Married in Durban, circa 1902

[Lenore]

Hello folks,

You could have knocked me down with a feather today when I learnt that my grandfather's sister Emily Frances Griffith packed her bags in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, shipped out to Durban and married Hugh Owens. I wondered what had become of her.

So now I'm a bit stuck as to how to proceed. I would like to know in what year she was married - after the 2nd South African War, I am guessing. And I would like to know how her husband Hugh Owens came to be there, and for how long. He does not appear to have emigrated with his family. I don't know if he came for diamonds or adventure. He was aged about 32 in 1902. He may have arrived from England, or he may have come from Australia. It is not at all obvious how Emily came to know Hugh sufficiently well to marry him, so I'm inclined to think he had spent some time in Melbourne.

He was a carpenter by trade. Are there any post office directories which might list him? Or an electoral roll? Or an index of marriages in Durban? Or digitised newspapers to have a look at? I'm completely in the dark on research in Durban, though I read a few posts and tried the NAAIRS database without success. I would be grateful for any pointers.

Best wishes

Lenore

[Richard1955]

Hi Lenore
If your thinking that they may have originated from the UK as I do then we should be able to find them on census
rather than directories.
Would need more info to do that. ie. parents and siblings names and birth years. As much as you have.
There seems to be plenty of options on Find My Past for Hugh Owens including a prisoner of war released 1900ish
in South Africa.

[Lenore]

Hi Lenore
If your thinking that they may have originated from the UK as I do then we should be able to find them on census
rather than directories.
Would need more info to do that. ie. parents and siblings names and birth years. As much as you have.
There seems to be plenty of options on Find My Past for Hugh Owens including a prisoner of war released 1900ish
in South Africa.

Hi Richard,

Thanks for your quick response. I do know that he originated in the UK, I have already checked the censuses, and his parents and siblings remained in the UK. He wasn't still with his parents/siblings in the 1891 Census when he was 20, so I take him to be more or less a solo traveller. Then the trail runs cold until he gets married in Durban to a young woman who travelled there from Melbourne to marry him. I feel it is more likely that she met him in Melbourne than anywhere else, but I don't know. She was born in Melbourne.

I am trying to establish how long he had been in Durban, which is why I am interested in any directories or other information that would suggest how long he had been there. I'm not sure precisely when they married, so I'd like to find that out as well. I have the wedding photo, so I am estimating the date from the frocks!

I don't have a sub to Findmypast, I have a sub to Ancestry, so I can't look at the info on the released POW (mind you, Hugh Owens is a very common name, and there'd be a gazillion of them from Wales in the army, I imagine. This one was born in Liverpool in 1870.)

Best wishes,

Lenore

[Kerrywood]

Hi Lenore

He wasn't still with his parents/siblings in the 1891 Census when he was 20

Can you please give us the census references that you have for Hugh and/or his family, so that we can be sure we're looking at the right person?

[Lenore]

Hi Kerrywood,

I would prefer people not to get sidetracked onto British research, I am trying to find out how to find things in Durban. Is there a marriage index that I can consult? Are there directories (digitised online for a preference) that I can consult? Are there digitised online newspapers that I can consult? Are there electoral rolls that I can consult? Was there a census in Durban in the time period? What are the usual records and resources used for Durban in this period?


Best wishes,

Lenore

[Richard1955]

Hi Lenore.
To answer most of your original questions we need census reference to make sure we are working
with the right person and establish when Hugh left the UK, where he went to,
if he fought in the Boar War, where and when he met Emily, where Emily came from etc.
Find My past can be searched for free and to view you can pay for credits to view.
But you say you have a sub to Ancestry. Do they not have records for South Africa
and advice on how to research?

[Kerrywood]

I would prefer people not to get sidetracked onto British research, I am trying to find out how to find things in Durban.

Research in South Africa can be challenging from outside that country, which is why it may be advisable to start at the UK end.

However, for general resources you might want to have a look here
www.
cyndislist.com/soafrica.htm

To access the records held in South African archives, you may need to use an eggsa researcher, so have a look here too ...
www.
eggsa.org

[Lenore]

Hi Richard,

Call me a grumpy old lady, but it drives me nuts when people spend hours looking at things I have already looked at, and have determined to be not relevant to my current concerns, which are, to find out what sort of records are available for Durbin.

There is a problem with the census record which I dont need to go into, but what it means is that it might be the right Hugh Owens, or it might equally be the wrong Hugh Owens. I have looked in detail at the census record and all the associated censuses connected to that family, and I am satisfied that Hugh Owens either left the UK without that family, or else he was part of a different family whose names I don't know.

I have enquired about electoral rolls, directories, digitised newspapers and marriage indexes, and my strong feeling is that the information from the census is not relevant to the question of whether these things are available for Durbin. I have already passed on the information which I feel to be reliable, and I regard the rest of the information as not established, and therefore possibly/probably misleading. It is no use passing on misleading information, because sure as eggs, someone will find it here in years to come and use it as proof of something.

I rate myself as an advanced level researcher (40 years - and that is not my age, it is how long I have been researching), so I feel you can rely on my judgement that time spent by anyone else on the census records will be time wasted. I've gleaned what I can from various other sources, and passed on what I believe to be reliable. I don't know when Hugh left the UK. I think he possibly spent time in Melbourne. He was apparently in Durbin at least by 1902ish and married there. He was a carpenter, he was aged about 32 in 1902. His bride was born in Victoria, Australia and came from Melbourne to marry him.

Everything I have said about a marriage in Durbin is anecdotal. I want to find some actual evidence that this couple was in Durbin. They returned to Australia a few years later, not sure precisely when, but perhaps no more than 10 years later. The information about that came from their granddaughter, so I feel that can be accepted as probable.

Best wishes,

Lenore

[Richard1955]

All understood Lenore.
So we can't really help you with most of your original questions as you haven't got the information we need get started
and Kerrywood has kindly answered the question relating to researching in South Africa.

Perhaps you should start with wills in Australia and try and get a few more names to add to the puzzle.

Good luck !

[Kerrywood]

Lenore, further to my post #7, if you haven't already done so, you may want to read the sticky at the top of this forum.