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THANKS

I AM IN LIVERPOOL

Ah - so it's not the Walleys your interest is focused on. The people whose posts I saw elsewhere on the net aren't you then, I guess!

Are you here in Canada?

Do you know whether the vessel was part of the Mercantile Marine during WWI?

If so, there is this database:

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/atlantic/merchant_search

It appears that it wasn't -- there is no return on a search for vessel Crooks, and the four returns for surname Johnson were all on different vessels.

my great great grandparents George Rodney Johnson and Sarah Vlaughn lost four grandsons at one time on a schooner called the 'Bessie A. Crooks', which was lost on January 26th, 1917 in the Gulf of Pernambuco, Brazil

thanks all

The posts I'm seeing elsewhere on the internet, indicating no info about Edward post 1882, may be very old, but this is more fun than working.


Name: Edward Arthur Walley + Charlotte Reven
Year of Registration: 1879
Quarter of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar
District: Liverpool (1837-1934)
County: Lancashire
Volume: 8b
Page: 83

Have you seen this record for Edward in the 1881 English census?


Name: Edward Walley
Age: 25
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1856
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Charlotte
Gender: Male
Where born: Windsor Nsb Subject
(i.e. Windsor, NS, B. Subject)

Civil Parish: Liverpool
County/Island: Lancashire
Country: England

Street address: 20 Norfolk St.
Condition as to marriage: Married
Occupation: Mariner

Registration district: Liverpool
Sub-registration district: St Thomas
ED, institution, or vessel: 12

Charlotte Walley 25
Edward Walley 25
Henry F. Walley 2
Mary E. Walley 4

Ah, I see someone already has a lot of Walley family info:

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/NOVA-SCOTIA/2002-08/1029702888


But just in case you don't have the actual Cdn census entry, this is 1901:


Name: Fred L Walley
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Age: 49
Birth Date: 20 Jun 1851
Birthplace: Ns
Relation to Head of House: Head
Spouse's Name: Fanny L
Racial or Tribal Origin: English
Nationality: Canadian
Religion: Methodist
Occupation: M Mariner
Province: Nova Scotia
District: Hants
District Number: 34
Sub-District: Hantsport
Sub-District Number: F-1
Family Number: 70
Page: 7

Fred L Walley 49
Fanny L Walley 48
Campbell E Walley 22
Percy B Walley 14

For a tiny bit of FL Walley stuff, go here:

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/

and put "walley" in the search box at the top.

Actually, the results all seem to be the same thing, an oil painting:

Brigs and Barques:
Images and Artworks from the Age of Sail
"Barque Bertie Bigelow, Yarmouth, N.S.; F.L.Walley, Master"

No further info, but the archives might be able to provide some, e.g. date.

A different painting -- two, actually -- of the same vessel here, both dated 1878:

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/pm.php?id=record_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000269&rd=140003
http://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/cin/026019-119.01-e.php?&nl_id_nbr=4363&&PHPSESSID=n1vd2ekk82o118tq237edg1km3

Google "bertie bigelow".

If you could get an official number for that vessel (you seem to know more about that sort of thing), you might find a crew list that would include Fred Walley.

Hiya, HH -- was it you posted the mesage here?

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/Mariners/2002-09/1031134130

(googled)

The info there looks a little different:

"... Captain, Master Mariner, Frederick Walley (F.L. Walley), Hantsport, Nova Scotia ..."

It seems that Crooks was the owner, Walley the master.

Looking at the Canadian censuses, there's a Fred Walley in NS in 1901, born c1851 in Halifax. There are other Walleys in NS in 1911, no Fred. A mariner would likely have been at sea, I suppose, and I don't think Cdn censuses accounted for them.

There's a Fred Whalley well inland in Quebec in 1901 and 1911, born c1880 in England.


But aha; in 1911:


Name: Bessie Crooks
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Married
Age: 45
Birth Date: Mar 1866
Birthplace: Nova Scotia
Family Number: 43
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Spouse's Name: Arthur
Tribal: Scotch (Scotish)

Name: Arthur Crooks
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Age: 43
Birth Date: Nov 1867
Birthplace: Nova Scotia
Family Number: 43
Relation to Head of House: Head
Spouse's Name: Bessie
Tribal: English

Province: Nova Scotia
District: Guysborough
District Number: 44
Sub-District Number: 17
Place of Habitation: Spanish Ship Bay
Census Year: 1911
Page: 5

Arthur Crooks 43
Bessie Crooks 45
Hilda Crooks 18
Hazel Crooks 16
Wilfrid Crooks 15
Roby Crooks 13
Sarah Crooks 11
Clarence Crooks 9
Maud Crooks 8
Maxwell Crooks 4


I don't know whether that info will be of any use.


Meanwhile, it's possible you could get some assistance from the Maritime History Archive at Memorial University in St John's, Newfoundland:

http://www.mun.ca/mha/

You may well have already tried there. I did search that Official Number and there were no holdings.

Neither TNA catalogue, or Newfoundland Maritime Archive have an entry for this ship - I searched using the ships number.

AM TRYING TO FIND THE CREW OF THIS SHIP THANKS

BESSIE A. CROOKS - 1913-1917
Official Number: 131203
Master: Captain A. Crooks
Rigging: wood, 3 masts Schooner; 1 deck
Tonnage: 241 tons gross, 188 under deck and 199 net
Dimensions: 110.6 feet long, 28.6 foot beam and holds 10.4 feet deep
Construction: 1913, D.C. Mulhall in Nova Scotia
Owners: A. Crooks
Port of registry: Bridgetown, Barbadoes MISSING Jan. 1917