4
« on: Monday 07 August 06 07:51 BST (UK) »
My Great-great-grandfather Robert SHARP is one of my mysteries.
He was baptised on 12 October 1823 at Lydden, Kent.
He migrated to New Zealand with his father, brother and sister, leaving England in December 1841, and settled near Nelson.
He married in January 1849 and subsequently fathered 9 children to his wife.
He purchased land.
He registered as a voter.
His father died in 1875.
He sold his land on 02 October 1878.
AND then he disappeared.
His wife re-married in 1887, and stated on her Notice of Intention to Marry (like a marriage license) that her husband had died on 21 June 1883.
His death notice was published in late June 1892, stating that he had died at Sydney in June 1892.
His death is not registered in New Zealand, nor Australia.
I have a Death Certificate for a Robert SHARP, aged 60, who died in the Workhouse at Plymouth, Devon on 07 November 1883.
One family story says that Robert had become disheartened with New Zealand and went back to England. Therefore the death certificate could be for him. I can find no other Robert Sharp who fits the profile of the one in the death certificate in the 1881 census.
Another family story says that he left Nelson by boat for Wellington, NZ, and never arrived. I.E. he went overboard, but nothing like that is reported.
So where's my Robert? Is he still alive somewhere, waiting for me to claim him at 180+??
Tangled
Show Posts