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Research in Other Countries => Canada => Topic started by: dorset_nomad on Tuesday 04 December 18 02:48 GMT (UK)
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I am looking for any information on an Alec Patrick Best who would have been born around 1911. I have an Ellen Best and a son Alec leaving Saint Johns in May 1920 on the Minnedosa, arriving Liverpool UK 24th May 1920. They provided a forwarding address of 137 Fox Street, Pitsmoor, Sheffield. It does seem that family Best was well represented in that street so likely this address was a relative. The Alec I seek went on to join the RAFVR around 1938. Any help appreciated.
Del
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Ellen appears to be 41 years old on the Minnedosa passenger list. The intended future permanent residence "Foreign Countries" would seem to indicate they intended returning to Canada ?
What other info have you got on this family ???
Sandra
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Did Alex survive the war ?
Service Files of the Second World War - War Dead, 1939-1947
https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/second-world-war/second-world-war-dead-1939-1947/Pages/files-second-war-dead.aspx
All other Canadian WW2 records are restricted.
Sandra
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Is this the one ? Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Flight Sergeant Alec Patrick Best - 30 June 1941
Runnymead Memorial Surrey, UK
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/80003832
There was a memorial created on find a grave which has now been removed.
Canada's Bomber Command Memorial - Nanton, Claresholm Census Division, Alberta
Sandra
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Found another entry - FIND A GRAVE
Flight Sergeant Alec Best Runnymede Memorial Englefield Green, Runnymede Borough, Surrey,
PLOT Panel 35.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15245556
Sandra
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137 Fox Street , Sheffield can be found on the 1911 census , but we are not allowed to give any details which cannot be found in the free index . If you have access to the 1911 you can then look up the child living at that address on the GRO website ( free to search ) and find her mother's maiden name. You can then follow the mother back in the census under that maiden name. In 1891 she is in Sheffield with a sister Ellen , born 1879 , who married a Frank Best in Sheffield in 1899. I think this is Ellen Best on the passenger list in 1920.
I'm sorry to be vague but I can't think of any way of giving more details without breaking the rules - in any event you may already have the information ?
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Canadian Passenger List Liverpool to Montreal on Lake Champian arriving 10 June 1905 shows Frank Best aged 32 years (accountant), Nellie best aged 27 years and a son Ernest Best aged 3 years. All going to Calgary.
GRO shows Ernest Noel Best born 1902
GRO Reference: 1902 M Quarter in Sheffield Volume 09C Page 618 - mothers maiden name Holliday.
Sandra
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Hi Sandra. Thanks for your help. Some good pointers to follow up. Sadly Alec was MIA in 1941 whilst looking for a dingy out over the North Sea, off Mablethorpe, Hence the Runnymede Memorial. His widow, my aunt, died in 2006.
A question.....When Alec signed up for the RAFVR, he would have provided next of kin information. Could this be accessed?
Del
Update.... Talk about feast and famine! I have gone from nothing much to leads aplenty. I wish my other genealogical itch could be resolved
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There was an Alec P. Best marrying in 1938 to Jessie M. Hooper in Sheffield Yorkshire - yours?
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Yes she is mine. I know all needed to know from marriage onwards. I knew nothing of Alec prior to that time. Where he came from, parents etc. I was also puzzled how a person of seemingly British/ Sheffield roots came to be fighting in the RAFVR as a Canadian. Now all is clear..... thank you.
Would you care to help me unravel another family mystery, again Canadian interests, favoured with Poole Dorset?
Del
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I've been trying to locate the family in Canada or elsewhere before 1920 when Ellen and Alec travelled to England. I can find nothing for Best but I found this interesting family in 1916 :
Francis Sinclair head 42 b England Clerk
Nellie B Sinclair wife 39 b England
Ernest Noel Sinclair son 14 b England
Alec Sinclair son 10 b Alberta
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KM59-XDW
If this is them the change of surname is a complete mystery ???
