Ernest Alfred Adams Edwards

[Phoenix]

Ernest was baptised in Sidmouth, Devon 22 December 1843:

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=gbprs%2fdev%2f007271097%2f00110&parentid=gbprs%2fdev%2fbap%2f727672&highlights=%22%22

There is no obvious reason why his birth should not be in civil registration, but I can't find it.

He is on the 1851 census in the Coast Guard Cottage with his mother and elder sisters in Rame, Cornwall, aged 7:

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=gbc%2f1851%2f4273373%2f00197&parentid=gbc%2f1851%2f0009355263&highlights=%22%22

Then he disappears. He is mentioned in the will of his half-brother Osman Frederick Adams Edwards who died in India in 1865, but nothing else.

I assume that, like Osman and Charles his elder brothers, he joined the merchant navy but I can find no trace. Can anyone see him, anywhere?

[kiterunner]

Birth registration wasn't mandatory at that time so it could be that his birth wasn't registered, but I'll have a look.

[kiterunner]

I didn't find anything; sorry.

[Phoenix]

Thanks for looking, Kite.

Charles joined the ranks of the great and the good, and died, full of years, in Australia. Osman blazed a trail to India. My ancestor stayed in Devon all his life. Ernest had plenty of choices. He could have ended his days in Russia or South America, or anywhere in between.

[lutey]

Ernest Alfred Adams Edwards was mentioned in the North Devon Gazette 30 April 1889,he died under mysterious circumstances aged 44 in Austrailia

[crawfie]

Australian death index has his death as 7 Jun 1888. The report in the Devon Gazette says he died in New Zealand, but he actually died in Walkerston, Queensland.

[Mary from Italy]

He was found dead, apparently of natural causes.

Australian newspaper report:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/167930585?searchTerm=Edwards%20AND%20walkerston&searchLimits=l-decade=188|||l-year=1888|||sortby=dateAsc|||l-month=6

[Phoenix]

Thank you everyone, especially lutey!

Dear me, wouldn't we both kill for a sight of those letters!

What a very sad end for the man, especially since his family would not have found out for some time.

Can anyone work out who his sister was?

Jane Adams Webber was in America by 1881
It is suggested that Ellen died in 1855.
This leaves Elizabeth Adams Rogers b 1841 in Plymouth - but it looks as if she was in prison in 1881! and possibly with "cousin" Helen Slope in Maker, Cornwall in 1891

[Phoenix]

Never trust a newspaper!!

This is Elizabeth in 1871, living at View House: http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=gbc%2f1871%2f2228%2f0132&parentid=gbc%2f1871%2f0005334683&highlights=%22%22
But it's in Maker, not Bideford.

[Phoenix]

There is lots more available in the four years since I started this thread - including Ernest's inquest and his burial.

Ernest EDWARDS 1888
File no: 257
Item ID: 348755
M/film no: 88074
Description: Inquests held before a coroner to establish the fact of death, the identity of the deceased, the circumstances surrounding the death and whether any charges should be laid relating to the death.
Item details
Price: $20.30


Ernest Edwards
Birth unknown
Death 10 Jul 1888
Burial
Walkerston Cemetery
Walkerston, Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia
Plot C of E Section 1, Line # 1, Plot 2
Memorial ID 189299869 · View Source

Memorial
Photos 0
Flowers 0

Gravesite Details aged 45 yrs

Ernest A. Edwards
Event date: 07/06/1888
Event type: Death registration
Registration details: 1888/C/2564
Products available:
Mother: -
Father/parent: -


But this still leaves a huge gap. He allegedly emigrated c1873, but he is not (so far as I can see) on any English censuses after 1851.



I assume he started off as a sailor and if he died in a tent he probably wasn't on any electoral rolls.



Can anyone see him - either emigrating or in Australia between 1851 and 1888?