Analysis: Did Frederick Ward go to America?
Copyright Carol Baxter 2011
The claim that bushranger Frederick Ward died in Canada is generally preceded by the claim that he first went to America as shown in the following paragraphs:[1]
Fact Sheet on the Death of Thunderbolt as at 14 Jun 2011 [1]
History is not about beliefs, its about evidence. So let’s examine this Fact Sheet and see if it contains any evidence to back up these "beliefs".
The author begins by talking about Fred’s journey to Morpeth, stating that it occurred "at the end of the six weeks" – that is, six weeks after bushranger Thunderbolt’s death on 25 May 1870. This indicates that the journey took place early in July 1870. But a sentence later, the author reports that Dorrington offered to take Fred Ward to Morpeth in late August 1870. Early July or late August? Clearly the date of Fred’s purported journey to Morpeth is not a “fact”.
What about the source of the claim that Alf Dorrington took Fred to Morpeth? Not stated. Any substantiation? “If one checks the Bendemere cemetery, you will find that this tombstone (my italics) is still the best tombstone in the entire cemetery.” What tombstone exactly – because no name is provided. Alf Dorrington’s aunty could be anybody. And how does one quantify “best”?
As it turns out, Alf Dorrington himself doesn’t exist – not in 1870, anyway. An Alfred Dorrington was born in the Armidale district in 1878, married around 1900 and died in 1950, according to the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Online Indexes – but that’s it. No other Alf Dorrington who could have been alive in 1870 is recorded in the indexes, nor does such a man appear in a Google search (which accesses the online newspapers for the period). Moreover, Greville’s 1872 Directory records farmers named Charles, George and William Dorrington residing at Kentucky near Uralla, but does not mention any Alf Dorrington.[3] So the claim that Alf Dorrington took Fred to Morpeth in 1870 is clearly false.
What about the claim that Fred Jnr accompanied his father? In truth, he stayed in Australia with his mother, took the surname of his stepfather, John Burrows, acted as the informant on his mother's Death Certificate in 1905, and died at Moree in 1937 (see Death Certificate).[4]
And the next claim: “An 1871 American state census shows that a Frederick Ward (file #SC 289) and a Sarah Shepherd (file #SC 319) both arrived in America in late 1870.” In fact, no American state censuses were collected in 1871. A Federal Census was collected in 1870. To be specific, the census was collected on 1 June 1870, only six days after Thunderbolt was shot[2], although the census collectors were allowed five months to complete their work. The returns for the entire census can be searched online via Ancestry.com and guess what …?
1. The census does not record arrival details so the claim that these entries “show” that a Frederick Ward and a Sarah Shepherd both arrived in America late in 1870 is false;
2. The census does record ages and birth-places yet the above Fact Sheet makes no reference to these important pieces of identifying information in its statement that Fred and Sarah were listed in the census. If it said that the 1870 US Federal Census recorded a single household containing a man named Frederick Ward who was aged 34/35 and born in Australia and a woman named Sarah Shepherd who was aged 53/54 and was also born in Australia, this would indeed be noteworthy. Instead, this omission is noteworthy by its absence.
3. The source-reference details quoted above (that is, SC289 and SC319) were not used by either the 1870 census collectors or by the repository where the original records are stored. In fact, these references seem to be meaningless in relation to the 1870 US Federal Census.
4. For the above source-references to be meaningful and to allow others to locate the stated entries, the referencing system would need to record the US state of residence, the census district/county, and the page on which the entries were listed. Clearly the above references do not provide enough information to readily locate these entries in the original census records (even if the source-references themselves were meaningful).
5. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that these source-references did in fact identify the US state of residence and the census district within that state. As the above-mentioned numbers are neither the same nor even consecutive, it is clear that this Frederick Ward and Sarah Shepherd did not live anywhere near each other: not in the same house, not in the same street, not in the same village or farming district or town, and probably not even in the same city. As neither of these names is uncommon, how can anyone assume that they were, therefore, related to each other?
6. So, clearly, all this "amazing coincidence" tells us is that a man named Frederick Ward and a woman named Sarah Shepherd (for whom no other information is provided, despite that information being available) lived in the same US State but nowhere near each other.
7. But of course these claimed entries don’t refer to people listed in the 1870 US Federal Census return anyway.
The problems with the Fact Sheet's "facts" continue. “Sarah Shepherd … was the mother of Fred Ward,” it claims. In fact, she was Fred Ward’s sister not his mother (see Was Frederick Ward the son of his “sister”?).
The author also claims that the death certificate of Sarah’s mother in 1874 “shows Sarah as still being alive. It is my belief that these are our Fred Ward & his mother (sic), Sarah, who went to America in late 1870 and then moved on to Canada.”
Sarah might have been listed among the living offspring on her mother’s Death Certificate in 1874, but Sarah's brother Fred was numbered among the four sons who were dead (see What did Sophia Ward's death certificate actually say?)
The claims continue: “When the gold petered out in California they moved to Alberta, Canada where Fred stayed until the end of the gold rush there in the late 1800’s, then moved to live out his life in Ottawa, Canada - dying in the early 1900’s.” The source of this information? Again, there isn’t any. The truth? See Did Frederick Ward go to Canada?
Clearly, the above "Fact Sheet" contains no facts at all, nor any evidence to support its claim that Fred Ward did not die in 1870 but instead escaped to America.
For the truth about what happened in 1870 see When did Fred Ward die?
