Lookup in China

[Mary Tiffen]

Thanks for the advice. If any-one wants to know more about my family, and particularly about my aunt's 1900 diary, which mentions many people whom she knew in Chefoo, or whom she met when she and her sister visited Sir Robert Hart in Peking in April-May 1900 (just before the Boxer siege of the legations) they can contact me. My great grandmother Emma Spry Edwards first went out to China in 1853. Recently left the widow of James Wilcocks Carrall, with a two year old son (my grandfather, of the same name) and a daughter, Emma Carall, on the way, she married Charles Buckton, a widower who was a ship's chandler at Whampoa. He died in 1856, and she then married Theo Sampson in 1858, but only had children with her first husband. Sampson was Chief clerk to Robert Hart in Canton, who later gave my grandfather a job in the Customs. It is quite a story.

[ianajgill]

Hi Mary,
I have your excellent book Friends of Robert Hart. My great-grandfather Edward Newman and his wife Mary Ann arrived in Chefoo in 1873 and owned and managed the Family Hotel on East Beach for many years. Edward died in Chefoo in 1883 and Mary Ann died in 1891.They had several children: Annie, Frank, Ellen Maude and George. I am wondering if any of the Newmans or the Family Hotel are mentioned in your family archives. Best
Ian Gill 

[sarah]

Edward Newman, according to a Newman Family Bible, was born in London on November 9, 1831, but I cannot find him in any UK census through ancestry.com or findmypast.com
His mother was Ann Newman from Ireland. Edward may be registered in a Catholic baptism registry. How can I find such a registry, please? He might have been born in Whitechapel but this is only a guess.

Posted on behalf of Ian.

[ShaunJ]

Re Edward Newman, there is a death announcement in the Hampshire Advertiser of 20 October 1883

"On the 13th August, at the Hotel Chefoo, North China, Mr. Edward Newman, late of the P. and O. Company's service, and fourth son of the late Mr. John Newman, of Bloomsbury, London, aged 51"

[ShaunJ]

A possibility in Plumtree Street, Bloomsbury in the 1841 census:

John Newman 40 Brass Worker
Ann Newman 40
John Newman 15 Brass Workers Apprentice   
George Newman   15 Brass Workers Apprentice
Sarah Newman   15      
William Newman   13   
Edward Newman 11
Henry Newman   6   
Mary Ann   Newman 4   
Eliza   Newman   2   

All born in-county save for parents John & Ann

[ShaunJ]

Here's the Hampshire connection:

Hampshire Advertiser, 5 May 1869

"On the 18th of March at St Mary's Cathedral, Hong Kong,.....Mr Edward Newman, of the P and O Company, to Mary Ann Sait, widow of the late Mr E. Sait, of Chichester Villa, Freemantle, Southampton "

[ShaunJ]

Hampshire Advertiser. 5 September 1868

DEATHS

"On the 26th ult., at Chichester Villa, Freemantle, near Southampton, Mr. Edwin Sait, of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, aged 31"

[ianajgill]

Dear Shaun and Sarah, You’ve cracked it!  You have solved a mystery that has been driving me nearly crazy for a year, pursuing various false leads through ancestry.com and findmypast.com. I know my great-grandfather Edward Newman’s remarkable story from the time he was in Hong Kong and Chefoo in the 1860s and 1870s, but I could never trace his UK roots definitively as there were a few Edward Newmans born in London circa 1831. So thank you hugely for finding those Hampshire Advertiser items on Edward Newman, especially the one describing him as “the fourth son of the late Mr. John Newman, of Bloomsbury, London, aged 51” as this is the key that unlocks his origins. I would never have come across the Hampshire Advertiser without you. That was brilliant. I guess you subscribe to the British newspaper archives? I never thought of that. And why Hampshire?  I’m actually writing a chapter on Edward for a book and now I have one of the last remaining pieces of the jigsaw. I will keep you posted on further developments but, meanwhile, please know you have my undying gratitude.

[sarah]

Brilliant work Shaun