Edwin Ernest Brown

In October 2020, Julie Collins / Wynn / Skellern / Williams writes -

I started getting a lot of DNA Matches in Tasmania … very close matches to my Mum’s DNA, so started trying to figure it out.  Three years later, I have some dozen or so DNA results from descendants of Edwin Ernest BROWN also known as MOODY.

I managed to make contact with some of those descendants, who told me the following story, which has been passed down.

"Edwin Ernest was born in Dunedin, NZ, about 1867 as a MOODY. As a young child he ran away from home, jumped on a ship, ended up in Tasmania, and was adopted by a family named BROWN and changed his name”

Facts to dispel some of the myth:

• There is no MOODY birth registered in New Zealand (Dunedin or otherwise) ca 1867 nor is there a BROWN for that matter.
• There is no MOODY nor BROWN birth registered in Tasmania either, that completely fits … but there is this:

Name: Williams, Edwin Ernest
Father: Williams, Johnson, Carpenter
Mother: Brown, Priscilla
Date of birth: 20 Oct 1871
Registered: Hobart
Registration year: 1871
Resource: RGD33/1/10/ no 2208 1

Film # 007368108 Image 327
20 Oct 1871 - Edwin Ernest
father Johnson Williams
mother Priscilla Williams (formerly Brown)
Informant signed - P Williams, Mother, Collins Street, 29th November 1871

The relationships between the DNA matches makes Edwin Ernest a direct descendant of the convict Thomas ARNOTT (1781- 1847) & his first wife Sarah MYERS (ca 1803-1832)

Unfortunately, despite spreadsheets and guesswork by ancestry, familytreedna and myheritage … and so although I know that’s Edwin Ernest’s roots, I cannot figure out who his mother and father really are !

The two contenders:

• My gt.gt.grandmother Hannah ARNOTT, daughter of Thomas & Sarah,
• or Hannah's daughter Priscilla Louisa BROWN, my gt. grandmother.

So biographical history for both circa the time of Edwin Ernest’s possible birth.

Hannah was widowed in 1863, when her husband Thomas (a private and convict guard in the 96th Regiment and a carpenter by trade) died aged 38 of consumption. A few months’ later she gave birth to a posthumously born son, their 7th child. His birth was registered as Charles Isaac, but he was baptised two months’ later as Isaac Charles. No amount of research has found him dead or alive since that 4th November 1863 baptism. His six elder siblings are all tracked down to the nth degree, and only some members of the current generation are missing. So records and family history exist for all his siblings, but not for him.

I want him, with all my heart to be Edwin Ernest, who, on paper, does not exist until he marries:

Marriage Date: 09 Feb 1892
Marriage Place: Cape Barren Island, Tasmania
Registration Place: George Town, Tasmania
Edwin Ernest Brown, of full age, Mariner, bachelor
~ By licence Church of England
both signed
Witnesses: Alica Emma Maynard, E Stephens, Charles Stephens
Madeline Grace Maynard, minor, daughter of a Mariner, spinster
Registration Year: 1892 Registration Number: 135 2

Madeline Grace MAYNARD is a descendant of an Australian aboriginal. There is a fascinating web-site about the Cape Barren Island and Flinders Island settlements, mostly made up of white sealers and whalers, (although there are some America negro and New Zealand Maori also fathering children in the time-frame).

Anyway, if Edwin Ernest is not my Charles Isaac … and genuinely has a birth date of 1867, (as attributed to his death and funeral records) then:

Hannah was aged about 37, and a widow. She later remarried, but she may well have had a child out of wedlock, in between, who would likely have been born in Launceston. She had a another living daughter and two living sons, all in Launceston, but none of them have passed on any family history pertaining to an illegitimate younger brother (nor any history, for that matter about their genuine brother Charles Isaac)! “We" (as a whole family of researchers and descendants, that is) are stumped.

Edwin Ernest BROWN may be the son of Hannah and possibly to Thomas BROWN, or the son of Hannah and another “paramour” ... ?

Or Edwin Ernest may be the son of Priscilla Louisa Brown and WGF Moody, and part of his story holds true that he ran away from New Zealand to Tasmania. He would have known he had a living grandmother and aunts and uncles there.

There are two birthday books. One is my Nana’s, the other is her husband’s my grandfather’s. Amongst all the interesting entries of family and friend, some of which did lead me to finding my Tasmanian cousins many years’ ago, is this one (without a year):

Thomas Towler’s Birthday Book
27th October Edwin MOODY

It’s like a cliff-hanger eh ?

• 1TAHO: Birth Registration - Edwin Ernest Williams - RGD 33/1871/2208 - Hobart
• 2TAHO: Marriage Registration - Edwin Ernest Brown to Grace Madeline Maynard - RGD 37/1892/135 - George Town