding to the information trove. Luke wrote:

I have looked at the shipping records in which Barry Leadbeater has the sources in his

website “Family History SA”  “Passenger Lists of Ship arriving in SA

1803-1854” for when Hannah McLeod and Edward Atkins came out to South

Australia upon the ship called the Eliza and arrived on the 14/5/1840.

I have read his information the same way you have Ros that Edward

Atkins was on the ship called the Eliza with Daniel and Hannah McLeod

because it states “Also Edward Atkins” however this is wrong and

indeed misleading.

I found the original record for Hannah and Daniel McLeod. It states

“Daniel McLeod, Servant, made application to come to SA 3/12/1839,

From Charleville, 18 years old. Hannah McLeod, Worker women made

application 3/12/1839, 16 years old from Charleville.” Both were

single because Hannah was only 16 years old.

If Hannah was 16 years old in 1839 then she was born c1823 and would

have been c20 years of age when she married Edward Atkins in 1843. It

would also mean that if she died sometime after the birth of Emily

Puddy nee Atkins in 1854 and before the marriage of Elizabeth Mashford

and Edward Atkins in 1857 Hannah would have been around c34 c36 years

when she died.

There is no shipping records for Edward Atkins. I talked to the family

history librarian who said that all Barry Leadbeater has done is that

he is just stating that Edward Atkins was not on the ship with Hannah,

but there is a cross reference for a person called Edward Atkins with

the person called Hannah McLeod. The cross reference is their marriage

certificate and the birth record for their first child Henry Atkins.

Furthermore, she said that if there is no shipping record for Edward

Atkins then it means he arrived in South Australia overland or on a

local ship from Sydney or Melbourne. We had a good talk about Edward

Atkins and she said that the South Australian authorities in the early

1800s were very carefully about keeping records of who arrived in

South Australia from overseas because they did not want certain types

of people living in South Australia. Many people who applied to come

to South Australia from England were rejected because they were seen

to be the wrong type of people. As a result, the South Australian

authorities kept very good records.

However, the South Australian authorities could do nothing about

people arriving in South Australia overland and there were too many

people coming backwards and forwards to local ports for the

authorities to keep records or to track.

She said because there is no shipping records for Edward Atkins he

more than likely arrived in Sydney or Melbourne and then travelled to

Adelaide in a local ship this way he avoided the local South

Australian authorities.

As a result, there is no shipping records of an Edward Atkins arriving

in South Australia from the UK as he did not come upon the ship called

the Eliza with Hannah McLeod or any other ship to South Australia from

the UK. However, it does add weight to the theory that the convict

called Henry Edwin Atkins could be our Edward Atkins, but does not

prove it.

This would mean that if Henry Edwin Atkins is our Edward Atkins once

he was released in NSW he did not go back to England and then

immigrated to South Australia, but just stayed in Australia. She said

it may be the case that if Henry Edwin Atkins is out Edward Atkins

then once he was released  he decided to come to South Australia

because he knew there was no convicts in South Australia and could

start a new life without his past catching up with him. It is all just

theories, but it seems to fit at this stage.

Also I have been looking at the Areas Express and Farmers

Journal and I found this, but I do not know if the George Lewis

mentioned in the paper is your George Lewis or another person called

George Lewis living in the area. It states: - “George Lewis, Fred

Simpson and Sydney Heaslip are off to the war” Areas Express and

Farmers Journal Friday January 25th 1901. The only war I can think off

would be the South African war. Do you know if George Lewis ever

joined the army at all?

Photo:Cirencester, Gloucestershire, some sixty years after Edward Atkins may have lived there.


And he went on to say:

 As with a lot of family history research something just cannot to proved to the degree we would like, but I am learning that is just how it goes sometimes.

 There is no real evidence that the Edward Atkins who married Hannah McLeod and then Eizabeth Lewis nee Mashford and the convict Henry Edwin Atkins or Edwin Atkins are the one and same person. However, there are a lot of similarities between the two people which an arguement can be developed to suggest that they are the same person.

