William James HEATH b 1854 Chichester Sussex.

[AndrewA]

The Will arrived today, bit of anti-climax as not really that much in it, but has provided a bit of extra information.

First of all, there is the date of the will and conflict with what was written on his death certificate, unless I mis-interpreted the death certificate as am sure it said he was in a lengthy coma, but the date of the will is 1 month before he died.

As I suspected, he left everything to his wife, Mary Elizabeth, she was ordered to provide a list of assets and properties to the court within 6 months. This was obvioulsy competed as the probate records show, worth £550.10.5 so next is to see if any records exist, at least I have the solicitors address who were acting on her behalf.

The only other details is that it states that Mary Elizabeth now resides at Hill View in OOty, so that would account why I can not find them anywhere after 1891.

More questions than answers, as always! But still what a journey and rather interesting one. I would not have imagined this outcome.

[AndrewA]

Past few weeks I have spent a fruitless effort looking for the children of William after 1891. Nothing, Zilch, Zip, Big Fat Zero.

I found a couple of Heaths on passenger lists in few years around 1900, heading off to India and especially Madras, who are of right age and initials, who could be the children, but nothing conclusive or obvious.

The probate mentioned that Elizabeth is living in Ooty in 1898, so I assume the children went out with her, maybe in dribs and drabs, maybe via another port, lots of maybes, but again nothing to support this theory as of yet. Could be the younger ones like Lilly went, but the older Alice could be working somewhere, but if they are middle class on a good income, then it could be she is not going to be sent out to work. There is also a possiblity, that by 1901 census Alice could be married, same for Mary, but again nothing is showing up anywhere and I have spent enough time looking.

However the residence in Hill View is interesting, as the 1920 directory for OOty, lists a Mr & Mrs Heath living in Hill View. The conclusion I draw on this, is that this is the only son, William Leon "Willie" who has now married. If Elizabeth is still alive, then she is going to be 70.

With the advert for Center Hotel, run in conjunction with Heath and Son confectioners and Heaths Hotel in the directory, I am convinced that William did indeed set up at least the confectionery business which his children now run, I can see that maybe Elizabeth started the Hotel as a business of her own after William died, or of course it could have been a joint venture, but that's just speculation of course.

Conclusion, most if not all the children have gone out with their mother, Mary Elizabeth HEATH to run family business out in Ooty, that their father, William James a Master Baker and confectioner set up.

Here is the advert:

Center Hotel Advert.png (196.95 KiB) Viewed 5542 times

[gardener]

Sorry, I lost track of this one.
I think the will does a help a bit.

Ancestry has this
Name: Mrs W L Heath
Birth Date: abt 1881
Age: 15
Port of Departure: Calcutta, India
Arrival Date: Aug 1896
Port of Arrival: London, England
Ship Name: Manora
Search Ship Database: View the 'Manora' in the 'Passenger Ships and Images' database
Shipping Line: British India Steam Navigation Company Ltd
Official Number: 89908

It actually says Mr, and ticks the Male box so I think it is the son on his way back.
Mr Wm L Heath aged 15 bakers apprentice

[AndrewA]

Thanks, never got around looking at the India departures, I was in library today and went through the passenger lists outbounds, Did this ship pull into Madras? Only Calcutta is 1500 miles from Ooty. Unless they have business in Calcutta as well

I will review the Calcutta and other port departures in more detail when I am in the library next.

[gardener]

Yes, seems to have taken on people at Calcutta, Madras and Aden. Wm L Heath embarked at Madras.

[AndrewA]

Excellent!
Which service and archive are you using which yielded these results?

[gardener]

That is on ancestry in the immigration/travel section.

[AndrewA]

Thanks.

Although he his appearing in places as Willie Leon, its obviously short for William Leonard. I found a suitable entry in the free BMD births for this.

Problem is, slight age descrpency as he should really be 14 in the passenger list at this point, but I know people lie about ages, would 15 been the youngest could travel on own or something?

The name Leonard is poignant as there was a Leonard HEATH b1859 who died when he was 21 from TB. William James is Leonards brother, most of his siblings who have had children have given the one of thier sons the name Leonard as a first or middle name.

