Re Peter Charles McBow

On significant documents throughout his life in Australia, Peter Charles McBow claims to have come from a few different places in Ireland including Belfast and Blackwater. His convict records state that he was tried in Longford Town, Co. Longford which may give some clue to his actual birthplace. The alias and the different birthplaces could be his way of thumbing his nose at authority which was quite a common occurrence, apparently. After doing a bit of research and reading, I also considered that he may have been an Irish Traveller or gypsy. Little or no record of his parents exists. Longford has a long history of ‘hosting’ travellers and numbers there were and are significant. But this is just a fancy of mine.

Another interesting thing to note about the surname MacNaboe (which is more than likely his real name) is that it comes from the original Irish name MacAnabadha. This word was often translated to the name “Victory” as the “badha” was confused with” buidha” which means victory. Thus, if you look up MacNaboe on the IFHA site for example, the name “Victory” will appear along with MacNaboe and its variants. I was fortunate to receive some help from an Irish genealogist who gave me this info and after looking at everything we had, came to the conclusion that MacNaboe is 'most likely' his real name.