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DetEcTive -" Unknown" indeed thanks all for the wonderful work you have done.!

My name is Christine, by the way and I have altered my profile to reflect that, but it doesn't seem to have cut over to this thread. I am new to this, so please bear with me!

Chrissiex seems to have information about Rowland's children I didn't have. Thank you so much and I will investigate that. I have contacted various Church of England sites re Fred and am awaiting a response. Thanks so much, folks!

Christine.

it was all from clever googling Christine ( well, not so terribly clever to start with since the name was unusual and turned out to have been passed on to the son ! ) ... I hope those contact possibilities turn out to be the family of the right Norman Addison :-)

They did do well, didn't they Christine? :-D :-D That's the beauty of this site - everyone has hidden talents and are willing to share their expertize.

If you want to hide your true name, log into 'my account'.

Then where it says 'First Name' put the name you want to be known as in there. Apart from your gender, leave anything else blank.

As it is at the moment, if anyone clicks on your board name, they can see your true name.

Perhaps when you entered the change, you didn't scroll down and click 'save'?

Thank you very much, all of you!

There is some absolutely marvellous information here and I will enjoy checking it all out.

So glad I signed up!

Christine

Thank you for all your replies, they have been most helpful and I now have a lot of information about my paternal grandmother's family, the Addisons of Accrington.

I have managed to track mostly all of them through the years and am very pleased with the progress made. I have discovered living cousins in Canada I had no prior knowledge of, although, having introduced themselves, they don't seem willing to engage in further communication. You win some, you lose some, I suppose! :-(

However, I have been unable to trace a death record for my great-grandfather James William Addison. He was born on 20th May 1859 in Church, Lancashire and became an insurance agent. I believe he died sometime between 1905 and 1911. I cannot trace him in any year, in any part of the country that fits with his age. I have no evidence to believe he went abroad, so it's a complete mystery. His son Fred became senior in the Manchester clergy and Fred registered the deaths of both his mother and sister. It would seem likely that he would have registered his father's death too.

I have a hunch ( and no proof whatsoever) that James may have left the family, but there seems to be no trace of him after the 1901 census. Anyone got any ideas as to how and where I might get some clues?

Christine

so those Canadian contacts did turn out to be the right people ? hurray :-)

one never knows with cousins ... even if one finds them because they are interested in family history too ( like through this site ), well, I know sometimes I have wished I hadn't ... there are some descendants of my Northamptonshire great-great-grandparents who live in the US and vote republican and I wish I had never heard of them !

you should send them all Christmas cards with a big family photo and a brief family tree :-D


now ... there is no death 1901 to 1911 for a James William or W Addison of that age, why do you think he died then ?

if he was your great-grandfather you know who his wife was ? ( maybe it's in the thread but for clarity now just let us know his wife and children and what any censuses say )


is this them in 1891 ?

Name: James W Addison
Age: 31
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1860
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Catherine Addison
Gender: Male
Where born: Church, Lancashire, England

Civil parish: Headingley With Burley
Town: Headingley
County/Island: Yorkshire

James W Addison 31
Catherine Addison 32
Fred Addison 10
Rowland Addison 8
Anny Addison 5
Olive Addison 1


Marriages Sep 1879
> Addison James William Haslingden 8e 189
HOGAN Maria Haslingden 8e 189
McDonnell Michael Haslingden 8e 189
> MOON Catherine Haslingden 8e 189

Deaths Mar 1905
Addison Catherine 46 Haslingden 8e 103


1901 in Accrington Haslingden

Catherine Addison 42 ... head married
Fred Addison 20
Rowland Addison 18
Amy Addison 15
Olive Addison 11


James in 1901 in Sculcoates

Name: James W Addison
Age: 41
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1860
Relation: Boarder
Gender: Male
Where born: Accrington, Lancashire, England
married commission agent ( insurance )

Thanks for your reply, Chrissie.

James William married Catherine Moon in 1879. I have their marriage certificate and Catherine's death certificate ( she passed away in 1905 ). I have traced her elder son's Fred's family and what happened to them.

Younger son Rowland went to Canada in 1908 and I have established who his descendants were. The person who contacted me via Ancestry Canada is his great-granddaughter.

James William's middle daughter Amy was my grandmother. The youngest daughter, Olive, died in 1910.

