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Died in the USA
I've been searching for a Felix Smith who arrived in USA on 31 May 1869 aboard the ship Dacian. Castle Garden shows him as a 29yo Shoemaker from Glasgow. I understand he died about 1875, in the USA.
How do I go about trying to trace his death? Where do I start?
Any ideas appreciated - please!
How do I go about trying to trace his death? Where do I start?
Any ideas appreciated - please!
Answers
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There are no Scottish Felix Smith's on the 1870 US census, so are you certain of your facts so far? Any idea where he was born because none of the Irish or English Felix Smith's fit either that I've been able to find. If you can establish which state he died in then you have a better chance with death records as they are a bit hazem jazem then in the states.
I've found a Felix Smith (born circa 1840) living at Boston Ward 12, Suffolk, Massachusetts in the 1870 US Federal Census. He is not the only Irish Felix Smith, but the only one of the right age. He was living with Margaret Smith, born circa 1847 in Ireland, and Chas Smith (1867), Ann J Smith (1810), and Elizabeth Smith (1869) all born in MA, indicating that he probably emigrated to live with relatives, certainly for a time. Margaret was almost certainly his wife.
To prove that these are the right records you need to trace forward from as early in his life as possible. If you know his parents' names and his birthplace that would be very useful. Search the UK and Ireland censuses from as soon after his birth as possible, eliminating all the records that give the wrong year of birth (if more than 3 years out - only age at the time of the census was recorded, so birth years are uncertain) or the wrong parent / sibling names. This way you should be able to follow him around the country.
Try next to locate the Dacian in records (there is nothing on Ellis Island immigration records, so it probably didn't dock in NYC) because the ship's mainfest will tell you a great deal about who he travelled with (if anyone), and most importantly his intended destination. The you can start looking in the US census records, starting with his intended destination, and once you know where he was living you are more likely to find his death record, and naturalisation record if he was naturalised. (This is because US records are split into states in most cases).
A good place to look is ancesty.com - instead of signing up at a monthly rate you can pay �7 and access records for a 2 week period. For this price you can use the search engines and see the results, only viewing the original documents costs you credits, so shoebox them and on the last day before your credits run out view them all at once (you can then save them to your computer).
To prove that these are the right records you need to trace forward from as early in his life as possible. If you know his parents' names and his birthplace that would be very useful. Search the UK and Ireland censuses from as soon after his birth as possible, eliminating all the records that give the wrong year of birth (if more than 3 years out - only age at the time of the census was recorded, so birth years are uncertain) or the wrong parent / sibling names. This way you should be able to follow him around the country.
Try next to locate the Dacian in records (there is nothing on Ellis Island immigration records, so it probably didn't dock in NYC) because the ship's mainfest will tell you a great deal about who he travelled with (if anyone), and most importantly his intended destination. The you can start looking in the US census records, starting with his intended destination, and once you know where he was living you are more likely to find his death record, and naturalisation record if he was naturalised. (This is because US records are split into states in most cases).
A good place to look is ancesty.com - instead of signing up at a monthly rate you can pay �7 and access records for a 2 week period. For this price you can use the search engines and see the results, only viewing the original documents costs you credits, so shoebox them and on the last day before your credits run out view them all at once (you can then save them to your computer).
...
As a final piece of advice, people can move around a lot in 10 years, so some of your searching will have to be based on clever guesswork, rather than actual facts and proof. If you find something unexpected then try searching around that to prove / disprove if they are an ancestor. E.g. if everything fits but their age is 3 years out, see if you can find a record of a similar person born in a different year, or another person born in the right year. If you can't find either, then that record almost certainly is the right one, they just couldn't count! Good luck!
As a final piece of advice, people can move around a lot in 10 years, so some of your searching will have to be based on clever guesswork, rather than actual facts and proof. If you find something unexpected then try searching around that to prove / disprove if they are an ancestor. E.g. if everything fits but their age is 3 years out, see if you can find a record of a similar person born in a different year, or another person born in the right year. If you can't find either, then that record almost certainly is the right one, they just couldn't count! Good luck!
