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Messages - Ranolki

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 ... 17
1
World War One / Re: Bedfordshire Regiment
« on: Sunday 27 April 25 22:27 BST (UK)  »
Thanks for that.  Anthony is an enigma all round!  He went to Birmingham University at 16 and didn't go with the rest of his family to New Zealand in 1905, although he arrived alone in Melbourne in 1909 and was with them when they moved to Sealake in Victoria soon afterwards. He seems to have been very much a loner and moved around quite a lot.  As you say, he appears in various electoral rolls after around 1917 and worked as a labourer and farmer.  He finally died alone in his hut in Rosewhite.  His younger brother William (by then known as Ian Christian Maydwell) was his executor.

I have nothing now to say he served in the Forces either via the AIF or in the British Army.  His age was right to sign up and his two younger brothers did so.  His birth surname was Whitfield (his mother's maiden name) and as far as I can tell William I'Anson wasn't his father although he seems to have supported him throughout once he appeared on the scene. He did use the I'Anson surname sometimes and also his mother's later adopted surname of Maydwell so I have to check various options, especially as I'Anson is often wrongly written as Janson and other variants!  I think he was probably quite secretive and eccentric so I may never be able to find more...

2
World War One / Re: Bedfordshire Regiment
« on: Sunday 27 April 25 14:48 BST (UK)  »
Thanks for that, AllanUK.  I was hopeful I'd found him but that definitely says I haven't!  He's a very elusive chappie one way and the other.  Back to the drawing board...

3
World War One / Bedfordshire Regiment
« on: Sunday 27 April 25 10:22 BST (UK)  »
Can anyone please point me to any records for this regiment in WWl?  All I have found is a medal record and I'm not sure yet that I have the right person.  I know some records were accidentally destroyed so I'm assuming these may have been some?

I am looking at Anthony Maydwell, number 9869 who served in the second battalion.  This may or not be the person I'm looking for, the record just shows A Maydwell, but the name is unusual so may well be him. His given name at birth was Anthony Atkinson Whitfield. Maydwell was a false name his mother adopted in Australia.  I know that he definitely used that name later in life but he had been using Whitfield prior to going to Australia in 1909 and actually used Anthony I'Anson when he travelled there on the Runic.  Unfortunately the whole family had a history of adopting names! He had been living in Australia but didn't sign up with the AIF and I believe he came back to the UK sometime between 1913/1914, returning to Australia after the war.

4
Staffordshire / Re: William I'Anson
« on: Monday 10 March 25 22:40 GMT (UK)  »
It often appears with different spellings, which make things that bit harder.  But official documents like B, M, D usually get it right.  It's definitely capital I and capital A with an apostrophe. There are quite a few of them in records from the NE from what I've seen so far. It's quite often written in things like newspaper articles as Janson so I'm assuming the correct pronunciation might be something like ee-anson and people have used the Scandinavian equivalent which would be pronounced more or less the same way.

With the Rosina Zeamond conundrum, both of the census forms seem to be written by the same person, so I'm assuming either William or Rosina.  I've tried a few combinations for Zeamond but can't spot anything suitable yet.

5
Staffordshire / Re: William I'Anson
« on: Monday 10 March 25 14:41 GMT (UK)  »
I've gone back through the papers I have and found this comment to me...

"William b.  Aug 1862, d. 6 Apr 1936 was the son of Timothy I'Anson and grandson of Gabriel I'Anson b.2 Aug 1788.  That William married Elizabeth Reid on 24 Apr 1907 in Kirby Wiske."

I think that William stayed close to home and died in the same area he lived in throughout his life.  I think the other researcher will have seen more records on this and discounted that William.

Pity, he would have been perfect...

6
Staffordshire / Re: William I'Anson
« on: Monday 10 March 25 14:19 GMT (UK)  »
Oh that's interesting. It's exactly where his family were from.  He had no family to keep him in the Staffordshire area, they were all from Yorkshire.  I'll investigate further!

What do you think of Rosina Zeamond?  That's very odd too. 

7
Staffordshire / William I'Anson
« on: Monday 10 March 25 12:26 GMT (UK)  »
Could anyone volunteer ideas on why I can't find a death for this one please?

He was born 8 Sept 1862 near Thirsk in Yorkshire and was a hotelier/publican in various places.  According to various census reports he was at the Talbot Hotel in Wednesbury in 1901, then at 60 Arundel St, Walsall in 1911 and then 104, Church Road, Bradmore.  Then he seems to disappear.

Whilst at the Talbot he was married but subsequently divorced. His wife fled to New Zealand and then Australia with their children.  On both of the latter two census forms he had a housekeeper called Rosina Zeamond.  I can't find that she ever existed other than those two entries.

There is possibly an outside chance he went to Australia after 1921 but I think it would be unlikely. I can't find any records of him going or of him dying there.  If he did go he would have been in the state of Victoria (where his children were) which has excellent records available but there is nothing for him.  But if he stayed in the UK why can't I find a death?

8
Australia / Re: Hiding in Tasmania
« on: Saturday 08 March 25 19:23 GMT (UK)  »
Also thank you Shume and Lucy 2. You're right, it's taking some sorting out! 

Lanthy was her grand daughter, daughter of Christiana's son Ian Maydwell (who started life as William I'Anson).  I've spoken to Malcolm I'Anson and he is a mine of information. One thing he showed me was an article his mother (Helen Maydwell) wrote in the 1990s for a paper called the Black Country Bugle (the Black Country being an area of the Staffordshire in the UK, which is where Isaiah Oldbury was initially located).  She mentions Tasmania and the fire in the article.  Some of her account isn't quite right (only discovered more recently as her account was obviously from memory and family stories and we now have access to many more records than she could look at) but it's mostly very minor things, so I can't imagine the whole Tasmania "adventure" was a mistake. 

I hadn't seen that account of another fire you mentioned, obviously once Christiana had settled in Sea Lake.  I'll see what else I can find on that. Disasters seem to follow her, flooding in Christchurch, fires galore...

I think at the moment that the comment about Armstrong was a mistake, looking back we can find nothing on that now.  Her daughter Irene became involved with a man who she spent years with but never married.  But his name was Johnson...

9
Australia / Re: Hiding in Tasmania
« on: Saturday 08 March 25 19:09 GMT (UK)  »
Oh thank you for that, that's a really interesting comment.  I find the whole Tasmania "adventure" quite intriguing.  They had sold a property in NZ to give themselves "running away money" and may not have had time to have bought anywhere in Tasmania (they were trying to disappear so that court orders couldn't be served on them from the UK) so that would fit.  I would think it might be a rental property though rather than just staying with a family as they had three and potentially four teenagers with them too.

At the moment I think passenger ship records might be my best hope...

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