Cornish Connections
I began researching the Hicks family in 2005 after discovering the names of my paternal great-grandparents. I obtained the death certificate of my great-grandmother which revealed that she came from Cornwall. From their marriage record I knew that her father's name was William Hicks and that they had lived in Wallaroo, South Australia. I started looking for Hicks families from Cornwall but searches of South Australian birth, marriage & death indexes, passenger records and the biographical indexes failed to reveal any further information about the emigration of the Hicks family to South Australia.
I located William Hicks of Wallaroo in the South Australia Probate Registry and obtained a copy of his will and also his death certificate. The death certificate contained a crucial piece of information - the informant's name - H.M. Sutton, and that he was the son-in-law. By searching through the marriage records for the name Hicks, I found the marriage of Edith Roslean Hicks and Harold Maurice Sutton. The birth of Edith Roslean Hicks in 1885 was recorded in the South Australian Birth Index and her parents were William Hicks & Elizabeth Jane Johns of Wallaroo. At last I had a maiden name for the mother of Elizabeth Jane Hicks.
I was then able to go to the 1881 British Census and discovered the family living in Redruth, Cornwall. I now had a time frame of when the Hicks family came to South Australia - between 1881 and 1885. Since then I have been able to locate further information about the Hicks family, as well as the Johns family through census records. The fact that my great-grandmother Elizabeth Jane Johns was born in Cuba has been an interesting discovery and has led to quite a bit of research into the Cornish Miners who went to Latin America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
I recently located the obituary"for William Hicks in "The Kadina and Wallaroo Times" which confirmed that William & Elizabeth Jane Hicks, together with their two eldest children, William & Elizabeth Jane, arrived in South Australia in January 1885 on board the ship Cuzco
My thanks to Kathy Norman, Kerrie Korte for providing information and photographs relating to the Hicks family.
I located William Hicks of Wallaroo in the South Australia Probate Registry and obtained a copy of his will and also his death certificate. The death certificate contained a crucial piece of information - the informant's name - H.M. Sutton, and that he was the son-in-law. By searching through the marriage records for the name Hicks, I found the marriage of Edith Roslean Hicks and Harold Maurice Sutton. The birth of Edith Roslean Hicks in 1885 was recorded in the South Australian Birth Index and her parents were William Hicks & Elizabeth Jane Johns of Wallaroo. At last I had a maiden name for the mother of Elizabeth Jane Hicks.
I was then able to go to the 1881 British Census and discovered the family living in Redruth, Cornwall. I now had a time frame of when the Hicks family came to South Australia - between 1881 and 1885. Since then I have been able to locate further information about the Hicks family, as well as the Johns family through census records. The fact that my great-grandmother Elizabeth Jane Johns was born in Cuba has been an interesting discovery and has led to quite a bit of research into the Cornish Miners who went to Latin America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
I recently located the obituary"for William Hicks in "The Kadina and Wallaroo Times" which confirmed that William & Elizabeth Jane Hicks, together with their two eldest children, William & Elizabeth Jane, arrived in South Australia in January 1885 on board the ship Cuzco
My thanks to Kathy Norman, Kerrie Korte for providing information and photographs relating to the Hicks family.