gathering dust

Sometimes you come across a character in your research who for one reason or another sparks your curiosity. One such person is John Phillip Gail, the second husband of my 3x Great Grandmother Christiana Sophia Boss (nee Rusch). I have mentioned him in brief twice before in relation to a newspaper report  and a gaol entrance record  but as he is on my mind of late I thought I'd expand a little, who knows maybe someone in the ether knows something of him. Born around 1810 in Germany and possibly died 1892 in Liverpool, NSW.  He married Christiana Boss on the 27th of July 1874 at the Presbyterian Minsters Residence in Scone, NSW. Like all documents related to my family it is pretty unhelpful and full of blanks. John Phillip is however listed as a Widower. Now, by their marriage in 1874 Christiana and John Phillip had three children; Eliza born in 1857, Louisa in 1859 and John William in 1862. Herein lies the first question. Why did John Phillip and Christiana no...

I'm sure you've all heard the axiom "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Setting aside the utter ridiculousness of that statement in general, in genealogy you often do the same thing over and over and get different results. I, for example, have a series of names I run through various search engines every couple of months and today one has borne fruit. Ancestry.com spat out a Gaol Entrance record for John Phillip Gail, for this incident  that I have mentioned before . I now have a country of birth, Germany and an arrival year, 1829 and a ship, the Medway. If only he was actually named on the passenger list .

Being on uni break and suffering from brain fog inducing sinusitis, I've spent the past couple of days meandering through my family tree research and following whatever tangents caught my interest. A pleasant morning was had searching for and reading about early German immigration to the Hunter Valley and it is that subject that lead me to this little drama. "Maitland Quarter Sessions."  Evening News  (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931) 11 Jun 1884: 4. Web. 18 Jun 2013 < http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107266484 > John Phillip Gail (shooting with intent) John Phillip Gail was the second husband of my 3x Great Grandmother Christiana Sophia Boss (nee Rusch) - one of the aforementioned German immigrants - and the couple is already a little bit scandalous having had at least one child out of wedlock 2 years after Christiana was widowed, and unconfirmed family gossip indicating that John may have been married at the time, so 'shooting with intent' was ...