southgate family -- in Brazil or where?

[queencorgi1]

Thomas Bishop Southgate travelled to and from Brazil throughout his life, beginning in 1894. He was buried in Rio in 1943. I know that he was 'port manager' for the Para Port Company in 1916 and the following year was 'manager of shipping' at Rio.
His father John married Emma Courtney in 1866 and I then have a weird little note I must have got from somewhere saying Thomas was 'christened in Romania' but I haven't been able to find anything which backs this up. John himself doesn't seem to pop up in UK records until 1895 when he was described as a 'cashier' when Thomas got married. John died in 1912 in St Pancras.
I'd be really grateful for any help in locating John anywhere. On Thomas's first ship out he was listed as a 'merchant' and I wonder if his father did the same sort of thing?

[ShaunJ]

There's a consular birth  registration for Thomas Bishop Southgate:

1866-70 Volume 4 page 1455 Rustchuk

Rustchuk, is now known as Ruse, is in Bulgaria, across the Danube from Romania.

[queencorgi1]

Thank you so much!! Where can I look up the reference?

So that makes it definite that (1) my funny little note meant something and (2) that John Southgate was out and about in the world.

[ShaunJ]

You can find the reference on FindMyPast, The Genealogist, and (probably) on Familyrelatives.com. You can order a birth certificate from the information I have given you.

There were a number of other Southgates born in Rustchuk:

1866-70
John Courtney

1871-1875
Ellen Sarah
Emma Mary (also a death)
George Edwin

1876-1880
Charles William
Sidney Richard (died 1881-1885)

1881-1885
Edward
Henry (also a death)

 

 

[ShaunJ]

A lot of the Bulgarian Southgate baptisms are on familysearch. Here is Thomas Bishop Southgate's from 1869 https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X1NJ-2MQ

[ShaunJ]

And here's another possible sibling in Southampton in 1911 https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWQN-MRH

[queencorgi1]

Well, Shaun, you have revealed a whole new aspect to the family!

Thomas Bishop Southgate's grandfather was a well-known hymnwriter and organist, who had a large family and lived in Highgate. Until the last 10 minutes I had absolutely no idea that there was this Southgate diaspora in Bulgaria! Clearly though they are related because there is Thomas Bishop and his parents.

Have you any suggestions about where I can go to find out about what they were doing there? Don't worry if not, but thought it was worth an ask after your miraculous performance so far!

[ShaunJ]

We'll just keep digging shall we, and see what turns up.

Edward Southgate, born Bulgaria circa 1884, is in the 1921 Canada census in Montreal with an English wife Sarah and two children: Molly 14 born England and Olive 5 born Quebec.

I have updated the list of sibling in my earlier post

[ShaunJ]

Marriage of Edward Lea Southgate and Sarah Margaret Southgate, 1 August 1906 at St Mark's, Wood Green, London.

Edward's father is John Southgate, Chief Cashier of the Oriental Railway.

Sarah's father is Sidney Southgate, engraver.

Witnesses Sidney Southgate and Claudius (?) Nicholls