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Research in Other Countries => Australia => Topic started by: cardiff on Sunday 22 November 20 11:07 GMT (UK)
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Hi all,
Cardiff Wales calling...
On a grave in Whitchurch Cardiff Wales-This was from a memorial card we found in St. Mary’s Gardens which read “William Lewis 1853-1882 - 130 years since your tragic death in Melbourne, Australia.
Your family have not forgotten you or your wife Hester and daughter Flossy. March 2nd 2012
On the grave it gives William Lewis died 2nd March 1882 aged 29yrs.
The names are on the grave but we must assume his body was never brought back Wales ... on the grave is also his wife and child ... Hester died 20th June 1879 aged 19 years and daughter Flossie died 17th April 1882 aged 4yrs .
So can anyone fill in what happened in Melbourne in 1882?
( St Mary's garden's is the old parish Church and is care for by a charity "Friends of St Mary's Garden's)
cheers cardiff
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He died as a result of TB ( phthisis as stated in the newspaper ) :
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11533737?searchTerm=%22william%20lewis%22
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Christine53 ,
fantastic thank you ;) ... any idea on his wife and child?
cheers cardiff
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There's another reference here to his having been a passenger on the SS John Elder this October past ( ie Oct 1881 ) :
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11533839?searchTerm=%22william%20lewis%22
I don't think the wife and child were in Australia. There's an entry in the NBI for Hester and this death
Hester Lewis b 1859 d 1879 2Q Cardiff 11a 195 , but this needs a bit more research , I think.
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Thank you Christine 53
Much appreciated... ;)
cheers cardiff
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Daughter's full name...
Catherine Eliza Florence Lewis . Cardiff 1878 mmn Lewis.
Died Cardiff 1882.
William Lewis married Hester Lewis in 1877.
Tazzie
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In 1881 a C E Florence Lewis is living with grandparents John and Eliza Lewis in Whitchurch Glam.
RG11. 5275/169 page 33.
Tazzie
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It looks like the sad news took almost 2 months to reach the UK.
Cardiff Times 29 April 1882. Deaths column.
LEWIS, March 2nd, at Melbourne, Victoria, William Lewis of 44 James Street, Cardiff, aged 28 years. Deeply regretted.
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He died as a result of TB ( phthisis as stated in the newspaper ) :
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11533737?searchTerm=%22william%20lewis%22
2565/1882 LEWIS William parents unknown MELB S 29
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/204240015/william-lewis
Jamjar
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Thank you all for helping me out with this information , I have found the family in Whitchurch Cardiff he belongs to an information of both births and deaths ... census
How interesting when it all started from a card found within the gardens ...I will be giving this information to our reminiscence group on Wednesday and will certainly mention you all
Thank you all once again.
cheers cardiff
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Ancestry Probate Calendar
........William LEWIS....died....Melbourne....... of Pensford Villa Llandaff Station near Cardiff accountant and William Stephens Lewis of 44 James St grocer.........
798 pounds
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Another death notice, inserted 9 days after his death in the newspaper The Australasian (Melbourne), tells of his arrival:
LEWIS.–On the 2nd inst., at 176 Russell-street, near Lonsdale-street, Melbourne, of phthisis, William Lewis, aged 29 years, late of Cardiff, passenger by the s.s John Elder in October last. Gone to rest.
Cardiff papers please copy.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/138076534
I see him on the New South Wales, Australia, Unassisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, Steam Ship John Elder from London to Sydney, arr 14 October 1881. He travelled steerage. No other information on that list.
There is a transcript of a headstone; this record hasn't copied the verse. (See the attachment, which I hope works!)
Name: William Lewis
Death Date: 2 Mar 1882
Burial Place: Victoria, Australia
Cemetery: Melbourne, Section: H No 5, Religion: Methodist
Transcription: In Affectionate Memory of William LEWIS of Cardiff Wales died at Melbourne 2 Mar 1882 age 29 yrs verse.
There is a public tree on Ancestry (owned by a Cardiff person) with photos of William, Hester and Catherine. There is also a photo of his grave-site, as well as the attached headstone. Can PM if you want. Sadly it seems Catherine, the daughter also died in 1882, of scarlet fever.
Judith
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Just remarking on co-incidence -
I see from William LEWIS' probate record his Cardiff address is given as 44 James St, Cardiff and his occupation as 'grocer'. My husband's great-grandfather William BALLARD was also a grocer in Cardiff living at 38 Maria St, in 1881 - a little over half a mile from the address given for William LEWIS.
I've no idea where the shop was.
William Ballard died in 1888 - perhaps he's also buried at Whitchurch.
Judith