Hello Rootschat wizards. A huge and sincere THANK YOU for your efforts and for steering me in the right direction. As said in my first post, I am dyslexic and things which take others a second to absorb takes me forever to go figure. Coupled with this fact I find great difficulty in finding my way around genealogy sites, making research tough.
Now that I know where this line of Baker's fit, I ask if you can put your sleuthing skills to the test once again and check:
1. when Walter Headland Valentine Baker and his (only) wife Gertrude Margery Baker nee Rathbone and their only daughter Sheena Flora Baker would have left South Africa for Australia. My guess is sometime after the end of the Boer War 31 May 1902 and when their son Cyril Alma Barrie Baker is born 1913 in Australia. Passenger lists?
2. Is there any chance of knowing if Walter and Gertrude attended their daughter's wedding on 3 August 1925 at St John's, Wahroonga, New South Wales. She married Geoffrey Leathes Wilson, 2nd son of Mr & Mrs Daniel Leathes Wilson, of Wollongong. Social Column newspapers?
3. I am linking Walter and his family moving to Kia Ora, Spearwood, Freemantle, Perth Western Australia, because Walter's older brother, William Andrew Baker born 02 05 1852 in Islington, London, England, (my great-great grandfather, on the run from New Zealand police due to fraud charges) landed up in Euristoun (see below). He was a surveyor and gold prospector as well as having already spent a year in jail in South Africa for fraud). His wife, Mary Balneavis Baker died in Wolwerand, South Africa in May 1896. William Andrew Baker left behind his two sons in SA, Colin Balneavis Baker (my great grandfather) and my uncle Roxby Balneavis Baker.
In Australia, William Andrew Baker got involved with:
NOTICE is hereby given that we, Alfred
Thomas Cox and William Andrew
Baker, of Erlistoun, the undersigned, have
made application this day for a gold
mining lease under the provisions of
The Goldfields Act, 1895, and its amendments,
and the Regulations made thereunder,
of ground to be known as The
Battler, containing 5 acres, commencing at
N.W. corner G.M. Lease No. 1355T, thence
10 chains north, thence 5 chains east, thence
10 chains south, thence 5 chains west to
datum peg, including, parts of forfeited
leases 687T and 643T.
As witness our hands at Laverton this
1st day of October, 1902.
ALFRED THOMAS COX,
WILLIAM ANDREW BAKER,
By their agent, A. T. Cox.
I have no idea what happened to my great-great-grandfather, William Andrew Baker. Did he remarry? When did he die? Gravesite?
Words cannot relay how much your help is appreciated. Thank you.
