Linda that is so sad I wondered all along if it was suicide. I will look out my records tomorrow using my iPad at present and all records on my laptop. Emma’s death certificate etc., I think she died very shortly after childbirth of the youngest son with complications. I think he died in early infancy too.
My grandad was Thomas Burley, Thomas and Emma’s oldest son immigrated around 1911-14 not sure of dates and then John Gilbert immigrated I think around 1921? I assume John Gilbert would be Jack.
My grandfather Thomas died in a car accident before I was born and my father died when I was 8, so that side of the tree was very scant. I picked up a bit from my aunt but she was only 14 when her dad died so she didn’t know a lot. She had kept in touch with John Gilbert’s daughters’ so I wrote to one of them and she mentioned he had been back home and met his sisters. My aunt and I didn’t know he even had sisters before I started my research.
Do you have any idea from your granny why your grt grandfather Thomas left home and changed his name? I have some theories but wondered if anyone knows his real reason. And then why he came home and changed it again.