Re: William KEMP, English ship's captain
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In reply to:
Re: William KEMP, English ship's captain
Pat Kemp 7/21/04
Patricia -- thanks very much for the reply -- it certainly sounds intriguing, and the closest prospect I have encountered yet -- Peter Hodge, and his 'Emigrant' site, have been of instrumental importance to my project, connecting me to other descendants, as well as pointing me towards a ceremony that commemmorated the story -- but my film is a very slow work, done within my meagre budget of time & money so far, and before I finalise the script, I needed to do this genealogical scouting to try to find more information (particularly images) of 'my' William Kemp, and Sarah (F. Sarah), and some other major characters -- these absent images of characters (due to the antiquity of the story, occuring just a few years after the invention of mechanical photography) are a major speed-bump on my path ...
Anyway, back to William -- I have thought mostly that he would be a 'mature' gentleman, but did wonder about the single child and the presence of his wife on the voyage, and wondered whether these might indicate that he/they were a bit younger -- the reasons I assume(d) he was in his 40s/50s are two-fold : his position & rank ; and the fact that some of the emigrants remembered William and Sarah acting in parental ways towards the young immigrants (mostly in their early 20s, or late teens) -- but 35-ish would seem a maternal/paternal age bracket for such young adults.
I don't know how to proceed towards more certainty with this -- I'm afraid I cannot tell you much about him, nor can I even properly evaluate any evidence you might have -- do you have any photographs of either your William or your Francis Sarah ? -- do you know when their eldest child was born ? (I do not know the age of the Kemp child in this story, but have it in my head that it was a 'he', and maybe 1 or 2 or 3 years old, in 1850) -- do you know what companies your ancestor worked for ? -- do you have any contact with other genealogical connections (you mentioned different countries), who might have more information that you haven't acquired ?
Sorry for so many questions, but finding out about my characters is the icing on my story cake.
Please keep in touch with any additional thoughts you might have.
Thanks again.
Take care,
Matthew Wengert
Brisbane, Australia