Your experiences - passenger list puzzle

Thanks to all of you who sent us your experiences of researching your family tree. We’ve received lots of fascinating stories - read on for Irene Conway in Walmer, Kent’s story:

‘My maternal grandfather George Wilce travelled to Canada in 1903 and was supposed to have died on board the ship he was on but I could find no record of his death. I had looked for several years but drawn a blank each time until a helpful man at the Records Centre, when it was in Islington, found him for me via the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. I had been looking for an Englishman, who was in fact born in Aberdeen, and found that he had enlisted in Toronto in 1917 in the 48th Highlanders as a Canadian. That’s the background.

I had found a ‘G Wilce’ on findmypast.co.uk’s passenger lists shown as a plumber, single and aged 33 and ignored it as it didn’t fit with what I knew - as did another family history researcher. The man who found the CWGC death record told me to look up Canada collections and this I did. I also checked their passenger lists and it seems that when grandfather left Liverpool (a month after his marriage to my grandmother!) on the ‘Lake Champlain’ he was shown on the passenger list as detailed above; however, on arriving in Canada he was shown as a labourer, single and aged 21.

I sent to Canada for his military record and this was most definitely my grandfather, his record showing his mother as next-of-kin at her address in Woolwich, South-East London which tallied with the copy I have of my grandparents’ marriage certificate.

He didn’t see active service, however, as he died within a few months of landing in England and is buried at Bramshott cemetery in Hampshire - one of apparently 99 Canadian servicemen who died here in England.

When I was a member of a local family history group I was told that passenger lists should show the same information when leaving this country and when arriving at the final destination but obviously there are exceptions to the rule!’

If you have an experience you’d like to share with us and our readers, email casestudies@findmypast.co.uk with ‘My experience’ in the subject line. We look forward to reading your stories!

3 Responses to “Your experiences - passenger list puzzle”

1. Angela G says:

   28 June 2010 at 9:36 am

   I too have an ancestor who enlisted in 1916 in Toronto (Canadian Expeditionary Forces) and he provides information that his sisters who were living at Highland Creek Ontario then as being his next of kin, despite having a wife and two year old son in England. What he and sisters were doing in Canada we have no idea, and as we cannot find his marriage in the UK just assumed they hadn’t officially tied the knot. However, reading the above, I wonder if there was some special reason two men claim to be single when they were not, was it a requisite on joining up in Canada and how many others said the same?

   Reply
   • Irene Conway says:

     8 July 2010 at 6:24 pm

     Hi Angela
     A postcript to my story of an errant grandfather is that in about 1908 he left Canada & landed in America at Rouse’s Point leaving another’wife’ behind in Montreal & ended up living in Georgia. When the USA entered WWI he then skipped over to Canada to enlist. It makes one wonder what he was running from that!
     Good luck with your research.
     Irene

     Reply
2. Lisa says:

   9 April 2012 at 11:23 pm

   I have a Great Grandfather who arrived on the Royal Edward Ship on Feb 12 1913. The trail dies there, he left a wife and 4 sons to get “settled” and then send for them, he was never heard from again’ does anyone have any advise on where I go from here? Lisa

   Reply