2023 breakthrough...Thomas Seward's death details finally located!

January 01, 2024

On 25 July 2024, it will be one hundred and forty years since the death of Thomas Seward. It's taken our family historian, Martyn, over forty years to resolve the mystery of Thomas's death. So even with all the breakthroughs that I made using DNA evidence in 2023, I've awarded this discovery the accolade of the most significant find in my ancestral lines over the past twelve months.

Thomas Seward was the second husband of our great-great-grandmother, Jane Feeney. We are descended from her first husband, John Killion.

It's almost six years since this post was published about Thomas Seward-

More "Australian Royalty" - Thomas Seward from England to Australia via India

We couldn't find any trace of Thomas after he was released from Darlinghurst Goal on 20 August 1881. We knew he'd died by the time Jane sold the "Killion farm" in April 1885 as she's recorded as a widow on the sale documents.

The breakthrough came through searching for variations to the spelling of Seward in the NSW Registry for Births, Deaths and Marriages for deaths between 1881 and 1885. Seward was the spelling of the family name when Thomas married Jane and for the birth of their children. However, his own baptism was in the name of Seeward and his convict and Darlinghurst Goal records were in the name Seaward.

The "needle in a haystack" search turned up the 1884 death registration of "Thomas Seaford" at Liverpool (1). In the New South Wales Hospital & Asylum Records, 1840-1913, there was an entry for the admission of "Thomas Seaford" to the Liverpool Asylum for Infirm and Destitute (2). Thomas Seaford was admitted on 23 August 1881 just three days after the release of Thomas, recorded under the name of Seaward, from Darlinghurst Goal.

A transcript of the death certificate revealed that Thomas died on 25 July 1884. The informant was the hospital's undertaker. Thomas was shown as born in England and arriving on the "Endora" in 1836. Thomas was transported from India to Van Diemen's Land on the Eudora in 1837. There's no record of a ship called Endora coming to the colonies in the 1830s. The transcript shows that the names of Thomas's parents were unknown as well as details of any marriage. Thomas's age is recored as eighty years although he was ten years younger. His cause of death is shown as "senile decay". Thomas was buried at Liverpool.

Working back the other way, we can't locate any person called Thomas Seaford who is likely to be the man who died in 1884 at Liverpool.

We're satisfied that Thomas Seward died on 25 July 1884 at Liverpool State Hospital. We'll never know when Jane and her children separated from Thomas or if they had any knowledge of his whereabouts prior to his death. However, we do know that, by April 1885, Jane knew of Thomas's death. Jane married Charles Moran on 23 July 1887, just two days short of the third anniversary of Thomas's death.

With this one ticked off, maybe 2024 will be the year to find out more about John Killion's birth family using Y-DNA!