Latest update:
William Bell Cordner
1860 married Eliza Aldwell Sandys (he 20, she 19)
1861-64 appears in newspaper reports & trade directories as shopkeeper, grocer Tandragee and Dublin
1864 June -goes bankrupt in Dublin
(William Bell Cordner then disappears from the records)
William Cordner
1880 US census
William Cordner - age 39, born Ireland, life assurance agent
Elizabeth (wife) - age 37, born England
Edwin age 19 born England
Auckland age 17 born Ireland
Alice age 15 born Canada
Mary age 13 born La
Kathleen age 11 born Mi
Ethel age 2 born Mass
William Thompson Cordner
(from newspaper article and obituaries)
1840 - born 19 September, Armagh
"He first entered into business in Dublin as a printing paper commission merchant, and started his first newspaper in that city. He married about this time, and afterward engaged in the tea business."
1867, Mr. Cordner (J. P. Thompson) established the Western Insurance Review [in St Louis, Missouri]
1871 appointed Commissioner of Emigration by the Mississippi Venture Society and sent to London to set up and run office
1873 to 1877 - banking in the City of London - Thompson, Cordner & Co
1877 in Boston - manager of the New York Life Insurance Company
1881 died 9 March Aiken, South Carolina
leaves widow, 2 sons, 4 daughters.
1891 England census
Eliza S Cordner widow, age 40 (?!) born Longford, Ireland
Kathleen, age 22, born St Louis
Pauline, age 13, born Boston
Alice S C Trewartha-James (daughter) age 25, born Montreal
(plus Alice's husband and son)
1909 death certificate
Elizabeth Cordner, age 65, widow of William Cordner, president of an American insurance co.
NOTE
On various records Kathleen, Pauline and Alice Cordner use the middle name Sandys.
So, I have two questions:
1) Given the Eliza/Elizabeth Sandys name, is it "beyond reasonable doubt" that William Bell Cordner is the same person as William Cordner (in 1880) who I am certain is the same person as William Thompson Cordner?
2) Can anyone help with finding William on a passenger list? I have tried Ellis Island, the ships list, olive tree, familysearch - but I can't see him.
Any help gratefully received!
Philip
(p.s. - there is a quantity of information on this thread, and I have amassed data on relatives of William and Eliza. I am only after info regarding my two outstanding queries)