Missing Person .....

[Caroline]

Can anyone give me some ideas on how to trace a relative who went to Australia in the 1950s from Glasgow and has never been heard of since.

His name is Donald Alexander Mackay Strang and he was born in 1932 in Glasgow.

I haven't a clue where to start!

Caroline

[mandmck]

Hi Caroline,

I have just done a search on the New South Wales BDM site and there are 2 or 3 Donald Alexander Mackay's listed as deceased during the years 1950 - 1970.

Here is the website which you can search for free and in the search results it shows parents names which might provide you with further clarification. You can also search for births and marriages - the birth range will not help as it stops at 1905, but the marriages go through to 1954 so you might be lucky if he got married.

www.bdm.nsw.gov.au

I hope you find footprints that he may have left behind.

[StewL]

Hi this is him he arrived in 1959, but I don’t know what state he landed and settled in.
This is the source of the information:

http://www.naa.gov.au

Email address: archives@naa.gov.au


Title
STRANG Donald Alexander Mckay born 4 February 1932; travelled per FAIRSKY departing UK on 31 March 1959 under the Assisted Passage Scheme

Item barcode Series number Series accession number
7319085 A2877 A1877/1

Control symbol
31/03/1959 FAIRSKY STRANG D A M

Access status Not yet examined

[Caroline]

Hi Stewie,

That's brilliant -thanks for your help.

At least I now know when he left Glasgow. Is there any way that I can find out where he landed in Australia or if he is still alive? Would the archives be able to give me any help?

I tried the NSW BMD site but I found no Donald Strang unfortunately.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Caroline

[StewL]

Hi Caroline

I had a look at the records in different capital cities but nothing popped up for your Donald, only on the records held in Canberra.

There seems to be a halt on "digitising" images at the National Archives, but not sure what that is all about.
Will have a look at seeing if the documents? are available, but I lost my list of sources after a major computer crash, so bear with me if it seems to take a while.

[Caroline]

Thanks for offering to do that Stewie and don't worry about it taking some time. Look forward to seeing what you can uncover!

Caroline

[MaryE]

Caroline

You can search the international telephone directories at www.infobel.com/teldir. The Australian one is specifically at www.whitepages.com.au.

You have to search each state in turn and within that by metropolitan area or regional area but there aren't all that many entries under the name of D Strang. It might be worth writing to each one. Interestingly there is an entry for DMA Strang in Victoria under the metropolitan area - right initials but wrong order. I would think this one is definitely worth trying!

I was able to find someone in Australia for a lady in her late 70's. It was a brother she hadn't even known existed until a few months before as she had been adopted by another family before he was born. We were fortunate in that it was an unusual surname with two initials. We didn't even know that he had gone to Australia - we just searched every directory in turn. She had also emigrated to Australia as a young married woman and they have now met up with each other. He was able to tell her a little about the mother she couldn't even remember.

Mary

[Caroline]

Hi Mary,

Sorry for taking so long to reply to your post.

Unfortunately I've just had a reply from the National Archives to say that Donald's not on the electoral rolls for 2003 or 1990, so it looks as though he might have died. They have said I could purchase a copy of the immigrant record that's mentioned previously but would that give me any more info?

A relative is now saying that he thinks Donald might have moved on to New Zealand! Does anyone know how I can start researching there?

Caroline

[Stephan]

Hello...

New Zealand has about 4 million population .... no very big.... so go to White Pages ( www.whitepages.co.nz ) and look up STRANG D for the whole country and there is 7 names with only 4 being STRANG DA.

Personally one way would be to drop them a letter, explain your circumstances, and see if you get a nibble.


Hope this is of some help...

Regards

Stephan

[Caroline]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for that, will probably take that course of action. However I was wondering do you have somewhere like the National Archives in New Zealand that I could access online to find out if there are any records relating to my relative?

Caroline