What happened to my great great grandfather?
Q My great grandfather, Charles Frederick Marsh, was born on 28 June 1869 in Kilkenny, Ireland, the son of William Marsh and Ann Elizabeth Hayward.
Like his father, Charles joined the Royal Artillery. He married Christina Ludford on 17 February 1887 in Londonderry, where they had four children: Charlotte Victoria (10 July 1887), Thomas William (3 July 1889), Frederick (2 May 1891) and James Ludford Marsh (21 September 1893).
The family moved from Ireland to Newcastle during the late 1890s, where Christina died and was buried in September 1897 in Byker. Charles was the informant on the death certificate, which states that he was now working as a railway clerk.
A short while later, Charles abandoned his family and seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. All four children appear on the 1901 census as inmates in the Westgate Road Workhouse in Newcastle.
I have, however, found a Charles F Marsh with the same birthdate as my Charles F Marsh on the 1939 Register, living at 7 Albion Row in Cambridge. But his 1940 death certificate and will only mention one other person, Emily Louisa Codling, who bears no obvious connection to the Marsh family.
Is there a way to prove definitively that this is ‘my’ Charles? Chris Hinchliffe
A Sometimes individuals can be difficult or impossible to trace. In the case of Charles Frederick Marsh, I was also unable to find him in the 1901 or 1911 census in the UK or in Ireland.
There is a possibility he could have emigrated, and it would be worthwhile looking at outbound passenger lists on ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk.
British Army birth, marriage and death records from WO69/579 at The National Archives (TNA), available via Ancestry, show that Charles’s siblings were born in Canada, which could be where he travelled to after his wife died. However, he may have changed his
name, which would make the search even more difficult.
There are also details of pensions awarded to soldiers who served in the Royal Artillery in series WO116 at TNA, which may provide information to assist the search. These records are currently available to browse and download at discovery. nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Eliza Jane, the sister of Charles Frederick Marsh, married John Tedlie in Ireland in 1889; in 1901 and 1911 they were in Byker. Researching close family connections may give clues to the location of Charles Frederick.
With regards to the Charles Frederick Marsh in Cambridge with the same birthdate, I also managed to find him in the electoral rolls for the area going back to 1918. He is first resident in Great Abington nearby. His death certificate states that he died in Mill Road, Cambridge, which was the site of the previous workhouse. It became Cambridge Infirmary in 1930 and eventually a maternity hospital.
The electoral rolls and the 1939 Register do not record him living with anyone else. The informant at his death, Emily Louisa Codling, may have been his housekeeper. Mike Trenchard