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Research in Other Countries => South Africa => Topic started by: b1gf00t on Saturday 10 May 25 09:00 BST (UK)
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Richmond was born near Queenstown, South Island of New Zealand about 1883.
I am unsure as to when he emigrated from New Zealand or when he arrived in South Africa.
He had a difficult time as a pre-teen as he was admitted to an industrial school around age 11 years and appears to have spent at least two years in one of those. This was probably about the time his father disappeared
It appears that he made his way to England but ended up in South Africa, where he served in the South African Constabulary.
He married. His wife had the first name of Alice.
They appear to have had two children together.
The first child appears to be unnamed, which suggests a stillbirth. The birth date is given as 1903.
The second child was born in 1904 and was named Arthur Frederickson.
Richmond died at East London, South Africa, from enteric fever on or about 25 May 1905 or 1906.
Did Alice marry again? Was she from England and returned there? What of Arthur? Are there any police records that could confirm this information?
I would be extremely grateful for any information.
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Died 25.5.1906 per a tree on Ancestry but no info re a marriage. Where did you get the info re wife's name etc?
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There's some info on NZ papers past.
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I don't see anything in the South African archives databases for Richmond, Alice, or Arthur Frederickson.
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I checked NAARS and drew a blank all round. FamilySearch is a go to point for SA records - but again drew a blank. FindMyPast has a NZ birth (transcript minimal info from NZ Index)) which includes parents given names (Niel/Emily).
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Thank you, one and all.
This was a last hope for me. At least I have confirmed the date of death as 25th May 1905.
Also confirmed was time served in the industrial school.
I was working off some information posted by someone else which appears to have no solid base.
I am so grateful.
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At least I have confirmed the date of death as 25th May 1905
Where did that confirmation come from?
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The death date confirmation came from a death notice published in The Timaru Herald of Saturday, 12 August 1905.
The notice read as follows:
Frederickson. On May 25th 1905, of enteric fever at East London, South Africa, Louis Richmond, the beloved son of Emily Frederickson, aged 23 years. (late of the South African Constabulary).
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No mention of a wife in the obit
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Name Richmond Louis Frederickson
Birth Date 1883
Birth Place Wakatipu, Queenstown.....New Zealand, Otago, Nouvelle-Zélande (New Zealand)
Death Date 25 mai 1906 (25 May 1906)
Death Place South Africa, Afrique du Sud (South Africa)
Father Neil Christian Martinaz Franz Frederickson
Mother Emily Godfrey
Child Arthur Frederickson
View on Geneanet
https://gw.geneanet.org/craigd?n=frederickson&oc=&p=richmond+louis
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FindMyPast Crew Lists
R. Frederickson, age 17, born Q'town NZ, role - trimmer, ship - Ruapehu, from 5 Dec 1901 to 17 Apr 1902, first ship, Port of engagement address - blank, home address - ? st, Timaru, date agreement signed - 28/02/02, Place ?
The Ruapehu left London 5 Dec 1901 and voyage to end 17 April 1902.
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Lyttleton Times, 21 Apr 1902
SHIPPING. LONDON APRIL 18TH
Arrived - .....; Ruapehu, from Bluff
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Barney 1993-2004
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Re: Richmond Louis Frederickson (1883 - 1906)
« Reply #9 on: Today at 00:49 »
Quote
Name Richmond Louis Frederickson
Birth Date 1883
Birth Place Wakatipu, Queenstown.....New Zealand, Otago, Nouvelle-Zélande (New Zealand)
Death Date 25 mai 1906 (25 May 1906)
Death Place South Africa, Afrique du Sud (South Africa)
Father Neil Christian Martinaz Franz Frederickson
Mother Emily Godfrey
Child Arthur Frederickson
View on Geneanet
https://gw.geneanet.org/craigd?n=frederickson&oc=&p=richmond+louis
I have seen this information. It was prepared by Craig Dahren. He is a blood relation but his report of Richmond's birth date is a year out. If he was born in 1906 the report of his death as recorded by the Timaru newspaper published 12 August 1905 is contradictory.
I have spent some time on the matter today. One thing that bothers me is Alice. Maybe he wasn't married at all. Maybe that is the town in Eastern Province where he was living at the time? If he wasn't married and had no family support, where would he be buried? There would not have been money for a headstone. Unless he had friends with money, he would have been buried in an unmarked grave, surely.
Is there any listing of appointments with the South African Constabulary?
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If you google South Africa Constabulary service records (or similar) several sites returned.
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Linking to the death announcements:
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ME19050808.2.6
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19050812.2.8
The first one doesn't mention the South African Constabulary.
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FindMyPast Crew Lists
R. Frederickson, age 17, born Q'town NZ, role - trimmer, ship - Ruapehu, from 5 Dec 1901 to 17 Apr 1902, first ship, Port of engagement address - blank, home address - ? st, Timaru, date agreement signed - 28/02/02, Place ?
