Moses Wellwood, missionary in Africa

[DebbieAnn]

I have been trying to locate Moses Wellwood, my gr-gr-grandmother's brother, born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the early 1800's. In my gr-grandmother's diary, she says that he was a missionary in Africa for five years before returning and marrying his childhood sweetheart. Trouble is, the rest of the family had moved to Glasgow by this time. I can find no record of Moses (whose father's name was also Moses Wellwood) in either Scotland, England, or America. I have no idea exactly when he was born. I don't know the name of his childhood sweetheart, or what country (Ireland or Scotland) she lived in. I don't know where he studied for his missionary work, or how old he was when he went to Africa, or where in Africa he went.

I have ordered The Clergy List 1858 by Cox hoping it will show his name, but it will take a while to recieve. Meanwhile, does anyone have access to any other Clergy Lists? And does the name Moses Wellwood appear in it anywhere?

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

Debbie |help|

[AnnB]

Hello Debbie
I don't know much about missionaries, but there is a Church Mission Society who seem to have quite a lot of archives, Their web site is at http://www.cms-uk.org/library.htm He may, of course, have been a Catholic, Methodist or one of the many other denominational missionaries, so if you put 'missionary history' into a Google or some such, you'll come up with a lot of 'hits'.
I couldn't find a Moses Wellwood, but (again in Google) the phrase 'Wellwood missionary' seems to get a lot of 'hits', so maybe they were well up in missionary circles ;)
Hope this might help a bit
Best wishes
Ann

[Procat]

Hello Debbie,

I thought it highly unlikely given his age but, a search of the 1897 clergy list did not find him.

[DebbieAnn]

Thank you both. This is the one search that got me into genealogy more than twenty years ago, and the one person I have had absolutely no luck with whatsoever. If he had not been named in the diary, I would not even know of his existence. Over these many years, I have found not a single other shred of evidence that he ever lived on the face of the earth. Nothing. Anywhere.

The oldest known brother, James Wellwood, was born abt 1806 - other children were born abt 1808, 1810, 1813, 1815, 1817, 1819, 1822, 1824, 1827, 1829, and 1835, so I suspect that Moses was actually the first born, before 1806 (after all, he carried his father's name), or the last son, born in the early 1830's in the only significant gap between children. One of the sons married in Glasgow in the fall of 1830, but there is no evidence any of the others were in Scotland until at least three years later, and they appear to have come over in bunches, not all at once, over the course of the next twenty years. The youngest child, Fanny, born abt 1835, was raped in Ireland when she was 15, and bore a child from it that was born in Ireland, but in 1860 she married in Scotland. She appears to have been the last to come over.

I'm leaning towards Moses having been born first, which would put his birth around 1803-1805 in Belfast. How could I possibly find out about his birth? Are there resources available online for No. Ireland? He must have been in Africa around 1830-35, assuming he would not have had enough training until about age 25 and he spent 5 years there. So he must have married in the early - to - mid 1830's. You would think he would show up in SOME census SOMEWHERE!!! Even by 1861, he would at most have been in his mid-50's. Were censuses taken in Ireland? Perhaps he returned there to live, and that's why he appears to have dropped off the face of the earth!!

[Geoffers]

Would he have had a university education?

I've never had to use the records myself (me and my lot are as thick as two short planks) but have you tried any universities so see what their records show?

Did he leave a will?

Do you have a marriage certificate for your chap? This should hopefully show his age.

Do you know where in Africa he served as a missionary

Geoffers

[mary elms]

I've looked at the Methodist Minister lists and can't find him -

I can check in the books themselves - but not till the end of August.

Do you know for certain that he was a minister - doctors & teachers were also common on the mission field.


Mary.

[DebbieAnn]

No one else in that family had any significant formal education, so I doubt very much that he went to University. Perhaps he wanted to, and becoming a missionary was as close as he could come. I have found no marriage record, no birth record, no death record, no census records which include him. As far as I know, he was a missionary, but not a minister. He was in Africa for 5 years in the missionary field. The Africans did not want him to leave at the end of his time there and he had to escape from their near-constant surveilance of him. This is what was in the diary. One Sunday, one of his nephews was listening to a story about Moses being a deeply religious man, and with awe he turned to his father and said something like 'Wow! Daddy, they even knew about Uncle Moses in the Bible!' which became a family joke, also written in the diary.

His parents seem never to have left Ireland, but had to have been living there when Moses returned from Africa as Fanny was born there in 1835. If his childhood sweetheart was there, it's possible he returned there and never left, taking care of his parents or at least living near them. They would have been in their early-to-mid 50's when Fanny was born (I expect she was a change-of-life surprise).

[mary elms]

Debbie,

All the Methodist Mission records for Britain are kept at SOAS (School of Oriental & African Studies) in London. They have many other records as well. It might be worth having a look at their web-site to see what's there -

http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/index.cfm?navid=1423


Mary.

[AnnB]

Hello again Debbie
I've just put "Moses Wellwood" into Google and come up with a hit on something called 'The Browse Ireland Discussion Zone', so, if you haven't already seen it take a look. It is an old message (dated 2002) but it might help a bit?
Best wishes
Ann

[DebbieAnn]

Ann,

Have sent off a quick e-mail to James Wellwood, from the discussion group. His g-g-grandfather is my g-g-g-grandfather!! It looks from his post as if he may be one of the grandsons of Rev. John Wellwood from Drainie, who is a grandson of Moses through his son John (who is Moses-the-missionary's brother)!!

Now, if he only writes back!

Debbie

[AnnB]

I'll keep everything crossed for you ;)
Best wishes
Ann

[DebbieAnn]

I recieved the Clergy List I had ordered, but Moses-the-missionary is not in it anywhere, including the clergy list for Ireland. This leads me to conclude he had no formal training as a minister - surely if he had gone to the expense of a formal education, he would still have been in the ministry when he was in his 50's.

Were there any censuses in Ireland? If so, how can I access them?

I never heard back from James Wellwood, although the e-mail didn't bounce, so I suppose he must have filters on his incoming mail and it saw me as junk-mail... or maybe he's just away for the summer.

So I'm back to begging for help. Is there an on-line database for Belfast, anywhere?

Debbie

[AnnB]

Hello Debbie

Sorry to hear you drew a blank on James Wellwood - perhaps you ought to try one more time, I think I would ;) I'm afraid I can't help with anything Irish, I've been avoiding my couple of Irish ancestors, but one day I might give them a go :rolleyes:

Best wishes
Ann

[DebbieAnn]

Have sent off another e-mail to James Wellwood, now that the summer is all but over. Wish me luck!

[DebbieAnn]

Recieved an e-mail from Jim Wellwood - and we are related! Not only that, but he has a twin brother who has an old family bible with names and dates recorded in it! Still have not found Moses-the-missionary, but hope to get information that will steer me towards a likely direction...

Thanks so much for the referral to him!

Debbie

[AnnB]

I'm really pleased for you Debbie - it certainly pays not to give up, doesn't it :D

With best wishes in the hunt for Moses the Missionary
Ann