I've been looking for the parents of my gggrandfather JOHN HILL for years now. He left England, probably together with his son John jnr., around about 1852 and was living in Russell, New Zealand by 1855. His wife and daughter stayed in England and left later in 1858 for NZ. I have no idea what ship or what route the two Johns [e.g.Australia] may have taken.

I think I have all the information that there is to be found about the family in NZ and also the UK Census info for 1841/51. I also have the family tree for John HILL's wife Jane THOMAS.
What I don't have is a Date of Birth for John HILL snr. There is also conflicting evidence for where he was born. In the 1841 census it states that he was born in London but in the 1851 census it states Bristol as his place of birth ! I'm inclined to follow the Bristol route.
John snr. was a boot/shoemaker and worked in London probably first as an apprentice for his future wife's father RALPH THOMAS who was a shoemaker in 9 Jermyn street, St. James's London. I tried the LMA for info about apprentices but had no luck there.
John married Jane in 1834 in London, daughter Elizabeth was born in 1837, son John was born in 1839, both in London.

I have found a family in Bristol that may or may not have been John Hill's. They had a son John born in 1813.If anyone is able to rule out this family out then I shall begin a new search. The parents were Thomas Hill and Ann Pierce and the children were named James, Eve, Thomas and of course John. All these forenames except for Ann have been used in the second Hill generation.


The other family branches that I'm researching are HEAYS, MAINLAND, REID, TIPPETT, TIBBALLS, WILLIAMS, HAWKINS, THOMAS and more...

I only have two "brick walls" which is not too bad. The other is the HEAYS branch which I will leave for another time.

Thanks for the opportunity to tell my story.

Tinus