Road block - SMITH, Thomas John

[pd]

Hello
I am looking for more information on Thomas John SMITH for his daughter who is now 92 years of age.

Tom, as he was known was said to be born in Launceston, Tasmania. The search for his birth certificate hasn't been fruitful so any details of who his mother and father were are unknown.

Tom's WWI record states he was aged 19years 8/12 months when he enlisted in August 1915. This would put his birth to be 1895.  His daughter Marjorie believes that he, as many others did lied about his age and he was younger than he declared.   The records also state that his father was William Smith of Walter Street, Launceston.

That is all that is known from found records. I have started constructing a family tree on Ancestry.com.au and Tom doesn't show any leaf suggestions at all.

The daughter Marjorie was born in 1927 in Melbourne and was an only child for the couple, Tom and Elsie.  Elsie was married previously and was widowed.  Tom was married before and divorced. It is unknown whether Tom married in Tasmania or Melbourne, but assumed he moved to Melbourne after he divorced. It is also unknown whether there were any children from Tom's marriage.

Tom and Elsie never married and Tom was not named on the Marjorie's birth certificate so no information gleaned from that. Marjorie's father was named as Elsie's husband who had previously died.  Marjorie lived with Elsie and Tom and was told when she was fifteen years old that Tom was her father and not her step father.

Other snippets of information are:
- Tom may have had a brother called Bob and a sister called Edna
- Tom worked as a bricklayer after he moved to Melbourne
- lived in Brunswick and Carnegie
- died in 1977 in Repat Hospital in Heidelberg.

Searching on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilySearch and National Archives has come up with nothing at all other than his WWI records.

Any assistance or direction suggestions would be gratefully appreciated. Marjorie and I have spent many hours searching and finding nothing at all. Marjorie would love to find out something about her father and his family.

kind regards

Patricia


 

[majm]

Hi

Vic bdm online has a marriage in 1918.  Ref 2632.  It is for Thomas Jno SMITH and Hilda May ROSS. 

Trove has newspapers reporting that they divorced and that Mrs Ross (mother of Hilda) informed the Attorney General that the grounds for the divorce were incorrect. The High Court heard and dismissed the appeal. 

ADD

The Age,  27 Oct 1925 p.12 has good summary.  The original decree will likely date from Nov 1924 and coverage is across many newspapers.  One article at least mentioned NO children of that marriage.

Hope that helps,  there could  of course be several chaps of that name in Melbourne in that era.  But I suspect that not many would be bricklayers who were petitioning for divorce on the grounds of the wife's 'misconduct" citing the co-respondent.




JM

[stsearcher]

I found the same details as majm as well as the death of Hilda May SMITH in 1977, the same year as Tom.

Parents Alexander Ross and Elizabeth Sheldon.

If they were refused a divorce this would explain why Tom and Elsie were unable to marry.

One of the papers also gives the marriage date as the 27th of April 1918.

The only piece of information that might shine more light on things is the divorce file which can be found in the public records office of Victoria. However it isn't digital and may not give any further details about Tom other then what you can see in the newspaper reports.

[pd]

To JM (majm) and stsearcher

Many many thanks for your responses and efforts in searching out this information.   
I will definitely research down this road to see if any other bits of information can be gleaned from it.
It certainly does appear to be the information that may give Marjorie more details about her father. From this it does seem that after his WWI effort he moved to Melbourne rather than go back to Lauceston, Tasmania.

I will pass the information on to Marjorie who has been staying in Melbourne for the past few weeks due to the bushfires, but she says when she does get back home she will be looking in the Lucky Strike tin of trinkets that was Toms to see if  anything else in there that might yield clues.

thank you once again,
Patricia

 

[wivenhoe]

National Archives Australia
Smith Thomas John SERN 1555 
POB Launceston TAS 
POE Claremont TAS  NOK F Smith William

Image 7 of 14......at 27 Jul 1925....324 Nicholson St   * Brunswick

Electoral Roll 1925              Brunswick North Bourke Victoria
SMITH Thomas John  bricklayer   324 Nicholson Street 
SMITH Emily Mary     machinist   324 Nicholson Street

[pd]

Hi Wivenhoe
Thank you very much for the information.
A bit more detail to add about Tom. The address checks out and matches with Tom's Military records as you have pointed out.
Emily Mary Smith is new information.  His wife was Hilda May Smith, but was divorced in 1925.
Emily may possibly be a sister?  Marjories mother was Elsie May.
Marjorie born 1927 (daughter of Tom) seems to remember that Tom had a sister (name unknown) who was in the salvation Army.

Thanks again.
Patricia

[sparrett]

Hi

Vic bdm online has a marriage in 1918.  Ref 2632.  It is for Thomas Jno SMITH and Hilda May ROSS. 

 
JM

Of course purchasing this marriage certificate for about $25 will give you  a lot of information about William required for registration of a marriage in Victoria.
It will be a help.
Date
Couple's names
Couple's ages
Couple's birthplaces
Previous status
Couple's occupations
Couple's residences
Fathers' names
Fathers' occupations
Groom's mothers name
Bride's mothers name

Sue

[pd]

Hello Sue
Thank you for this information, it would be $25 well spent to find out this information about Tom and his parents.
I was unaware of these details on an Australian marriage certificate as my ancestral paths have been UK and Ireland only.
I am researching for the great grandmother of my grand children (my daughter in laws family) and so Australian content and sites are new to me.

Thanks again
Patricia

[majm]

Victoria's BDM  documents are as detailed as Scotland's .... better even better than Scotland's....     but ... Tasmania's and South Australia's are as scant as England's.

NSW, Qld and Western Australia BDM detailed but not as detailed as Vic. 

JM