You do not need the passenger manifest to determine where your ancestor
was born. The first sentence in your post states that he was born "at
Rospag near Aschafenbug". This is Ro�bach [Rossbach], a village of about
12 kilometers due south of Aschaffenburg. It is just south of the village
of D-63849 Leidersbach, into which it is now incorporated for
administrative purposes. In the 19th century it lay in the Bezirksamt
(county) of Obernburg, in the Bavarian province of Unterfranken (Lower
Franconia); it is now in the Landkreis Miltenberg. There is a Roman
Catholic church in Rossbach. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City
does not have microfilm copies of these registers so it shall be necessary
for you in the first instance to contact the church directly, at
Kath. Pfarramt Rossbach
Kirchweg 22
D-52489 Leidersbach
Germany
Non-current registers may be deposited in the
Di�zesan-Archiv W�rzburg
Domerschulstra�e 2,
D-97070 W�rzburg
Germany
(see http://my.bawue.de/~hanacek/info/darchi17.htm#w�rzburg\)
Turning to passenger lists for the CATEAUX WATTEL, you do not indicate
which form of the passenger manifest for the voyage of 1855 you checked,
but you should not rely wholly on the transcript of the passenger manifest
for the March 1855 Sydney arrival available on the State Records of New
South Wales Immigrant Index 1844-59 webpage at
Even the best transcriber can make an error. Therefore, be certain to
check the microfilm copy (microfilm reel 2469) of the original passenger
arrival manifest yourself. You should also check the Hamburg passenger
departure lists, in the event this vessel really did begin her voyage at
Hamburg. The Family History Library has microfilm copies of the original
surviving Hamburg departure lists (Family History Library microfilm
#0470837 contains copies of the departure lists for 1855). In addition,
Eric and Rosemary Kopittke are abstracting the passenger departure list
for all vessels sailing from Hamburg to Australia from 1850 onwards;
these abstracts, known as _Emigrants from Hamburg to Australia_, which at
present cover the years 1850-1872 and 1876-1877 (there are also two
indexes to the abstracts, one for 1850-1859 the other for 1869-1869), are
widely available in Australia in either book form or microfiche.
I have no knowledge of an 1852 sailing of the CATEAUX WATTEL. Indeed,
Ronald Parsons, _Migrant Sailing Ships from Hamburg_ (North Adelaide:
Gould Books, 1993), p. 14, states that she was not built until 1854,
although this may be in error (even the most careful and conscientious
researcher can make mistakes ;->). In any case, I assume you have checked
the (microfilm copy of the) original passenger manifest for this voyage.
(Incidentally, for my own records, I would be very grateful if you could
send me what details you have of this voyage, i.e. date[s] and port[s] of
arrival in Australia, the name of the master, and the date and port of
departure from Europe.)
Parsons states that the CATEAUX WATTEL was "[w]ell known in the London-
Australia trade", and if your ancestor indicated on his naturalization
papers that he arrived in 1853, you might wish to explore the possibility
that the vessel made a voyage to Sydney in that year, one for which
perhaps a passenger list does not for some reason survive. The three best
sources through which to trace ship arrivals at Sydney in the 1850's are:
1. Shipping Master's Office index to vessels arrived, [1837-1925].
Sydney: Archives Authority of New South Wales, 1985 (microfilm).
Copies of this microfilm are available at State Records of New South
Wales and the Vaughan Evans Research Library at the Australian
National Maritime Museum (ANMM) in Sydney,
http://www.anmm.gov.au/libhome.htm (see in particular its online
research guide Pathfinder No. 4: Immigration Sailing Ships, at
http://www.anmm.gov.au/LIB/isa.htm).
2. The shipping columns of contemporary newspapers. For Sydney, the
_Sydney Morning Herald_, available on microfilm for 1833-1895 is
particularly useful.
3. The record of vessel movements as reported in _Lloyd's List_. For a
description of _Lloyd's List_, see my account at
http://www.mariners-L.freeserve.co.uk/ResLloydsList.html
Although I can find no reference to it in any of their Pathfinder
research guides, I am under the impression that the Vaughan Evans
Library at the ANMM in Sydney has a microfilm copy of this
publication. If it does not, please let me know and I shall see if I
can arrange for someone on the MARINERS-L list who has access to
_Lloyd's List_ to check the movements of the CATEAUX WATTEL in
1853.
Michael Palmer