Finding a migration record in the form of an entitlement certificate for my 3x great-grandmother Sophia helped take my research back a generation. It also helped, in combination with other records, to untangle confusion about the paternity of her oldest daughter. What follows is a good example of how name variants and errors can be misleading if you’re not careful.

Sophia arrived aboard the Queen Victoria on 26 July 1841, shortly after a turbulent final stage of their journey. She is recorded as travelling with her husband George Willard. Their surname has many variations across records including Willett, Williard, Wollard, Wollett, and Woollett. This is a possible reason an English record of marriage for Sophia and George has been difficult to find. It’s also possible they were never actually married.

Entitlement certificate

Sophia and George’s entitlement certificate from assisted immigration records provided useful information. It’s a form so seeks to record specific information. However, like most records it’s reliant on the correct information being given by the immigrants and accurately recorded.

Sophia’s details are given as age 21, native place Bath, and occupation domestic servant. Her religion was Episcopalian, and her health described as very good. And she was able to write. Sophia’s parents’ names are listed as George and Caroline Hawkins. This led me to find her parent’s marriage and the births of their children, Sophia’s siblings (more on that another time). Sophia’s husband, George Willard was several years older than her, an agricultural labourer, and a native of London.

A birth, a death and a marriage

The Queen Victoria entitlement certificate said Sophia and George Willard had no children at the time of their arrival in the middle of 1841. However, Sophia was pregnant, as she gave birth to their daughter Amelia Harriett Willard in January 1842. Amelia’s birth was registered under the surname Willett.

Eighteen months after Amelia’s birth, in October 1843, George Willard died and Sophia was left a widow with a toddler. Less than a year later, she and a convict named Thomas Hodge applied for permission to marry. Perhaps when they met and found they’d both lived in Bath it gave them something in common.

Sophia’s daughter Amelia has been recorded in various places as Amelia Harriett and Harriet Amelia, and many times with the surname Hodge. However, she is not Thomas Hodge’s biological daughter. Being so young when George Willard died, she probably would only have had memories of Thomas Hodge and known him as her father.

Sophia and Thomas settled in the Goulburn region, and went on to have ten children as half-siblings to Amelia, four of whom survived to adulthood.

Selected references

‘Shipping Intelligence’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 July 1841, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1522831.

Entitlement certificate entry for Sophia Willard [nee Hawkins], Queen Victoria, departing Plymouth, 2 April 1841, Entitlement certificates of persons on bounty ships, Series 5314, Reel 1336, State Records Authority of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896, Ancestry.com, accessed 20 February 2025.

Entitlement certificate entry for George Willard, Queen Victoria, departing Plymouth, 2 April 1841, Entitlement certificates of persons on bounty ships, Series 5314, Reel 1336, State Records Authority of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896, Ancestry.com, accessed 20 February 2025.

Birth of Amelia H Willett [Willard], born 14 January 1842, Sydney, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 20/1842 V184220 54.

Death of George Williard [Willard], died 22 October 1843, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 274/1843 V1843274 27B.

Application to marry by Thomas Hodges [Hodge] and Sophia Hawkins, 30 August 1844, New South Wales, Australia, Registers of Convicts’ Applications to Marry, 1826-1851, State Archives NSW; Series: 12212; Item: 4/4514; Page: 70, digitised, Ancestry.com.au, accessed 28 September 2024.

Marriage of Thomas Hodge and Isabella [Sophia] Hawkins, married 1844, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, NSW 1849/1844 V18441849 76.