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 ...

Part 2: Where did the “Webb Wagg” name come from? One of the most persistent questions in the Webb Wagg family has always been this: where did the name “Webb Wagg” come from? Why does “Webb” sometimes appear as a surname, sometimes as a given name, and sometimes not at all? This post explains how that question was finally answered. Connecting through Ancestry In early 2017, while this investigation was underway, I connected on Ancestry with a third cousin descended from William Webb-Wagg (1873–1974), a son of William and Sarah. After corresponding online, we arranged to meet in person. At that meeting, she shared two original documents that had been carefully preserved through successive generations of what I now think of as “the Williams” — the repeated use of William reflecting the continuity of the family line. I was able to examine both documents firsthand. While they do not answer every question about William’s origins, they provide something equally important: direct evidence sho...

Today marks 100 years since our many times great-grandmother and great-aunt, Sarah, died at the home of her son, William - 247 West Street Cammeray. Sarah was born on 21 October 1832 in Sydney - the daughter of George Turner (a carpenter from York, England) and Mary Hand (a convict from Atholone, Ireland).  George and May had another daughter, Jane, but it's possible that there were more children - the search continues! You can read last year's post about Sarah here. Sarah married William Wagg (a seaman and convict from Norfolk, England) on 18 August 1853 at St James Church of England in Sydney.  They settled on the lower North Shore of Sydney and raised their large family. Here's the last photo that we have of Sarah with her extended family.  She's clearly visible as are some of her sons and their wives.  I doubt we'll ever identify everyone or know the reason for the gathering. Listening to my great-grandmother, Josephine Webb-Wagg (nee Clancy)...

I've previously written about our search for the birth family of our patriarch, William Webb Wagg.  As we approach Mother's Day, it's timely to look at the birth family of our matriarch, Sarah Turner. The first clue is in the 1853 marriage registration of William Wagg and Sarah Turner at St James, Sydney.  We see the witnesses named as George Fairfield of Sussex Street and Jane Turner of George Street. Sarah's 1918 death registration records the names of her parents as George Turner (a shipwright) and Sarah.  The witnesses to the death registration are Sarah's sons, William Webb Wagg and Charles Webb Wagg.  They record Sarah's age as 86 - birth around 1832 in Sydney. As Sarah's birth was so early in the colonies history, there are no birth registrations.  However, we've found a baptism transcript for Sarah Turner at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney.  It records that Sarah was born on 21 October 1932 and baptised on 09 December 1832.  Her father...