The Family Detective

I wrote a previous post about Ellen Ross - A Colourful Character  and ended my post dismissing her as a possibility for our Ellen Ross...except today I was moving files around when I had a closer look at this image. There is that name again ... BIRD. There is some connection between John & Joseph Ross and Sarah Bird and now we have Eliza Ross who in other documents is also known as Elizabeth and also as Ellen. It is to be noted that our notorious Elizabeth Ross was transported on the Pyramus , and another covict onboard was Ann BIRD. So now I am going to revisit another of the stories from the previous post. This was a year previous to the above but is it possible the wife in question is Mrs (Sarah) Bird? In searching records I discovered that Eliza Ross' brother James had arrived in Sydney a few years prior to her. The Eliza of the Pyramus married  in 1839 at St John's Parramatta. Thomas arrived aboard the Layton and it is curious to see Thomas BIRD and James ROSS are fel...

John Ross (Senior) as a person has an interesting story to tell. Transported to Australia and in and out of gaol. His final sentence was 3 years in the chain gang just before his death. The above assault charge took place in September 1833. Of interest is Ralph Howe was a fellow convict about the Countess of Harcourt. Many researchers on my line have him as Ellen Ross' husband but no records are found to substantiate this except the church records for John Ross & Catherine Torney's state his mother was Ellen Ross' (maiden name) and father was John Ross (deceased). I'm not sure who first connected the records together whether it was on Ancestry.com.au or a different platform but I've come firmly to the understanding that family trees, including my own can't be firmly reliable. I think it important to review your trees especially as new records become available. I try my best to substantiate facts with at least 2 sources and those of us who...