Hi again I am quite happy to be told otherwise but ships carpenters were always time served and very much a trade Personally I cannot see a clerk, storeman or purser all of which may have been carried out by the same man being found as a carpenter at any time Ships carpenters were a vital part of the ships crew, moreso in the days of sail and less so with the iron ships but still necessary, perhaps they needed to be more versatile in later years but an ordinary seaman would not have passed for a carpenter No more than a carpenter would pass for a purser or clerk I would be more than surprised if the carpenter is your missing man If you post the census refs you have perhaps we can find more You say he must have died after 1887 when he is given as father on the marriage cert Did he act as witness? otherwise the lack of the word "deceased" does not mean a great deal, information was only as good as the informants knowledge (or honesty) and they gave what they were asked for If the question was , "your fathers name?", thats what would be given , fathers occupation is very often a little elevated on marriage certs, but purser would fit with a clerk or accountants clerk He could of course have simply legged it with the barmaid from the Rose & Crown <g> Stranger things have been known to happen Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > Nivard, > > I did say that he was shown in the 1881 census as a ship's steward. This was > incorrect; it was the birth certificate of one of his children in 1881 that > showed him as a ship's steward. The 1887 record showing him as a purser was > the marriage certificate of another child. Joseph had married Elizabeth > Simmons in Liverpool in 1864. The last census record I have of him in 1861 > when he was described as an accountant's clerk living with his parents at > Kirkdale, Liverpool. His wife and children can be found on the 1871 census > but he is missing so he may have been away at sea although in 1879 on > another child's birth certificate he is described as a storekeeper. > > I cannot find his death in England/Wales. I know that he must have died or > was missing presumed dead sometime after the last record of him in 1887 and > 1891 when the census shows that Joseph's brother was living with Joseph's > wife and describing themselves as man and wife although they were not > married. (It was still illegal at that time for a man to marry his brother's > wife). > > I had the impression that it was quite possible that a man may go to sea on > one voyage as a purser and another as a carpenter and that ship's carpenters > were not what we, today, know as time served tradesmen. I think that the 10 > year difference in age could well be just an error. He certainly did not die > in the area where his home was. I have been through all the burial and well > as death records. > > David