Hi Graeme I've just been browsing through the death notices in the Times Digital Archives for late April/early May and found the following entry on 6 May 1870 "On the 29th April, at Mentone, Miss LEWIS, formerly of Claughton, Birkenhead." Could this be your Martha? Could Mewstone in the Mercury be a mistranscription for Mentone? On GoogleEarth I see that Claughton Birkenhead is near Liverpool and in FreeBDMs the closest person in the deaths is Lewis Martha 47 Liverpool 8b136 I can't find a place called Mentone in the UK on Google Earth. cheers Jenny Bruny Island TAS "Graeme" <Graeme@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:1f5ce7b350%Graeme@greywall.demon.co.uk... > In message <4aeeb9f9$0$1783$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au> > "Jenny Chester" <jennychester@bordernet.com.au> wrote: > >> Hi Graeme - here's another idea - given that Martha Lewis died on 20 >> April >> 1870 and that 2 death notices appeared in the Mercury 3 months after her >> death ie on 21 July 1870 and 11 August 1870, which is probably the length >> of time it would take for word of her death to reach John in Tassie, I >> wonder if she died in the UK at a place called Mewstone? Have you tried >> to track her through the UK census records? cheers Jenny >> > > That I hadn't thought of, the time lapse is certainly suggestive. It just > seems a bit of a coincidence. The English equivalent is the Great Mew > Stone > off Plymouth in Devon. There's no Devon connection that I know of for the > family. > > As to the censuses, I can't reliably identify a specific Martha Lewis, > it's > too common a name. > > A check on FreeBMD doesn't show a death for a woman of her age (she would > have been 51) in England or Wales. > > -- > Graeme Wall > > My genealogy website <www.greywall.demon.co.uk/genealogy/>

In message <4af20f18$0$6090$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au> "Jenny Chester" <jennychester@bordernet.com.au> wrote: > Hi Graeme > > I've just been browsing through the death notices in the Times Digital > Archives for late April/early May and found the following entry on 6 May > 1870 "On the 29th April, at Mentone, Miss LEWIS, formerly of Claughton, > Birkenhead." > > Could this be your Martha? Could Mewstone in the Mercury be a > mistranscription for Mentone? On GoogleEarth I see that Claughton > Birkenhead is near Liverpool and in FreeBDMs the closest person in the > deaths is Lewis Martha 47 Liverpool 8b136 That sounds a likely explanation, thanks. Easy for a copywriter in Hobart to go for what appeared to be a local name. > > I can't find a place called Mentone in the UK on Google Earth. > Mentone is in the South of France I believe. It is a popular name for smaller hotels and guest houses in the UK apparently. Another sibling died in Lausanne in Switzerland so it is not unlikely that Martha had retired to sunnier climes. By that period of the 19th Century the French was a popular holidaying and retirement area for the middle classes so the Times could reasonably expect it's readers to know where it was without any further qualiication. Talking of 19th century middle classes if you lived in Birkenhead you had nothing to do with Liverpool. The former was in genteel Cheshire, the latter in dirty working class Lancashire. -- Graeme Wall My genealogy website <www.greywall.demon.co.uk/genealogy/>

There is a Mentone in Victoria on Port Phillip Bay. Named after the resort town in the south of France.