Success in Australia

fmackay · Post by **fmackay** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:07 pm

Thought I would share my recent success in finding information about one of my greatuncles.
James Mackay died in 1925 - that's all we knew - a date and a mention on the family gravestone.
After almost a year of deciding whether I would send for his death certificate I took the plunge.
When I received it i thought I had the wrong person as James's parents names were wrong - however after posting my dilemma on TS I decied to hang in there.
I "googled" the name of the town and sent off an email to the equivalent of our local council.
I got a lovely email back from a lady called Alex who could confirm that after checking their records that a James Mackay did indeed live in their town and was mentioned in several local books etc. She said she would get back to me with some more info.
Going back to the wrong christian names of James's parents - his death was registered by his partner who I assumed meant personal partner. Turned out it was his business partner in whose house poor James had suddenly dropped down dead - thus explaining perhaps why he got the names wrong.
Since then I have received numerous snippets, information etc about James's life in Australia which has been absolutely wonderful to read about.
I also happened to mention it to one of my newly found distant cousins who lives in WA and she very kindly took a detour from one of her trips and actually went to the town and spoke to my very kind contact,Alex, and also sent me heaps more info regarding electoral rolls etc so now I am able to more or less trace James's steps from the time he entered Australia until his untimely death.
I have to say it's a bittersweet success as he had no family and doesn't even have a proper headstone although the grave is clearly marked. I have been unable to find a photo of him - I could well have it among the many unnamed photos I have but have no way of knowing for sure. My one longshot is that the family of James's partner might have a photo of him and that is my next step as I now have names of his family and intend writing to them soon.

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 10:55 pm

Hi Fiona
Good to hear of your sucess in tracking James down ...and it gives us all hope that persistence pays off! Although maybe not what you had hoped for, at least you know now what happened to him. Well done!! =D> ...and best of luck with your follow-on research. I hope it is fruitful.

best wishes
Lesley

fmackay · Post by **fmackay** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 11:24 pm

Thanks Lesley - on a roll now!!

ChrisC. · Post by **ChrisC.** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 4:23 am

Good to hear of your success! Well done.
I have had a small success,I have found a living relative who is coming to Australia next week on holiday.Very exciting.

fmackay · Post by **fmackay** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:12 am

Thanks ChrisC

As yet have had no reply from James's partners family but that's ok. Just glad I could find out what happened to him,where he was buried etc.

Now to find his brother George who is also believed to have gone to Australia!