ON TO VICTORIA

As we all know, John brought the family to Victoria, in 1863. As mentioned earlier, official records show him to have been a mariner as long as he lived on Guernsey, and he may well have sailed with his father at times. He married Ann Raines in, we believe, late 1856 or early 1857. Ann, daughter of Charles and Ann Raines, was born in 1838 in St. Mary's parish in the Marylebone district of London. The family has long assumed that John married her in London, but we have discovered the marriages of two of her sisters in St. Thomas Church, Portsmouth, and Annie has several photographs sent over to Ann in Victoria which have the stamp of a Portsmouth photographer, so we now assume with some logic that they married in Portsmouth. Due to bombing devastation during WWII, we have not yet been able to find the records, but we know we are right!

John and Ann had their first three children in St. Peter Port, and then embarked on the voyage to Victoria, probably in the fall of 1862 or early spring of 1863 to allow passing around the horn of South America in the summer. It is interesting to note the following: a John Smith sold property in St. Peter Port shortly after his mother Mary Anne died, so he could have had a nest egg to get married and fund the trip. His grandmother Rebecca died in 1861, shortly before he left for Victoria, again providing a possible source of funds. Finally, at least one of his surviving relatives clearly remembers the grandparents saying that John had come to Victoria alone, and then returned to fetch the family. Given that just after the birth of their first child John Charles was the only period of time when Ann was not having babies on a production line basis, John being absent to make a prior trip to Victoria makes sense!

John and Ann had a very large family, as has been documented in the material perpared for the "Smith Family Reunion" in 1990 (all born in Victoria unless otherwise noted below):

John Charles: December 4, 1857 (Guernsey), died 1939
George henry: July 13, 1860 (Guernsey), died at sea near San Diego, California, 1878
Ann Elizabeth: August 28, 1861 (Guernsey), date of death unknow
Georgina: 1863 (at sea?), date of death unknow (San Pedro, California)
Agnes: November 30, 1864, died October 16, 1949
Charles: July 4, 1866, died November 13, 1955 (Tacoma, Washington: struck by car)
Andrew James: November 29, 1867, died 1958
Sophia Amelia: December 7, 1868, dante of death unknown
William Peter: January 23, 1870, died at sea with 2 sons, 1917 (?)
Alice Emily: March 4, 1871, date of death unknown
Frederick Albert: 1872, died at sea near Nanaimo, BC, date unknown
Unnamed twins: 1877, died at birth

Ann died giving birth to the non-surviving twins in 1877, and John followed her in 1884. They are buried in Ross Bay Cemetary, Victoria, with the twins.

We have now brought the family to Victoria, and each branch of the famiy can trace the line from the children listed above, using the detailed information provided at the "Reunion" by Juanita Smith Mahaffey. In the fully expanded family history currently being written, full details of all generations will be provided along with background information that will assist in putting the history into perspective, fully developed geneological charts, maps, and photographs of appropriate famiy "sites" (churches, residences, cemetary headstones, etc.). This history will be written in the style of a "historical novel" to make for more interesting reading than this rather brief listing of "the begats"! Your historians will advise you when the full history is available.