Missing family on ionic ship 1897

[Arnside98]

That does tie up with the initial information that John and the two boys were on the ionic to Hobart in March/April 1897.  Good to get that linked.

[Neale1961]

It seems more logical that they would go to Sydney where they knew someone (John’s brother).

[Arnside98]

Yes agree. I just meant that was their first port as Edith suspected but I imagine they moved on to the mainland soon after they arrived. I did noticed that the tour did extend to Tasmania after Australian cities. I still believe Sydney is the most likely city John went to.

[Neale1961]

I had assumed that John Edmund Smith / Forrest would have moved to Sth Africa because there were good prospects for employment, but numerous articles in the Australian press at the time indicate the opposite was true. So one wonders why they went to Africa.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/149736629?searchTerm=employment%20AND%20Africa
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14088437?searchTerm=employment%20AND%20Africa
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/215790403?searchTerm=employment%20AND%20Africa


Another small item of interest is that Edith Kate Mahon had a brother named Herbert John (1858-1926).
In the 1900 census Edith Kate Smith is living with her brother Herbert John Mahon in Philadelphia. He worked as a hotel steward. By 1910 Herbert is in Salt Lake City.

[Arnside98]

Owen mentioned in his letters (to the Australian Embassy) that he had run away from home and entered the Boer war. I had assumed he went alone and that John and Lionel followed. No evidence for that though.

Herbert Mahon left England after his wife died. I believe he accompanied Edith on one of her sailings. He purchased property in Philadelphia in 1907.  In a later sailing to the U.S, he noted that he was going to Salt Lake City for work.  From 1909 he appears to have had quite a successful career as a hotel manager in the west, with stints of a few years each as a hotel manager in Vancouver, British Columbia, Salt Lake City, Utah, Helena, Montana, then back to Salt Lake City.  He appears to have died in San Diego in 1923.

[Neale1961]

Owen mentioned in his letters (to the Australian Embassy) that he had run away from home and entered the Boer war. I had assumed he went alone and that John and Lionel followed. No evidence for that though.

If anyone ran away from home, I think it was probably Lionel (Lewis). He was only 9, when he joined up in Sept 1900, and that fits with a lad who was running away. So, I believe they were in Sth Africa already by then.

[maddys52]

Yes, I'm not sure about "running away from home". It may have been father and sons running away from home in England. 

Actually, I have been looking for a travel record for Edith going to America in 1897 without luck so far. This is the year she consistently says she entered the US on the census records. It would be interesting to see who left first - Edith or John and boys?

Btw, I checked the date that the play "School For Scandal" mentioned in J E FORREST's letter of 1925 where he says he saw Johnston FORBES ROBERTSON perform. John says it was 1897, however from what I can see FORBES ROBERTSON, Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL and Fred TERRY performed in this play around June to August 1896. In 1897 FORBES ROBERTSON and Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL were performing Hamlet.

[majm]

Yes, I'm not sure about "running away from home". It may have been father and sons running away from home in England. 

Actually, I have been looking for a travel record for Edith going to America in 1897 without luck so far. This is the year she consistently says she entered the US on the census records. It would be interesting to see who left first - Edith or John and boys?

Btw, I checked the date that the play "School For Scandal" mentioned in J E FORREST's letter of 1925 where he says he saw Johnston FORBES ROBERTSON perform. John says it was 1897, however from what I can see FORBES ROBERTSON, Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL and Fred TERRY performed in this play around June to August 1896. In 1897 FORBES ROBERTSON and Mrs Patrick CAMPBELL were performing Hamlet.

Agh .... To be or NOT to be ... that is the question. 

Sorry         

[Neale1961]

In the 1900 census Edith says her arrival in USA is 1898. The later census say she arrived in 1897. The think the 1900 census is correct.
She is in Chicago in March 1898 when she places the advert looking for her husband and kids in Australia. There are newspaper reports of her performances in 1899 in Chicago.
Maybe she had been looking for them for a while and with help from someone, eventually got news of them going to Australia and the name change.
I don’t have access to British newspapers, and you may have already looked for reports in the English press in 1897.