More on Hiding in Tasmania

[PatLac]

And yet he travelled under the surname I'Anson when he went to Australia...

Family name   Given name         Age   Year arrived   Month arrived    Ship           Captain
IANSON            ANTHONY        21       1909                  JUN.            RUNIC      KERR D

[PatLac]

I should have added more information on this.

Christiana and her three children arrived in Lyttleton, NZ first aboard the Rimutaka. She travelled as “Mrs Whitfield and family”. They arrived days before Basil was registered for school.

Isaiah’s son (also Isaiah) had previously emigrated to South Africa and been visiting the UK. He then returned to Natal on this sailing, ie later in 1905. He had previously arrived in England with his wife and two children but only had one child for the return trip. I’ve assumed his daughter (Dorothy N born 1896 in Cape Colonies) had died, although I can find no evidence. It crossed my mind that she may have died on the trip over from South Africa.  So Isaiah Jnr, wife and son account for the three Oldburys. I believe the two Whitfields are in fact Isaiah plus Christiana’s oldest daughter Irene, her second illegitimate child. She seems to have kept out of the saga - once she arrived she took a job with a man named Reed Johnson and stayed with him in the Christchurch area for the rest of his life. I haven’t found their onward sailing from Natal to NZ although there were certainly sailings that fit.

Isaiah arrived back in London from Sydney on the Osterley on 30th April 1919. He was shown as John Wilson aged 78.

Either Dorothy wasn't travelling with the family or they failed to log her because she was very much alive in 1901 in St Heliers, Jersey, Channel Islands with the family.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X916-K6W?treeref=GTRH-DZV&lang=en

[Ranolki]

Thanks for that, I hadn't seen that census info.  I didn't actually track exactly when Isaiah Jnr and family came back into the UK but it had apparently been a few years if they were on the 1901 census. I know the family went back to St Helier in later years too.  I'm not sure if you know but the Channel Islands, although part of the UK for records etc is quite separate in a lot of ways. A very small set of islands and quite a distance from mainland UK.  In fact physically far closer to France with a big French influence too.

But I still can't see where Dorothy was by 1905 when her parents and brother left for Natal.

[PatLac]

I haven't found any more info about the family.

Could this have been the inspiration for Isaiah's alias John Wilson?

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT19061206.2.56?end_date=31-12-1907&items_per_page=10&page=7&phrase=2&query=tuam+street&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1905&type=ARTICLE%2CILLUSTRATION

[Ranolki]

PatLac, that's an interesting one and it could be! 

I had always assumed he chose it because it's a name within Christiana's family (and one of her older sister's married name) and also very common in the North East of England.  But he only seems to have chosen that after he and Christiana split so I doubt either of those reasons would have applied to him.  I often wonder about all the pseudonyms they chose and whether there are more they used...

It did come as a surprise to discover how easy it was to book passages on those steamships with no ID.  I saw one of the sign-up slips used in a museum and it's quite literally that - a little slip of paper with a name.  Quite often no spouse or children's names - just "and family".  And even for Isaiah's return in 1919 it was quite normal for no passports to be needed when travelling within the British Empire.