Re: Gardiner, Taylor, Scanlon

Let me fill you in on the family of Thomas Gardiner and Mary Ann Everard.Their youngest son, John Everard Gardiner, was my GGrandfather.He had at least four sisters, Margaret, Maria, Fanny, and Ellen whose names I know from English census records for 1841 and 1851.Margaret and Maria died young in England.Since Thomas Gardiner died in 1841, the boys were apparently "farmed out" to relatives and the girls remained with Mary Ann.My GGF was in the household of an aunt and uncle in 1841 at a year old.I know there were brothers, but don't know their names.The brothers and sisters emigrated to Australia in the late 1850's, leaving my GGF behind with his mother until she died.He was to join them in Australia, but according to family legend, he missed the boat, so came to America instead.My father had a bundle of letters that Ellen wrote to my GGF from Australia, which I read as a child.But when I later asked him about the letters, he had given them to someone doing family research and couldn't remember whom he gave them to.I have been looking for them for years, without any success.It has become a bit of an obsession with me to find these missing great aunts and uncles, and also to establish an Australian connection.