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I think that I have information that might be useful to you, both prior to 1920 and also forward to 1941. After that people are still living, so off limits. Except for some small gaps, I have the family back to 1809.
Del
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I've been trying to locate the family in Canada or elsewhere before 1920 when Ellen and Alec travelled to England. I can find nothing for Best but I found this interesting family in 1916 :
Francis Sinclair head 42 b England Clerk
Nellie B Sinclair wife 39 b England
Ernest Noel Sinclair son 14 b England
Alec Sinclair son 10 b Alberta
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KM59-XDW
If this is them the change of surname is a complete mystery ???
Well done - great find Christine - ;)
Sandra
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Ernest Noel Best birth was registered Q1 - 1902 - Sheffield - 9c 618
There is a death registered in Bournemouth registration district 1959 - Ernest N best - 1902 - March 1959 - 6b 264
A marriage of Doris Boothby - Q2 1927 Ernest N Best - Rotherham Yorkshire. 9c 1624
Doris Best - 27 October 1904 - passed away May 1992 Bournemouth - 23 - 167
Check BMD and you will find the couple had one son named after Ernest's brother.
Worth checking the 1939 register ................
Sandra
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The Sinclair angle baffles me as well. I cannot find any logical link to the subject Bests.
I have found a Nellie Best (Nellie=Ellen?) aged 25 travelling with a Mary Jane Best aged 59, on the Virginian, Liverpool to Montreal & Quebec in 1907.
A Nellie/ Ellen Holliday married a Frank Best and likely the eventual parents of Alec P Best. Mary Jane would be the Aunt of Frank Best. Interestingly Nellie had an address in Pitsmoor in Sheffield, the very area that Ellen and Alec were headed to in 1920 when leaving St Johns NB.
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Update.
Ellen and her son Alec had the final destination of 137 Fox Street in Pitsmoor. Sheffield UK, in 1920. A local historian has found that the resident's were a Samuel Moore and his wife Elizabeth Moore nee Holliday. Ellen's maiden name was Holliday so she seems to have been lodging with her sister & brother in law. Whether she returned to Canada or not is a ? atm. In any event Alec ended up in Sheffield in 1938 when he married a Jessie Maud Hooper, an Aunt. :D
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Very satisfying.
Do you think Alec and Jessie thought they were cousins?
Any suggestion as to the Sinclair group?
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Jessie Maud Hooper and Alec definitely married in Sheffield Q3 1938. Alec was killed MIA in June 1941.
As to the Sinclair group.....that is a bit of a mystery so far. Intriguing though and might even explain where Alec came from. If Sandra reads this, pretty please post the link to the Sinclairs
Another mystery is that Frank & Ellen (Nellie) Best, with son Ernest Noel Best leave UK for Montreal Canada 1905. Both Parents are Sheffield (Pitsmoor) people. Then Ellen leaves NB 1920 with Alec her son, bound for Liverpool and onto Pitsmoor and her sister. Where is Frank? Where is Ernest? I have found an Ellen Best in Albert County NB...maybe?
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Jessie Maud Hooper was my Aunt a sibling of my Father.
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Whew, I thought you meant Alec had married his aunt!
It was the emoticon that did it lol.
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That was soooooo funny. I can see how you mistook it now.
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I have had a good look at the Sinclair Group. Most intriguing but the known dates are off by roughly minus 4 years. Francis Sinclair, the father appears to be from a Richmond Quebec family albeit from the English "tribe".
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Update.
I have finally managed to make sense of this query. Ellen Best had a maiden name Holliday and 137 Fox Street, Pitsmoor in Sheffield was inhabited in 1920 by a Samuel Moore and his wife Elizabeth. Samuel was a widower and Elizabeth a widow. At their marriage in 1913, Elizabeth was described as the daughter of Charles Holliday (deceased). Bingo! Ellen and Elizabeth were sisters. The 1939 UK census located Ellen, now 61, living with her son Ernest Noel and his wife Doris in Bournemouth UK.