Find Ancestors

just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your help - I will continue to dig about to see if I can find anything more ;-)

Not big news I'm afraid - my ancestors in Cartmel (village in Lancashire) hopped back and forth to Canada around that time. Some went to Aus, others to NZ and 3 that I know of to South Africa - I'm still trying to trace my great aunt who never came back, but that is another thread!

What I'm really trying to say is our ancestors were far more mobile and adventurous than we think, and sorry for the abbreviations. Mike has given you an invaluable link to Lancashire parish records - although you need to check the coverage as it is limited.

(Meols Cop was the parish Meols Hall and estate was in)

Good luck

Link to LancsOPC

http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Search/indexp.html

thanks for your help - not sure what Cop parish or IAN-opc is! is it possible to search parish records online? - distance from where I live prevents me from visiting the area.

As hope fades of getting any further you end up clutching at straws - I am hoping the library will come across an old newspaper article on a group of youngsters emigrating - it must have been big news locally then? :-S

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.

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??? :-)

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

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.

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...

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

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 :-(

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!

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

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

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?

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.

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 :-)

No entry in 1911 for gamekeeper's cottage

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

MURRAY Wm 1878 M 1903 London Australia Sydney

Travelling alone

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