ARGENTINA : looking for Walter Oldfield LOWE in Rosario

[Verna Mac]

I have checked FamilySearch and Ancestry and am at a loss. I am looking for the first marriage of Walter Oldfield LOWE born 4th Feb 1861 in Liverpool, UK. He is in Liverpool for the 1881 Census, not the 1891 census. He has a son named Walter William LOWE born in Rosario in 1889 and Robert McDonald LOWE born in Rosario in 1891. He then shows up as a Widower in the 1895 Argentina national Census. He is back in Liverpool for the 1901 census. He later marries the American Alma SCHAUB and has more children.
So who is his first wife and the mother of his first 2 children? The marriage appears to be in Argentina and also her death.
Thank you

[rosie99]

Just giving a link to previous post which suggested some places to look
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=261817.

[Verna Mac]

Thank you for that, but my previous posts have led nowhere and the posts themselves have been taken in the direction of the second wife who is not relevant.
Thanks anyway, all the best

[GrahamSimons]

For countries outside the UK - British Empire - USA, Cyndi's List can be helpful in pointing out resources that are unsuspected. I've had a brief look and for once I think I've drawn blank - but might be worth a look:
https://www.cyndislist.com/central-and-south-america/
and specifically
https://www.cyndislist.com/central-and-south-america/records/

[Erato]

There may have been a newspaper account of the marriage or the births.  You could try writing to the Hemeroteca Rosario (hemerotecarosario@yahoo.com.ar).  They have digitized newspapers and other materials from that time period but they're not available online.

https://hemeroteca-rosario.webnode.com.ar/

To see the list of digitized items, click on 'Novedades.'

[Verna Mac]

Thank you Erato and Graham. The newspaper may be the way to go. Some information on Cyndislist, but still a brick wall where I am searching. Thanks again

[Sam Swift]

There are no recoords of Walter Oldfield Lowe (or variant spellings) arriving in Argentina by boat on the CEMLA site or the Irish Immigrant ships site (https://www.irlandeses.org/paxlist20.htm). However, their data may be incomplete.

As you say, there is no death for any female surname Lowe around the dates expected on the agrgibrit or Family Search (Catholic records) or any other site.
Walter was widowed on 1895 Argentine Census and school admission records for Sefton Park School Liverpool have sons Wm Lowe (walter William) as being born on b. 17 Jan 1889 & Robert Lowe's as 1 Nov 1890.

Their mother's death then somewhere between 1 Nov 1890 and the 1895 census. There are no children with him on the 1895 census with Walter, suggesting they could have been sent back to England, since they are not showing on separate searches.

One of the pages on the Argibrit site is not linked to anything (the burials at the Dissenters cemetery) and there are only a percentage of images of actual graves on Findagrave for this and other surrounding cemeteries. Graves in Argentina are at any rate usually re-used and remains removed after a relatively short period of time, so there would unlikley be a gravestone and so no record would appear on FAG. It might be worth contacting the cemetery to ask if they have a record of a burial, with a surname Lowe or ending in Lowe, since their maiden name may be also before the married  name. However the records may well only be at the Methodist archive, which is what Jeremy Howat used to create his databases. Don't let the language put you off, Google translate will work probably be fine.

Cemetery: https://www.cdisidentes.com.ar/contact/
Methodist Archives: https://iglesiametodista.org.ar/registros-historicos-de-las-comunidades/

This site has an email contact (if it still works) for general archive covering Rosario http://censoarchivos.mcu.es/CensoGuia/archivodetail.htm?id=1394534

There are also contact details for the individual methodist churches here:Methodist Archive site – list and contact details of Methodist churches  Argentina https://iglesiametodista.org.ar/iglesias/

While there are no baptism records for William and Robert, and no 1st marriage, Walter Oldfield seems to have taken an active part in the Methodist Church at least after his wife's death. His name appears as witness to a few baptisms along with other witnesses such as the Swaneys (who were missionaries from America). Alma's parents were obviousoly protestant, while his sons were born in Rosario (according to census and other records), then it's strange they weren't baptised in the same church, which is why it would be worth checking to see if they've just been left out.

I wondered if there was any relevance to Robert having the middle name Mcdonald. This name also appears in in George William Schaub's wife's name on a baptism in 1904 Aida Macdonald Siepel de Schaub. Lots of Scots went to Argentina, so I did look at  Scotlandspeople in case there was a marriage in Scotland, to no avail.

There was also an A Mcdonald who was one of the witnesses at Alma Martha's baptism and there was a Jeanie Young Mcdonald wife of J. Farquharson McDonald died in 8/10/1890 and buried in Rosario.

It would certainly be worth looking at Argentinian newspapers, as Erato says. There was a reference to a Lowe & Co. The Herald, in Buenos Aires in Mullhall's book on the argibrit site:
"Lowe & Co The Herald San Martin st Buenos Ayres page 117 in M. G. & E. T. Mulhall, Handbook of the River Plate (London: Trübner & Co., 1885) pages 669-670.
Guía Mensual de Kidd, Imprenta de J. H. Kidd, setiembre de 1884, pages 60-66, 150-151, 155."

Was there some connection with Argentina for Walter to have gone there in the first place??

[Verna Mac]

Wow, thank you Sam, certainly great information and places to look. Greatly appreciated for all the work and I shall get onto following up. Thank you so much
Verna

[Sam Swift]

He is NOT on the 1st Census held in the Santa Fe Province (which included Rosario) on 6,7 y 8 Jun 1887 (Primer Censo General de la Provincia de Santa Fe República Argentina).

None of the other people named on the baptism entries etc from Argbrit site (Low / Curry / Ayres / Swaneys etc were on the cen / Nielsen : Gotlieb Schaub aged 27 carpenter single, born Switzerland (incorrectly transcribed as Gotliev). May not be related though to your Schaubs

and a Hans Nielsen (Danish) day labourer aged 25 from Denmark
and a Guillermo Nelson at San Javier dist 19 sing employed by carpenter born Liverpool

This census was only for the Santa Fe province and there were only 2 National Argentinian censuses, first being in before the time period Walter was in Argentina and the second being the 1895 one.

The 1887 census is digitized and is accessible by registration https://www.santafe.gob.ar/censo1887/public_html/index.php
Register via Registrarse tab and Search via Buscar tab. Was a bit fiddly to register, but they send you an email to access with the password you set up.

There were other cenuses carried out in the Santa Fe province, but have only so far come across printed statistical reports based on the census information recorded (nearly all of which are in Spanish).

Unfortunately it seems that the only newspapers in the link Erato shared, include papers digitized  only from 1911 onwards.

I'll re-look at the statistical reports to look after 1887. Although they don't name anyone, it gives useful background inormation, which may be relevant. A common fact mentioned was that there was (like most other places that attracted immigrants) an imbalance of single male to female ratio, although the reports say that or example marriage and baptism figures were not comprehensive since they did not necessarily include proptestants or those who did not baptise babies / or marry or those who were already married on arrival. Because of the "shortage" of available single women, there was a much higher incidence of inter-marriages so that it was impossible to tell the orginal nationalities of people with oreign sounding names and of babies born with red har and blue eyes.