Question re: Vic. certificates

[steuer]

Hi everyone,
this morning I purchased an digital death certificate for my ancestor Mary Magdalena GIBBS nee BECKER, died 1904 in Murchison.

It states her age as 78, occupation housewife, 5 children etc etc... The key piece of info for me on the certificate was place of marriage which I have been looking for in vain for a while now, which said Middlesex, England (even though I have evidence she was born in Prussia!). I, for the life of me, have not been able to find the death of her husband, John William (or William John) GIBBS. I was hoping this death cert. may give me a clue. But it says "housewife", in which I take it to mean that her husband is still alive - otherwise it should state widow? Am I correct here? Her son-in-law of the eldest child Selina was the informant, he would have been married 19yrs to the daughter at the time of death which is a good amount of time to get to know someone... If Mary's husband was dead that would be a pretty silly mistake??

According to Vic. shipping records in 1861 on the True Briton, Magdalena and William were 25 and 30 years old. I just can't seem to fit a death for William, and on Mary's death it states husband as James! So I'm really starting to get confused and not sure where I should look next. I'm not having any luck finding their marriage in www.freebmd.org or the IGI.

Please help!

Thanks,
Bridget.

[Betty Willson]

Dear steuer, I cannot actually offer you any help. I live in Brisbane and can only tell you what happened to me regarding a death certificate from Sydney. My great grandmother died 1902 in Sydney. Her death certificate has the most remarkable amount or false information. Her mother's name is completely wrong. The name is nothing at all, not even similar to her mother's correct maiden name, which I have now discovered. I paid a large sum of money (for me anyway) to a researcher in England to trace the family of the name on this death cert. with no results at all. I think people who give information for death certs. carelessly give all manner of erroneous information. Yours sincerely, Betty Willson

[maxinc]

Hi Steuer, I have purchased quite a few Vic death certificates and some tell you that the wife or husband is dead and some dont so I would not assume he was still alive. I would contact the cemetery where Mary was buried (that should be recorded on her death certificate) as you would assume she was buried with her husband. If she was, they should be able to give you the date of death for John and then you should be able to find his certificate. I have found that the information is far more accurate when the spouse is still alive as if the chilldren dont always know where there parents were married etc.

I have attached the details for Murchison Cemetery:

Murchison Cemetery Trust
Ms M J Appleton
Secretary
42 Station Street
Murchison 3610
5826 2612

Good luck

Maxinc

[ChristineR]

In my experience, if the husband's forename is wrong on the death certificate then he is dead or not in the picture - else the son-in-law would have known the right name.

If they had children in Victoria after July 1853 then any child's birth certificate will tell you when and where they were married.

ChristineR

[maxinc]

Hi again Steuer, I have been on Ancestry free BDM index and I found a marriage of Magdalena Becker to John William Gibbs 1861 St George Hanover Square London. Hope this helps.

maxinc

[ChristineR]

Oh yes, I see that they had five children from 1862-1872 on this cd.

On any of these you will get..
the age and birthplace of mum & dad, William's occupation
When & where they married
and the names and ages of previous children, living or dead

Richard born 1872, reg number 3632
William GIBBS, Magdalina BECKER

Now I see Maxinc has found it!!

ChristineR

[steuer]

Thank you everyone for your replies!

This line has been difficult from the start, I think I have been so frustrated by it that I was not thinking clearly - I should have thought to purchase a birth for one of the children!! But then again I have not had so much trouble with any of my other lines before this so I have been pretty lucky. Thank you all for your experiences, it is such a great help to work out where I went wrong.

Update:
I purchased the bc of Richard this morning which had some interesting info. John William was an engine driver on the train lines, so now I know why they moved from inner city Melbourne out to Murchison, after reading some history of Murchison yesterday I now understand he must have moved to follow the train line to the area as it was built out there in the 1870's when the town boomed. And he was from Surrey England so now I have a better idea where to look for him there. I am thinking perhaps (if he was alive when Mary passed away) he may have been driving an engine at the time, drivers often go away on long trips (my uncle just happens to be one! hehe) which could explain why he is not present at death. Otherwise he is dead, he may have even died somewhere else other than Vic if he was heavily involved in the train system. Their son Richard died before 1904 according to Mary's dc, he did not die in Vic. but in Myalong, NSW... so I am trying to keep all possibilities open at the moment, but I sure would like to know what happened to John he is really gnawing away at me!

Maxine, thanks for finding the marriage, not sure why I missed it when I looked. I will definetly write to the cemetery secretary and see what I can find out, or ask my father to go visit the site since it is not too far from Shepparton it's on his way to work each day from Echuca.

With warmest regards,
Bridget.

[elle-em]

Hi Bridget, my name is Lynne and I am new to this forum, thanks to you! I had come across this thread during my Gibbs searches and was wondering: 1. if you are still here; and 2. how far have you gone since these conversations took place. I actually have some of the information that you are asking about. Love to hear from you...
Cheers
Lynne...

[steuer]

Hi Lynne,
yes I am still here although I have not used the board for a long time!!

I've gone a fair bit further since this post, but haven't done any work recently (new baby and all that!!) - I'd love to talk to you more about it too, I'll PM you my email addy.