Australian marriage Walter George SMITH c 1903

[Liza115]

Walter George SMITH was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1875. His parents were Walter George Smith and Mary Letitia Hawkins. In the late 1880s, the family went to Australia. WG Smith senior played the violin and was involved with the Bathurst Philharmonic society. There are lots of news items on Trove about concerts he was in. WG Smith senior (and presumably his wife) returned to New Zealand in 1900, and Trove has an item about his friends giving him a send off.
Meanwhile, WG Smith junior trained as a journalist. He got good marks in phonography (shorthand, I'm guessing) at a Bathurst institute, and later worked for the Melbourne Age and for a newspaper in Western Australia called the Goldfields Morning Chronicle. He features as a witness in a couple of disputes mentioned in newspapers on Trove.
In 1903 he sailed to San Francisco on the ship Sonoma, with his wife. They lived in San Francisco from 1903 until after 1940, and are identifiable in the US census records. His occupation is sometimes given as court reporter.
His wife is named as Kate or Katherine R Smith, born in Australia about 1881. In some US census records her parents are said to have both been born in England, but in the 1910 US census it says her mother was born in France.
In some record I've seen, it suggested that they were married in 1903. I have not been able to locate a marriage for WG Smith and Kate/Katherine R, although I've looked in NSW, Victoria and WA records online from 1898-1903, and also the NZ bdms. Any suggestions on where I might find it? I'd like to know more about her.
Thanks.

[Liza115]

Have not found any official death records for either WG Smith or his wife Kate. However, some years ago I googled his full name and New Zealand and found a death notice in a paper called (I think) Pacific Island News, which said he died in Tahiti in the 1950s. No mention of Kate.

[majm]

From his US WWI Draft Registration Card his dob August 28, 1875, Wellington NZ: 

He was a naturalized citizen of the USA, residing in San Francisco, California.  At Question 9 on the form "Have you a father, mother, wife, child under 12, or a sister or brother under 12, solely depend on on you for support (specify which)?  his response was : 'Yes, wife, also parents partly."   So, NO children aged under 12 as at November 3, 1918.

From his US passport application May 1918 (seeking to go to France for Red Cross Work) he was naturalized at San Francisco, April 11th 1912.   There is a photo of Walter in the digitised image I can see online.   

I did not spot any mention of a wife, however, I looked at other applications from various people, all were male, none made mention of their marital status.  So, during the later months of WWI with various males seeking US passports to travel to France for Red Cross work, various US government bodies were required to give approval for that travel ... but no one sought to obtain the approval of any of the immediate family...   


JM

[Liza115]

Thanks, majm, yes, he was part of a group that went to see POWs returning from WW1. One of the others in the group, whose name I can't remember offhand, wrote a memoir which described the trip. I believe that might be how WG Smith met James Norman Hall, a WW1 flying ace who was a POW. Hall wrote the Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy and spent his last years in Tahiti. WG Smith wrote an account of Hall's funeral in Tahiti which appeared in the Atlantic monthly magazine. The item about Smith's own death in Pacific Island news said he lived in Hall's beach house after is death.
I hadn't seen any sign of children either, which makes me want to know more about his wife, what became of her and where she came from.

[Liza115]

It is very cool to see the passport photo of someone from so long ago. It's the only picture I've seen of him.

[majm]

When I look at the image of the 1910 census,  I can see SMITH, Walter G, head, w (as in white ethnicity) 34, New Zealand, English and  Katherine A (perhaps R, but I think A ... look at how the enumerator writes A in Australia at beginning and end of that word versus the R at the lower right hand corner of the image 7 columns back from the corner, and up one line) wife, w, 29, 7 years married, 0, 0, (male and female children) and for birthplace : Australia, English 

So looking for a marriage Katherine A (elusive surname) and Walter George SMITH in 1903 +- 1 year... somewhere, probably in Australia... 

JM

[Liza115]

Yes, that's right. I thought it was Katherine A but when I looked up the census record quickly just now to confirm the other details I just copied the transcriber's version (Katherine R). Any Katherine, Catherine, Kathryn, Kate, Kathleen or other version is worth investigating, if I could find one who married Walter George Smith in Australia in 1903 or a bit earlier.
I have a feeling I found him on an electoral roll in Melbourne not long before he left the country. I'll check my notes. At what point did women go on electoral rolls in Australia? If she were on it with him, it would help to establish if they married before 1903.

[majm]

females franchise varies - British subjects aged 21 and over :
South Australia 1895
Western Australia 1899
NSW 1902
Tas 1903
Qld 1905
Vic 1908.

JM

[majm]

I wonder where Kate was in 1913 voting register San Francisco Precinct 14, Assembly District 32 ...
Walter George SMITH, Court Reporter, 1909 Larken St, etc ... I am sure his naturalisation in that era automatically extended to his spouse and dependent children.   Perhaps she chose not to vote.

JM