Thomas Trevithick - email

An e-mail about my ancestory Thomas Trevithick - I have ag great deal of info on this guy I need to post:

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So the Trevithick family is indeed interesting, and there has been a little confusion about them, as there were in fact two Trevithick families in Australia around the same time.

There was a Thomas Henry TREVITHICK born in England in 1838, who arrived with his parents Henry TREVITHICK and Elizabeth nee PASCOE at Port Adealide on the Aboukir in 1847. This family stayed at Burra for a time and made their way to Victoria, settling in Avoca. This Thomas Henry TREVITHICK never married, and died in 1899 at Ballarat Hospital. I found this out ultimately by wasting (investing?) a bunch of money on Victorian birth certificates, and scratching my head over why his death certificate stated he never married nor had children. (Anyone reading descending from this family that stayed in Victoria - feel free to e-mail me).

The ‘other’ (and in our case relevant) Thomas Trevithick is just as interesting! And I have collated quite a bit of information, though there are parts to be filled in.

It took me a LONG time to discover that another Trevithick family had arrived in Victoria (from Kenwyn/Truro in Cornwall) in 1854 on the Panama. This is because the PROV search engine for arrivals in Victoria incorrectly had them transcribed as Trewithick. They were Thomas (1832 - 1913) and Elizabeth nee CANDY (1832 - 1871). They married in Plymouth in 1853 prior to departing for Australia.

Thomas was a blacksmith (the certificates always state so though in reality I think he was usually a miner) and their first child was born at sea but registered in Vic, and the next three were also born in Victoria in gold towns such as Mt Ararat, and Armstrongs (you can see how the two families could be confused). One of these was Thomas TREVITHICK, born Mt Ararat in 1857 (I have this certificate too). The family then moved to NSW having children in 16 Mile Flat, Lambing Flat and Grenfell (1868). There they settled for a while, before Elizabeth at least some of the children to Sydney where they lived in squalid conditions – we know this because while heavily pregnant in 1871 she died and there was an inquest held – covered in the Herald at the time.

Thomas came from Tambaroora and collected the children and took them back to the area where they settled ultimately in Hill End (1903 Electoral Roll, for example shows them all).

Six years after his mothers death in 1877, the younger Thomas Trevithick married Sarah TEE (born in Tambaroora) - w they had several children, some born at Hill End and some in Sydney, where the younger Thomas died in 1929. Thomas and his wife are living in Hill End in the 1903 Electoral Roll I have a copy of.

The elder Thomas (from Cornwall) married twice more in Hill End (I’m yet to confirm this with marriage certs) - Margaret HOSIER, a widow, in 1882 (she died in 1892) and Mary Ann GREEN in 1900. He passed away in 1913. I do not know if he had any children to these marriages.

So that’s the summary. I mentioned a few bits and pieces above – mention those you’re interested in and we can go from there. I have few primary sources on your direct ancestor Thomas Trevithick (born 1857 vic, died 1929 nsw) apart from his birth certificate, and electoral roll. I also have him on at least one auriferous lease entry in Hill End - I think he was mining with his father for gold long after others had ceased to do so.