Frank Albon- Frank Allen 1889-1964 British Home Children

[DowneyD]

I am hoping someone out there will be able to help me locate the descendants of Frank Baldwin Albon. D.O.B. 04/02/1889. 
Known after 1911 as Frank Allen. 
Frank was admitted to a Dr Barnardo's home in March 1893 after the death of his mother (Margret Albon) and the tragic suicide of his father (Amos Albon). He left Liverpool and arrived in Canada in 1900. Frank was indentured to the Lund family according to 1901 Census. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in Winnipeg on the 24th Feb. 1916 becoming a member of the 100th Winnipeg Grenadiers.
Thank you in advance
DowneyD

[jorose]

You have a death date for him it seems - where did he die? An obituary for him if you can locate one will be the best way of finding any living relatives.

[DowneyD]

I do not know where abouts in Canada Frank died. The date was given by another relative now deceased. Thank you for the advice but not sure how to get obituary when I have no location.
DowneyD

[jorose]

Okay, so that makes it much harder. One thing you could do with the information you have now is order his complete service file for WWI:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/cef/001042-130-e.html
This is likely to have more information about where he was after the war. As he was working on the railway before signing up he could have moved around quite easily, either around Canada or into the US.

There doesn't seem to be any marriage for him in Manitoba but he could well have not married until later in life. Because of the common name it's a bit hard (and if he did die in 1964 most of the provinces don't have indexes online that later).

There is a 1932 directory of Winnipeg online; by that point the only Frank Allen there is a different person (he's a professor at the univeristy, and this man was b. 1874).  So the best I can say is that he may not have stayed in Winnipeg after the war:
http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/921.html

Perhaps also chase up the Lunds. If they all went to get land in Alberta or something then  he may have gone along with them, and it might be easier to trace them.

[DowneyD]

Thank you so much for your advice, I will follow up those suggestions.  The only other thing I have is that one or more of his children lived in London Ontario, and one son died there in the late 80's or early 90's. I do not even have names for Frank's children.
thanks
DowneyD

[jorose]

Well, that does help a lot because it gives you a location and tells us that you know he had a son at least.
You could consider putting what you know about his life pre-WWI in a London newspaper to see if any children/grandchildren of his might still be in the area and interested in contact:
http://www.lfpress.com/

[andarah]

I found his military records on ancestry.  Do you have access?  Let me know if you don't.

This is what they say: 

He was not married, he was living at the Lacy Hotel, Winnipeg, Mr J.H. Lund was his next-of-kin, and was a Railway Fireman.  He was 5'8", fully expanded chest size of 37 3/4" with 2" expansion room, fair complexion, fair hair and grey eyes.  He had no distinguishing marks or peculiarities.  His religion was Epistical (their spelling) - this might help for church records.

This also tells you that he married after 1916, which is helpful.  There is also an address for J.H. Lund if you want that.

That's really all they say. 

There isn't any discharge papers attached with follow-up for after the war.

[jorose]

There isn't any discharge papers attached with follow-up for after the war.

Well, not on Ancestry there won't be; those are just the attestation papers which are taken straight from the National Archives of Canada site (and are free to view there, no special access needed ). Any records relating to discharge will have to be ordered directly from the Canadian archives as they haven't been digitised (that's what this link is about: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/cef/001042-130-e.html )

[andarah]

I know that they are free from the British military.  Since Canada did not technically have its own military until 1931, wouldn't there be duplicates with the British??  I don't know, but it would make sense logically.