Week 6 "Surprise"

John Cahuac

 Born: 1771 in London, England

Died: 1832 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

**Possible** 5x Great grandfather on my dad's dad's side

Wife: Mary ? (1770-1827)

More recently I've been seeing more information and hearing stories about the English transport of convicts to Australia. It's something that's somewhat fascinated me. Well just a couple days ago I found a photo of my 4 x great grandmother Elizabeth (Cahuac) Barnes that I hadn't seen before. It was actually a really neat photo of her in Mourning of her husband Samuel. I want to wait and share the photo another time. But it encouraged me to do some more digging on Elizabeth and her family. Well on Ancestry it popped up with hints for possible parents for Elizabeth so I bit and up pops John and Mary Cahuac. 

Like Elizabeth it showed that they were born in London, England but they both died in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. WHAT!! Total surprise!!! This was the first time i'd seen anyone in my family tree end up in Australia. Then I instantly thought about what I've learned about British people who ended up in Australia. Uh OH!! So I started looking at some of the hints and what do I find.... England and Wales Criminal Registry...... Convict Ship Muster Rolls..... well looks like he was a criminal! This was a surprise for sure. He's the first real criminal that I've found in my tree also. 

So now I wanted to see what he did and how he ended up in Australia. So the first document I look at was the "England and Wales Criminal Registry 1791-1892". I know you can't read it from the photo below but I just wanted to show the document. Next to John's name it says:

 "Receiving Stolen Goods....Age 49......14 years." 

Hmm. What does that mean? Receiving stolen goods? So I looked at some of the other documents and found a document on a website that actually has the notes from his court case and describes all about what he did. 

The gist of the story is that a man by the name of Thomas Beeman stole books from one store, then John Cahuac received the books knowing that they were stolen goods and selling them in his store. Not as juicy as say murder but apparently enough of a crime to receive a sentence to be transported to Australia and serve 14 years. Thomas Beeman only received Transport to Australia and 7 years. 

The document above shows that John arrived in Australia in 1823 and came aboard the ship Phoenix.

I'm having some reservations on weather John is for sure my ancestor due to lack of proof but I though this story was definitely a neat one that should be shared either way. Learning about him and his life was definitely a surprise!! I'm hoping to do more research to pin down if he truly is Elizabeth's father.