1867 Australian sighting

In March 1867 at the Rockhampton assizes a prisoner named Frank Maguire, alias Francis Jessop pleaded not guilty to stealing a saddle from one John Brinston of Rockhampton. Now we know that at least one Brinston went to Queensland, Australia. Some years ago when we travelled to Australia my husband found a listing for Brinston in the Rockhampton telephone directory and had a conversation with the lady who answered the phone but they were not able to determine if they were related.

I am working my way through Brinston references in the old newspapers of Australia that have been digitized and made available on the National Library of Australia website Trove. As the newspapers have been scanned and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) applied, the results often require correction, which users are invited to do, one of several ways to participate in Trove. 

What else can we discover in Trove about John Brinston? From a newspaper story of August 1871 we learn of a death: “AT his residence, Ballarat Hotel, Rockhampton, John Brinston, aged 42 years, leaving a wife and large family to mourn their loss.” Two years earlier, in March 1869, Mr and Mrs Brinston, proprietors of the Ballarat Hotel in Alma Street, Rockhampton, had to deal with a heavy-drinking customer who committed suicide by consuming strychnine.

Trove is an impressive resource. Check it for other names of interest to you. Maybe you will find that person who disappeared from England or elsewhere.