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Well Paul you've done well there. I used to be in touch with a relative called Ken Irving in West Sussex who was disappointed when I found our Irvings in Bledlow. He had a feeling they came from Scotland. Sadly died now a few years ago. A very nice gentleman. So you have these wonderful old records. I would like to see them. There was a time I thought my Irvings came from somewhere around (fogotten what the town was now think it was Winn/Wing or something in Bucks) and they got their Surname from that village. Like of Wing? But you might have the answer in that they came from Scotland Regards John Dedman

Hi Dawnsh Gastonite thankyou for replies to my posts. Sadly I have just found out from a Mrs Heather MacAlister that my mysterious missing great uncle Caleb Edwin Jesse Irving who I have only had the birth cert for for the last 17 years  (b Greenwich Kent England) 1871. After coming back to Greenwich in 1908 he went back to the Cape Town and ended up in asylum somewhere down as a Lunatic. he was 37. Sad story but perhaps he knew he was very ill and wanted to see his mum again in Greenwich. Either that or when he got back home the Greenwich Union Workhouse (know for being rather stingy to say the least ) sent him packing again back to Cape Town. Looks like he might have died in the asylum in 1912 but i will have to check it out from what Mrs MacAlister has given me. I cannot believe I have found out so much about my great uncle in just two days of finding him mentioned on a ship's passenger list.

I bought that death cert 15 years ago from Greenwich Register Office He was my great uncle Caleb Irving who died in jan 1903. It is his son Caleb Edwin Jesse Irving born 1871 who emigrated to South Africa in 1889 I have been looking for. I have found him on a ship passenger list docking at the Port Of London in 1908. But it seems a sad story cos Mrs Heather MacAlister has just sent me an email telling me he was i9n an institution down as a Lunatic from 1909 untill 1912. Never mind I suppose he came back home to Greenwich and either to see his mum cos he knew he was ill and wanted to say farewell mother. Or the Greenwich Union Workhouse sent him packing again back to the Cape. It is a bit of a mystery. God bless the poor man. But at least now I know what happened to him.

I have been researching my family tree for 20 years along with many of my relations and knew all about the Irving family going back to Bledlow Bucks 1736, But we could not find  Caleb Edwin Jesse Irving born 1871 my great uncle whereabouts after he appears on 1881 Greenwich census aged 10. I only had his birth cert until I found a Mr C E J Irving on ancestry.com a few days ago as a passenger on a ship docking in London from Cape Town. He is 37 then and is an engine driver. Thank you for taking interest I hope to get something from the N A S A

I have traced my long lost great uncle caleb edwin jesse irving to Cape Town. He was an engine driver there. He returns to his hometown Greenwich England in 1908. He went to South Africa in 1889. So that is why he was not on 1891 census /1901 census for england. But he must have got back on the boat in 1908-10 cos he is not on the 1911 england census. I wonder if there is a record of him getting married in South Africa and baptising his children he was C of E. Born 1871. And a death reg has never been found for him in England.