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Hi everyone,

I'm trying to get around our Loffstadt family brick wall re: ancestor Frederick Loffstadt, b. circa 1827, Hamburg, Germany.  The story goes that Frederick's parents were both killed in the Berlin Opera House fire of 1843, Frederick was sent to a boarding school, hated it, ran away to sea, and worked his way up through the ranks to become a master mariner.  Married Margaret Stead of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and raised a family in Newcastle, Willington, Wallsend. Descendants changed surname to "Lofthouse" circa 1914 to avoid persecution during WWI.

Problems: 1.) I can't find him in some censuses, but years I've found say that he was a naturalized Brit.  Can't find him in the online "Naturalized Briton" index at the National Archives web site.  Does this mean he wasn't really naturalized? 2.) Can't find any online reference to loss of life in the Berlin Opera House fire.  Someone suggested to me that the Prussian gov't often censored news reports for damage control.  Any ideas who might be able to give me the real skinny on whether people died in this fire? 3.) Loffstadt doesn't appear to be a German surname, but "Lofstedt" is a fairly common Swedish surname. Any online Hamburg records (not the emigration ones) from circa 1830s 40s?  4.) If both Frederick's parents were dead at the time of his 1852 marriage in Newcastle, would their names be on his marriage cert? 5.) Any master mariner records someplace?  Any and all suggestions for ways to research this family would be greatly appreciated.

Captain John Humble, who died with his wife and over forty others in the Forfarshire steamship tragedy of 1838--(the Grace Darling shipwreck)-- "belonged to Shields," [South Shields] according to contemporaneous accounts.  I'm trying to find out the names of his parents, wife, and children.  Any ideas about how to do this?  I'm both a newbie and hampered by distance (live in the US.)  Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated.

Problem of looking for a death record: Don't know whether bodies were recovered, and if not, whether they reported them as dead immediately or waited a set number of statutorily required years (ie: 10 years), whether their deaths would have been registered in South Shields, (where they purportedly lived), or whether the deaths would have been registered in the jurisdiction where the bodies were recovered?

Hoping that this might be easier to research because of his infamy.  According to an 1846 book "Tales of Shipwrecks and Adventures: 1.) he began his career on one of the collier sloops trading between Shields and Newcastle,2.) the first steamship he was in was a small tugboat, owned by Shields, called the Tarset, 3.) after the Tarset, he commanded another steamer called the "Neptune," which sailed between Hull and Newcastle, 4.) was sometime mate of the "Eclipse," a Newcastle and Leith boat, 5.) the ship Forfarshire sailed between Hull & Dundees.  Anyone have any ideas about where to look?  Many thanks!