Find Ancestors

Does anyone have any advice on finding an ancestor with no-name? I know he was a landworker / gamekeeper at Meols Hall in Southport and in 1905 or 1906 he took up the governments offer of starting a farm in Australia. I have no other information - just don't know where to start :-(

Meols Hall, Botanic Road - maybe someone with FMP could do an address search for you - it's there but I don't have a sub. (There is also the gamekeepers cottage)

How did you hear about this?

Which side of your family did he connect with?

1901 census
Address: Meols Hall, Botanic Road, Southport

179 MELLOR, Agnes Harrop Head Widow F 49 1852 Living On Own Means
Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire VIEW
179 MELLOR, George A Son Single M 25 1876 Solicitor (Oxford B A)
Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire VIEW
179 MELLOR, Arthur Lees Son Single M 23 1878 Mining & Civil Engineer
Stalybridge, Lancashire VIEW
179 LEES, Mary H Sister Single F 48 1853 Living On Own Means
Ashton U Lyne, Lancashire VIEW
179 GEE, Esther Cousin Single F 64 1837 Living On Own Means
Hollinwood, Lancashire VIEW
179 GRIFFITHS, Hubert C Visitor Single M 18 1883 Calico Printer
Birkenhead, Cheshire VIEW
179 HORNBY, Emma Sister Single F 37 1864 Cook Domestic
Liverpool, Lancashire VIEW
179 HUGHES, Edith Servant Single F 20 1881 Housemaid Domestic
Mold, Flintshire VIEW

1901 census


Address: (Gamekeeper's Cottage), Botanic Road, Southport


180 MURRAY, Wm Head Single M 23 1878 Gamekeeper
Scotland VIEW
180 MURRAY, Margaret Sister Single F 16 1885
Scotland

????????????

MURRAY Wm 1878 M 1903 London Australia Sydney

Travelling alone

No entry in 1911 for gamekeeper's cottage

Wow - that was quick! Thank you for this. Well it is only a story handed down through a couple of generations that this man, possibly a gamekeeper or landworker has a connection with the family. Does this last report mean William Murray actually emigrated in 1903? it's just that the man I am looking for would definitely have been working on the estate in 1905/6 :-)

Just out of interest, though not relevant to Maxine's OP:
By 1911, Gamekeeper's Cottage was renamed Meols Hall Cottage (image says "late Gamekeepers") and inhabited by Stephen Slinger (joiner / estate worker) and his family.

Wm Murray
Gender: Male
Age: 25
Birth Date: abt 1878
Departure Date: 4 Dec 1903
Port of Departure: London, England
Destination Port: Sydney, Australia
Ship Name: Ormuz
Search Ship Database: Search the 'Ormuz' in the 'Passenger Ships and Images' database
Master: A J Coad

I think this is the ancestry version of the departure Reggie found, states he is a farmer.

There's no way of knowing if this is the same William as found in the gamekeepers cottage though, it was just a suggestion.

Am I right in thinking he must have been around in 1905/6 as you think he fathered a child?

correct - the story goes that he went to Australia not knowing he was to become a father - your help is much appreciated :-)

Can you give the child's details please, and the mother?

It 'may' be possible to find a baptism and the father's name may possibly be mentioned.

I take it that the father's name is not on the child's birth cert?

Dea x

So, no point in trying to follow that William in Australia then! I think the only thing you could try would be to check the Electoral registers, which would need to be done locally at the library or records office.

Maybe that was the same William going to Aus, therefore there would probably be another game-keeper on the estate by the time the baby was conceived. Shame the family stories didn't pass down a name!

seems that I am looking for a land worker who was not living in at Meols Hall - I will try to find out if any staff records are still in existence.


no name on birth cert & no baptism :-(

Have you checked lan-opc site for a christening? Or checked Lancashire archives to see if there was any maintenance order?

there was no christening - definitely no maintenance order as we know the mother did not tell the baby's father. Very frustrating - there can't have been many landworkers from Meols Hall going to Australia in late 1905 or early 1906 I seem to have come up against a brick wall...

Well yes, if he didn't actually live at Meols Hall (or estate) but lived out, you have absolutely no chance of finding him I'm afraid. We need a name to find immigration records.

thanks for your help anyway - I will try to find out if there are any Meols Hall estate records

just in case there is anyone out there still interested in my desperate attempt to find the man with no-name......
the child in the question was Dorothy Evelyn Taylor born 26/09/1906
mother is Agnes Taylor - domestic servant - no father on the birth certificate.

A little more of the story has unfolded in that this landworker at Meols Hall lived in a farm cottage in either Mill Lane or Moss Lane, Churchtown during 1905/1906. He had emigrated before the baby was born.

I have written to Meols Hall and to the local Churchtown library.
Any experts out there with any other suggestions??? :-)

Hey, there's no "experts out there",just a bunch of gifted amateurs :-D

This is a tall order though, mid-census, and land workers moved around from place to place so it would be impossible to tell who was there in 1905/6. He could easily have only moved there in 1905 and not been on the 1901 census. And now you know he emigrated before Sept 1906.

Meols Cop parish is not online on lan-opc so have you checked the actual parish records? Just in case.

I had no idea where my grandmother was born but by posting her name and dob on here some kind person actually found her christening in Preston - never did find her dad's name though ;-) but sometimes parish registers put down "alleged child" or something like that.