Shep's Place Family Tree

Samuel was keen ‎(desperate?)‎ to leave Scotland for a new life. He first sailed to Canada to check its suitability. He liked Canada; however, the first immigrant boat to arrive wherever he was ‎[possibly Edinburgh]‎, was off to Australia. He, his wife, and his wife's parents took it. They sailed on the "Sultana" and arrived in Port Adelaide in July 1850. Before long they had arrived in the Scots' settlement of Nairne.

According to family oral history, Samuel had taken a horse and dray to Port Adelaide to collect supplies for his store in Nairne. On the way home it rained. Once he reached home, Samuel groomed the horse first before he went inside. By that time he was drenched and chilled. It was thought that he caught pneumonia and died. That may have happened, but he also had tuberculosis, which would have made him very susceptible to pneumonia. His death certificate said, phthisis, which is TB of the lungs. He was forty-one years old and left a wife and four children.