Edward Wilson

by

PRONI records – missing deceased records for the Wilson family

I’ve searched and searched and tried every option I can think of, but I cannot located the deceased records for Christopher Wilson and three of his children – Edward, Mary and Emily.

Christopher died in a shipyard accident (probably in Belfast) sometime in the late 1880s-1891 (when Catherine emigrated).  I’ve searched on every name variation I can think of, but he is not coming up.

I thought perhaps he used a different surname or first name.  So I did a search for the children’s deaths – I’m almost certain the three were deceased at the time Catherine left Ireland, otherwise she would have taken them with her too?

None of the children’s death records are on PRONI either.

So I give up – for the time being.

 

by

Christopher Wilson – PRONI record of date of death?

I’ve been searching for Christopher Wilson’s death certificate.  It is not easy.  Ireland have civil records dating back to 1864, and also have non-Catholic marriages recorded from 1845 onwards.   Records are stored by the Public Records Office Northern Ireland (PRONI). So I should be able to type in Christopher’s name with a range of years for his death (I don’t know what date or year he died), and his name should pop up with a year of death and age.  I understand 1800s records are not completely accurate, but a record of Christopher’s death should be stored somewhere?

Well, I’ve tried typing in ‘Wilson’ ‘Christopher’ and various date ranges up until 1891 (When Catherine, Abraham and Robert left Ireland to emigrate to Australia).  Nothing has turned up so far.  I’ve found just three ‘Christopher Wilsons’ who died between 1880 and 1891.  I’ve also searched on ‘Chris’, ‘Christy’, ‘Christie’, ‘Kris’ and I’ve left the forename blank altogether.  I’ve also looked at various entries for other names which might be his middle name eg. ‘Robert’, ‘James’, ‘William’. And some odd looking names like ‘Reid’ (just in case the transcriber read the name wrong) and ‘Charles’ (just in case the transcriber thought the name read ‘Chas’).  No luck.

Curious, I thought I’d also look up the dates of death for three of his children who probably died in childhood, and before Catherine emigrated (as I couldn’t imagine she would leave children behind in Ireland).  None of the children came up in the search for date of death.  The three children are:  Edward (b. 1869), Emily (b. 1871) and Mary (b. 1875).  I also checked if perhaps Emily and Mary might have got married before Catherine left Ireland (as I don’t think she would leave them behind as young single women).  No marriages.  So why are there no records of death for Christopher, Emily, Mary and Edward?  No idea.

Perhaps Catherine left the reporting of death to her local Church – all the births were recorded, but none of the deaths.  Why?

by

Christopher and Catherine Wilson (nee McFall or Bunton/Bunten/Bunting) – their missing children from the family tree

Christopher Wilson married Catherine Bunting (or McFall) on 14 March 1853 at Moyntaghs-Armagh.   So far I know the rough history of the younger three of the Wilson children – Thomas, Robert and Abraham, but nothing of the older ones.  More information on the other children, especially the older ones, might assist in further tracing both Christopher’s and Catherine’s family trees.

As I’ve said in a previous post, Catherine appears to have used her step-father’s surname earlier in life, so her history is not easy to trace, without knowing about her mother’s marriage to Thomas Bunting.

According to Catherine’s death certificate, Christopher and Catherine had 8 children in total.  Who were they, and did they also emigrate?

A search for the earlier born children were not easy to find, as Ireland did not have civil records of births, deaths and marriages until 1864 (however there are records of non-Catholic marriages from 1845 onwards).  So children born earlier than this only have christening dates (as I understand).

The Children are:

William John Wilson, born approximately 1854-55; died after 1922 (still living at the time of Catherine’s death)

Christopher Wilson – born  1858-59;  died after 1922 (still living at the time of Catherine’s death)

Thomas Andrew Wilson – born 1865; died 1945

Robert Wilson – born 6 June 1866; died 1915

Edward Wilson – born 2 June 1869; Christened: 803 Lurgan No2, Armagh,  died before 1922 (deceased at the time of Catherine’s death)

Emily Wilson – born 4 November 1871; Christened: 803 Lurgan No2, Armagh, died before 1922 (deceased at the time of Catherine’s death)

Mary Wilson – born 15 Feb 1875, died before 1922,

Abraham Wilson – born 27 June 1876, in Derry-Add; died 1969.

The Children’s birth records all list Catherine’s maiden name as Bunting, except Abraham’s where the name ‘McFall’ is listed (another mystery – why the name change then?).

What happened to the Children?

We know that Thomas, Robert and Abraham moved to Australia.

There are no death records for Edward, Emily, or Mary Wilson (on the PRONI database that I could search), but it is likely they died prior to Catherine and sons departing Ireland for Australia in 1891.

According to one of Abraham’s sons, the older two brothers (William and Christopher) possibly emigrated to the United States of America.

Given William and Christopher were listed as still living at the time of Catherine’s death, possibly there was still communication between the brothers in Australia, and the brothers in the USA (if they did emigrate there).  Should the descendants of William and Christopher be looking for family history on their mother, then hopefully they know about both of Catherine’s maiden names i.e. McFall, and Bunting.