amelia jane graber

[64aussie]

Does anyone have any information relating to this little girl.  I believe she was the child of an army family.  She is mentioned on a ships manifest in 1925 as travelling to China with her family at age three years.  None of the current family members have any knowledge of her and she does not appear on the ships manifest when the family returned to England a couple of years later.  My conclusion is that she was born somewhere overseas, returned to England with her family, sailed to China and then sadly died in China. However I have been unable to find any records whatsoever for her despite looking in findmypast and National Archives records for any traces of birth or death.  Any help will be appreciated.
Cheers

[km1971]

Can you give details of the family travelling with her; and also details of the ship and its route?

Ken

[Jebber]

I see that  the father was in the Royal Engineers, there are no records on Ancestry, apart from his two medal cards, one showing he was awarded the Meritous Service Medal in 1919 when he was Quarter Master Sergeant.

It is possible you could gain more information from the his Army Records, which, if he was still serving after 1921, and that seems likely, would still be with the MOD.

Jebber

[t mo]

the passenger record reads
frank alfred graber 43 occ foreman of works
amelia blanche graber  38
frank foster graber 17
constance graber 16
george graber  10
amelia jane graber 3
last address given as 1 boscombe rd w 12
amelia blanche has shepherds bush after her name ?
ship karmala
regards
trevor
ps date of voyage 13 feb 1925

[64aussie]

Thank you to those who replied to my enquiry re the above little girl, Ken did you see the sailing details provided in a later reply?  Since yesterday we have established that the father left the Army in 1921, so he would have been a civilian at the time Amelia was born, so if she was born in England there would have been no reason why she would not been in the usual Births, Marriages and Deaths, but there is nothing.  the usual family tales tell us that he went to China employed in the building of a bridge, as he was in the Royal Engineers that sounds feasible.  Does anyone have any idea how I can look into English companies who might have had contracts to build overseas at that time.  Maybe I could find father's employer and see if that brings up anything good.  Any help appreciated.
Cheers

[km1971]

The cutoff date for 'WW1' records on Amcestry is August 1920 - although miss-filings are not uncommon. So as Jebber says you need to apply to the MOD for his record. You must tell them you are related and that you want a copy of the full file and not just a transcript.

In the 1911 census he is a Foreman of Works in the Royal Engineers. He may have been working in a factory on a government contract and the RE supplied him to ensure they did things correctly.  So he may have still been in the RE when he went to China - but did not include this on the passenger manifest. If so his service record will include details of Amelia Jane.

Or, he may have been serving overseas when he left the army and stayed on when Amelia Jane was born. So you need to look in Ireland, Gibraltar, India, Malta etc.

Ken

[64aussie]

Hi Ken, thanks again for your response - we do have the father's Army records from National Archives and they state that he resigned from the Army in 1921 and was in England at that time.  I am signed up to World Wide searching with Ancestry, so would that cover births in the various countries you have mentioned, in case that was what happened, or do I need to search via Google?  I have also tried Findmypast.uk and Family Search without any luck.  Thanks again
cheers

[t mo]

FindMyPast,s bmd,s include overseas and at sea births and deaths  but as i,m sure you know nothing comes up for her the only thing i can think is that some how her name has either been mistranscribed as it,s wide open for that it seems when using the variants option in searches and even may be her christian names have been changed round , i did try just using jane but still couldn,t come up with anything .
it seems a lot of british workers were in china at this time as another post i helped on a few months ago had a family out there where the father was in charge of the waterworks , not any help to you but gives an insight as to what was happenng at that time , it may be worth looking at tna to see if any records show for works being carried out with govt interference  or do a google search for same .
regards
trevor

[64aussie]

Thanks for more help again folks.  I have looked  carefully at Frank Graber's army records.  He was definitely discharged in England, at Chatham, and there is a home address given for him.  One entry that interests me on his record says "Continued in Army service under AO152/1921"  Does anyone know if this means anything?
Thanks again
Cheers