Dear fellow Listers, My, Bergh Apton born, gt gt grandfather was a mariner who drowned at sea according to family lore - and the fact he was deceased when his baby son was Christened in 1844. Thanks to the newly available: http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ I have tracked down the day his boat went missing and "great fears were entertained for the safety of....".9th December 1843 I have been looking for any news for the past 20 years so this has been quite a breakthrough. I also found reports of hundreds of similar tragedies where sometimes the crew are named. I was then able to find earlier reports of happier times when his boat arrived safely home - from France (which was news to me) laden with apples, onions and furniture. Best wishes, Jane researching BLAKE;NICHOLS in Norfolk http://www.kosmoid.net/roots/index.htm

How wonderful for you. I'm ready to dance around for you, and I don't even know you because I had a similar experience. I was able to track down the death of my ggggrandfather , John Bowhey, at sea, March 16, 1846 by using crew lists, then went to Bristol (and I live in California) and found a newspaper account of the death which is very precious to me. The thought of being able to learn so much about his life and death had not been in my wildest dreams. My ancestors were all ag labs, cordwainers and a few mariners, so I had not expected to find much beyond dates. Here's the final sentence of the newspaper article about his death: "The poor fellow has left a wife and seven small children destitute by his death." That sentence was sadly prophetic-- one girl died at 16 of consumption, another son left a huge destitute family in London, and became a bigamist who moved to Wales. another son's young family ended up in workhouse after he and his wife died of typhus-- two of tho! se daughters were sent to Canada, and my own gggrandmother left her husband in Wales because he drank too much, emigrated to the US with the Mormons and married a Mormon polygamist (while still married to the man in Wales). My Norfolk ancestors were more upstanding. :) However, my point here is that it's so amazing what we can find now with the aid of the internet and internet communities like this. You may be able to find more about your mariner ancestor by looking at ship's crew lists, and it would not be difficult since you know the name of the ship. The list will tell you what ship he came from You could also look for a seaman's ticket and even may find a physical description there. The crew lists may show you what food was provided for the trip, or the cargo, and will show destinations for each voyage. It will take a bit of time to go through them and understand the organization, but since you know a name of a ship, the port and the year, you've got the information to narrow it down a great deal. Here is the reference for the film from the LDS Family History Library where I found my ancestor BT 98/874 Bristol O-Z 1846 VAULT BRITISH Film 910417. The BT number is from the National Archives so you could look there for more information about how to search the series and what it contains. I found that my ancestor had been on several early steamers, and noticed that when he changed ships, he frequently changed with a group of old friend and family. The newspaper account of his death mentioned those names on the ship. Here's the information from his seaman's ticket to give you an example of why that's worth looking for: British Transcript 113/41 Public Record office FHL British film 182535 > Name and Description > No. of 81117 Register Ticket > John Bowhey > Born at Dartmouth In the > County of Devon 23 day of June 1812 > Capacity Seaman > Height 5 ft 7 in > Complexion Dark > Marks none > Hair Brown > Eyes Hazel > First went to sea as Apprentice > in the Year 1827 > Has served in the Royal Navy No > Has been in Foreign Service No > When unemployed, resides at Bristol > Issued at Newport 9 day of Dec 1844 > Age in 1841 33 > Age when Ticketed 32 > Can write Yes I'll paste in the newspaper article at the end of this email in case you're interested. Congratulations on the find! Paula On Dec 12, 2011, at 1:41 AM, Jane Kelly wrote: > Dear fellow Listers, > > My, Bergh Apton born, gt gt grandfather was a mariner who drowned at sea > according to family lore - and the fact he was deceased when his baby son > was Christened in 1844. Thanks to the newly available: > http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ > I have tracked down the day his boat went missing and "great fears were > entertained for the safety of....".9th December 1843 > I have been looking for any news for the past 20 years so this has been > quite a breakthrough. I also found reports of hundreds of similar tragedies > where sometimes the crew are named. > > I was then able to find earlier reports of happier times when his boat > arrived safely home - from France (which was news to me) laden with apples, > onions and furniture. > > Best wishes, > > Jane > researching > BLAKE;NICHOLS in Norfolk > http://www.kosmoid.net/roots/index.htm

Hi Jane Wow, I am so pleased for you, knocking down a brickwall after such a long search. Sometimes it seems like somethings we will never find, but never give up, for as you have just shown, rewards can be found. Congratulations on your findings and sharing your happiness with us all. Regards Veronica Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jane Kelly" <jane.kelly2@virgin.net> To: <norfolk@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 8:41 PM Subject: [NFK] Ancestor's death found at last Dear fellow Listers, My, Bergh Apton born, gt gt grandfather was a mariner who drowned at sea according to family lore - and the fact he was deceased when his baby son was Christened in 1844. Thanks to the newly available: http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ I have tracked down the day his boat went missing and "great fears were entertained for the safety of....".9th December 1843 I have been looking for any news for the past 20 years so this has been quite a breakthrough. I also found reports of hundreds of similar tragedies where sometimes the crew are named. I was then able to find earlier reports of happier times when his boat arrived safely home - from France (which was news to me) laden with apples, onions and furniture. Best wishes, Jane researching BLAKE;NICHOLS in Norfolk http://www.kosmoid.net/roots/index.htm ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NORFOLK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message