Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Hello
I hope someone can point me in the right direction to go with regard the above named man, and apologies for rambling a bit.

William John WRIGHT was born in Bootle on 27.07.1900 to Mary Elizabeth WRIGHT (nee PHILLIPS) and George Easdale WRIGHT. He married Florence Elizabeth EVANS in 1921 and had three children, William John WRIGHT, George Easdale WRIGHT and Joan WRIGHT.

Family folklore is that when Florence was either in labour with, or just had another child (don't know whether child survived or what ********** it was) Florence passed away. William 'ran away to America' as he couldn't cope and left both his and Florence's mothers to bring the children up. Unfortunately George passed away in 1937, William Jnr (my mum's cousin) never knew his father, and tried for years to find him, he pased away in 2007.

Now, I think I have stumbled on William John (Snr) death at sea! I've found a listing for a William John WRIGHT in April 1957 on board MV Portland Star. However, it's just a listing in a book (courtesy of FMP Website).

Would a death certificate have been issued as normal? How do I go about ordering such a copy as there is no 'page and volume number'

Any help would be very very gratefully appreciated, as there are still older family members that would love to know what happened. here's hoping, Annette

Hi Annette,
RE:

Would a death certificate have been issued as normal? How do I go about ordering such a copy as there is no 'page and volume number'

Unfortunately, unless the death is in the GRO Indices, there will be no death certificate. Because he died at sea it is probable that he would have been buried at sea.

The death is recorded in Series:BT334 - Registers and Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers and Seamen at Sea, held at the National Archives.

Name: WRIGHT, William John
Date of death: April 1957
Ship's name: Portland Star
Source is Series: BT334 - Registers and Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers and Seamen at Sea.
Box: 0111

The only piece of additional info I can glean from the document is that William was not a passenger and therefor would be a seaman. You might be able to find out where the Portland Star was when he died.

These are the childen you know about:
WRIGHT, George E - West Derby - 1922
WRIGHT - William J - West Derby - 1925
WRIGHT - Joan - West Derby - 1926

To confirm the family folklore....
The only matching birth and death...
Births Jun 1928: Wright, Harold - m/n Evans - W.Derby - 8b - 663
Deaths Jun 1928: Wright, Harold - 0 - W.Derby - 8b - 330

Followed by...
Deaths Jun 1928: Wright, Florence E - 25 - W.Derby - 8b - 356.

BTW, your post shows ****** instead of the s*x word for gender. It's an automatic reaction to that 'six' word with an e instead of an i!

The ship MV Portland Star..
Built as the DELIUS, ship's ID # 164329, registered at Liverpool in 1937, Motor vessel.
http://bluestarline.org/portland.html

Hi Dickiesam

Many thanks for you replies, and apologies for putting a 'banned word' in my post

Gosh, thankyou for finding out what gender little Harold was, such a shame, William is still a bad'un in my books, however, my great grandmother made a good job of bringing up little George until he passed away, my mum and aunties always said about how beautiful he was. I will make a concerted effort to find out where his dad's ship was when he died.

All the best
Annette

Hi Annette,
Meant to ask... What was William Wright's occupation when he married Florence? And if you have it, his occupation on Joan's birth cert from 1926.

Have you considered that William may have in fact remarried in the area and the 'running off to the US' is a story to ease the explanation of why he left the children?

Hi Dickiesam

Oops! Sorry for lateness of reply! William was a seaman, I've found his CR10 with his photo on, he's listed as Seaman on all the birth and marriage certs (obviously I didn't know about little Harold), have looked for another marriage, but with a name like his?????????????? It's a bit common! Unless he gave a false name of course. Would I have to use photobucket or similar to upload the picture.

As far as I know, when his son George died in 1937, it was put in the Echo and Bootle Times death notices as 'a man should know when his son has died' according to my grandad. People did look for him to no avail though. It's a sad story really I think, as William (jnr) never knew his dad. I was fortunate to receive lots of help from his wife Eileen, who paid a private researcher to try and track him down, but nothing was turned up there either. It will always be a mystery, unless our William that was on the Portland Star is the very boy (man).

All the best
Annette

We'd love to see the photograph. Here are instructions
http://www.forum.liverpool-genealogy.or ... =16&t=9817

If you have his seaman's card with his number on it this number should be given on the crew lists of ships he served on. So if you could find out where the crew list for the Portland Star for 1957 is held you might be able to see if it's your man. Or you could work forward from ship's listed on his seaman's card. I think you'd have to spend some time at the National Archives to do it!

Doing a browse of the outgoing passenger lists from 1954 to 1958, using a variety of surnames to see where the Portland Star sailed from and to, gave these results:

September 1954 from Liverpool to USA - Los Angeles - San Francisco [North Pacific coast]
September 1955 from Liverpool to South Africa - Cape
March 1956 from Glasgow to North Pacific Coast.
September 1956 from Liverpool to Australia - Brisbane.
October 1957 from Glasgow to USA - San Francisco
October 1958 from Glasgow to Canada - Vancouver

Obviously not a complete list but gives an idea of where she went.

Hello All
Many thanks again for the contributions! Well, here in his glory is our William

and here is is son Georgie

All the best
Annette

Hello Annette,
Thank you for posting the photos. What a lovely lad George was. So sad his Dad wasn't around for him.

There's another card you may be interested in for a W J Wright. WRIGHT, W J - 692800. Fairly sure this is your William because the second card carries the same Discharge # as on the one you posted.. 850860.
Seaman were sometimes given a new number and this card goes from Feb 1922 to Nov 1927 and covers 14 different vessels. The card you posted goes up to July 1920 and appears to have been his original card, hence the photo.

If you can't access this second card let me know.

Lovely picture, thanks for posting, especially young Georgie.

Hello all
Yes dickiesam, I did have the second card for William, but never noticed the different number!
I cannot thank you all enough for your generosity in sharing information with a total stranger, just wish I still lived at home so I could attend the meetings.
All the best, Annette

If ever you visit Merseyside you would be welcome at any of our Group Meetings.