RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Topic started by: mosher on Thursday 24 March 11 09:32 GMT (UK)
-
How would one have gone about declaring their spouse as dead back in 1910-1920 in the UK (Lancashire)? I have an ancestor that went to Australia by ship around 1910/11 (although I cannot find the journey yet), was supposed to send for his wife (who had been pregnant when he left) later, but disappeared. The story of him disappearing is from the wife's daughter by her second marriage in 1929, when she was listed as a widow.
The wife apparently exhausted all avenues of looking for him so was able to re-marry.
Would any of this be searchable now?
The man who disappeared was William Thomas Price, coal miner, born 1887 in Pemberton Lancashire. He went by the name of Tom. His wife was Kate (nee Foster), they were married 1906 in Wigan.
-
Hi
This is what happens now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_in_absentia
Legal paperwork in this country pre the Second World War would definitely be neccessary if there was an estate to settle.
Searching using all avenues may have meant putting notices in Australian newspapers and contacting the local police (in Australia). Checking with the shipping company he did board the ship and arrived in Australia.
Regards
Valda
-
Hi there,
Here's a good link to digitised newspapers in Australia... As you will notice, all the major capital cities newspapers are there. Ships that came via Suez or Cape of Good Hope usually made their first port in Australia at Fremantle or Albany. MOST ships also came to Melbourne and/or Sydney as they were the biggest cities. Ships that came via USA and Panama usually came first to Brisbane and then down the East Coast. Often they went to ports in New Zealand too.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home
This website is free to search, and is very easy to use.
Re Police ... Each State had (and still has) their own police forces. There are Police Gazettes imaged at various commercial online family history sites.
Perhaps you should start a thread on RChat's Australian Board. If you do, please give info about your chaps PARENTS names, as this can be helpful in searching BDM indexes (each state has its own way of indexing these). There's NO Census records. There are crew lists though as well as passenger lists. Here's the HOW TO thread from our Aussie Board...
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,368728.0.html
Good Luck, Cheers, JM
-
Thanks Valda & JM.
I don't have a FindMyPast subs, but have used pay per view for passenger lists for any W Price, WT Price, T Price or full names that looked likely, but so far none seemed to be him.
His ship would have come via Fremantle as that is where his family had settled, but I think he was to go on to Sydney (from what my father remembers being told, altho all this happened way before he was born).
I have searched the Trove newspaper archives for days, but can't find any mention of him. I have looked for all versions of his name also, but William & Thomas Price were very common names.
I have even tried deaths at sea in case he never made it here, but again nothing conclusive.
I have looked for a death here in Australia for him (I am in Oz myself), but nothing under his own name with his parents (Emma & William). Of course if he wanted to disappear he probably wasn't using his own name.
Hence I wondered if any records were kept for missing people declared dead. He is a mystery... ???
-
Some free to search indexes for Australia
mariners and ships in Australian Waters http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au/ (ongoing project, check it regularly for updates, volunteers doing the transcribing)
Guide to Passenger lists Victoria http://www.access.prov.vic.gov.au/public/PROVguides/PROVguide050/PROVguide050.jsp
UNassisted arrivals to Victoria1852-1923 (unassisted = paid their own fares, no government assistance etc) http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/indexes/index_search.asp?searchid=23
There's plenty of other resources listed on the the threads within the Australian Resources thread here at RChat
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?board=165.0
Cheers, JM
-
Thanks JM. :)
I have searched extensively for him by ship but can't find him there. I thought I may get some clues if I knew where to look for declaring him dead.
-
Hi there,
Some thoughts
Have you tried looking for PRYCE ... or for Tom RICE or Thomas P RICE .... or for Bill PRICE/PRYCE/RICE etc
Also it wouldn't be too hard to go from a coal miner to a coal lumper as a crewman on steam ships ....
Cheers, JM
-
The man who disappeared was William Thomas Price, coal miner, born 1887 in Pemberton Lancashire. He went by the name of Tom.
Mosher
Tom Price, miner - was he anything to do with Tom Price Mine in W.A.???
Dawn M
-
Do you know Williams parents names?
-
LOL Dawn, I always think of Tom Price WA (esp as I am in WA) when I write his name, but alas it is not him. :D The town was named after Thomas Moore Price apparently according to google.
His parents were William Price (deceased) & Emma (nee Worthington).
JM, yes I have tried under other names, but the problem is, how to do I know which could be him? There are many Tom, Bill, William, Thomas Price/Pryce etc, but how to know which is him? I thought maybe the "declaring him dead" thing may have clues. It may at least give the name of the ship he was last known on, then I could go from there. They weren't a particularly "marine" type family, in fact for generations they had been coal miners, so i would be surprised if he left all that behind. But then again, I am surprised he disappeared too! :-\
Mosher
-
Maybe you could send an email to the National Maritime Museum and ask them for help.
They might be able to find the ship he was on.
-
Hi
The National Maritime guide 'Tracing family history from maritime records'
'The National Maritime Museum does not hold passenger lists.'
'The Board of Trade Passenger Lists, Outward, 1890–1960
These record the names of passengers on all ships leaving the United Kingdom for places outside Europe but not within the Mediterranean Sea. The Board of Trade Passenger Lists, Outwards, have been digitised and are available at Find my Past.
Numerous arrival and departure records survive for ports in other countries especially the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The national, state and provincial archives of the sites are a good starting point in locating these records.'
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/library/research-guides/general-introduction/research-guide-a3-tracing-family-history-from-maritime-records
Regards
Valda