Johannah McIvor

Emanuel Cleal married Johanna McIvor in Inverell, NSW, Australia on 12 February 1866 at the Presbyterian Church. Johannah McIvor (or McIver), aged 12, arrived in Moreton Bay (Brisbane)on the "Sabrina" in 1855 with her parents Angus and Christiana McIvor (nee McLeod) and her siblings Kenneth (8) and Isabella (5). Another Kenneth and a Donald McIvor also travelled to Australia on this ship, and so were probably related to Johannah in some way. Angus and Christiana were married in 1840 in Lochbroom (near Ullapool), Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. I haven't been able to find a birth certificate for either Angus or Christiana in the Scottish records, or indeed a birth certificate for Johannah, but she must have been born about 1844. Once in Australia, it seems that Angus worked as a shepherd and farm labourer around the north western part of NSW and southern Qld, but I have been unable to discover much about him. I can't find death certificates for Angus and Christiana in NSW or Qld either, so they may have moved to another state or returned to Scotland.

Emanuel Cleal

The first of our Cleal ancestors to arrive in Australia was Emanuel. He sailed from Plymouth and arrived in Queensland in 1862 on the immigrant ship "Utopia". This ship was the first ship to sail directly from England to Queensland without stopping in any of the other Australian colonies. According to newspapers of the time, the immigrants on this ship were handpicked to work on properties in the Rockhampton area, and apparently there was great excitement in the town when the ship arrived. The "Utopia" arrived in Keppel Bay (Yeppoon) on 6 November 1862. The ship sailed from Plymoouth, travelled down the western coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean and then up the Australian coast to Queensland. The Fitzroy River, on which Rockhampton is situated, was too shallow for the "Utopia" to navigate, so passengers were transferred to another boat, the "Boomerang" to travel up the river. According to a story related by immigrants at a reunion in 1912, three of the passengers decided not to stay in Rockhampton, but travelled back to the "Utopia" and continued onto Brisbane. Was Emanuel one of these immigrants that continued onto Brisbane? We don't know, but it is possible, as the next time Emanuel's name is recorded in official documents is his marriage to Johannah McIvor in Inverell NSW in 1866.

Connecting Cleals

This blog has been created to connect the descendants of Emanuel Cleal and Johannah McIvor, who married in Inverell, NSW, Australia and had 11 children.  The children were: Emily, Kenneth, Christina, Flora (or Florence), Francis, Catherine, Emanuel, Frederick, Donald (and unamed twin), and Johannah.

Johannah (the mother) died in 1885, the day after she gave birth to the baby Johannah.  Emanuel died in Sydney in 1924.

Follow this blog to learn more about the ups and downs of this large and interesting family, and to connect with your Cleal kin.