Felix was Scottish, i was just pointing out that there were a few born Ireland which suggests that they will have added Scotland as birthplaces if the enumerator was given the info, it could be that felix changed his place of birth you know, it is possible also that the informant did not recognise the accent and gave his place of birth as Ireland, or even another US town.
Thanks everyone for your answers.
Felix was born in Ireland (no idea which county) and first appears on the Scottish census of 1861, aged 20.
I know he arrived in New York on 31 May 1869 and I have the passenger list (from Ancestry.com). The list shows nothing other than the Dacian arrived in New York on 31 May 1869, his name, age, sex, occupation, country of origin (it says Scotland) and the country in which he intended to become inhabitant (USA) and that he travelled Steerage. Looks as though he probably travelled on his own.
Although the list shows him as 29yo, his marriage certificate shows he was born about 1842 � so was only 27yo. On his Scottish 1862 marriage certificate, he gave his deceased parents names as Thomas Smith and Mary Ann Smith, whose maiden name was �..Smith.
Unfortunately, with him being born in Ireland, I�ve hit a brick wall for the start of his life and now another brick wall for the end of his life!!
His wife in Scotland gave birth to an illegitimate son in November 1880. The birth certificate (which I have) details the mother as �widow of Felix Smith, shoemaker/journeyman, who died in America upwards of four years ago�.
Fairkatrina: I also saw the Smith family in Suffolk, Mass but, although Margaret, Ann and Elizabeth are certainly names that repeat in subsequent generations, they were all common names at the time so how do I go about proving that this Felix is *my* Felix? (If you think Margaret was Felix�s wife � whoops � yet another bigamist in the family! I�m hoping that maybe Margaret is his sister?)
C�mon Felix � where are you?
Felix was born in Ireland (no idea which county) and first appears on the Scottish census of 1861, aged 20.
I know he arrived in New York on 31 May 1869 and I have the passenger list (from Ancestry.com). The list shows nothing other than the Dacian arrived in New York on 31 May 1869, his name, age, sex, occupation, country of origin (it says Scotland) and the country in which he intended to become inhabitant (USA) and that he travelled Steerage. Looks as though he probably travelled on his own.
Although the list shows him as 29yo, his marriage certificate shows he was born about 1842 � so was only 27yo. On his Scottish 1862 marriage certificate, he gave his deceased parents names as Thomas Smith and Mary Ann Smith, whose maiden name was �..Smith.
Unfortunately, with him being born in Ireland, I�ve hit a brick wall for the start of his life and now another brick wall for the end of his life!!
His wife in Scotland gave birth to an illegitimate son in November 1880. The birth certificate (which I have) details the mother as �widow of Felix Smith, shoemaker/journeyman, who died in America upwards of four years ago�.
Fairkatrina: I also saw the Smith family in Suffolk, Mass but, although Margaret, Ann and Elizabeth are certainly names that repeat in subsequent generations, they were all common names at the time so how do I go about proving that this Felix is *my* Felix? (If you think Margaret was Felix�s wife � whoops � yet another bigamist in the family! I�m hoping that maybe Margaret is his sister?)
C�mon Felix � where are you?
This is the problem with ancestors, often they are very difficult to trace! You could search for a marriage certificate for Felix in the states you think he lived (e.g. MA), to see if he was a bigamist, or if he had a sister she would be on a Scottish or Irish census. You also need to look at his parents' families, she could have been a cousin etc. The wider your search around his immediate family, the more likely you are to work out of you've got the right relatives. Start with the records that are undoubtedly of Felix and his family (right age, place, people etc) and then have a look at your 'possibles' and just use logic and intuition to try and work out what he did with his life. If it seems illogical, it probably is, and remember to listen to your gut feeling - if a record doesn't seem right, but for no concrete reason, then look at it again, your conscious may have missed something your subconscious didn't. Good luck!
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