Queensland Death Certificate

[Tracey]

In the last few days i discovered that TNA (in the last three months) have added WW1 Merchant Seaman Records BT351 series to view and download.
The short of it is i now know my gt grandfather was alive till then.
The medal card has an address in Queensland (1922) Townsville so i looked at Queensland site for a possible death and their is one potential in 1942. On Scottish certs he is noted as dead by 1925 but thats not to say he was so...........

What information am i likely to find on a Queensland death cert. I see the charge for a death cert in Queensland equates to app £22 but thats within Aus, i cant see how much to send to U.K. so have emailed them.

Any help appreciated, thank you.

[trish1]

Australian death certificates aren't cheap but they contain much information. IF the informant knew the information (often indicated by having the correct parent names on the index) you will get from Queensland is

Name & occupation
when where died
sex and age
cause of death
duration last illness
medical attendant, when last saw deceased
name & occupation of father
Name & maiden surname of mother
Informant
Registrar, when & where registered
Burial or cremation - when, where, by whom
minister and witnesses
Where born, time in each Australian state
Where married
age at marriage
name of spouse
Names of living children
number and sex of deceased chldren

The Qld registry doesn't have online ordering, but I think you can order by snail mail using a credit card. Current exchange rate is 60p to the $1AU. Their service has improved by 1000s of % over the past few months - it used to take months to get a certificate or any useful information, but it seems they now have a much better service.

Queensland immigration records (and other archives indexes) are here
http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/research/indexes.asp

and I can check the online electoral rolls if you wanted to provide a name.

Trish

[Tracey]

Thank you Trish

I am clutching at straws here but.........
His name is William Donaldson (maybe under William Hartley Donaldson). There is a death for a WIlliam with parents William and mother Jane which his were.

On the medal card it has a name *Windimere* which i assume is the name of the ship but there is an address of Walker Street Townsville.

Tracey

[trish1]

Hi Tracey

I'm not having much luck in Townsville - however there are some probate notices in the SMH for a William Hartley Donaldson - late of Mackay (a little south of Townsville)

Fri 6 Nov 1942
In the Suprme Court of MSW - Probate - In the Estate of William Hartley Donaldson, late of Mackay in the State of Queensland, Waterside Worker, deceased intestate - administration to be granted to the Public Trustee

Friday 18 Dec 1942
William Hartley Donaldson late of Mackay, in the state of Qld waterside worker, died on 2nd May 1942 intestate. Administration was granted to the Public Trustee on 14th December 1942

http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/search?adv=y (search for the exact phrase - William Hartley Donaldson)

This is definitely the same person as per the death notice - as you can find the exact death date on the Qld BDM by searching specific date ranges & the death was 2nd May. I have NO idea why the NSW Public Trustee would get the administration when he lived and died in Qld - but perhaps he had family in NSW.

I will see if I can find anything else - Alan may have some ideas as to where to look. NSW probates at this time are probably at the NSW Archives. There is a fiche index to same at my state library - not sure what is online

Trish

[trish1]

Found him in Mackay 1936 and 1937
Electoral Rolls Queensland 1936 Herbert Mackay
Donaldson William 14 Victoria Street., seaman
(no-one with similar name at this address)

Same address & occupation 1937

There is a William Donaldson arriving on the "Limerick" into Townsville 1914
William H Donaldson on the Ventura 1916 from San Francisco - 1st class with Mrs Jennie

When was your William born? There is this one on FMP - from their free search
DONALDSON William H 1883 M 1924 London Australia Sydney

Searching on Ship name there is the above William and a William Hood Donaldson born 1911 on the Benalla in 1924. They are on a shipping list at the NAA
http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/record ... index.aspx search as a guest and select the passenger search tab

Trish

[trish1]

NSW archives search
http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/Search.aspx

If you type in William Donaldson Death he comes up in the list. I'm not sure how much detail would be available - I know at the Qld archives probate records after 1890 include death certificates. I will email my NSW transcript agent to see if he knows - he visits the NSW archives.

You can purchase probate packages from the NSW archives - order online - $30AU - so if it contained a death certificate - cheaper than buying same from the Qld registry.

mmm - looking at the SAG site it seems there may not be much information in the administration record
Administrations (officially Letters of Administration and often abbreviated to Admon) normally contain only a brief statement of how the estate has been disposed of by the court or administrator and cannot be expected to contain detailed information of genealogical interest.
http://www.sag.org.au/helping-you/resea ... ?task=view

Trish

[Tracey]

Huge hugTrish from rainy UK !!

Fantastic !!

He was born 1874 in Chapel en le Frith, Buxton, Derbyshire England but after his father died 1877 his mother took him and his two siblings to Scotland to be bought up (mother English father Scottish). Census information when he gives it he says he was born in Port Gordon and probably thought he was.
I have / had no information past 1906/7. Rumour had it that he went to Australia or New Zealand and became a Harbour Master and he is noted as deceased on my granda's marriage 1925. He wasnt married to my gt grandmother so had no ties bar two children.
Something somewhere went pearshaped as i met his neices daughter a few years ago and she didnt know he existed, his sisters never spoke of him ( they migrated to SA) and they didnt know about his children.

I have tried to get all the information together here to spend time at Kew (TNA) but TNA site has never been easy to navigate. I have the names of a few ships he was on but you need by all accounts the ships official number to search and you can find these on the Crew List project but the ones i have are not on there !

This has been a massive leap forward - ive only been waiting eight years for this !
THANK YOU !!

[Currie]

Nice work Trish.

Tracey, have you tried a Google search of the Mariners site for official numbers? There are some Windermere’s listed. http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&l ... =&gs_rfai=

78765 WINDERMERE 1878 Liverpool 1193 (NRT)
19891 WINDERMERE 1886 London 645 (GRT)
96579 WINDERMERE 1889 London 2833 (GRT)
119948 WINDERMERE 1904
146022 WINDERMERE 1921

All the best,
Alan

[trish1]

Hi Alan

It's always exciting to find a long lost - whether your own or for someone else - the NLA newspapers are becoming a significant source for some wonderful information - despite I wasn't expecting to find William in the SMH.

Trish

[Tracey]

Thank you Alan, no i hadnt looked there yet although i have used the site before i only found one ship he was on on here last time i looked.
A lot of my maritime *links* are still on my old pc and now this has come about i shall have to remind myself of them in our links page.

Thanks for reminding me of this site.

Regards
Tracey