The Family Detective

On 14 March 1836, John Ross, a negro, was sentenced to 25 lashes for insolence and neglect of works.  Records show he came per the Marquis of Lansdown and was assigned to William Boughton. We don't need "another John Ross" but perhaps we can't ignore the family members that believe we have Aboriginal ancestors, mostly because of darker complexions of some relatives and family legends. My DNA results show a 1% ethnicity for Nigeria. A percentage this low could be a false reading, but it is still interesting to note.  What would be more interesting is to find out if this person was living near the Bankstown/Parramatta area at the time John Lees Ross was born. 

It is widely believed that John Ross who was a convict and shoemaker was my fourth Great-Grandfather. I started this post with the intention of outlining my research for John Ross but as I familiarised myself with some of the convict John's story, I realised that there are stories where the articles talk about Joseph and in the courts he is also called John. Is it possible that they both used the name John? While there is a question about who John Lees' father was, we do know from St Johns Parramatta baptism records his mother was Ellen Ross, a spinster living at Bankstown in September 1836. John Lees' death records name his father as John Ross, a land selector. Edward, John Lees' son, registered these details but declared the mother unknown. Edward was an adult when the family left Araluen to move to Tingha. Ellen had been alive then and married to John Seeley, why he declared her unknown is puzzling other than wanting to perhaps hide John Lees' bastard birth or th...

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...

This post will be controversial, but I hope that anyone coming across it will add something to my theory or discussion. To date no one seems to question the validity that John Ross, the convict shoemaker is John Lees Ross' father.  John Lees was christened at the same church John Ross, the convict, was buried at. The time was only a few years apart. But what more do we have to connect the two? Nothing that I can find. John Ross, the convict, was closely connected to another convict Sarah Bird. In one report his brother Joseph was reported as being Sarah's brother-in-law. John and Sarah ran a brothel together in the inner city of Sydney.  I haven't found any connection between them in England, but they had lived in neighbouring towns. Sarah (nee Hill) married Robert Bird at Whitehaven, in 1816 prior to his transportation to Australia. At around the same time John Ross, the convict, was convicted at Wigton to transportation for stealing a watch. It is most likely this time wa...

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...