[gardener]

Thanks.

Although he his appearing in places as Willie Leon, its obviously short for William Leonard. I found a suitable entry in the free BMD births for this.

Problem is, slight age descrpency as he should really be 14 in the passenger list at this point, but I know people lie about ages, would 15 been the youngest could travel on own or something?

I don't know what the rules would be. One section (not filled in) lists passengers as adults, children 1 to 12, and infants.

[AndrewA]

Yes I noticed that as well, but then even today its standard practice to class older children as adults for pricing and processing when booking trips events etc but still must be accompanied by an adult if under, whatever age, say 16 or 18. Same would most likely apply 100 odd years ago.

[AndrewA]

SO do I keep this alive as a Brick Wall or is it to be archived?
we have certainly moved on from the initial Brick Wall of not knowing anything about William, I now have a rough picture of his life, but now there is the question still of his business and life in India, I have not found anything else in past few months regarding this business. Time to find some Indian historians of Ooty!

[AndrewA]

Heh I gave this a final stab , found Families in British India website http://search.fibis.org

Already I found the gravestone entry for Wiliams son , William Leonard,

Surname HEATH
Given Names William Leonard
Death Date 11 December 1928
Age 46 yrs
Place of Death Kotagiri
Inscription In affectionate Memory of William Leonard Heath, who died at Kotagiri December 11 1928, aged 46 years
click to find all other "Church / Cemetery"s with value "St Thomas Church / Cemetery St Thomas' Church, Ootacamund
click to find all other "Source"s with value "Addition & Corrections Nilgiris District to Source Addition & Corrections Nilgiris District to 'List of European Tombs' from 1904 Typed

[AndrewA]

Well now, I read that records for India were slowly finding thier way online, so I went hunting again, using FamilySearch, and wow, this is not quite clear cut, but certainly its exciting stuff, I have found the childrens marriages !

Trouble is its now gone midnight, I just found this, have to go to bed, but dont want to!

There is a little discrepency here, May Bowtell HEATH, I am hoping is a spelling mistake and should be Mary, as my Mary is also born 1886

The Mary underneath could be a totally different MAry, as fathers name is just entered WIlliam Heath and not WIlliam James Heath. OF course they both could be the same WIlliam and twin sisters? I will have to explore that line of enquiry and eliminate that, but the other children look good, especially William Leonard and Alice Mary, if you remember right back at start, we had a baby Alice M listed as Niece with the mysterious ELizabeth Heath as mother! The births match as well.

THe sad thing is, that William James had died in 1897 so never got to see his kids marry.

Anyway a fresh mind will prevent mistakes wont it.

Here is a screen shot of the entries.



To make things a little more complicated, there is another entry for Alice Mary marrying in 1920 to a James Walter COY, again listing WIlliam James HEATH as father, what is unusal is if she has already been married, why use maiden name for this marriage? unless something horrendous happened?
ANother little exploration to go into.

[rogerneilson]

Is this due to be archived now? No activity for a long time?

[AndrewA]

I thought this had been archived already.

Anyway an update, some good breakthroughs in past couple of weeks. I have managed to sort the May Mary thing out, indeed it was May Bowtell, found the entry for her birth certificate. traced the descendants of nearly all the children of William James HEATH. this weekend I received a long awaited reply from a direct descendent of May Bowtell (HEATH) TASSELL, who has a couple of photos of May Bowtell and her mother Mary Elizabeth(SMITH) HEATH, BAILEY, also able to tell me MAry Elizabeth re-married after William died.

I was put in touch with cousins who extensively researched back to William, which I am eagerly waiting reply from.

Sounds like that they hit the Brickwall with trying to trace William before his move to India and have struggled finding out about his siblings and parents. i

Other certificates over a number of decades all list William Leonard and his wife Louisa Maria Jackman (WILLIAMS) HEATH as hoteliers, so this ties in perfectly with the Ootacamund hotel and advert from the Nilgris guide, but still have not established this was thier business! however I hope the new contacts I have made will reveal all to me.

Therefore I think this has gone as far as it can for this thread and can be archived.