Where is my great grandfather???

[Andrea Pea]

Neil1961. Strangely I did get Joseph’s parents names from his 2nd marriage here in Perth shortly after May died. His parents are Phillip and Phoebe. I applied to uk gro and they said they couldn’t find a marriage cert for Joseph and May. We were beginning to think they weren’t married. 
But on my grandfathers birth cert it says they married in Birmingham 1908. Ive been going round in circles. Thankyou for that snippet. Do you have the full link for the Moldavia list? I can’t find it anywhere..not even on ancestry. We have no idea when they got here in WA.  I have been trolling over passenger lists on ancestry trying to locate them…and it’s annoying when they didn’t use their Christian names just Mr & Mrs.
Yes…May is from the Parsonage line. I managed to get that info quite a while back.

[Andrea Pea]

Jamjar. Initially the BDM here in Perth couldn’t even find May on their system. 🙄. But her death cert was posted out but there’s no helpful info on it.
May was of the Parsonage line, James Claridge and Mary(née parsonage) her parents. I did manage to find her baptism record, but Thankyou for the info you’ve supplied.
On my grandfathers birth cert it says Joseph was a grinder, engineer. My dad had told me he was and engineer. And he did come out to work at Lithgow arms NSW but they had no record of him.

[Andrea Pea]

Shanreagh. Thankyou…it’s been so frustrating, and then to keep getting replies saying we have found nothing on them in our archives 🙄

[Jamjar]

Well, I’ve run out of ideas.

I can see no Philip/Phoebe, Joseph/Mary marriages. Nor, censuses for Philip/Phoebe, young Joseph.

I wonder if he left a family behind, running off with Mary, while changing his name. It has happened before.

Say he married, in 1908, doesn’t mean that he did.

Do the certificates actually give the name PARKES as his folk’s surname?

Jamjar

[Andrea Pea]

Jamjar. It’s been hard tracking down the Parkes. As the UK GRO had no marriage cert for Joseph and May we thought same, and that they’d fibbed on my grandfathers birth cert. about marrying in 1908 Birmingham. But info is on Joseph’s second marriage cert right after Mays death…about Joseph’s parents, Phillip and Phoebe(née Sanders)
There’s other info posted here about Joseph which I’ll follow up.

[wivenhoe]

Can you please list all the information on the birth certificate, 1911, NSW.

Can you please list all the information on the marriage certificate, 2nd marriage, W.A.

[Neale1961]

I have no birth dates for either Joseph or May.

Andrea, In your opening post you say you don’t have a birth date for May. Now after people have spent time finding this for you, you say you already have all her family information.
In the meantime, over the last few posts you have added bits of information previously not given.
•   “We know he was brought out from the uk to work at Lithgow arms”
•   “On my grandfathers birth cert it has Joseph 37 & May 29”
•   “On my grandfathers birth cert it says Joseph was a grinder, engineer. My dad had told me he was an engineer.”
•   “Joseph’s parents, Phillip and Phoebe (née Sanders)”.

This is frustrating for those trying to help you. Any bit of information however small, might be the item that unlocks other clues. If you don’t actually post the information that you know, then we have little to go on.

With the information that you have just supplied, (and the fact that the decision to build a munitions factory was made in 1907), I draw your attention to the following shipping record:

August 1908 Ship “SOMERSET” - Mr. J Park (Engineer) departed Liverpool, arrived Sydney.
He may not have been travelling with May, if he was brought out by the government. She may have followed him later, and  / or she may have travelled under a different surname, if they were not married.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS8V-V9FV-T?i=1&cc=2613135&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AWXMJ-CYT2


Given the following article it seems unlikely that Joseph would have arrived in Australia earlier than about 1908.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/204574599?searchTerm=

[dobfarm]

Help please!  I’ve been searching for my gt grandfather Joseph Parkes. UK GRO has no birth cert(b 1874ish), even though I have his parents names (Philip & Phoebe) and no marriage cert to my gt grandmother May(née Claridge b 1883) though on my grand fathers birth cert it says they married in Birmingham 1908…no shipping records of them going to NSW Australia, though my grandfather was born there in 1911…no shipping records of them soon after all then going to Perth Western Australia where they settled. I have no birth dates for either Joseph or May. I’ve contacted Australian archives and I’m on ancestry and still can’t find him.  Where else can I go? 🤯

The GRO UK records are good as copies from original records in town/city UK register offices, but I have known of odd BMD's slipping the net in GRO copied records (Similar to UK Parish record copies as BT's) My bothers death 1947 recorded in Huddersfield register office ledger 1947 but GRO did NOT have a copy of the death event- Thus check for your lost Birmingham 1908 marriage in Birmingham register office original ledgers of their BMDs 1908.

 
As for not finding a birth certificate with GRO -there is always the possibility that the birth event was illegitamate with the childs surname name being its mothers maiden name (as was the case with my granddad born 1866 - who to this day ? I don't know if his father was the man as my Gt grandmother married a year after granddads birth or another man was his father and granddad was baptized in his mothers recently married 1867 husbands surname ) (Granddads real dad or stepdad -?)

[Jamjar]

The Somerset: https://marinersandships.com.au/1908/09/052som.htm

Jamjar