Sorry Guv, just popped out for a tic

I’m trying to find two convict ancestors in the 1800 – 1802 Muster List of NSW and Norfolk Island. I’ve read the whole thing.. twice now. They aren’t in it. Oh, they sort of are. Their baby is in it. Sort of. They were both still prisoners at this stage in their lives and they had a baby just before the muster was taken. To confuse matters a little more, they weren’t married.

The baby appears in the muster with the birth date being the date of her baptism. Her first name is correct and her second name sounds correct when it’s pronounced with a rich Irish accent, but it’s spelt completely differently to her mothers name. There is a birth registration for the baby with the correct spellings so I know they were there and I know that this is her… but her Mum and Dad must have just popped out for a minute when the Governor’s men came a-knocking.

I have searched the index with every possible spelling of every possible name I could think of. They aren’t there. I have searched the entire muster by surname, by first names, by ship and by reading every other person’s name that may have been associated with them and every other person in the colony at that time. They aren’t there.

Phillip Gidley King had made a little announcement just before the Muster was taken that should have frightened the life out of them if they didn’t turn up to register. He said: “Any persons not appearing at those musters will be taken up as vagrants and punished to the utmost extent of the law, if free; if a prisoner, they will be sentenced [to] twelve months confinement in the battery gang. And any attempt to impose false accounts of any person, absent or present, will be punished accordingly.” I know they weren’t sentenced to the battery gangs because about 12 months later they are having another baby. King’s notice was not the sort of party invitation you would ignore now, is it?

Where could they be?! The baby was about 3 months old by the time the muster was taken. I don’t think it’s likely they were trapped in a Centrelink queue waiting for the baby bonus to be handed out. I doubt they were queued up at the local council chambers getting her vaccinations. It’s highly unlikely Target were having their mid-year toy sale. I can’t find any accounts of playgroup parties and I don’t think this family would have been invited on play-dates with the local authorities children. She was a little too young for netball registration days.

sigh… it’s a mystery and I’m not likely to ever solve it. Nice to know though that they were some of the ones that ‘got away with it’. It brings a bit of a wry smile to the dial on the dusty research trail.