[SOLVED - THANKS] A HARPER Conundrum

[maurcar]

Garry, William Harper  Wilfred or Wills as he seems to be also  known as was born 14 April 1875 I believe they are the same person. Annie Maria Smith nee Fraser was my grand mother. It appears he deserted her shortly after my father was born in 1905.

William did indeed join the Marquis of Tallibardine’s Scottish Horses. He signed on as Trooper on 15th February 1901 and departed Australia on March 15 1901 aboard the S.S.Orient. Trooper WE Harper 31632 CC/OFS/T/ 01 (Transcribed reads Cape Colony/Orange Free State/ Queens South African Medal with Clasp 1901) This can be confirmed by obtaining a copy of The Southern Cross Scots by John.E.Price a record of the Boar War.
 
 William Ernest Harper who sometimes appears to have bent the truth, signed on as an engineer. Volunteers had to be of Scottish descent (William was Irish), Single (he was married) be a good horseman, a good shot with a rifle and under 13 stone (83Kg).

 Nothing much is known about William, judging by what Annie Marie stated in the Gisborne court he deserted her just after Ira Charles Norman was born and went to live in Tasmania. It appears that a riddle has been solved I am of the opinion that your grand father and my father are half brothers. Have you any photographs of Wills as both Annie and he were deceased prior to my birth. Dad never spoke of him or any other family for that matter. It is a mystery that is slowly unraveling.
 Maurie

[teckyhead]

Garry, William Harper  Wilfred or Wills as he seems to be also  known as was born 14 April 1875 I believe they are the same person. Annie Maria Smith nee Fraser was my grand mother. It appears he deserted her shortly after my father was born in 1905.

William did indeed join the Marquis of Tallibardine’s Scottish Horses. He signed on as Trooper on 15th February 1901 and departed Australia on March 15 1901 aboard the S.S.Orient. Trooper WE Harper 31632 CC/OFS/T/ 01 (Transcribed reads Cape Colony/Orange Free State/ Queens South African Medal with Clasp 1901) This can be confirmed by obtaining a copy of The Southern Cross Scots by John.E.Price a record of the Boar War.
 
 William Ernest Harper who sometimes appears to have bent the truth, signed on as an engineer. Volunteers had to be of Scottish descent (William was Irish), Single (he was married) be a good horseman, a good shot with a rifle and under 13 stone (83Kg).

 Nothing much is known about William, judging by what Annie Marie stated in the Gisborne court he deserted her just after Ira Charles Norman was born and went to live in Tasmania. It appears that a riddle has been solved I am of the opinion that your grand father and my father are half brothers. Have you any photographs of Wills as both Annie and he were deceased prior to my birth. Dad never spoke of him or any other family for that matter. It is a mystery that is slowly unraveling.
 Maurie

Hi Maurie and thanks for your info. I have to admit that when I saw there was an Ira and a George that were the children of William and Annie Maria I was a little bit shocked. And the dates certainly seem to fit ... that he left Annie around 1905/1906 and then had his first child with Rachel in 1912.

I do have a photograph of 'Wilfred Eric' that was sent to me by my uncle. I'll attach it. Perhaps someone can identify the uniform he is wearing.

Gary

[cando]

Hooray.....   I was starting to think that Gary would never accept that William James/Ernest and Wilfred Eric were the one and same.  Now do you also accept that Mabel Jean and Rachel May are also the one and same person?  I wonder if she had to provide a birth certificate for an aged pension c1950 hence the correction to the electoral roll.

I very much doubt William/Wilfred was the father of Alan Verdun/Vincent.  Nothing to do with an error at registration....it was cross referenced to be registered under the name of HARTSHORN ie the birth is registered twice both as HARPER and HARTSHORN.

I will mention here that it not usual practice for fellow forum members to purchase certs to help the OP along the way....and a thank you would have been nice

Gary have you printed this thread and given it to your uncle?

I do hope you have one of the many family tree software programmes that are available

Cheers 
Cando

[teckyhead]

Hi Cando,

Hooray.....   I was starting to think that Gary would never accept that William James/Ernest and Wilfred Eric were the one and same.  Now do you also accept that Mabel Jean and Rachel May are also the one and same person?  I wonder if she had to provide a birth certificate for an aged pension c1950 hence the correction to the electoral roll.

I very much doubt William/Wilfred was the father of Alan Verdun/Vincent.  Nothing to do with an error at registration....it was cross referenced to be registered under the name of HARTSHORN ie the birth is registered twice both as HARPER and HARTSHORN.

I will mention here that it not usual practice for fellow forum members to purchase certs to help the OP along the way....and a thank you would have been nice

Gary have you printed this thread and given it to your uncle?

I do hope you have one of the many family tree software programmes that are available

Cheers 
Cando

First off, a million thank you's. I really can't thank you enough for the time, effort and money (!) you've put in to gather and present all of the records and information you've provided. I apologise for not saying that earlier, because I was certainly thinking it.

I spoke with my uncle this afternoon and directed him to this discussion. He said that whilst he knew Rachel May as Grandma Harper, her friends all knew her as 'Jean'. He knows much more about her than me of course, and was surprised that she was in the electoral role at 200 Victoria Street (the orphanage) as Mabel Jean. He agrees that it is indeed Grandma Harper and that she does appear to have had a name change.

We are going to do some more research - I have an aunt that I've not spoken with yet who lived with my grandmother for some years before my Nan died and she still lives in Nan's house.

I also had a talk to Maurie and he has a whole bunch of information that he is going to send me.

I'm 99% convinced so I'm going to pull together all the information we have, build a timeline, find out whatever else I can, talk to my uncle some more (and he's going to talk to his brother and sister) and then build the rest of the tree.

I've looked at some family tree software but really don't know which one is best.

Gary

[cando]

Good result then.....I would suggest that you validate any information Gary.  As you have already noticed, some family stories are not always accurate.

I have used a couple of family history programmes starting with PAF which you can download from familysearch.org and then tried Legacy for a while and have ended up with Family Tree Maker although I am not keen on the latest version.  I enter any information directly to the programme and that includes scans of certificates, photos, electoral rolls listings and newspaper snippets.  I simply snip the information from scans and paste into the Scrapbook for each person.  Keeps everything together and does away with lots of paper and files etc....and back up to two external hard drives.   

Good luck

Cheers
Cando
Cando