Completed: How do I get an obituary from a London newspaper?

[forthefamily]

That would be too bad if you don't publish as he seems like the most interesting person from the little I know of him.

All I know of him is what can be found on line and in census records. I was able to find him in 1891 at the age of about 12 with his family and then he disappears. Where was he in 1901? I thought he may have been in the Boer war but as yet I haven't found any record of that.

We had never heard of him before but that's not surprising as the only person who may have been aware of him has been dead for a number of years.

Maybe you can confirm for me his parents names so that we can see if we are talking about the same person.

mab

[Stoer]

They were Charles and Emily.
I don't know where he was in 1901 either. He read Physics at Manchester University at the beginning of the century, but I think it was a bit later than that.
After that, he worked at Shide observatory in the Isle of Wight for two or three years before getting a job on the Daily Mail.

Stoer.

[forthefamily]

I'm not at home at the present so I don't have my records with me. I did find an H. O'Neill with I think it was the 5th Lancers but I discounted it as being him for some reason. Can't quite remember why 

Lilian O'Neill was my husband's Great Grandmother.

mab

[Stoer]

You were quite right- Dad was never in the Army.
Lilian was his sister. I have her down as having three children: Elsie, 1901, Arthur, 1904, John, 1907 and Edgar, 1910. Have I got it right?
I met Edgar in 1945  when he was on his way back from Arnhem.
You will have heard about that disaster at the end of the war: "a bridge too far". He was one of the few to escape; he broke his ankle in a glider crash on landing, and was evacuated. It must have been frustrating, but better to be frustrated in the UK than in a German prison camp, or killed (as so many of them were).
Dad was (temporarily) famous and it was natural for Edgar to visit his cousin. I was a schoolboy, and very much overawed!
He stayed in the Army after the war, commanding Territorial units in Glasgow and Liverpool. 

Stoer.

[forthefamily]

I knew about Elsie and Arthur for sure and I knew Lilian had two other sons but no one could agree on their names. Obviously the families didn't keep in touch.

mab

Added: Elsie 1901-1949    Arthur 1904-1986

[Stoer]

That's a shame. We lost contact with Edgar in the 1950s. I tried to trace him when I was working in Glasgow University ten years later but the commander of their army unit was too new to remember him. I know nothing at all of the rest of the family.

Edgar was quite a lad- he was an engineer before the war and enlisted in the army in 1939 as a major in the REME: he rose to become Lt.Col. and was appointed Assistant Director of Mechanical Engineering.

Our grandfather had an even more dramatic career.
Charles was born in Armagh in 1844, so before he was one year old the famine had begun. He survived that, and managed to go to sea as a ship's boy when he was 16. In ten years he had qualified as a Master mariner, and in 1882 he and Emily had a family of five children. 
Tragically, he set sail from New York as Master of the steamship Titania on the 24th January of that year and was never seen again.
It was thirty years before the radio so no one knows what happened: the Comissioner of Wrecks just listed icebergs, storm or collision. It is a great credit to Emily that she brought up her family on her own.

Stoer.

[forthefamily]

I have a copy of the hearing about the Titania and a copy of a newspaper clipping about the ship and what they thought possibly happened. I also have a copy of the register page where his death was officially recorded on May 19, 1882. Reading between the lines, it seems that he was filling in for another captain that stayed behind in New York to get some further accreditation.

I think Edgar may have used his second name and that's why no one could remember his name when I started doing the family tree.

mab

p.s. if you would like copies of the docs send me a personal message with your email address and I'll forward them to you. Just click on my user name and it will bring you to my profile.

[forthefamily]

Okay...I think I have solved for myself the mystery about the misinformation I had about Lilian's other sons....I have some sketchy notes that my father in law gave my husband years ago. He said the other two sons were Leslie and James. Of course I couldn't find any record of them.

I did a search on the Birth Indexes tonight and I found a John Leslie born 1907 Birkenhead and an Edgar James born 1910 Birkenhead. I think that could be them.

In my husband's family the men frequently used their second name. I have no idea why   

mab

p.s. My FIL was in the RAF ...he was a rear gunner who survived  OK  he did crash twice but he walked away kinda 

[forthefamily]

Stoer

If you are still around I found some records regarding the S.S. Titania under it's official number 81339 and Charles O'Neill.

All 1881

BT 99/1332/53
Ship: Titania; Official number: 81339.
Charles O'Neill; rank/rating, Master; age, 36; place of birth,Newry; previous ship, same.

BT 99/1332/54
Ship: Titania; Official number: 81339.
Charles O'Neill; rank/rating, Master; age, 37; place of birth, Newry; previous ship, same.

BT 99/1332/56
Ship: Titania; Official number: 81339.
Charles O'Neill; rank/rating, Master; age, 36; place of birth, Newry; previous ship, same.

Hope this helps you in your research

mab