My g-grandfather, Antoni Rich, came to Australia in 1878 as a crew member on a ship which sailed from New York to Australia. He was 25, which means he was born about 1853, and signed on the ship as Antoni Rich. I don't think his surname would have originally been Rich - perhaps something like Reich or ....reich - and I presume the change must have been made at some time between Dalmatia and New York.

Antoni Rich became a Naturalised Australian in 1884, giving his nationality as Austrian, and said he was a native of Dalmatia. I have looked up the history of Dalmatia so know of the Austrian connection.

He gives his parents as John and Eva - again I presume these names have been anglisized.

The only other clue I have is that he named two daughters Virginia Veronica. The first Virginia Veronica (the third child of his first wife, the first two being named John and Eva) died very young, and the second was the first child born to his second wife. So these names must have had some signifance to him. Sisters? Church where he was baptised? A previous wife? Grandmother/s?

Any advice on how to locate records of this man and/or his Dalmation family would be greatly appreciated.

Barbara