William Webb.

[benididct]

Trying different counties but no luck so far.
Help please for finding Death date and place for William Webb, born 1876 Wolverhampton, married Mary Jane Lapworth, Brislington Parish church 28th April 1902. Last shown on my parents, Ronald and Doris Stanley wedding certificate at British Consulate Antwerp 24th April 1924 then no trace. With your help have traced family back to 1779 but but can't find dates from yesterday.
      Regards   Alan. Florida.

[familydar]

This is a very common name and there are literally hundreds of possibilities, given that he could have died anywhere in the world, at any time after 1924 until perhaps as late as 1986.  England & Wales death certs issued in recent years give date and place of birth, but they didn't used to, and I can't speak for other countries. 

I can understand why you've posted here - the more people who know of your search, the greater likelihood of someone finding him - but you've given us very little to go on.  Are you able to give us any more clues?  Last know sighting of his wife?  What he did for a living?  Did he have a middle name?  Do you have an exact DoB?  Anything that might narrow it down.

best wishes
Jane :-)

[benididct]

To familydar.
Thank you and you are so right about this great web page RootsChat. The members have found information that I have spent five years or more searching but a chance post to the Kent page brought up information in hours that I had paid over the years for with no result.
1891 Census. 17 Ranelagh St. Bristol. William J Webb. Son 15. Occupation Railway Porter. GWR. Born Wolverhamton. Staffs. 1872.
RG12/1984/97/2.  and 1901 census.
Marriage.William Webb to Mary Jane Lapworth. 28th April 1902. Residence at time, Brislington. Witnesses-most of the family
I know where Mary Jane died but not William. Have just spoken to my elder brother(81) and he posts that he does not remember. I am 75 and time is ticking.

[rosie99]

I know where Mary Jane died but not William..

In case it helps us, where and when did she die?

Rosie

[benididct]

Death.
         Mary Jane Webb. died 15th April 1944 at 32a Spital Road, Malden, Essex Old People Home.
 Buried at Romford Cemetery Grave # LL 2847.
(East London Family History Society. P 369)

[familydar]

If Mary Jane was in an OPH she was probably a widow, since most married couples would stay together until one of them died.  So this suggests that William died before 1944.

Have you managed to establish whether the Essex OPH took only local residents?  I ask because nowadays many London boroughs "farm out" their old people to homes many miles away, where running costs are cheaper and relatives are less likely to visit and complain about granny's treatment.  If it took only local residents, and I suspect that in 1944 this was the case, the two most likely scenarios are:

1. William died in that locality a few months or years before Mary Jane
or
2. Sons/daughters lived in the area and Mary Jane went to live with them for a while before ending up in the home.  Can you or your brother remember ever visiting anyone in Essex when you were a child and if so can you remember who they were and where they lived?  This might give you another line of enquiry.

Remember that in 1944 we were still at war.  Mary Jane or the couple might have moved out to Essex from London to escape the bombing.  It's possible that William was an air raid casualty.  I believe that if there were a lot of such deaths from a single incident and identification was difficult, some victims were recorded and buried as unknown males and females.

If we assume his death was recorded, and narrow it down to William WEBBs of the right sort of age (+-5 years) registered in Essex between 1924 and 1944, FreeBMD has quite a large number of possibilities but none registered Maldon.  Many of them have the wrong middle initials.  You could also narrow down the YoB if you are confident that (a) he never lied about it and (b) the person registering the death would have known it.

FreeBMD isn't complete yet so I also searched FindMyPast with a really narrow age range (1875-1877) and got 4 hits, no William J but one without a middle initial, West Ham district, Q1 1933 age 58.  To get a William J in Essex the YoB range needs to be a bit wider.

If you've not done so already (I've not looked at your posting history) and haven't eliminated it, I would suggest concentrating on Essex to see if someone can find the burial or cremation corresponding to that 1933 death, or any of the Essex William J ones.  FreeBMD will tell you the areas covered by West Ham and the other registration districts.  If it's very important to you, you could order the certificates, but as you're overseas I think that's quite a pricey option and of course none of them may be "your" William at all.  As a sideline I'd also try to get lookups done of any correctly-aged William J Webbs who died in London or Middlesex in the right time frame.

Abney Park cemetery took a lot of burials from north and east London and the Abney Park records are online.  A William Webb was buried age 77 28 Sep 1939, if you think that could be him you could see if someone might do a lookup in case the burial record has more info.

Good luck!

Jane :-)

[familydar]

More thoughts.....

You haven't made mention of the 1911 census but I presume you've found them, along with daughter and mother-in-law.  Do you know what became of the daughter?  Her whereabouts may shed light on where the family went next.

Some railway employment records are on A******y.  There's a William James Webb employed as a porter at Avonmouth Dock in 1898 but his DoB is recorded as 1872.  There's also a William Webb taken on as a lamp boy in 1890, I wonder if that might be him (born late 1875).  By October 1913 this William was a platform inspector, presumably at Bristol as that's where his previous posting had been.  It doesn't have a date of leaving.  There might be a later record for him but it will be a case of trawling through.

I've found him in the 1881 census and his father was a railwayman too, but I imagine you already know that.

He was probably a little old to be called up for the Great War but I'd still have a look at the military collections on A******y if you are able.  Also you might get lucky with the phone books that are now online on the same website - you have an address from the 1911 census and he had 7 rooms so was presumably fairly comfortably-off, he may well have had a telephone, if so when did he disappear from Bristol and was the entry taken over by Mary Jane?

If he witnessed a marriage in Antwerp in 1924 then he must have left the country to do so.  Emigration records?  And Mary Jane at least came back, so immigration records too.  If both left and only she came back then you could be looking for an overseas death.

I really must stop and eat!

Best wishes
Jane :-)

[benididct]

You are too wonderful for words. It is time to leave the computer. Can't get in A******y but thanks.