Australian genealogy notes for the Pearce, Stone and Ballantyne families

• Family Trees

  • Richard Pearce 1670

  • Abraham Amiet 1690

  • George Stone 1808

  • Francis Kinigett 1861

  • Henry Biddle 1810

  • William Elsden 1780

• English Pearce's

  • Richard 1670

  • Aaron 1695

  • Aaron 1735

  • Aaron 1766

  • Aaron 1803

• Australian Pearce's

  • Shadrach

  • Charles Aaron

  • Charles Ernest

  • Clarence Frederick

  • Russell Owen

• Ballantynes

  • Pedigree Page

  • Robert Ballantyne 1780

  • Isaac Blair 1765

  • Alexander Ferguson 1830

  • Joseph Kendall 1824

  • William Spring 1800

• Stories

  • Background

  • Voyage

  • Arrival

  • Early Melbourne

• Data

  • GEDCOM

  • Line of Descent

Welcome

The purpose of this site is to share the genealogy data and photographs collected by my father, brother and myself concerning my ancestors. The main focus is on the descendents and ancestors of Shadrach Pearce who arrived in Australia in 1852 plus the families on my mother's side, the Stones, Biddles and Elsdens.
I have also added a little information on my wife's ancestors which may be reached from this link Ballantyne/Ferguson
These pages will continue to grow depending on the availability of time and further information. If you have any suggestions, additions or corrections please email me by clicking here Russell Pearce
You may navigate to each of the main families by clicking on any of the links in the above drop down menus, or from the links in the following pages.
Most of what I can provide for the Pearce's is related to my direct line of descent from Shadrach. The details of his parents and siblings have been provided from the extensive researches of my third cousin Don Pearce; who may be emailed by clicking here
Further Pearce details have been contributed by Robert Pearce from Thame in England and Bill Balson from America.
The information on the Elsdens has been transcribed from a record of Family Descendents compiled by Coral Wilcox and informally published as a book in April 1984.

Initially I had a lot of difficulty in deciding how to set up this site. I finally decided to take two approaches concerning my ancestors;

1. To show the Pearce ancestry back as far as I could go.
2. To research my pedigree back to point at which my ancestors came to Australia and to show what I could find out about these families. In most cases my ancestors arrived four generations ago, with the one exception being Francis Kinigett who arrived three generations back. This pedigree is shown in the tree below. The arrows take you to the earlier generations as far as I have been able to find.

Similarly, I am adding the ancestors of my wife's family to the chart shown in the Ballantyne/Ferguson link.

The following is my pedigree tree. The people shown in red are the migrants to Australia and most have come from Great Britain with the exceptions being the Amiets from Switzerland and the Bieskes from Prussia (now Poland).

• Pearce Tree from Richard of about 1670
• Amiet Tree from Abraham of about 1690 (Boudry Switzerland)
• Kinigett (King or Kingett) from Francis Joseph of 1861
• Stone Tree from George Stone of about 1808
• Biddle Tree from Henry Biddle of 1810
• Elsden Tree from William Elsden of about 1780

This information tends to overlap as we move forward in time so I have tried not to go overboard with too much.

The total file is contained in this downloadable GEDCOM file for your use and which I will update regularly. It currently contains over 5500 individuals, however I have not included the personal details of the living in order to preserve their privacy.

The following links have been invaluable to my researches.

• The IGI To do research using the International Genealogy Index. 
• Thame To view the web page of the English town of Thame where Shadrach was born and many of my ancestors were based.
• Multimap To look up where in England a town or address might be.
• Vicnet Genealogy links To see a further list of useful links.
• Genes Reunited An interesting site to look up your ancestors. It is based in England for a change.
• Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists 1852 to 1923 Although this is called "unassisted" it is in fact a list of passengers who disembarked here in Australia and has little to do with their being assisted or not. It is maintained by the Public Records Office of Victoria.
• Index to Assisted Inward Passenger Lists 1839 to 1871 This is the index to the passenger lists on taken on their embarkation, again it has nothing to do with their being assisted or not.

Commenced 29 November 1999; First posted 9th January 2000
Modified for frames 6th February 2000
Modified to include GEDCOM file and early English line 1st of May 2000
Updated the summary page to include the early English line on the 20th June 2000
Modified September 2000 for a side navigation bar and to include an American line of descendents
Added the family trees for my ancestors other than the Pearce line in November 2000
Added an update of the GEDCOM file that includes more on Damaris King's ancestors May 2001
Added further detail of the Amiets and the latest GEDCOM June 2002
Started an extensive revisions in November 2002 to all pages to ensure accuracy and currency.
Transferred it all to this broadband site September 2004.
Completely revised the structure, content and included drop down menus December 2005 / January 2006.
Refreshed the GEDCOM and family tree files May 2008.
For comments, corrections or just to say hello; Email me at Russell Pearce