Siam - Charles Martinus Edlefsen

[BW252]

Trying to find arrival details of the above who was born in Siam in 1891 to a Danish father (Capt M C Edlefsen 1830-1897) and a Siamese mother (Su Fang?).   He joined the Black Watch in Edinburgh in 1908, married in Perth in 1915.

He is not in the 1901 census for Scotland.   When did he arrive in the UK and was he then a British Citizen?

[jane l]

have you seen the site -find my grave it has the grave for captain m c edlefsen

[aghadowey]

Earlier threads here:
www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,470514.msg3305082.html#msg3305082
www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,470213.msg3305020.html#msg3305020

[ShaunJ]

The quickest route to UK from the Far East would have been by steamer through the Suez canal to a Mediterranean port such as Marseilles or Trieste or Brindisi, then by train to the channel and a ferry across to England. If he came that way there won't be a record of his arrival.

[BW252]

Yes have seen the grave.    Just found out that the father ran a shipping line from Siam to Perth, Scotland.   CME could have worked his passage from Siam and stayed in Perth or Edinburgh (He enlisted in the BW in Edinburgh but would have been easier to enlist in Perth, the home town of the BW)

[ShaunJ]

The shipping line is mentioned on this thread http://www.scandasia.com/viewNews.php?coun_code=th&news_id=2975

[ShaunJ]

In the big army file on Ancestry there is a 1908 reference from a baptist minister in Edinburgh who said he had known Charles for about 5 years. So presumably he came to Edinburgh circa 1903 - perhaps to go to school there.

[jorose]

http://newspapers.nl.sg/ has a couple hits for Edlefsen in 1877, as captain of the Siamese Bark, Race Horse.

http://www.tour-bangkok-legacies.com/christ-church.html
 - you might want to try and find records for the Protestant Union Chapel, Bangkok.

If his father was b. Heligoland as it says on the gravestone, that would be how they had British citizenship. Although Heligoland was given up to German control in 1890, at the time M. C. was born there it was under British control, and I believe that those born there during the British period would have retained British citizenship.
(you could try contacting Erich-Nummel Krüss, http://www.museum-helgoland.de/html/kontakt.html )

I would guess that Lucy Edlefsen Kerr, 1885-1942, wife of James Kerr, buried at the same cemetery as Capt. M. C. Edlefsen, was a sister of Charles?

[ShaunJ]

Ancestry has some German sailors records from the 1850's for a Michael Claussen Edlefsen from Heligoland.

When you check the Singapore newspaper archives, search also under Edlefson.  There are three hits in 1877 for that variant.