William James Guy

[Elma]

I have made a previous post on William James Guy on a thread with the same name. Perhaps a mod can link them. That post helped me a lot but it is very long and convoluted.I know about his life but it is really his death/ disappearance that is a mystery.
William James Guy was my uncle. He was born in Bristol in 1895.
William went to USA in 1914 to join an uncle. William then joined the Canadian Contingent WW1 and was invalided out the same Year!
He married Dorothy Morgans in Wales in Dec 1914 and they left to live in Canada, where they spent 7 or 8 years. Dorothy had two children there, who died very young. After William returned in 1922 he and Dorothy divorced.
It is from this point I would like some help if possible
William lost contact from his large family here. They said he ran back to Canada with a rich Irish lady and possibly worked on the Niagara Falls project but recently an elderly relative has said she believes this is not true and that he went to New Zealand about the time of the Napier Earthquake and was never heard of again . Can anyone suggest what I could do now?
With thanks ELMA

[Jan1954]

I have made a previous post on William James Guy on a thread with the same name. Perhaps a mod can link them. It was this one (http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/showthread.php/54757-William-James-Guy). :smile5:

[Megan Roberts]

Have you tried search on line archives like Trove (Austalian National Library database) or the Library of Congress (USA)?

http://trove.nla.gov.au/
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

Or on line UK newspaper archives? Many libraries have access to these.

Using these sorts of resources I found quite by accident a mystery I knew nothing about, together with a resolution of sorts. The son of my gt. grandfather's half sister left his wife and children (5 or 6) in 1908 and went to Canada, where he was joined by one of his sons. He worked in Winnipeg and Ontario, and then in September 1909 went to Vancouver. He wrote to his son in Ontario, and when the son replied the letter was returned and no one ever heard from him again. There was a search for him, including the Mounties, but he was not found. He apparently lived in Vancouver for the next 10 years before in November 1920 going to Auckland, New Zealand and ending up living in Dunedin. Whilst there he told everyone he did not like his family and did not want them to get his money and that he was a Scotsman (like his father) rather than Welsh. But after he died in 1929 his wife and sons managed to get the estate awarded to them because there had been a search for relatives!

So no matter how unlikely the source its always worth trying.

[Elma]

Thanks Megan
What a great find you had. Yes I will keep trying. I think New Zealand sounds promising.
Elma

[daleaway]

A couple of websites that may be of help:

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast

plenty of William Guys but no Wiliam James Guy - anyway worth a look.

To search for New Zealand births, deaths and marriages:

https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/search/

He is not on this list of victims of the Napier Earthquake 1931:

http://www.
familytreecircles.com/hawkes-bay-1931-the-site-from-te-ara-encyclopedia-of-new-zealand-with-22056.html

Dale in New Zealand

[Elma]

Thanks Dale
I have just checked through those and whilst he is not there it was important to rule it out.
Thanks again Elma