I have done a list of all the similarities between the two people. One of these similarities could just be described as a coincidence, but I have found at least 10 similarities between the two people. Again it all could just be coincidence, but on the other hand, there lies the possibility that they are the same person.

·       Both people have the same last names.

·       The name Edwin and Edward are so close together that they could be interchangeable without a lot of problems.

·       Edward Atkins was born in Gloucestershire.[1]

·       Henry Edwin Atkins was born in Cirencester Gloucestershire.[2]

·       Edward Atkins was born sometime between 1807[3] and 1813.[4]

·       Henry Edwin Atkins was baptisms on the 23/2/1812[5] which is very close to the year of Edward Atkins birth of around a possible year of 1813. The reader should not be disturbed if ages and years do not correspond exactly because people just did not know there own age sometimes and often guessed their age.

·       Edward Atkins’ father was called Joseph Atkins.[6]

·       Henry Edwin Atkins’ father was called Joseph Atkins.[7]

·       Edward Atkins trade was a blacksmith.[8]

·       Henry Edwin Atkins trade was a blacksmith.[9]

·       Henry Edwin Atkins was convicted for sheep stealing.[10] Although the following statement is tenuous it could imply that he may have had some knowledge of sheep.

·       Edward Atkins occupation in 1862 was a shepherd.[11] This could indicate that he had knowledge of sheep.

·       During the 1800s it was a common custom or practice to name at least one son after the father. Edward Atkins first son was called Henry Edward Atkins. This provides a clue that Edward Atkins first name may have been Henry and if he was an ex convict he may have wished not to have been known by his real name which was Henry Edwin Atkins and just used the name Edward Atkins. However he felt it was safe enough to call his son Henry Edward Atkins.

·       Edward Atkins only known surviving son was called James Haines Atkins. It was also a common custom or practice in the 1800s to incorporate a mother’s maiden name or grandmother’s maiden name as a middle name of a child. Henry Edwin Atkins mother was called Ann Haines. She married Joseph Atkins on the 14th August 1809 at Cirencester in Gloucestershire.[12] James Atkins middle name is not a common middle name for a child and thus could be an indication that his middle name may be related to some other family member like his grandmother. Thus this could connect Edward Atkins son James Atkins with the family of Henry Edwin Atkins.

·       The person Henry Edwin Atkins disappears from the historical records in New South Wales after 1838 when he had served his sentence and a person with the name Edward Atkins appears in the South Australian historical records in 1843 when he married Hannah McLeod.

[1] South Australian Register Tuesday 22 December 1891 p3.

[2] Unpublished report concerning the family of Atkins by John J Tunesi Beacon Genealogical and Heraldic Research 31.12.2011.

[3] South Australian Register Tuesday 22 December 1891 p3.

[4] Marriage certificate of Edward Atkins and Elizabeth Lewis nee Mashford & South Australian

[5] Unpublished report concerning the family of Atkins by John J Tunesi Beacon Genealogical and Heraldic Research 31.12.2011.

[6] Marriage certificate of Edward Atkins and Elizabeth Lewis nee Mashford.

[7] Unpublished report concerning the family of Atkins by John J Tunesi Beacon Genealogical and Heraldic Research 31.12.2011

[8] Marriage certificate of Edward Atkins and Elizabeth Lewis nee Mashford & Marriage certificate of Edward Atkins and Hannah McLeod.

[9] New South Wales, Australia, Certificates of Freedom, 1827-1867 record for Edwin Atkins. Ancestry.com.

[10] New South Wales, Australia, Certificates of Freedom, 1827-1867 record for Edwin Atkins. Ancestry.com.

[11] Birth Certificate of James Haines Atkins.

[12] Unpublished report concerning the family of Atkins by John J Tunesi Beacon Genealogical and Heraldic Research 31.12.2011.