Lourie - Death as sea, 1897

[colinL]

Can anyone suggest how I can find out more about Edward John Lourie who died in 1897.  A family headstone in Piershill Cemetery, Edinburgh records him as “Edward J Lourie 1841 - 1897, Died at Sea”  I suspect that he was in the merchant navy as he appears in the 1871 Census as a “Steward, unemployed”.

I have no idea if he died of natural causes, was in an accident or simply fell overboard!

I have been unable to trace his death in GROS, where I understand deaths at sea should be cross-referred.

I’ve tried plodding through newspapers of 1897 - but without success (but to be honest, gave up as I was not entirely sure how to structure my search - as there didn’t appear to be a BDM section as we know it now.)

(Our name can appear in records as, among other things: Lourie, Laurie, Lawrie, or Lowrie.)

Thanks.

Colin

[KirstyG]

This website gives details of Merchant Marine records, although some of the links/locations may be out of date, the data sets should still exist.

http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/UKMerchantNavyIndex.html

Hope this helps

Kirsty

[colinL]

Thanks for that, Kirsty.

Plenty of food for though - but it would appear, on an initial reading, that there is a scarcity of organised official records for merchant seamen around that time.

Colin

[buckhyne]

Hi Colin,

Like you, I am searching for a couple of Lawrie deaths at sea.

I have opened a topic in the Scotland: General forum.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,464907.0.html