Can you help solve a family mystery?

[Keith at Tregenna]

Thanks Vernon, it all helps. Bit of a hard nut this one, would love to help the family and crack this one.

K.

[Doc Vernon]

I know you have this but just thought i would post!
Mya help ??
Cheers

[Keith at Tregenna]

No Thats New to me, the lady enquirer may be aware?

Will find out.

As you know all is like, "I ALMOST WROTE A BOX OF CHOCLATES", but meant a jig saw, I am a sucker for a mystery ESP if it has an MN connection.

Certain all clues will lead somewhere.

Ta, thats Welsh for a huge "THANK YOU".

K.

[mutthouse]

I know you have this but just thought i would post!
Mya help ??
Cheers

Thank you both, yes I have that one. I am trawling through ancestry at the moment looking of James' death certificate so that I can hopefully prove his birth as NZ. If I can do that then I will know for certain that it is him.
Keith - lady? - you are generous!

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Mutthouse
I may be looking at this wrong,but how do you come up with his death in the 70's ??
I am asking as i too am trawling through the Find My Past site (paid Member) and would like to know if it is definate he died in NZ!
And wouldnt the full Marriage Cert (if you have it) show anything else you may want to know??Just fishing! haha!
There are so many names and dates that is is quite a job!
So a little more info here could assist!
Thanks

[mutthouse]

Castleman my name is Nic - I use mutthouse as that is my forum name as a dog trainer and most people can find me using that name and I don't have a name any merchant seaman would recognise nor any ship that I can say I belong to although maybe we can change that and find one.

Not sure if this will work ...



this is the marriage certificate. I have a death certificate for clara on order but I doubt that will tell me Jame's birth place. I know he lived in poplar/stepney/bow till the day he died. Grandad says he thinks he was in his 90's when he died hence the 1970's. The problem is that there are alot of James Browns dying in 1970's London and knowing which death certificate to order is a issue. Once I find the right one though it should have his place of birth on there and then I will be able to say for sure that it is the RIGHT James.

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Nic
Thanks for posting that ,i will now work on this and see if i can come up with anything else! No promises mind you haha!

Your quote!! I know he lived in poplar/stepney/bow till the day he died.
So he didnt die in NZ! Am i getting this correct!

OK so now i will take that avenue!
Will keep you posted if anything new comes up!
Cheers

[mutthouse]

Thats right
Theory = born in new zealand and joined the merchant navy there. Jumped ship in poplar
Fact (so far) = Married Clara in 1906 in poplar went on to have several children (birth certificates for them are hard to find too)

Memories = lived in poplar/bow area all his remaining days drinking (and getting kicked out of) all the local pubs and becoming a typical drunken old argumentative sailor Where he used to live was pulled down apprently and he may have moved in with his son Harold (Henry Harold Brown) for his remaining days.

This part is sketchy as Grandad was busy at this time with all of his five daughters starting to have families of their own and me and my my brothers and sisters being born - sorry!

[mutthouse]

An update for you

The lovely people on rootschat have helped crack this tough little nut!!!

James Braithwait brown was born in New Zealand on 12th May 1881, set sail for england after joining and merchant navy and we will have to assume jumped ship in poplar when he met and married Clara Beatrice Samuels in June 1906.

He died some years later in 1965 still living in Poplar. By all accounts he was a bit of a drunken sailor according to my Grandad and chucked out of almost every pub in millwall. It would have been amazing to have met him and talked to him about his amazing life. I guess I will never know why he never went back to his family in NZ, I do wonder if he ever wrote to them?

If anyone does have any ideas about his career (he was always listed as a ships stoker, enigneer) and the sort of things he might have gotten up to please feel free to let me know


nic xxx

[mutthouse]

Didn't actually say the family was found on the 1911 census with the entries all in the wrong sections which is why it was so hard to find xxx