Where do they go?

[lesleyhannah]

Is there a black hole somewhere that my ancestors fall into? Where do they go? Ok, if a whole family disappears it's possibly due to a transcription error - I've got some funny surnames on my tree. But what happens when you find wife and baby as 'boarders' somewhere on a census, or living with family etc, still described as 'married'?

You try all the obvious things, like looking nationwide in case husband is working away or in gaol (it'd still be on the census). So maybe he was at sea? But no evidence of that.

So maybe he was dead? But no, next census there he is with wife again, back in same district - huge gap where they had no kids, so he presumably wasn't in contact.

And he's not the only one. Disappearing seems to be a family trait. I've asked for help, but no-one can find these missing relatives.

I'd like to know if anyone has had this experience and found the missing person in an unexpected place . .  I'm willing to try anything!!

Lesley

[Rena]

Hi Lesley,
I have a missing grandfather on the 1901 census. It was during a time of marital dispute and although I've found the rest of his family in Glasgow I haven't found him in Leith where I know he worked.  There could be three reasons, because he was a travelling engineer maybe the census had already been made out whilst he was travelling, or maybe he's been noted as a 'ditto' under the family name he was staying with, or he's accurately on the census but the transcriber has failed to enter him.

Even when I was young it's surprising how different dialects sounded within a half mile radius - I've had to have a nimble mind with 'Shearing' finding it under Sharring, Shearen, Shearin and some areas have different spellings for the same surname; Wallis in some areas becomes Wallace in another.

You haven't given a time span, e.g. late 1800's there was a massive surge in building so if he was in the building trade you might find a mason had travelled to Liverpool or some other up and coming area or a smith could have been found hammering nails in a shipyard or laying floorboards in a new mansion, office block.   An Ag.Lab. could have been sent anywhere by the estate owner who may even have loaned out labour to an owner of a coalmine.  Or he could be away moving livestock to market - the old drovers trails were still in use in 1900's and you'd be surprised how far these people walked, e.g. from Hereford to Wales, or Scotland down to London. If the wife was a boarder, was she in her home town or not?   Had she moved to be near the prison where he was an inmate so she could still have contact with him?  Maybe a trawl through newspaper fiches could throw light on a court case which would be sometime after conception of a child.   

Have you looked in ww.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk because there were several wars from 1850's onwards - we owned the Kingdom of Hanover (part of Germany) and had a skirmish or two with Prussia (part of Germany) 1866 and 1871, we had a falling out with Denmark and of course late 1800's there was a big colonising land grab by Europe so your chap might have been in the Indian army or we were in Africa to fight the Boers a couple of times around the 1900's.

I think I'm all out of ideas.
Good hunting
Rena

[downside]

Hi lesleyhannah

Possibly military service?  I have a family that were ag labs and then disappeared for about 20 years and then suddenly reappeared. On a later census record it said they were living on an army pension.

downside

[alllegs]

I have the same problem too, I don't think I have any of my families on every census!

My most annoying one at the moment is the 1901 and my great great grandma and 2 of her daughters.....

I know they have to be around somewhere as she didn't die until 1902, one daughter married in 1921 and the other emigrated to America and died in 1977, where they are on the 1901 I have no clue.  The 3rd daughter (my great grandma is with her mum's sister and hubby....)

Good luck with your vanishing rellies!

Legs
xxxx

[lesleyhannah]

The relative giving me the most pain at the moment is from Hull. He's living with parents in 1881, married 1883, first child 1884. Then --- nothing till 1901. In 1891 his wife is living with her sister and the child. The husband can't be found anywhere in the country - if he'd moved for work, or been in gaol he'd still have been on the census. Have asked for help on this one, but no-one can find him. When he reappears in 1901 he has more children - the second born 1892, which suggests he really had been absent for 8 years.

Unless the transcription is something even more bizarre than I've managed to guess I'm left with the suggestions made by Downside and Rena - maybe he was in the army.

But like you, Legs, I have dozens of these disappearing relatives - and I guess most of us could say the same. Well, will welcome any other suggestions - maybe it'll help Legs find her rellies too!

Thanks for the replies. Will let you know if I get lucky.
Lesley

[Paul E]

I once found someone for a fellow Rootschatter - they were on holiday in the Isle of Man at the time (the ancestor, not the RCer!).  It's easy to search England or Wales and forget about the 'little bits'!


Paul

[Rena]

I've found a few on the 1901 census by using the given name and leaving the surname blank - when the answer is 'too many to show' I'll add an age and/or keyword. That's been particularly useful for Wilhelmina and Patience when I didn't know the married names. On another occasion I was looking for a family who had a confectionery shop so when 'Alfred' a baker turned up I then knew the census district keyword to get the whole of the family names.
Cheers,
Rena