Thread: Thomas Gillan's Family

My great grandmother's brother, Thomas Gillan came to Australia from Glasgow, as crew on a ship in 1877. His wife and children must have followed some time later, as I know they finished up here, but they did not travel with him.



I have searched for them without success.

His wife was Margaret Gillan and they had two children; James and Elizabeth.



If anyone could point me in the right direction to find them, I would be mosy grateful



Best regards



Dandy

Do you want to find them coming to Australia or pre-Australia? When were they born?

Hi Helen,

Thank you for your interest!



I first discovered that Thomas came to Australia, on seeing a Poor Law Application for his father, Hugh Gillan, which stated that his son Thomas was living in Paisley with a wife and two children and was contributing (I think it was something like ) three shillings a week to his father. On a second application it said, "Son Thomas, now living in Australia"



I searched for Thomas and found his death in Sydney in 1914.This gave me his widow Margaret Buchanan Burns (the Australian records are very thorough) living in Weston, NSW, and Children of the Marriage James Burns Gillan and Elizabeth Buchanan Gillan.



I made another search and found Thomas on a ship (The Afton out of Sydney) as a crew member in 1877, coming from Glasgow to Sydney.



I never did find tha actual marriage, nor the births of the children, but they obviously occurred in Glasgow somewhere, or maybe Clydebank where Thomas was born and grew up.



What I am trying to find at the moment, is when and how did Margaret and the children join him in Aust?



thank you again for your interest in my problem,



Best regards



Dandy

I don't have any knowledge of shipping records. Have you tried looking under Burns and Buchanan as well as Gillan?

Thanks for that Helen! I'll give it a try

Dandy

I have trawled through 'Ships in Australian Waters', (sorry about that!) which gives ships' names plus crew and passengers, as far as I can, without any luck.

It is not complete, but I checked from 1877, when Thomas came to about 1885. After that not all have been transcibed.

I did find a passport application for a 'Gillan' on January 10th 1880, but could not make out what the initial was supposed to be. Might or might not be Margaret. Would the children have required passports too? Or would they have travelled on their mother's?

Not getting very far very fast!

Dandy

I might have to give it a bit more time, to see if things improve.

I don't know what it would have cost, or how long it would take for them to save the fare for the three?