Although not strictly a Shropshire puzzle, I hope someone out there may be able to give help or advice. I am trying to find out what happened to my great uncle William Key born 29th of January 1909 in Bromyard. He married a Clara Vernon and they lived in Birmingham at 20 Finch Road until at least 1972 where William appears on his wifes death certificate. After that he "disappears." I have tried without success to locate a death certificate but so far with little luck. Any ideas? Did someone out there know him? (Clutching at straws!) Jason
Hello Mike, I obtained William's birth date from his birth certificate. I actually ordered the Chesterfield death certificate but unfortunately it was the wrong gentleman. The two marriages are both for "my" William, it seems that he married Clara in 1938 BEFORE obtaining a divorce from his first wife ( scandal!), then married her again in 1948 (his first wife also remarried at this time).
He and Clara had no children, she was in fact twenty years his senior.
Clara had about nine children to her first husband and I have looked into trying to trace them, but with Clara being so much older than William most were born from 1914 to the late 1920s and so would be either deceased or elderly by now.
I have looked tried to look up electoral registers on-line post 1972 but with no luck. Is it possible to search for a will post 1972 without knowing the date or place of death?
Jason
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Hello Jason
A few thoughts.
You presumably have Clara's Death Certificate which hopefully has one or more addresses. If one of these is her home address or you can obtain that from another source then it might be worth knocking on a few doors. Start at the home address and try a few each side and on the opposite side of the street and do ask at each if there is anybody living nearby who might have been there in the 1970's.
You give a precise date of birth for William KEY but where did you get that from and how certain are you that it is correct? The reason I ask is because there is a Death Registration for a William KEY in Chesterfield June 1990 Birth Date 24 Jan 1909. Remember that this date is provided by the person registering the death and they might have got it wrong.
When I looked for their Marriage there were two possibles, one in 1938 and one in 1948. Have you seen this?
Did they have any children? If so, and one had moved abroad, then he might have emigrated to join them.
Mike