RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: david.lyon on Thursday 07 May 20 17:41 BST (UK)
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I am looking for a William Evans b 5th june 1886 in Dragon Villa, Durham, Married a Elizabeth Annie Hodgson B1891 in Sept 1910. emigrated to Australia October 1928 on the "Orford" but things didnt work out and he split from his wife buy 1930, his wife came back to the Uk to divorce him in 1948. but I cannot find him coming back on any shipping list, there is a death of a William Evans at Backworth Maud colliery in 1946, he died after a rockfall in 1945, but is this him?
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I'm dubious about that. This is the death record for a William B Evans in 1946
Deaths Dec 1946
Evans William B 53 Durham N. 1a 399
This one would have been born in 1893 so somewhat younger than your William. Unless the person recording the death didn't know his exact age and made a guess.
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What is your last definite piece of information about William in the sense of when and where he was?
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My last piece of information came from his wife's nephew, and that is where the separation date of 1930 comes from. they had settled in Wollongong NSW and his wife remained there till her death, her family (Sister) always thought he came back to England, but as I cannot find him on any passenger lists I have doubts,
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Can't always believe family stories. I'm not well up on what you can look up in the way of Australian records.
I would have considered it more likely that he would have stayed in Australia. Would there have been any point in William returning to the UK?
Unfortunately his name is a very common one. Any possibility of checking electoral rolls for the Wollongong area? There is something called the Ryerson Index which is a list of people who have died taken, I think, from newspaper columns.
https://www.ryersonindex.org/
However you would have to have some idea of when he could have died. No guarantee that he would appear on this list.
Don't know if any divorce records are available. You say his wife came back to the UK to divorce him. Have you found any record of her travelling back to the UK? You state she came back in 1948 which could imply that he was still alive then. No point in divorcing a dead man. If she died in Australia she must have gone back there after visiting the UK.
Tricky one ::)
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Well I have found a record of a Mrs. E. A. Evans travelling to Australia, Sydney on 20th January 1949. Her age is given as 58, so birth year of 1891. Address at time of leaving was 11 Down Terrace, Trindon Grange, Co. Durham.
Ship was called RMS Orion.
This sounds like it could be William's wife Elizabeth.
The record is on Find My Past.
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Thanks Girl guide, That is Williams ex wife, they got divorced about that time. I have found william coming to the UK on the Moreton Bay arriving in the UK 7th May 1935 destination 10 Hackworth Street, ferryhill, and the found him on Hurford Terrace on the 1939 register, could do with a death date, the Newcastle one is not him, altho the same age that one id on the 1939 register near to where he died.
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I looked at Hurford Terrace on the 1939 and of the three that appeared, none of them contained William. This is on Find My Past.
Where did you find yours?
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I found him on Find my past, a lodger with a "David Griffiths".
He has lied about his age again, his dob is 05/07/1886 but he has moved it to 1889. he is younger when asking for work.
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Hmmm, I have just seen the entry you have for William on the Backworth Maud website. I see that you have his date of death as 26th January 1946.
In theory his death should be registered in the March quarter of 1946. I can see only three plain William's registered with an age of 58, these being in Edmonton, Swansea and Tynemouth.
Tynemouth is about 30 minutes by car to Durham.
Was there anything in the newspapers about the rock fall at all?
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Thanks Girl Guide, as I said before I discounted the Backworth Maud death because there was a William Evans living in the area in 1939, altho he is about the right age there is evidence its not the correct one.