Civil service records

[swisschick]

Hello all.

Greetings from New England, USA.
Except for a detour into Cuba, most of my paternal line is from England. I have been doing this obsessively for about two years and have done rather well. I do, however, have a few blank spaces and hope someone on this forum will be able to help me fill them .

My great grandfather, Frederick W. Ramsden, was the British consul in Santiago de Cuba. He left England ca. 1857 as an employee of the Brooks Company for Cuba and died at the end of the Spanish- American War. It is practically impossible to get records from Cuba at the moment and he and his family listed themselves as British subjects. Is there anywhere that the British government keeps records of British subjects who live outside the country, where their birth, marriage and death records are kept?

In addition, does anyone have information about the Brooks Company?

Thanks in advance.

[Geoffers]

British consular records and corespondence are held at The National Archives (TNA), at Kew for scope and content of the records, have a browse of the following TNA research guide
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/rdleaflet.asp?sLeafletID=214

[hughar]

A Google search for your man finds 8 articles, and a further 65 at http://books.google.com/

The New York Times of 26 March 1901, reporting on the erection of a tablet in his memory by the US Navy, says that he died in Jamaica on 10 August 1898. The New York Times archive is now free online, so you will be able to read the article from the Google link.

The tablet also got a brief mention in the Court Circular column of The Times on 6 April 1901.

[hughar]

Just found a picture of your man. Go to http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=&scope=books and search on "Frederick W Ramsden" (with the quote marks). From the list of 10 books that you are offered, select 'The Sinking of the Merrimac', then on the Book Results page select the link for page 257.

There is a mention of letter written by his wife Susana to their son in May 1898 at
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/CUBA/2002-03/1017256857

And then there is of course the string of messages about the family at
http://genforum.genealogy.com/ramsden/messages/266.html that you have recently participated in.

[hughar]

If Frederick W Ramsden married or had children in Cuba the events may be included in the GRO Consular birth, marriage and death indexes that are available free online at Family Relatives. If you find an event of interest you can order the certificate from the GRO in the usual manner.

[swisschick]

Thank you all for your prompt replies. I am familiar with a number of the items mentioned. My main interest was in dates of his arrival in Cuba, marriage and dates of birth of his children. I did check the consular records on Family Relatives but nothing seemed to be pertinent. I will most certainly check out the records at the National Archives which seem to be what I am seeking. I am quite excited about the picture of him and the books.

Thank you all again for the suggestions and sources.

[hughar]

The births of all seven of Frederick W Ramsden's children are in the GRO Consular Indices, as follows:
1866-70
Alexander Henry Ramsden Vol.4, page 1201
Frederick William Ramsden Vol.4, page 1287
Isabel Teresa Ramsden Vol.4, page 1289
1876-80
Charles Theodeore Ramsden Vol.6, page 1831
Mary Dora B Ramsden Vol.6, page 1833
1881-85
Emma Sofia(?) E Ramsden Vol.6 page 2101
James Hildebrand Ramsden Vol.6 page 2103
All born at Santiago de Cuba

You can order copies of the certificates from the GRO in the usual manner using these references.

[hughar]

From 'Historia de Familias Cubanas' by Francisco Xavier de Santa Cruz y Mallen, pub. 1940, page 362,
"Dona Susana de la Torre y Soler, caso en la Catedral de Santiage Cuba el 14 de enero de 1866 con Federico Wollasten Ramsden."
Is that the marriage you are searching for?

[swisschick]

Dear Hughar:

Thank you so very much for that information. I don't know what I was looking at or how I tried to access those records but I could never locate anything. I probably need lessons in searching those archives.

I am familiar with the work of Francisco de Santa Cruz but could you tell me how you got that information. I thought that I would have to go to Miami to search through the library there. I had planned to wait until the dead of winter.

Again, thank you - you have been so very helpful.

Regards:
Swisschick

[hughar]

I am familiar with the work of Francisco de Santa Cruz but could you tell me how you got that information. I thought that I would have to go to Miami to search through the library there. I had planned to wait until the dead of winter.



More by good luck than anything else.
I searched for "Susana de la Torre" (with the quote marks) at http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=&scope=books and got 12 hits. The second one was for 'Historia de familias cubanas', which looked promising, so selected it and searched in the book for 'Ramsden'. That gave me one snippet view in which everything was just about readable except the month. Looking at it, I figured the month had just five characters, and I guessed at 'enero', then confirmed it by searching the book again for "14 de enero de 1866" (again with the quotes) and getting the same item.

Best wishes, Hugh