Brick Wall - Walter Hay Canada to UK bef 1928 No Record

[cath123]

Hi Everyone

I have managed to hit a brick Wall and was wondering if anybody could point me in the right direction.

My Grandfather was Walter Hay Born 1898 in Leith Scotland. He Married Betsy Boucher in 1920 in Leith. They had 2 children<names removed as years of birth after 1909. LesleyB> In 1923 they emigrated to Canada (ontario) which is where Betsy's sister Emily Hamilton Lived. I have managed to track down their arrival papers (30A) on ancestry.

Unfortunately tragedy struck when Betsy passed away in Feb 1925, followed soon after by Walter (who died May 1925) I have found both of their Death Certificates on Ancestry.

What I know after this, is that my Grandfather returned to Scotland sometime before 1928 as he married my Grandmother (his 2nd wife) on the 20 Jan 1928 in Scotland.

I have managed to track down the passenger list showing William Hay (son aged 5 years) returning to Scotland on the Morburn out of Montreal in September 1925. Walter is not shown as accompanying William, and many fruitless searches later, I cannot find him ANYWHERE.

As I know he did in fact return to Scotland, I was wondering if anybody knew of any other avenues he may have used to get there, or any different ways I might search in order to track him down as I assume that the sea was the main transport link.

Any help is much appreciated as I seem to be going round in circles.

Thankyou
Cath

[SarahND]

Hi Cath,


What a sad story First Betsy dies of influenzal pneumonia and then it looks like her younger son was in a children's shelter where he somehow got scalded and died?

I looked at the deaths, hoping they would give me Walter's occupation, to help me tell if I had found the correct one on a ship's list, but no occupation is given. Do you know what he did? Not that I have found any serious candidates yet... I agree there is nothing obvious.

I wonder whether the Incoming Passenger Lists are complete yet? Perhaps not and that would explain it. Will keep looking...

All the best,
Sarah

Note to any who may be puzzled by what looks like a search for someone who has already died: The Walter who died in 1925 was one of the children whose names were removed... not the father! Fooled me for a bit

[LesleyB]

As Walter died in 1925, no problem with mentioning his birth date -sorry. I was still sipping my breakfast cup of tea when editing, so not quite fully on the ball!

[cath123]

Hi Sarah

I know a terrible story, and so sad, there they were starting their 'new life' in canada and something so awful happens. It must have been so terribly difficult. Family lore was that Betsy and Walter jnr were killed in a fire, however having tracked down their Death certs seems to have dispelled that. But for Walter to have lost his young wife, and youngest son so close together must have been heartbreaking.

As for Walter's occupation he was a Shipwright / Carpenter throughout his life.

I did have a thought that he possibly worked his passage back to Scotland (after sending his son on ahead). Would that be something that was possible, and are you aware if there are any specific 'crew lists' available, or would they all come under passenger lists?

Thankyou for taking interest, something i have learned form lurking on talkingscot for years now is that sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can spot something. I appreciate it!

Catherine

P.S apologies for needing to be 'edited'.

[SarahND]

Hi Cath,
Good point about him possibly working his way back. I have certainly seen other ship carpenters on the crew lists. Crew lists appear regularly in the New York passenger lists, but I'm not sure if the UK Incoming Passenger Lists include lists of the crew-- I've never noticed any. This may well be why you can't find him.

I have searched (as I'm sure you have too) anyone named Walter, anyone named Hay, etc. in the relevant years, without finding him. One problem with a three-letter surname is you can't use wildcards on Ancestry, since they require at least three letters in the name in addition to the wildcard! So I've tried initial letters that could be confused with an 'H', like Kay or Ray... or descending letters like 'g' that could be confused with the final 'y', a variety of vowels, etc. but not coming up with anything

It's a pity that the occupations aren't indexed in this database!

All the best,
Sarah

[kimmy]

Hi,
I don't know if you got any further with your search for Walter Hay after he returned to Scotland.
You have helped me a lot trying to trace Betsy and Emily Boucher - who were sisters of my grandmother.
Betsy Boucher was chief bridesmaid at my grandmother's wedding. Betsy was number 12 and Emily was number 7 from a family of 16 children.
Betsy must have been popular in the family because in 1919 three siblings named their daughters after her (or their mother).

Walter returned to Scotland and married Isabella Buchan Kelly.
Using Scotlandspeople website I believe they had two children.....but you probably know all this.

[SarahND]

Hello Kimmy and a warm

The original poster has not signed into the forum since 2010 but perhaps, with some luck, she will get a notification of your post. In the meantime, enjoy the forum!

All the best,

Sarah