Rebecca Pinder Wilks Walker

[Gwyneth W]

Many thanks for these helpful suggestions. My education is ongoing!

[Gwyneth A W]

Many years later, I am back on this forum, still unable to find the final whereabouts of my g-g grandmother Rebecca (nee Pinder) Wilks Walker. There is information on her and her family and their migrations earlier in this thread. The family did emigrate to Canada and the US in 1871. I'm certain the passenger list mentioned previously was for this family. She and Alfred Walker are not in any records after the 1881 Canada census. Rebecca did visit her daughter Jane Dagwell in Indian River Michigan and had her photo taken at a studio there. There is a death record of an Alfred Walker, steamboat engineer, who drowned 'off a tugboat' in Wiarton Ontario, (less than 200 miles over water from Indian River) but not much was known about the dead man. His only son, John, a farmer, lived in Ontario about 100 km from where this Alfred Walker died. Could Rebecca possibly have returned to England?

[Gwyneth A W]

I check in to this forum on a rather infrequent basis. Despite constant research I have not solved the question of Rebecca's death, nor with any certainty that of her last husband Alfred Walker. It seems to me that they would not have returned to England in middle age when they had family in Canada and the US.

The Find-a-grave website has photos of a Dagwell family plot in Michigan (Oakhill Cemetery, Indian River). Visible in the photo is a large headstone with the name Walker on it, but I can't find any source of records or contacts. Short of travelling hundreds of miles to visit the cemetery, I can't verify the names on the stone. Any suggestions?

I did eventually obtain a death certificate for Rebecca's first husband Charles Edward Wilks, Engineer, 45, who died at B. Hospital, Pernambuco, Brazil, 12 September, 1857.

[christanel]

Hi
This site
has photos of headstones but the only one shown is for an Edward Walker who served in WW11.
This site says that the cemetery is owned and run by Tuscarora Township. maybe try getting in touch with them and asking who would know about the Walker headstone?

Contact details are at the bottom of the page. https://www.tuscaroratwp.com/
Christina

[Gwyneth A W]

Thank you, Christanel

Here is a link to the Dagwell plot at the cemetery:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...thomas-dagwell

This link allows you to enlarge the photo to see more detail:

https://images.findagrave.com/photos...1492372425.jpg

The Walker stone is on the right. It is in the same style as the large Dagwell marker.

Rebecca was born about 1820, and Alfred Walker b. 1829. Rebecca's daughter Jane Wilks was the wife of (Harry) Thomas Dagwell. Here is a link to Jane on my family tree on Ancestry:

https://www.ancestry.ca/family-tree/...60516346/facts

[Gwyneth A W]

Update 2023: Through the Find-a-Grave website, I was able to contact a volunteer who graciously visited the cemetery more than once and took several clear photographs of the Walker headstone. They showed definite proof that my great-great grandmother Rebecca Walker was buried there! The inscription says "a native of Purfleet, Sussex". Now, the only mystery is why I can't find a record of her death, either in USA or Canada. I will continue my research and post. Thanks for your helpful suggestions!