Genealogy Chat

Hi all I have some relations which were originally from Portugal and emmigrated to Sri Lanka then moved to Australia in the mid 1800's. Their surname was D/De/Da Silva ?? but was later changed to Silva (so I was told) Also apparently they came out here in their own boat. How would I even begin to 1. search for them in Sri Lanka and 2. find out when they arrived in Australia. please help! The first Silva out here would have been George Joseph he married Mary Ann Murphy in Forbes in 1894 and had 3 children Bella, George and Ruby.

BMDs for NSW are here: http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/Index/IndexingOrder.cgi/search?event=births I can see their marriage (under Mary A Murphy and Joseph Silva), and nine births of Silva or Da Silva children with parents called Joseph F and Mary E, but none of them have the names you're looking for. There's a marriage for Ruby Silva to a James Clancy and a death for Ruby Clancy, mother Mary Ann.

There are three records on this site which might be your Da Silvas: http://www.naa.gov.au/The_Collection/recordsearch.html (choose 'search now as a guest', and don't be surprised if the site's very slow to respond). There are two naturalisation applications from men called Joseph Silva living in Victoria (a miner and a hairdresser), and one application to join the army in WW1 from a Joseph Silva born in Colombo, who I assume is related to your Joseph. If either of the men in Victoria is yours, you can look at Victoria BMDs here; http://online.justice.vic.gov.au/servlet/IdxSearch in case he had another marriage or children before moving to NSW.

Thankyou very much for your help. I do believe George Joseph Silva started in Vic. I have also found the birth cert for George Joseph Silva (his son) however he was registered as George Joseph Murphy 1894 in Forbes.

Hey, I was born in Forbes NSW in the 1950's and went to school there. One of my teachers was a MURPHY. What a small world it is.

Hi If you look on the PROV (Public Record Office of Victoria) website you can search for arrivals from British and non-british ports in the mid 1800s. Its free to search the indexes. Also death certs in Australia show 'time in colony' which can be useful for narrowing down time of arrival. You will probably find that George Joseph Murphy/Silva registered in 1894 was actually born before his parents marriage. He died in Sydney in 1942. Bella Silva is listed under parents George and Mary Ann, died 1961 Rockdale NSW, and so its seems unmarried. Diane

Hi Di Yes Bella was unmarried but she had two partners and ended up having around 8 children. My dad was the youngest, he was born in 1934.

Wow, that will be fun to trace them in a few years won't it - hope you have it noted down for future generations !! Now, we thought we were all being very modern in not getting married, just living together and giving our children complicated surnames and difficult genealogy !! Re Sri Lanka - have a look on the rootsweb mailing lists for list relating to SL, there's always lots of helpful people on those lists - though it will be difficult to trace anything unless they were there long enough to have births deaths or marriages. i don't know if there is public access to them or not, in Sri Lanka. Regarding arriving in Melbourne, if he came in his own ship, it might difficult to locate him. Another place to check, in Australia, is a series of books (3) by Ian Nicholson, called the Log of Logs - listings of logs, diaries and other reports on ships voyages, especially to Australia. Vol 1 is out of print, so you would need to find a library with a copy (State Library NSW has them). An entry there will give you a date of voyage, and where anything relating to the voyage is held (usually a library or museum). I am not sure but there might be an index to masters of ships. Depends if Mr Silva was his own captain or just an owner. There's several entries in the PROV indexes of SILVA/DE SILVA migrants from foreign ports - you might need to investigate each ship for information. Hope this helps in the search Diane

Do most ships have a detailed list of where passengers came from etc, besides the basic information which people have transcribed on their sites?

Hi Only the Assisted Migrants scheme kept good records of the passengers - age, where from, occupation, religion, parents. But free settlers might just have surname and initial, or surname and Mrs or Mr. No hint of where from, except for port of departure of the ship. If you are lucky Mr and Mrs and children might get Mr's christian name, but it was up to the ships master to make the list. Newspapers reported most ships arrivals, but again, only Mr and Mrs Smith, no details, unless very important in the colony. Diane

Thanks Mary from italy. That was a great source of inforamtion, I know have most access to the birth certs, marriage certs and death certs from the Silva descendants. It is slowly coming together.