The author begins by talking about Fred’s journey to Morpeth, stating that it occurred "at the end of the six weeks" – that is, six weeks after bushranger Thunderbolt’s death on 25 May 1870. This indicates that the journey took place early in July 1870. But a sentence later, the author reports that Dorrington offered to take Fred Ward to Morpeth in late August 1870. Early July or late August? Clearly the date of Fred’s purported journey to Morpeth is not a “fact”.
What about the source of the claim that Alf Dorrington took Fred to Morpeth? Not stated. Any substantiation? “If one checks the Bendemere cemetery, you will find that this tombstone (my italics) is still the best tombstone in the entire cemetery.” What tombstone exactly – because no name is provided. Alf Dorrington’s aunty could be anybody. And how does one quantify “best”?
As it turns out, Alf Dorrington himself doesn’t exist – not in 1870, anyway. An Alfred Dorrington was born in the Armidale district in 1878, married around 1900 and died in 1950, according to the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Online Indexes – but that’s it. No other Alf Dorrington who could have been alive in 1870 is recorded in the indexes, nor does such a man appear in a Google search (which accesses the online newspapers for the period). Moreover, Greville’s 1872 Directory records farmers named Charles, George and William Dorrington residing at Kentucky near Uralla, but does not mention any Alf Dorrington.[3] So the claim that Alf Dorrington took Fred to Morpeth in 1870 is clearly false.
What about the claim that Fred Jnr accompanied his father? In truth, he stayed in Australia with his mother, took the surname of his stepfather, John Burrows, acted as the informant on his mother's Death Certificate in 1905, and died at Moree in 1937 (see Death Certificate).[4]
And the next claim: “An 1871 American state census shows that a Frederick Ward (file #SC 289) and a Sarah Shepherd (file #SC 319) both arrived in America in late 1870.” In fact, no American state censuses were collected in 1871. A Federal Census was collected in 1870. To be specific, the census was collected on 1 June 1870, only six days after Thunderbolt was shot[2], although the census collectors were allowed five months to complete their work. The returns for the entire census can be searched online via Ancestry.com and guess what …?
1. The census does not record arrival details so the claim that these entries “show” that a Frederick Ward and a Sarah Shepherd both arrived in America late in 1870 is false;
2. The census does record ages and birth-places yet the above Fact Sheet makes no reference to these important pieces of identifying information in its statement that Fred and Sarah were listed in the census. If it said that the 1870 US Federal Census recorded a single household containing a man named Frederick Ward who was aged 34/35 and born in Australia and a woman named Sarah Shepherd who was aged 53/54 and was also born in Australia, this would indeed be noteworthy. Instead, this omission is noteworthy by its absence.
3. The source-reference details quoted above (that is, SC289 and SC319) were not used by either the 1870 census collectors or by the repository where the original records are stored. In fact, these references seem to be meaningless in relation to the 1870 US Federal Census.
4. For the above source-references to be meaningful and to allow others to locate the stated entries, the referencing system would need to record the US state of residence, the census district/county, and the page on which the entries were listed. Clearly the above references do not provide enough information to readily locate these entries in the original census records (even if the source-references themselves were meaningful).
5. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that these source-references did in fact identify the US state of residence and the census district within that state. As the above-mentioned numbers are neither the same nor even consecutive, it is clear that this Frederick Ward and Sarah Shepherd did not live anywhere near each other: not in the same house, not in the same street, not in the same village or farming district or town, and probably not even in the same city. As neither of these names is uncommon, how can anyone assume that they were, therefore, related to each other?
6. So, clearly, all this "amazing coincidence" tells us is that a man named Frederick Ward and a woman named Sarah Shepherd (for whom no other information is provided, despite that information being available) lived in the same US State but nowhere near each other.
7. But of course these claimed entries don’t refer to people listed in the 1870 US Federal Census return anyway.
The problems with the Fact Sheet's "facts" continue. “Sarah Shepherd … was the mother of Fred Ward,” it claims. In fact, she was Fred Ward’s sister not his mother (see Was Frederick Ward the son of his “sister”?).
The author also claims that the death certificate of Sarah’s mother in 1874 “shows Sarah as still being alive. It is my belief that these are our Fred Ward & his mother (sic), Sarah, who went to America in late 1870 and then moved on to Canada.”
Sarah might have been listed among the living offspring on her mother’s Death Certificate in 1874, but Sarah's brother Fred was numbered among the four sons who were dead (see What did Sophia Ward's death certificate actually say?)
The claims continue: “When the gold petered out in California they moved to Alberta, Canada where Fred stayed until the end of the gold rush there in the late 1800’s, then moved to live out his life in Ottawa, Canada - dying in the early 1900’s.” The source of this information? Again, there isn’t any. The truth? See Did Frederick Ward go to Canada?
Clearly, the above "Fact Sheet" contains no facts at all, nor any evidence to support its claim that Fred Ward did not die in 1870 but instead escaped to America.
For the truth about what happened in 1870 see When did Fred Ward die?
Sources
[1] Fact Sheet on the Death of Thunderbolt by Barry Sinclair (sighted 14 Jun 2011)
[http://users.tpg.com.au/users/barrymor/Family%20Facts%20on%20the%20Death%20of%20Thunderbolt.html]
[2] 1870 Census [http://www.1930census.com/1870_census.php]
[3] Greville's 1872 Directory
[http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hcastle/grevilles/grevilles.html]
[4] See When did Mary Ann Bugg actually die? and What happened to Sarah Ann Ward and Fred Ward jnr?