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Hi,

I'm struggling to find records for a James NORTHAM in England and he did have connections to Jersey and Guernsey as the ships he served on sailed between there and Southampton on a daily basis - I wondered if anyone can:

1) locate him on the 1881 census in the Channel Islands please?
2) locate a widow with the surname of Northam in the CI in 1901 or 1911 (as he was drowned in a ship sinking in 1899)?
3) if anyone can find him anywhere on the 1861, 71 or 81 censuses WITH a link to being a seaman/navy etc or of being of the correct age (b. 1857) AND in Exeter or thereabouts?
4) find a birth or marriage record for him that fits a birth date of 1857/8 in Exeter - the ones I have located are way out.

Here is what I know:

a) I have found him on board the S.S Lydia on the 1891 census, born Exeter, 1857/8.
b) His official at-sea death record lists him as James NORTHAM, cook, b. Exeter, no address given, age 42 (so this confirms the birth year as about 1857).
c) the newspapers across the UK appealed for his heirs to come forward, suggesting that they hadn't been located, and that he was on the crew list of the ill-fated ship as VENTHAM, born 1857 in Exeter but the subsequent enquiry changed his name to NORTHAM. Possibly he wasn't married therefore, as these men on these particular ships appear to have sailed multiple times on the same short duration voyages and all of them either lived in Southampton, Hampshire or Jersey in close-knit merchant shiping communities (or stayed at seamen's homes in those places) - therefore if he had been married, it's highly likely that the other seamen and/or their wives would have known about it, to tell the authorities. But the heirs were being appealed for four months after his death in nationwide newspapers, which suggests nobody knew of a wife or children.
d) I have also found a record of a man called James NORTHAM being found not guilty of robbery in Exeter in 1870, where he was described as a First class petty officer in HM Navy.
e) There was a Samuel James NORTHAM b.in Exeter in 1859 but he died a few months later.

However I can find nothing else that is likely to be him, only unconnected possibilities. There is nothing for him in the specialist Navy or Merchant Navy records on Anc, FindMyPast or FS. Nothing on TNA. Nothing in Hampshire Archives. No apprenticeship records. Nothing at all under VENTHAM. No likely shared trees on Anc or FindMyPast.

Help would be very much appreciated.

Hi, can you please help with the cause of death for this baby?

Thank you in advance 

Hello,

I'm researching Charles William LAWRENCE. He was a merchant seaman living in Southampton, Hampshire. Born about 1860 in rural Hampshire. Family moved down closer to Southampton when he was a child.

I can't find a death record for him. I know he survived a shipwreck in 1899, and was alive in 1901 (census), but his wife was enumerated as a widow on the 1911 census...so his date of death is somewhere between those two census record dates.

There is a tree in Ancestry and it has got a record of this man dying in a shipwreck in Indonesia in 1905. I cannot find any record of this, and there are none attached to the death date by this person. He was researching 15 years ago. I will try to contact him but am wondering if anyone can find the record that he made notes of for this person please?

I have tried Anc, FindMyPast, F/S, Google and Wrecksite; no luck.

Here is what I know:
Charles William LAWRENCE was born 1860 in Hampshire.
He married Martha PADDINGTON in 1874.
A man of the same name emigrated to New Zealand in 1874; this is not the same person ( I think it's a cousin or 2nd cousin though due to coming from the same village).
He survived a shipwreck in 1899.
He worked the Isle of Wight steamships in 1901.
He was enumerated 1901 at Southampton, Hampshire with Martha and six of their children.
He lived at 17 Ascupart St, Southampton, Hampshire in 1902 (UK city directories on Anc)
He is listed by one Anc researcher as dying in Indonesia in 1905 with the following notes attached:
"Argus. Steamship, 2792 tons. Built 1889. A.Currie Line. Sold to Asian interests. Sunk China Sea, August 1905.  [DG]"

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/10477952/person/24070034617/facts


So, can anyone find Charles LAWRENCE on board a ship called the Argus which sank in the China Sea in 1905 please?

If not, can we find a different date and place of birth that works?

April 1915, Alexander ETHERIDGE b. 1848 Lepe, Hampshire, drowned on board the S.S Guernsey when the ship was shipwrecked just off the Cape la Hague, in France. He was a merchant seaman, regularly sailing the route being Southampton and the Channel Islands/France.

He was 68. I know about this record:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/62598/images/i3121735-00074?pId=129936

I cannot find his death record on Anc, FindMyPast or FS. Nothing on Deaths index and no parish records. Nothing on Findagrave. Nothing on CWGC. Is the above record the 'official' notification, or would there be another source?

Can anyone track it down please?

NB: this is a different man to other Alexander Etheridges who I will list here:
1) The man who died 26 May 1915 in France/Flanders, soldier with London Regiment. Age 21. He's on CWGC and Find a Grave. It's not my man.
2) Another man of same name with Royal Garrison Artillery. Not the right man.