Francis
Axam
From: Wayne
Carter
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2001 15:05:50 +1100
Subject: GOLDRUSH MOST WANTED - AXAM
Thank you for this great opportunity to explore an area of my Family
History which is very much unknown to me. I hope that someone out there
will be able to help me as to date my research into my g.g.grandfather's
visit to the Californian Goldfields is just one big "Brick
wall"! My research in Genealogy has focused on my g.g. grandfather
Francis AXAM, who was Transported to Port Jackson as a Convict. AXAM and
several other young men from the villages of Kempston and Wootton in
Bedfordshire were sentenced in 1829 to 14 years for the crime of
"Breaking Game Laws at Night" (poaching). Francis AXAM remained
in Australia where he married and fathered seven children to his wife
Isabella. Oral tradition has it that Francis left Port Jackson in 1849 to
go to the Goldfields of California. There is a corresponding gap in the
ages of his children, Joseph born 22.6.1849 and James born 20.1.1854 which
lends credibility to the family story. To date I have not been able to
locate a shipping record of Francis having left Port Jackson. I wonder if
some record could be located in California? The name AXAM is often
misspelt, AXMAN, AXOME, HEXHAM. So far the following Louis Rasmussen
indexes have been searched: "San Francisco Ship Passenger
Lists", Vol. I, II, & IV; "California Wagon Train
Lists", Vol 1, 1849-1852 and Vol 2, 1871-1873; "Railway
Passenger Lists of Overland Trains to San Francisco and the West",
Vol I. Thank you very much for any help that can be offered. Best regards,
Wayne Carter, Sydney AUSTRALIA
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