Oh Susannah

Susannah Janvin was 19 years old when she climbed on board the ship 'Comet' in Cork in 1841. She was on her own when she set off on a ship to the other side of the world and, unlike many others who came to Australia at that time, she was free.

Eighteen months after she made it to Australia Susannah married William Simpson. He was a convict serving 21 years for desertion from the British Army in Canada. They had 11 children. One of them was my great grandfather.

Susannah was born in Mountmelick, County Laois in Ireland in 1822. There is no record of her birth. There was a fire in the records office in Dublin that took out many of the records of that time. But there is also no record, anywhere, of Susannah's parents. Her marriage and death certificates don't show any names for her parents. Janvin is not an Irish name and we have been unable to find any record of Janvins anywhere in Ireland.

Janvin is possibly a French name. There are some Janvins in France and, at about the right time, in French Canada. Some of these moved to the USA and there are Janvins there now but, so far, there is no apparent connection with Susannah.

So, why were the Janvins in Ireland when Susannah was born? There are no records that I have found so far or French emigration to Ireland at that time although there were 1,100 French soldiers who went to Ireland in 1798 as part of the Rebellion. They were led by an officer named Humbert and succeeded in scaring the daylights out of the English for a few weeks. When they were beaten by tens of thousands of English soldiers, the French were swapped for English prisoners of war and were sent home. The Irish who fought with them were slaughtered - 30,000 of them. And some wonder why they have been so antsy for so long.

Back to the point though, did a French soldier get together with an Irish colleen? There was a strong contingent of women involved in the 1798 rebellion. Would not be beyond possibility that there was a marriage or at least a relationship and, if the women involved were tough enough to take on the English, they could be strong enough to keep the name of a child's father. Susannah could possibly be a daughter or granddaughter of such a relationship.

Then again there is William. He was busted for desertion in Canada and tried at Kingston on 16 January 1836. At the time he was 28. Some months later there was a mutiny in the same area. Many of the soldiers involved were executed. William, however, was long gone having been sent to Australia for 21 years. Now there were French Janvins in Canada. The British were there to fight them. Was there a 14 year old French Canadian girl who was the reason for the young-ish British soldier going AWOL? Did she somehow get herself to Ireland and, eventually, to Australia and link up again with her soldier who, by the way, was still unmarried at 35 years of age. Bit of a stretch, but the stuff of a good romantic saga.

Or were the Janvins the descendants of Huegenots. They were hounded out of Europe a fair bit earlier though and you would have to punt that, if some had settled in Ireland there would be some sort of records, somewhere, of someone. The name is not on any Huegenot list that I have found to date.

Susannah was my only ancestor on that side of the line who came here of her own free will. Surely she has a good story.