Fred married in October 1911 and James is shown as 'dec'd' on the marriage certificate. He is also shown as 'deceased' on Amy's marriage certificate in 1919.

When Catherine died in 1905, she is listed as 'Wife of James William Addison' rather than 'Widow'. Likewise, his daughter Olive's death certificate does not show him as deceased in 1910, although he may have been.

I assumed that on the night of the 1901 census, he was shown as a boarder in Hull because his job would have necessitated travel and that just happened to be where he was at the time. Now, I am starting to wonder if he had actually permanently moved out of the family home. Having said that, I have no evidence of anyone with his name and age dying anywhere in the country in the timescale I have.

Of course, he could have changed his name and altered his age - it seemed to happen often back then! But prior to that, all the information seemed to be spot on and I would have assumed that a death certificate would contain the correct information.

If he was an insurance salesman, you might assume he would be insured himself and then there would most certainly have to be a death cert. Besides, his son Fred seems to have been methodical in record-keeping.

So...... I just don't know. I am starting to wonder if he just vanished and Fred and Amy simply assumed he'd died because they didn't know what happened to him.

true, he would have had life insurance ! :-)

I thought the same, he was travelling on business in 1901, although Catherine did describe herself as 'head' and even when the male head was away it would usually say 'wife'

he may have partnered with someone else and made out his life insurance to her ...

there is only this one

Deaths Jun 1908
ADDISON James William 38 Sheffield 9c 307

could he have lied about his age to a new partner such that she believed he was that young ? but no that one seems accounted for in 1901 ...

Name: James William Addison
Age: 30
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1871
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Kate Addison ... she appears to be a widow in 1911
Gender: Male
Where born: Nk, Norfolk, England

Civil parish: Brightside Bierlow
Registration district: Sheffield


a mystery .....................

Christine - I presume you know Amy's grandparents, but just in case:


Baptism: 12 Jun 1859 St James, Church Kirk, Lancashire, England
James William Addison - [Child] of George Addison & Alice
Abode: Church
Occupation: Labourer
Baptised by: J. Birchall
Register: Baptisms 1854 - 1883, Page 91, Entry 724
Source: LDS Film 1470823

Lancashire Birth indexes for the years: 1859
Surname Forename(s) Sub-District Registers At Mother's Maiden Name Reference
ADDISON James William Oswaldtwistle Preston WALSH OS/17/29


Lancashire Birth indexes for the years: 1858
Surname Forename(s) Sub-District Registers At Mother's Maiden Name Reference
MOON Catharine Poulton-le-Fylde Blackpool LIGHTFOOT PLF/14/35

Marriage: 14 Nov 1854 All Hallows, Bispham, Lancashire, England
John Moon - 21 Farmer Bachelor of Blackpool
Ann Lightfoot - 22 Spinster of Blackpool
Groom's Father: John Moon, Farmer
Bride's Father: John Lightfoot, Farmer
Witness: Robert Cornall; Elizabeth Lightfoot
Married by Banns by: Henry Powell
Register: Marriages 1837 - 1881, Page 97, Entry 190
Source: LDS Film 1526146

Chrissiex - I don't agree re:
"Catherine did describe herself as 'head' and even when the male head was away it would usually say 'wife'."
I would say it's not usually the case - usually the wife would say Head, but for her to say Wife was not uncommon. One consequence of her saying Wife is a bit unexpected - Ancestry and Family Search both use Head to delimit h/hs, so when she says Wife, her h/h gets rolled into the previous h/h (and that head can wind up with 2 wives). I have rellies from Peterhead and Fraserburgh, both North Sea fishing ports, and the menfolk would often be away on census night (although not in my families).

In the 1921 Toronto city directory, Rowland's a clerk:
http://www.archive.org/stream/torontodirec192100midiuoft#page/511/mode/1up

Keystone Ave is a blk S of Danforth, maybe 6km E of Queens Park.
# 7 is on the S side, almost at Cedarvale, so a couple of blks E of Woodbine.
It's got a blue door now, and looks like half a duplex (semi-detached for Brits).

Look up Keystone at http://maps.google.com/ then switch to stret view under "more" in left margin.

Thanks for your input, folks. Since my posts yesterday, I have found a response from one of my Canadian rellies - her email had gone to my junk box by mistake. James's grandaughter is still alive in Canada, so I'm hoping she may be able to shed some light on what happened to him.

Fingers crossed that the mystery does eventually get solved!