Thomas LINDSAY/Mary BUTLER

[truey52]

Looking for any information regarding Thomas Lindsay, who was born around 1821, somewhere in Scotland, its stated on his death cert. that he was born in Fifeshire, this is the only reference that I've ever found to his birthplace. Thomas Lindsay married Mary Butler in Melbourne in 1842. I have never been able to find when Thomas arrived in Aus. There are several Thomas Lindsays' on incoming passenger lists, however none of them appear to be my Thomas. Am hoping that somebody else may see something that I'm missing!
Mary Butler was born in Gallen/Gillen, Kings Co. Ireland around 1819, her parents were maybe James Butler and Catherine Mansfield, this info is from her death cert. so maybe uncertain. Mary arrived in Melbourne aboard the "Frances" in 1841, not much time between arrival and marriage in 1842! Makes me wonder if she was an orphan and was sent to Aus. specifically to marry and she would no longer need to be cared for in Ireland. She was listed as a general servant and could read only. Thomas and Mary had 4 children that I know of, their first son James, born 1843 was gored to death by a cow in King Street, Melbourne, in 1848, according to family lore, his mother witnessed this which caused her to commence drinking. I have newspaper reports and the inquest pertaining to this death. Daughter Catherine was born in 1847, she later married Pedro Carlos Fernando (born Spain). he was killed after being kicked by his horse, Catherine married twice more, a long involved story!
The 3rd son Thomas was born around 1851/52, he became my gt grandfather, I have quite a lot of info on his family and life. 4th child was Robert, he was the informant on both parents death certs. He never married.
Thanks for any assistance.

[Lenore]

Looking for any information regarding Thomas Lindsay, who was born around 1821, somewhere in Scotland, its stated on his death cert. that he was born in Fifeshire, this is the only reference that I've ever found to his birthplace. Thomas Lindsay married Mary Butler in Melbourne in 1842. I have never been able to find when Thomas arrived in Aus. There are several Thomas Lindsays' on incoming passenger lists, however none of them appear to be my Thomas. Am hoping that somebody else may see something that I'm missing!

A lot of arrivals to Port Phillip before and after 1842 were by coastal vessels. If you haven't checked the offline indexes you should probably do that. And keep in mind that a lot of the arrivals may have been ex convicts. Have you checked the Convict indexes for Tasmania and New South Wales?

[truey52]

Hi Lenore, Yes I have checked the convict indexes, there are several Thomas Lindsay's there but none appear to be mine. Also have looked at coastal vessels can't find him there either. What I think is he came here on a Bounty ship, one of the ones where they didn't name passengers individually. I really would just like one small clue as to his origins, you know, maybe an exact birth place or maybe his parents names, chances probably not looking good though! LOL. Been looking for a lot of years. Just one small clue! Not much to ask I think. And probably what every family historian would like. OK back to the drawing board for me. Thanks.

[shippo]

Hi, do you know when and where Thomas Lindsay died?

Sorry just seen you have his death cert. does it state how long in australia? What year did he die?

[truey52]

Hi, Thomas Lindsay died 1896, at Heathcote, Victoria, aged 75 years, and that he'd been in Victoria 55 years. He was 20 years old when he married Mary Butler in Melbourne in 1842.This is according to his death cert. so who knows how accurate this info.is. The informant was his son, another Thomas Lindsay who was my gt grandfather.

[Lesley Robertson]

Do you have any info about his parent's names? Familysearch has 3 potential candidates b 1821-1822 in Fife with parents called James & Elisabeth, William & Mary and Robert & Barbara.

Truey, in message 1 you said that Robert was the informant of the death certs, and in message 5 you say Thomas. Which one was it? This is not a rare name, and it helps to be accurate.

[Lenore]

What I think is he came here on a Bounty ship, one of the ones where they didn't name passengers individually. I really would just like one small clue as to his origins

The Bounty migrants are the ones most likely to be named on a list, seeing someone had to be paid for their arrival - but who is to know if the list survived?

If Lindsay was a Bounty migrant, it is likely he emigrated with someone he knew, either a relative or a friend, so you probably need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Knowing he is from Fifeshire is a very useful clue for you. You need to look at all the witnesses to events and documents that you can rustle up, particularly the marriage, where a shipmate or a relative might have been a witness. Look at the informants on all the childrens' birth records, or deaths if they died, and burials. Wills. Land purchases.

If he owned land as a farmer, have you seen the purchase documents? If he lived for a lengthy period of time in one area, have you done a trawl through all of the myriad of small local histories that get published over the years? Check the State Library and Royal Historical Society catalogues. Have you been in touch with the local historical society? They always know far more than you might imagine. It is their business to know about the local settlers.

The Port Phillip Pioneers Association is also a specialist organisation dealing in the early period in which Lindsay and his Mrs arrived. Their members often publish their research in collected volumes, and maybe Lindsay fluked a mention.

Early Melbourne papers are very poorly covered in Trove, so attention to offline, handmade indexes might be helpful. Try the State Library and GSV. If friends and family arrived later, they often placed ads in the "Missing Friends" columns to try and track down earlier arrivals. The late Marion Button has published indexes of Missing Friends, amongst other things, that would be worth a look.

I once traced my Frost ancestor, who was a Bounty migrant, by looking at the people with whom he arrived. I knew the ship, and I knew the sponsor, but the ship had left from London, which didn't tell me the origins of the emigrants. He had travelled to Launceston. The Tasmanian family history society once published a quarterly magazine based on settlers in the northern part of the state, and I found a lot of them had been sponsored by the same person. The sponsor had come from Doncaster in Yorkshire. I noticed that where the origins of the bounty migrants was mentioned, they had come within a short radius of Doncaster in Yorkshire, so I was able to focus my search in that area. There were many other steps to make the certain connection, but it did work in the end.

So were there any other Fifeshire emigrants where Lindsay lived?

[truey52]

Hi Lesley, I know, such a silly mistake to make I knew as soon as I entered that comment. Thomas, the son, was definitely the informant of the death of his father Thomas Lindsay, Robert Lindsay, the other son informed of his mother's death.
I have seen these entries on Familysearch but currently have no real clue which if any may be the correct ones. Thanks.

[truey52]

Hi Lenore, You are so right regarding fellow passengers. The witnesses on the marriage cert are William Kirby, who I have tried to trace for the very reason that you state ie, he may have been from the same place, or travelled together on same ship to Aus. The other witness was Mary Noonan, who was on the same ship as Mary Butler, and in fact came from Offaly where Mary Butler came from.
Have the will of Thomas Lindsay (snr) he was a landowner, have various stories from Trove regarding him and some family members. I used to be a GSV member years ago, no luck there, then. Thanks, Shirl.

[Lenore]

Just remembered I have the 1847 Port Phillip Gazette on CD, and there I found:

No. 12. December, 31st, 1846.
POST OFFICE, MELBOURNE.
LIST of letters lying in this Post Office, unclaimed, accumulated since the publication
of last list.
Note.-Parties applying at this Post Office for
advertised letters are requested to state particularly
the No. and the date of the list, in which they may
have observed the name; because such reference
will materially facilitate delivery........
Lindsay, Thomas

Not overly helpful. And by the way, the letters are no longer lying about waiting to be collected. They were probably collected at the time.

Victorian Police Gazettes are now on CD, as are Victorian Government Gazettes (and the latter is digitised and online through the State Library). A solid trawl though those might reveals some leads to follow up. You'll find them at the GSV, SLV, and good genealogical libraries.

Here's a list of useful links for research in the Port Phillip District period.
https://members.optushome.com.au/leno...ortphilip.html
https://www.portphillippioneersgroup.org.au/

Good luck!