2013 Australia Day Challenge - Finding Martha Sarah Ellis

Today I was going to join Helen’s  2013 Australia Day Challenge  and tell the story of my first Australian ancestor - Thomas Crump who arrived in Australia in Botany Bay in 1842 on the "Marquis of Hasting”. But true to Myrt’s wise description of the pinball approach to genealogical research I soon ricocheted off into a different direction. 

The only thing that I can say in my defence is that since diverging I managed to pull my self back on tract albeit it a different track!! So I am still joining the Challenge but instead of discussing my first arrival I have to talk about my most recent find, and just so you know I'm trying to remain calm and focused now that I've found myself in new territory.


So you ask what’s all the fuss about? It’s about my great grandmother Martha Sarah Ellis, born in 1870 in Camberwell, England, I think I may be on the way to locating her arriving into Australia, today I think I may have made a break though, how appropriate given that it’s Australia day.

Recently I had lunch with my 3rd cousin, Yvonne, she had a found reference while doing research in Queensland to both Martha and her sister Kate Ellen Ellis coming out to Australia. She had told me ages ago but I had never been able to duplicate the research so I hadn’t taken much notice but over lunch she showed a scanned copy of her source the indexed cards that she was using as the basis of her assertion. OK I know it’s not the original shipping records but it’s a little more solid than a vague rumour.

That gave me an idea perhaps I should search the newspapers not for Martha Sarah Ellis but for reports on the ship coming to Australia, perhaps there was something in the newspaper that would help unravel the mystery. To see what I found on TROVE and now I've made a list of the 14 newspaper articles called is  S.S. Nairnshire 1889 after the name of the ship.

1889 'Advertising.', The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950), 16 September, p. 2, viewed 26 January, 2013, 

From what I can gather there was, on this particular voyage 48 unnamed servant girls on board under the watchful eye of Miss. Monk. The newspaper don’t reveal the girls names or if they were assisted passengers but there are indications that they may have been sponsored by the government as I found an advertisement in the newspaper asking for application for people wanting the services of these immigrants. I know the evidence isn't yet definitive but it’s given direction for the next steps, So now let me see…. I now need to ……  but then that would be the subject of a different post.....