Just arrived Sydney to find you have been amazingly busy Shona wow..
My Eizabeth Jeffrey on her shipping said her parents were John Jeffrey and Ellen Thompson (born England), arrived Sydney 6 February 1855 on the ‘Nabob,’ 95 days out from Liverpool aged 26, kitchen /dairy maid. In 1851 census Betsey Jeffrey servant at Longnewton, in 1841 census at East Nisbet Elizabeth Jaffrey 12 with Helen Jaffrey 30, who I took to be Elizabeth's mother, aka Ellen Thompson. One thing consistent with Elizabeth was she said she was born Kersmains .. but Kersmains is a big estate belonging to the Duke of Roxburgh. Back when John Jaffrey was sold up .. see separate thread .. estate included a mill and their were actually 2 auctions to sell him up. Today the main house includes a big house, 2 cottages that are now joined to one and the bothy which is also linked .. there are big stabes for horses and a number of barns for the drying of barley for whiskey etc .. down the road are 4 cottages which would have been for the workers .. It is possible that Betsey may not have belonged to the main family but just shared the name .. unfortunately apart from the Census -records I have found no paper trail - no baptism of Betsey, marriage of her parents and so far have not identified her parents burial... Shona you are certainly estabishing lots of pieces of the puzzle which one day hopefully will come together .. uggh ...
At the Heritage Centre in Hawick there are estate papers that I did not copy, because they were so faint. These were names of workers at Kersmains and the wages that John Jaffrey owed them.. Maybe next year I will need to go through them very carefully and see if I can find Jaffrey and variants or Thompson as workers on the estate..
Many many thanks Shona you have certainly put a lot more twigs and branches on the tree which one day .. hopefully soon .. will bear fruit .. Cheers. Julie