Which of your ancestors have disappeared?

[KathMc]

They don't appear to be listening to me.  I'll try. I ask my dad up there to kick them in the pants. My cousin has a theory that my William isn't up there.  Ha. See, I know there is a story behind him.

Kath

[Tephra]

Where ever they are, they've got a malicious streak in them I think.   The all need a good talking too.   


Barbara                   

[MarieC]

MarieC,

I think they do this on purpose. He's up there right now (wherever there is) having a good old hoot with my William. "Look at those ladies run around! They'll never find us."

Kath

Sigh!!    Thanks for looking anyway, Kath.  You are absolutely right about the above, and when I get there (wherever there is), there is going to be HUGE trouble for Edward!  He'll be sorry he did this!!!!

Since my last post, I looked for US immigration records - but they seem to be the same as passenger lists - and for death records, but they only seem to be online from about 1905, except for Ancestry, but as you didn't find him on there, Kath, I think this is a lost cause too.  That may well be my Edward, but I don't know how I will ever prove it!!

MarieC

[Subaru]

I have another one who just appeared. Thomas Ford/e who married my grandmother Ethel Main (so they say - but there's no record of their marriage!) in 1919.  I have been searching for 15 years for something about him. 

All I have is his death certificate, filled in by my uncle.  He was supposedly born in Roscommon, Ireland in 1873/5 and came over here on his own when he was young.  He told them that he joined the army, the Coldstream Guards (again no record of him there) and that he met my grandmother while they were in service after the war.

I have checked the 1891 and 1901 census for him, nobody that matches his birthplace, year etc and where he would have been.

On my uncle's birth certificate in Glasgow (where they briefly lived) they said on the bottom that they married in London in 1919, no record.

She was 20 years younger than him, so I presume he had another life before her, maybe another family, and maybe changed his name. 

This brick wall has kept me going for such a long time - I'm now banging my head on it!!!

Rosemary

[MarieC]

Ouch, Rosemary!!

That is a tough one.  Sounds as though he could have told a few porkies and perhaps changed his name, which will make him extraordinarily difficult to find!!  I wonder if he really did marry your grandmother, or not?

Did they have any other children, apart from your uncle, who you could try to trace?

Another one who'll be sitting up there laughing at us!

MarieC

[Subaru]

Hi Marie

There was only my uncle and my mam, and I have both their birth certificates.  My mam was born in Newcastle, where they settled.

He must have been in the army, because my mam remembers a nurse trying to contact him about his army medals.  The letter had been on the go for years before finally finding him, and she was with him when he rang her about them.  He was injured in the war, lost a finger and toe on one side of his body.  He had shrapnel in his head, and had awful headaches.  But I've tried every regiment, that he might have been in.  It's a long story, but I still think he changed his name at some time - for what reason I don't know.

I checked all the marriages at that time for Ethel Main (who I had no problems finding on the censuses).  I really don't think they married - possibly because he was strict catholic, and she was strict protestant/methodist.

One of these days, I'm hopeful something will turn up.  The medals are no longer around, either stolen years ago, or pawned.  He is the main reason I started looking into my family history - thinking I would have no problems.  I've found hundreds of family members in both mine and my husband's tree - but the elusive Thomas Ford/e remains unfound!!!

Rosemary

[MarieC]

Well, we all need a challenge, I suppose, Rosemary!!  And all of us on this thread certainly have them!!! 

MarieC

[DavidJP]

Hi all

What a fascinating thread! I have a few elusive ancestors too!!

Namely:-

Newton Harrison (my 4x gt grandfather) born 1770/71, where i don't know! i have his marriage and death records both in Worcestershire. (He married Catherine Hudson in Throckmorton on 20th March 1794 and was buried on 28th April 1820 in Bricklehampton aged 49.) Been trying to find his birth for about 10 years now!! arghhhhh!

My 3x gt grandfather Francis/Francois Xavier Bauer born 1811/12 in Germany. Where in Germany? Your guess is as good as mine!!!  I have him on the 1851 to 1881 censuses as he died later in 1881 and his nauralization papers. He arrived in this country possibly via France in 1840. I don't have him on the 41 census. For place of birth on censuses or the naturalization papers he just states Germany or Subject of the German Empire!  Helpfull Not!!

And lastly my Hill family from Scotland, who seem to disappear, reappear and then disappear again never to be heard from again!

James Hill (poss born in 1781) married Elizabeth Aitcheson (baptised as Betty in 1773) on 8th April 1803 in Dunbar. They Then disappear for a period of 16 years before reappearing in 1819 in Yetholm, Roxburghshire when their son Ninian Hill was born 18th July 1819 and my 3x gt grandfather George Hill was born 14th December 1821, then vanishing never to be heard from again.

Ninian married Mary fox in 1845 in Greenla, Roxburghshire and appears on  the 1851 census in Morebattle in the same county, 3 daughters are born to Ninian and Mary between 1848 and 1852, whereupon the whole family disappears without trace!!

George Hill (my 3x Gt grandfather, as mentioned above) i have him right through his life, there are some censuses that he isn't on, buthis being a Master Mariner explains that anomaly, now i have George and his wife Isabella living seperately on the 1901 census, (George in a nursing home in Whitley Bay,Northumberland), Isabella dies in 1906 and on her death cert she is shown as a widow, you would be forgiven for thinking that therefore george died between 1901 and 1906, but if he did, there isn't any record of it!! There is a George Hill shown in the death registers for the Morpeth area but that isn't my George Hill, i have looked in the death registers i think about 10 years either side with no luck whatsoever! I can't find him on the 1891 census either!! Arghhhhhhh!!


Is it any wonder that my hair has got distinctly thinner since i started researching my family history nearly 17 years ago!! (No it isn't since i'm always pulling it out in frustration! lol!)

Regards

David

[MrsLizzy]

Loads of mine have done a bunk!  My great-grandmother for one: born Eliza Mona Thompson in 1897 in St Saviour Southwark, rashly married Henry Thomas Phillips - NOT the sort of bloke any parent would want their daughter to end up with - had two sons by him before he died, cornering the market in all kinds of 'orrible diseases involving lesions on his feet, aged 42.  Last seen in 1953 after her younger son's death, visiting her grandson (my Dad) with a gift.  Never heard from again by my Dad (whose mum and other grandma didn't like his dad's family and didn't want them visiting). 

Can you imagine the nightmare of trying to find exactly the right Eliza Phillips, with no clue where or when she died?  I too have started searching for marriages but am faced with the same problem: she could have remarried anywhere, any time. 

And my great great grandfather's adoptive grandmother had a mysterious Disappearing Husband.  She had three children, Josiah Green, Walter James Green and Martha Ann Green, by James Green a merchant.  They lived in Lee, Kent in the 1840s.  I can't find a record of Martha and Walter's birth (they were twins) in 1840, and the census returns for 1841 and 1851 show Ann as married, not widowed.   Another tantalising mystery, since Ann and James would probably have married before 1837, is that in the 1851 census, Ann has a 21 year old NIECE, Rachael Stanton, staying with her!  So a possible clue to her maiden name, only Rachael is turning out to be as much of a mystery as her aunt's husband.  Can't track the girl forwards or backwards, although I've found a couple of possible marriages in 1855 and 1867, to either John Eagleston or Louis Schmidt, or Christian Rieman.  I've tried searching for these men in subsequent censuses but no luck again!

I'm starting to feel persecuted!