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  • Missing convict

    Hi,
    I hope I am not stretching things too much but I am having trouble finding a missing relative who was given a free ride to Australia courtesy HMG in 1839.
    He was sentenced to 10 years in 1838 for stealing (4 sheep in his possession)
    transferred to a prison hulk - Ganymede - and shipped out to Port Macquarie
    in New South Wales, leaving on the Theresa a month later. He arrived in the colony in 1839, did his time and was given a free pardon 9 June 1849.
    There the trail stops, just can't find him in all the BDM's, ship sailings etc and
    wonder if there is any other avenue I may explore.
    Oh, by the way his name was Benjamin Keates (The elder) - he is called that
    because his son was also Benjamin and finished up the same was but in Van Diemans Land.
    David
    Whoever said Seek and Ye shall find was not a genealogist.

    David

  • #2
    I am sure there was recently a thread on here about the younger Benjamin Keats.

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    • #3
      Do you know his parents names....because under Australian deaths on Ancestry there is a death for Benjamin Keates 25th January 1898 whose parents are Samuel and Mary Kaates...nee Corp....no age though.

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      • #4
        There is also an inquest on the 17th May 1852 Port Macquarie NSW into the death of a Benjamin Keates........drowning whilst ?.....................but again no age.

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        • #5
          The 1852 death is on the NSW BMD under Yeatts.....and it has his ages as 70.

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          • #6
            Flashieboy,
            You have probably solved my question - will look up the Port Macquarie bit. The Benjamin Keates who died in 1898 is his son, who was also
            sent down (along with brother George) for roughly the same offence i.e. sheep stealing and having meat (probably stolen too) in his possession. He did
            his time in Tasmania (VDL) married and raised a family in Hobart. Is there a list of inquests somewhere ?
            Cheers David
            Whoever said Seek and Ye shall find was not a genealogist.

            David

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            • #7
              I think I could be right in assuming that the father never knew that his sons were both in Hobart, communications being what they were in the mid 19th century.
              Port Macquarie was a distant outpost of convict camps in New South Wales and I would presume that the only transport was by ship, once there you stayed.
              The Benjamin Keates who died in 1898 was my brother-in-law's grandfather.
              Cheers David
              Whoever said Seek and Ye shall find was not a genealogist.

              David

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              • #8
                The inquest information I found was on ancestry.

                New South Wales, Australia, Registers of Coroners' Inquests, 1796-1942.

                Have you checked Trove......there are some stories of later born Benjamin Keates........if they are yours.

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                • #9
                  Thanks to your info managed to see for myself. Couldn't get into ancestry AU originally but paid for 10 credits and managed to print out the relevant page.
                  Originally it appears that ancestry AU was accessible if you had UK membership but that avenue has dried and you have to ake out a different class of membership
                  to get into it, bit of a nuisance really.
                  Re your last like No - they could be mine as Benjamin had a son names Benjamin as well - and I will.
                  Cheers David
                  Whoever said Seek and Ye shall find was not a genealogist.

                  David

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