LOST AT SEA

[Research]

John Manners - son of John Manners and Agnes Montgomery, married either Margaret or Catherine Campbell 16 Aug 1841(most likely Margaret as this is the only record that fits all other information I have) in Greenock East. It seems John went straight back to work - he was either a mariner or carpenter (both have been mentioned in documentation) on a ship and in that same month he was lost at sea.

I don't know the name of the ship he was on or if the ship left Greenock or Dumbarton ( where he was born).

Can anyone suggest resourse that might give me the details please.

Shirley

[Currie]

Hello Shirley,

Unfortunately the online 19C British Library newspaper database doesn’t have any copies of the Glasgow Herald between 1827 and 1844. I’ve no idea why.

A search for the surname in the second half of 1841 in the other two available Scottish papers, the Caledonian Mercury and the Aberdeen Journal, brings up nothing.

The 19C database can be accessed here http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/ but seeing you are in Australia you may be able to get free access here http://www.nla.gov.au/getalibrarycard Your State library may have additional databases.

In Parliamentary Papers, one of the available databases, there’s “1843 (549) First report from the Select Committee on Shipwrecks”. It includes a very long list, in no obvious order, of UK shipping lost in the year 1841. There was a schooner by name of Thistle belonging to the port of Dumbarton, Master Duncanson, which sank 25th October, west of Banff, crew drowned. There seem to be quite a few ships belonging to Greenock.

For Greenock news you could have a look at the Watt Library site.
http://www.inverclyde.gov.uk/community- ... y-history/ Check the BMD Index (under Family History) and the Ship and Newspaper Indexes (under Local History)

Where did you get the information about the August 1841 incident? Was it a shipwreck? There would have been many ways of losing ones life in the merchant Marine of the time.

All the best,
Alan

[Research]

Thanks Allan

The only information I have is the Monumental Transcript of his parents John Manners and Agnes Montgomery which gives both their deaths, their daughter Cath, and John lost at sea 8.1841, also their son William at Ballarat and a grandson aged 2.

I presume this has to be correct because he does not appear on any census after that date and his wife Margaret and their son also named John is residing with her mother 1851 and both Margaret and her mother died in the Greenock Poorhouse, I don't know what date Margaret died but it was before 1855 because her mother's death was reported in 1855 and it says Margaret is deceased.

I'll look into the links you gave me - but like all things genealogy - it's going to be long and tedious I guess.

Shirley