Lost - William BAKER b 1895 Qld

[heapsofus]

We would appreciate some help is finding a couple of missing persons.  We have found a William Baker born in 1895 in Brisbane to an Alfred and Emily Baker who are direct ancestors in our tree.  After that william seems to disappear (and so does Alfred!)

Emily remarried a William Ford in Mt Whitestone  in 1903 and she died in 1906.  Her other children had been in an orphanage in Rockhampton from 1889  - Harry being reunited with his mother in 1894 and Annie Louisa in 1903.

 A grandaughter of Annie Louise remembers a man coming to her grandmother (Annie Louise) and saying that he was her brother William, this happened about 1954.  She did not believe him - that she had any other brothers beside Harry (who was killed in WW1). So we think he may have either been adopted as a baby or maybe his father left with him. (Alfred had previously left his family hence the need to put the chilldren in an orphanage.)

Any help appreciated in solving this mystery - what happened to William!! (or even Alfred)

Thanks,
Wendy

[mum mum]

Hi
You say that the other children were placed in an orphanage around 1889, so did Alfred leave and then come back?
Do you have Williams birth certificate, or does the record show Alfred as his father?

In order to try to find Alfred and maybe have some idea if he had William with him, do you know Alfred parents, date of birth etc?

If Emily remarried its likely that alfred was dead or they had divorced, have you checked Trove?

mum mum

[wivenhoe]

I am not seeing birth records in QLD for Harry/Henry?/Harold? Baker, or Annie Louisa Baker, or marriage for Alfred Baker and Emily.


Births to Alfred Baker and Emily Lennon
1888/C10668 John Thomas BAKER
1895/B55899 William BAKER

Death
1906/C1238  Emily FORD  parents Thomas LONSUM and Emma RICKETT

[heapsofus]

Thank you both for replying and for your info - will try to answer questions.
Orphanage records say Alfred absconded but he must have returned around 1894-95. 

The birth record on Qld BDM for William shows Alfred as father and Emily as mother. We don't know Alfred's parents names.

Alfred was born in 1860 we think in Bedfordshire.  Emily born 1863 in Bedfordshire and they were married in 1883 in Bedfordshire.

Annie Louisa born in 1884 Bedfordshire and Albert Henry in 1886 in Bedfordshire. Family migrated to australia in 1886 with Harry dying on the ship. 
The Harry that was in the orphange was actually John Thomas - Emily was mentally ill when she placed him in there and said his name was harry and that he was born in Ceylon! She was in an asylum for a while we are not sure for how long.

Hope this answers your questions - we really are finding it difficult just knowing where to look for William and Alfred - so your help is very much appreciated...
Wendy

[mum mum]

Hi
I think that to find William a good place to start would be to find out if Alfred possibly remarried and kept William with him. If William was adopted his name would have been changed.

Have you found Emily on the English census, with her family or with Alfred after their marriage. I may be worth while thinking about buying their marriage certificate from England as it will certainly have Alfreds parents names on it.

Another thing to look for would be  Asylum records from places near where they were living, if they are surviving you would be able to access them now.
I see you seem to have seen the Orphanage records.
mum mum

[Laura444]

Hello Wendy,

Just took a look online at the Rockhampton Orphange registers.

http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/Researchers/Pages/Overview.aspx

Annie Lousia was born 22 Dec 1884 in Befordshire ENGLAND.
Admitted on 7 Dec 1889.

Harry BAKER  22 July 1888 in Ceylon
Admitted 16 Dec 1889

There are some notes attached to the file for Annie Louisa mentioning the mother already has a younger child and that Alfred has absconded leaving the family destitute. You can see the detail by checking the record.

The record for Harry is a much more grim outcome. Father asconded and warrant out for arrest, Mother insane and committed to Goodna Asylum.

There are a couple of deaths mentioned on the Trove newspapers for Alfred BAKER. Not sure if this related to your guy. Will go back and look again and give you some dates to look at and the link in next post.

Kind regards,

Laura

[Laura444]

ooops....

was back and forward from computer before posting and missed the interim posts...apologies!

There are number of newspaper articles from the Rockhampton area for 1896 mentioning Alfred BAKER in minor offences.

Do you have other information that Alfred returned in 1895-ish apart from the birth? I have found a number of cases in my own tree where children were given previous spouses names, when the previous spouse was either dead or not possibly the father. That is worth checking too.

Kind regards,

Laura

[mum mum]

Hi
It would be interesting to see Williams birth certificate, if only to find out Alfred's occupation. That may give a hint as to whether he is one of the Alfred Baker's mentioned in those newspaper articles.
There also appears to be an Alfred Baker who was droving cattle at the time.
Emily must have been a lucky woman to be released from the Asylum, they seemed to have a one way door badk then.
mum mum

[mum mum]

Hi
You say that Emily and Alfred are direct ancestors in your tree. Do you mean that they are Grandarents? If so its probably worth while spending the money on their marriage certificate from Bedfordshire.
mum mum

I see from the admission records at the orphanage that father Alfred was a labourer. From the index to admission register section B all the children should have a record the same as Annie Louisa's you would think. If you can find Williams it should give who he was living with. Perhaps if you contact the Archives.