Missing person - declaring them dead?

[mosher]

How would one have gone about declaring their spouse as dead back in 1910-1920 in the UK (Lancashire)?  I have an ancestor that went to Australia by ship around 1910/11 (although I cannot find the journey yet), was supposed to send for his wife (who had been pregnant when he left) later, but disappeared.  The story of him disappearing is from the wife's daughter by her second marriage in 1929, when she was listed as a widow.

The wife apparently exhausted all avenues of looking for him so was able to re-marry.

Would any of this be searchable now?

The man who disappeared was William Thomas Price, coal miner, born 1887 in Pemberton Lancashire.  He went  by the name of Tom.  His wife was Kate (nee Foster), they were married 1906 in Wigan.

[Valda]

Hi


This is what happens now

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_in_absentia


Legal paperwork in this country pre the Second World War would definitely be neccessary if there was an estate to settle.

Searching using all avenues may have meant putting notices in Australian newspapers and contacting the local police (in Australia). Checking with the shipping company he did board the ship and arrived in Australia.


Regards

Valda

[majm]

Hi there,

Here's a good link to digitised newspapers in Australia... As you will notice, all the major capital cities newspapers are there.  Ships that came via Suez or Cape of Good Hope usually made their first port in Australia at Fremantle or Albany.  MOST ships also came to Melbourne and/or Sydney as they were the biggest cities.  Ships that came via USA and Panama usually came first to Brisbane and then down the East Coast.  Often they went to ports in New Zealand too.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home 

This website is free to search, and is very easy to use.

Re Police ... Each State had (and still has) their own police forces.  There are Police Gazettes imaged at various commercial online family history sites. 

Perhaps you should start a thread on RChat's Australian Board.  If you do, please give info about your chaps PARENTS names, as this can be helpful in searching BDM indexes (each state has its own way of indexing these). There's NO Census records. There are crew lists though as well as passenger lists.   Here's the HOW TO thread from our Aussie Board...
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,368728.0.html

Good Luck,  Cheers,  JM

[mosher]

Thanks Valda & JM. 
I don't have a FindMyPast subs, but have used pay per view for passenger lists for any W Price, WT Price, T Price or full names that looked likely, but so far none seemed to be him.

His ship would have come via Fremantle as that is where his family had settled, but I think he was to go on to Sydney (from what my father remembers being told, altho all this happened way before he was born).

I have searched the Trove newspaper archives for days, but can't find any mention of him.  I have looked for all versions of his name also, but William & Thomas Price were very common names.

I have even tried deaths at sea in case he never made it here, but again nothing conclusive.

I have looked for a death here in Australia for him (I am in Oz myself), but nothing under his own name with his parents (Emma & William).  Of course if he wanted to disappear he probably wasn't using his own name.

Hence I wondered if any records were kept for missing people declared dead.  He is a mystery... 

[majm]

Some free to search indexes for Australia

mariners and ships in Australian Waters http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au/ (ongoing project, check it regularly for updates, volunteers doing the transcribing)

Guide to Passenger lists Victoria http://www.access.prov.vic.gov.au/public/PROVguides/PROVguide050/PROVguide050.jsp
UNassisted arrivals to Victoria1852-1923 (unassisted = paid their own fares, no government assistance etc)  http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/indexes/index_search.asp?searchid=23

There's plenty of other resources listed on the the threads within the Australian Resources thread here at RChat
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?board=165.0

Cheers,  JM

[mosher]

Thanks JM.   

I have searched extensively for him by ship but can't find him there.  I thought I may get some clues if I knew where to look for declaring him dead.

[majm]

Hi there,

Some thoughts

Have you tried looking for PRYCE ... or for Tom RICE  or Thomas P RICE .... or for Bill PRICE/PRYCE/RICE etc

Also it wouldn't be too hard to go from a coal miner to a coal lumper as a crewman on steam ships ....

Cheers,  JM

[Billyblue]

The man who disappeared was William Thomas Price, coal miner, born 1887 in Pemberton Lancashire. He went by the name of Tom. 

Mosher
Tom Price, miner - was he anything to do with Tom Price Mine in W.A.

Dawn M

[miabar]

Do you know Williams parents names?