The Webb Wagg Family in Australia

Update — June 2026: George Turner, Scarborough, John Tindall, Mary Ann/Jane, and the beginning of a new investigation When I first wrote this post in May 2017, I described 16 May 1847 as the “highly likely” death date for George Turner. I wrote it deliberately on what appeared to be the 170th anniversary of his death, while also acknowledging that much of George’s story was still unfinished. Nearly a decade later, the research has moved on. I now know that 16 May 1847 was indeed George Turner’s death date. I have also established, from New South Wales records, that George came from Scarborough in Yorkshire. Those same records point to a birth date of about 1805, although I have still not found a definite birth or baptismal record for him. The most important new development is that George’s 1818 apprenticeship indenture can now be placed much more clearly in its Scarborough context. The original family-held indenture fragments showed that George was apprenticed from 3 September 1818 to ...

Sarah Jane Wagg was second child of William and Sarah Wagg - named after her mother (Sarah) and her maternal aunt (Jane).  A transcript of Sarah's birth registration shows she was born on 11 July 1856 at Botany Road, Redfern - just over 6 months after the death of her brother, William George.  Her father, William Wagg, a drayman, aged 28 from the West of England is the informant.  Sarah Turner, aged 23 and born in Sydney is shown as Sarah Jane's mother.  The date and place of William and Sarah's marriage is recorded as 18 April 1853 at St James Church, Sydney.  The transcript also show the previous issue as "1 boy deceased". By the mid 1860s, the Wagg family has moved to the Blues Point area on the North Shore of Sydney Harbour. In 1883, Sarah Jane, aged 27, married James Judkins Gillett, aged 35.  The marriage is registered at St Leonards.  James Judkins was born in about January 1848 in Islington, England.  He was the second child and o...