Genealogy Forum UK

Can anyone point me in the right direction for newspaper article about a drowning in 1885?

It concerns
George Jinks who drowned in a canal in West Bromwich on the 27th May 1885. He was a widower and worked as a stoker in the gas works at the time - he was aged 55 years.

Thanks

Is it this one?


DISTRICT NEWS
“... found drowned in the Birmingham Canal, near Ridgacre Ironworks. It is stated that deceased retired to bed on Tuesday night about nine ... ”

First match of your search in this article.

Thursday 28 May 1885 , Birmingham Daily Post , West Midlands, England

http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
(but you could try and get it free somewhere?)

Moving to misc

gardener wrote:Is it this one?


DISTRICT NEWS
“... found drowned in the Birmingham Canal, near Ridgacre Ironworks. It is stated that deceased retired to bed on Tuesday night about nine ... ”

First match of your search in this article.

Thursday 28 May 1885 , Birmingham Daily Post , West Midlands, England

http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
(but you could try and get it free somewhere?)

Thanks.
I can't see a free source for the Birmingham Post, so I may have to bite the bullet and see what turns up!

It is on FMP too so you need a little helper - search with Ridgacre Ironworks 1885-1885 for it.
It might not be the right one so it would be a shame to pay. Ask for a look-up

It's definately a possible - although the victim is John Jenks (50) of John Street!
Jenks is a common varient in my Family, and I wonder if the John got muddled up because he lived in John Street (as my George did). The age is out by 6 years, but it'd strikes me as a bit odd two people from the same street drowned on the same day!

I don't see a death for John, do you?

Publication:Birmingham Daily Post
Publication date:Thursday 28 May 1885

West Bromwich
Found Drowned – Yesterday, John Jenks (50), formerly residing in John Street, was found drowned in the Birmingham Canal, near Ridgacre Ironworks.
It it stated that deceased retired to bed on Tuesday night about nine o’clock, and nothing further was heard of him until his body was discovered in the canal.

gardener wrote:I don't see a death for John, do you?

Nope, I can't find a death either. The more I think of it the more I think it is supposed to read George rather than John - I'm sure if too men from the same street drowned on the same day the paper would have mentioned it!
I've looked on Google maps, it's quite a distance from John Street to the canal, I wonder what he was doing there. His wife died two years before, did he jump, was he drunk or sleep walking. I suppose we'll never know. All the death certificate says is that he was found drowned.

It was the Aliens.

SRD wrote:It was the Aliens.

WEll Done, you are getting the idea, I see my theories are catching on!

snoopysue wrote:

gardener wrote:I don't see a death for John, do you?

Nope, I can't find a death either. The more I think of it the more I think it is supposed to read George rather than John - I'm sure if too men from the same street drowned on the same day the paper would have mentioned it!
I've looked on Google maps, it's quite a distance from John Street to the canal, I wonder what he was doing there. His wife died two years before, did he jump, was he drunk or sleep walking. I suppose we'll never know. All the death certificate says is that he was found drowned.

I wonder if they called it Birmingham Canal in a very loose journalistic way? There were branch canals back then http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridgacre_Branch which were part of the Birmingham canal system. It may not have been so far from John's Street?

It was miles away!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PX1CUVJISc0/S ... an0001.jpg shows Ridgacre Iron Works bottom right, just north of Church Lane
A map of the old canals is here http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_60dbzCtdlzM/S ... 7516-1.jpg
Makes no sense at all

I wouldnt say it was loose journalistic reporting, more like generic name, just as people might say, "He went to London", when visiting Kingston upon Thames, the whole network was Birmingham Network and most likely refered to as just Birmingham Canals.

UK canals Network has information on this. You can read about the Birmingham Canal Navigations http://www.ukcanals.net/waterways-of-th ... avigations

The Ridgacre Branch opened in 1826 and was ¾ mile in length. It ran from the Wednesbury at Swan Bridge Junction, a few metres north of the New Swan Lane / Black Country New Road roundabout. From it ran the Dartmouth Branch northwards and the Halford Branch southwards to collieries.

That makes more sense -he worked at the gas works, so maybe he was on his way there. His death certificate has Hall End as place of death, that's marked on the map of the canal system close to Ridgeacre and just off the other map. I can't see Hall End on Google Maps, but part of the old canal system is there (Balls Hill Branch Canal), and John Street now sits on either side of the A41 near Carter's Green.