Some free discoveries this week

 

While staying at home during the latest Scottish weather instalment (Storm Éowyn), I've spotted a few interesting things for frugal family historians…

First, an offer from MyHeritage: they're celebrating Australia Day this weekend - 25-28 January - with free access to many of their Australian records. You can read the full details at their blogpost, but note that their recent additions from OldNews.com are not included. 

Just this morning I came across an old blog post by the Knowles Collection about accessing their records of Jewish families from around the world. These are available on FamilySearch.org in its lesser-used Genealogies section, and the Collection's blog gives step-by-step screenshots to help you find and search these databases. Using this, I found a family I've researched in the past listed in the UK records.

In the past week I’ve begun contributing to a very worthwhile but straightforward indexing project for Arolsen Archives - #everynamecounts.  This is working to compile a database of those whose names are recorded on twentieth-century prisoner registration and displaced person cards. Almost 190,000 volunteers are currently working on this, and once you’ve read the Help notes to understand what’s required, it only takes a minute or two to complete one entry.

Finally, what are you doing tomorrow? If you'd like to stay home but are itching to attend a family history event, East Surrey Family History Society have the answer. They're holding a virtual family history fair which is free to attend. Many different societies will be "attending" and you can visit them on Zoom, ask questions, and find out what resources they offer. Why not pop along and have a chat? Among those holding virtual stalls will be 

• Aberdeen & North East Scotland FHS

• East of London FHS

• Glasgow & West of Scotland FHS

• FIBIS (Families in British India Society)

• Manchester & Lancashire FHS

• Romany & Travellers FHS

Never Stop Looking

 

Argus, Melbourne, 19 Jul 1950

Last week I posted a bit about my grandfather and the kind of fellow he turned out to be.  This week, after a 45-year wait I bring you news of his brother Duncan.  Previously all that had been known about him after departing Glasgow was that he had emigrated to Australia.  No further word about him reached my mother’s family.

Yesterday, an e-mail alert from MyHeritage which had been languishing unread in my inbox for several weeks revealed some suggestions for records about various men named Duncan Paul. Most of them seemed to be from American city directories, and I was about to delete the e-mail when the birth date of my great-uncle jumped off the screen.  Sure enough, he had ended up in Australia, and one of his relatives there had posted his information on the website.  From it I gleaned a fair bit of interesting detail, which makes up much of the following story.

Duncan, my mum’s uncle, was born in 1914 in Glasgow, and married Elizabeth there just after the outbreak of World War 2.  He was involved in military service and seems to have been posted to the south coast of England because it was in Southampton, about 1946, that he met a lady called Ivy.

Ivy was a recently-widowed mother of five.  Her husband Charles had been a steward in the merchant navy but died in September 1945 and is commemorated in a war grave.  Ivy and Duncan had a child together, and then in 1949 she left with the children for Australia.

Cameronia
(Marxchivist from USA on Flickr, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Duncan also applied to emigrate, and in 1950 had been accepted when, during a spell working on Southampton dock, he got itchy feet.  The ship Cameronia berthed and he learned that it was bound for Australia, so on the night before it sailed he packed three suitcases and brazenly marched aboard, his confidence fooling crew and passengers alike.  However, after five days without food he surrendered himself to the captain, who appears to have taken pity on the stowaway and allowed him to work the remainder of his passage.

When the ship docked at Colombo in present-day Sri Lanka, Duncan sent a telegram to Ivy to let her know he was on his way.  She was his sponsor for the purposes of emigration and when the Cameronia arrived in Melbourne she was there on the quay to greet him.  Australian newspapers carried the story of the “Scottish stowaway” and printed the photograph at the beginning of this post, along with a physical description of Duncan as being freckle-faced, red haired and slightly built.

But what of his wife Elizabeth back in Glasgow? This is where the Australian newspaper account is silent, but records show that it was not until 1952 that she obtained a divorce from Duncan.  His address on the legal documents was "unknown", so as yet it's not clear if Duncan ever knew he was divorced, nor if he married Ivy.  

But really, never give up on a search for a relative, no matter how long you've been looking!