John Harold Austin was born on 23 April 1893 in St Petersburg/Petrograd, Russia where his father James Austin managed a calico print works. Sometime between 1904 and 1911 the family relocated to Cheshire, England where they lived in Clarendon Road, Newton, Hyde. There John trained as an accountant.
On 1 April 1914 he sailed from Liverpool to Philadelphia on the SS Merion to join his friend E J Dyson in Frankford, PA.
His 1917 draft registration shows him residing in Penn Street, Frankford and working as a cost accountant with Barrett Chemical.
In that year he married Isabel Armstrong in Philadelphia.
In the 1920 census he is in Philadelphia with wife Isabel 19 and daughter Doris aged 1. At the same address are Isabel Armstrong aged 80 (his wife’s grandmother ?) and her daughter Margaret Thompson aged 42, both born Ireland.
By the time of the 1930 census, John is no longer around. It has been suggested that he may have been killed in a motor accident in the 1920’s. (Can anyone find a death record?)
Doris appears to be listed twice in the 1930 census.
There is a Doris M Austin aged 11, father born Russia, mother PA, listed as a niece-in-law in the household of Frank M Davenport in Philadelphia . Frank has a wife Sarah born PA circa 1906 with an Irish father. Frank and Sarah were married circa 1925 per the census. Presumably Sarah is Isabel’s sister – can anyone find them in the 1910 census?
There is a also a Doris Austin (12) in the household of Daniel and Isabela Simpson, also in Philadelphia . Isabela was 29 and had first married at the age of 17 so this looks to be John H’s widow. There are other Austin children listed: John H Austin 11, and George 8. Daniel was aged 28 and first married at 21, and there are three Simpson children shown, eldest aged 7, so it looks like a remarriage for Isabel to Daniel in 1922/3.
This John Harold Austin, “son of Mr & Mrs Daniel Simpson” of Philadelphia, was killed in a kamikaze attack on USS Bennett off Okinawa in 1945. A relative has posted a photo of him.
http://bobrosssr.tripod.com/473contrib.html and he looks very like another member of our Russia/Cheshire Austin family
Can anyone help me tie this together? I need to find a marriage for Daniel and Isabela Simpson circa 1922/3, and/or the birth details of John Harold Austin in PA circa 1920. Where to look?