The Ruapehu left London 5 Dec 1901 and voyage to end 17 April 1902.
The record is noted "Failed to join"
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I took that to be the next trip!
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Thank you for your help with this matter. He refuses to be found, and whatever secrets he has have died with him. I do not think I can go any further. Even the newspaper reports contradict the information I already had. I have to believe that he died on 24th May 1905, as the New Zealand papers reported and not 25th May 1905 or 1906, as Craig Dahren posted on the document found on the Internet. I have thrown that away as it is not at all helpful. Once again, thank you for your time.
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Not sure if you have seen this?
FREDERICKSON, Richard Martinuz
Born 5 April 1886; died 16 November 1918; buried 18 November 1918; age 32
Richard FREDERICKSON was born in Arrowtown, where his father Neil, a migrant from Sweden, was working as a labourer. Richard, with two brothers and a sister, was the youngest of four children. He was part of his mother’s second family. In 1868 Emily GODFREY had married James CROAD in Otago when she was 19. Emily and James had two daughters and three sons between 1869 and 1878 but she was left a widow in November the following year when her husband James died aged 45. She married Neil Frederickson in March 1880 in Invercargill but the couple then moved between Southland and central Otago until after Richard’s birth.
Shortly after Richard’s birth, his father Neil disappeared from the scene and from the public record. The Police Gazette of 20 May 1891 included a notice seeking information on his whereabouts for service of a summons for deserting his wife and family (9 children!) in Gore. He was said to be talking of travelling to New South Wales. Subsequently Richard’s mother Emily settled in Timaru and remained there for the rest of her life.
In 1910, Richard moved to Wellington and in 1911 was recorded on the electoral roll for Wellington Central. He was living in Cuba Street and working as a labourer. He was then 25. In the following year, he married 21-year old Gladys Martha JAMES. Gladys’s father, William Ivor James, had been a carter at the time of her birth but he died when she was five, and her mother did not re-marry until several years later.
Richard and Gladys began living in 57 Nairn St, Te Aro, where they had some children. The number is uncertain. A newspaper report at the time of Richard’s death said that he left four children, ‘the eldest of whom [was] six years of age’ (Otago Daily Times, 27 November 1918); Richard’s death certificate records that he had a female child of four and two boys, of five and two; and BDM records for births show just two, Doris Emily, born in 1913 and Louis Richmond, born in 1914. These two children had names drawn from Richard’s family: Doris’s second name was a nod to Richard’s mother Emily, while his son would have recalled one of his brothers, Richmond Louis who died in 1905 while serving with the South African constabulary.
In October 1915 Richard enlisted to serve with the army, although there is no evidence that he was called up and he continued working as a labourer for the Wellington Harbour Board. At the time he took ill, he had been assigned to work in the tolls office on Queen’s wharf. He contracted influenza and was taken to the Sydney Street Temporary Hospital where he died on 16 November, five and six days respectively before Nightcaps victims Marie Croad and her husband Ernest Croad who was Richard’s half-brother.
One year on, a public notice in the Timaru Herald, inserted by Richard’s mother to remember all three members of her family, said:
Days of sadness still come o’er me’
Hidden secret tears still flow,
For memory keeps the loved ones near me,
Though they died one year ago.
Richard, who was 32 when he died, was buried in the Anglican section of Karori Cemetery on 18 November.
When he died, Richard was intestate. His widow Gladys remained living in Nairn Street with their two small children for some months after his death, but she moved to Christchurch in 1919 in time to be enrolled as a voter on the supplementary roll for the Avon electorate. In 1922 she married again, her new husband being Andrew Jacobson DOWSE and by 1928 she was back in Wellington under her new married name living at 98 Austin Street, on the slopes of Mt Victoria. In 1938 she and Andrew, a picture framer, were living in Elizabeth Street, Mt Victoria. Gladys died in 1942 and was buried in the Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery. When Andrew died in 1959 he was buried in the Soldiers section.
Researched and written by Beverley Hamlin and Max Kerr
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There is no mention of Louis Frederickson on the Anglo Boer war website which contains names of all members in the units. These are the only Frederickson names I could find https://www.angloboerwar.com/name-search
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Thank you, pampoen.
Most of what you posted is not new to me, although some of the details are, and I have already saved that so that my wife can read it. This is her family I am researching for her. Richard's situation is a little more complicated than what is recorded in that well-written piece.
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I really thought I had explored every possibility, but I have discovered that he wrote a letter from South Africa to his brother Arthur. While the date of the letter is incorrect, given that it is dated after his death. What is interesting is that it was sent from 32 Hartle Place, Beaconfield, Griqualand West, South Africa. I don't know anything about South African geography but that doesn't sound like East London to me.
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Ok 32 Hartle place does not exist but Beaconfield is located in Kimberley Northern Cape Province. Kimberley was one of the main diamond mines in those days. Perhaps thats why he lived there.