Researchers email 26 Apr 17
NELLIE LOUISA DONAHUE
1. Arrival in Rhodesia, 1950
The postcards you have are (it seems to me) postmarked 1949 rather than 1950, and in one of them Nellie refers to returning to England soon. So it may be that she and WH Hearn visited Rhodesia on holiday in 1949 – if I’d had more time I could have searched the Immigration Registers to confirm this.
I did however search the 1950 Immigration Registers in the “D” section, and after a while was pleased to find Nellie arriving by train on 2 July 1950 at the Plumtree entry point. [She had probably caught the train at Cape Town]. Her occupation was given as what looks like “M’gress” which if so could be an abbreviation for “Manageress”; she said she had come from the UK and was en route to the Norfolk Hotel in Salisbury. She also said she was visiting Rhodesia for six weeks. An Immigration Docket was opened for her (no. 464 of 1950) but unfortunately the Archives does not have these dockets.
I then checked under the “H” section on the same date and found Wm Henry Hearn there. His occupation was given as Engineer and his destination and intended period of stay were the same as Nellie’s. His Immigration Docket was no. 472 of 1950.
(Archives ref. of Immigration Register: S 3723/2/4).
2. Biographical sources for Nellie and Bill in the 1950s in Rhodesia
a. Naturalization applications
The Archives staff were unfortunately unable to locate the bundle which would have included the name Donahue.
They did locate the bundle which would have included WH Hearn’s, but there was none in his name: which means that he did not in the 1950s apply for naturalization as a Rhodesian citizen.
b. The Rhodesia Directory
I searched the 1951 and 1953 editions (the sections for the mains towns Salisbury, Bulawayo, Gwelo and Umtali – also Marandellas, to be safe) but Nellie and Bill did not appear there. Nor did a family called Paul appear at Yeatman Road, Bulawayo. But although most people who were settled in Rhodesia appeared in the Directory, not everyone did.
I also checked the 1961 edition (the Bulawayo and Salisbury sections), with the same lack of results.
If I had found them, their addresses would have enabled me to locate their Census Returns. But without addresses, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
c. A possible Nellie Donahue divorce
I went to the Registrar’s Office of the High Court and searched the indexes of various annual Civil Registers (which include all divorces) under the names Donahue and Jackson. I tried the volumes for 1951, 1952/3, 1955, 1957/8, 1958/9, 1959/60, 1961, 1963 and 1964. But Nellie did not appear there.
3. Death
I checked the Archives’ index to biographical newspaper articles (which includes obituaries) but Nellie Donahue and WH Hearn do not appear there.
The Archives has indexes to deceased estate files up to 1977, but Nellie Donahue/Jackson/Hearn and WH Hearn do not appear there.
The Master’s Office of the High Court has indexes going up to the present, so I went there and paid Search Fees for them to look in their indexes, but they found that Nellie Donahue and WH Hearn do not appear there.
4. Conclusions
It does look as though Nellie and Bill left Rhodesia at some stage and died elsewhere: unless of course she died in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe after marrying someone with a name other than Hearn or Jackson. But as things stand at present there is no way of knowing that.
Another possibility is, as you say, that Nellie and Bill settled later in 1950 in Northern rather than Southern Rhodesia: ie, that they did in fact only holiday in S Rhodesia for six weeks in July/August 1950 and then moved on to N Rhodesia. This might explain their non-appearance in the various biographical sources noted above, in which most longterm residents in Rhodesia tend to appear.
