With the ongoing publicity for the book and increased exposure hopefully we will be able to find out more about the passengers. This page will be updated with any new information. Thanks to a roots chat member for this.
Marc Ami in an interview with the procurator fiscal at Portree on the Isle of Skye gave us the names of the Kempf family who all perished. Unfortunately he was slightly mistaken. The church records for the Canton of Uri have just come online, allowing us to access the baptismal records of the children. Kampf is pronounced Kempf so an easy mistake to make.
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- Mr Charles Louis Kampf, Canton of Uri, Switzerland
- Mrs Jean Frederic Kampf, Canton of Uri Switzerland
- Louis Kampf aged 12, D.O.B. 11/10/1840, Canton of Uri, Switzerland
- Marie Louise Kampf aged 10, D.O.B. 5/3/1843, Canton of Uri, Switzerland
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Sub note 1 States that Captain Rose was survived by four adult children. This is incorrect there were eight.
Alexander, Charles, James B aged 30, Susan E aged 25, Elizabeth aged 21, Hugh E aged 19, Miriam aged 17, Emma E aged 15. The first six born in England, last two in Canada.
I have had an Irene Mackintosh of Nairn in touch with me, she obtained on Ebay a fascinating collection of letters written to Captain Rose between 1815 and 1847.
The letters are mainly from an uncle of Captain Charles Rose a Captain James Rose resident in Nairn. One from Miriam the wife of Captain Rose and one from his daughter Elizabeth. They paint a much more sympathetic picture of Captain Rose who was blamed by many for the disaster as he seemed to have convinced Captain Mason to press on to Quebec with a badly disabled ship.
His father was a gunner in the navy. Orphaned at age ten, Charles entered the navy and attained the rank of Leutenant while serving. Then had to endure long periods on half pay in between conflicts. It seems to have very much been a hand to mouth existence. He became a Captain in the Merchant navy emigrating to Canada in 1835 and plying his trade on the great lakes. The farm seems to have been a struggle and certainly not an income that could be depended on raising a large family. So the reasons for pressing on to Quebec may have been financial, it would have been a disaster for him to not get to Quebec on time to take up his new position as Captain of the Argonaut.
I have had a Micheal Gibney in touch saying that it was always part of his family history that a party of Gibney’s were lost on an emigrant ship around the period of 1853. Given that a party of seven Gibney’s were aboard the Annie Jane this is very likely to be them. If so they would have been from around the Dublin area, I have looked for them but no one has found an exact family match though the surname is quite common in that area. Given the size of the group it may well be more than one household.
- Martha Gibney
- William Gibney
- John Gibney
- Robert Gibney
- Margaret Gibney
- Jane Gibney
- Alexander Gibney
This photo surfaced recently on the ancestry.com website unfortunately in the public domain too late for inclusion in the book. The only known photographic image of a casualty on the Annie Jane. A 13 year old boy travelling as the servant of Captain Rose. Mr John Potter Cattley came from a wealthy family in Stillington near York. He may have been beginning a new career at sea as Captain Rose was taking command of a ship in Quebec. We know this photo was taken as a momento by his family before his departure.
Delighted to have found this site. Always curious about the disappearance of my great grandfather’s older brother Charles Bell. Charles had followed his father Charles Bell 1803 – 1840 to a life at sea despite a dreadful accident in the Thames Estuary that badly affected his father and probably led to his premature death. Having discovered that Charles jr’s widow had remarried in 1855 led me to hunt for Charles’ death and ‘bingo’ the mystery is solved.
Chapter 13 : Persecution of a clergy man for a peccadillo
In this chapter I make a statement about the passenger featured, Deborah Stanley a young girl paid off to disappear to Canada with her illegitimate child. ” Nothing would ever tempt her out to sea again ” How wrong can I have been? Just been contacted by one of her descendants living in Australia. Deborah married a James Morgan and emigrated to South Africa where she had four children. Widowed, she then returned to Ireland and Married a Hugh Shields. One child born in Ireland, she then emigrated to Australia with that child and two of her children from the previous marriage. Going on to have another five children in Australia with Hugh Shields.