Looking for William West Mitchell -- possibly born Virginia, USA :: FamilyTreeCircles.com Genealogy
<< Previous - Next >>

Looking for William West Mitchell -- possibly born Virginia, USA

Query by Scrabbe

My great-grandfather, William West MITCHELL, is officially recorded as dying on 26th February 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia. The registration gives his age at death as 44 years.


The problem is that we can find no other "hard" data about him. Living in Port Pirie, South Australia, he produced four children with Elizabeth who took his surname, but no marriage is found in official records. His children's birth registrations give his occupation variously as seaman and labourer. One unsubstantiated family memory is that he came from Ayrshire, Scotland. Another memory, equally unsubstantiated, is that he lived in Pittsburgh, USA, before arriving in Australia.


As many family history buffs would know, "Mitchell" is a very common surname. In the nineteenth century "William" was even more common as a forename. So the number of males by the name of "William Mitchell" is practically endless! Insert that middle name "West", however, and you find it belongs to almost nobody.


After some years though I did find a couple of men by that name, but only one was born close enough to my great-grandfather's year to be worth considering. The following details came from FamilySearch.org

Name: William West Mitchell
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 26 Jan 1856
Birthplace: Hanover Co., Virginia
Race: White
Father (or Slave Owner): Edward A. Mitchell
Mother's Name: Elizabeth
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C00788-6
System Origin: Virginia-EASy
Source Film Number: 31945
Reference Number: p 52


I've found him in the US Census for 1870 and 1880. He married Alice M. Pumphrey in 1879 and had a son (William E. Mitchell) in 1880.


Was this William West Mitchell of Virginia the man who later became my great-grandfather while living in Port Pirie,South Australia? I need to discover what became of the Virginian WWM after the birth of his son. Did he leave the US, perhaps as a seaman, and then find his way to Australia? Or did he stay and die in USA?


I would be deeply grateful for any help.


Cheers
Stephen Crabbe
Western Australia

Surnames: MITCHELL
Viewed: 2112 times
Likes: 0
by Scrabbe Profile | Research | Contact | Subscribe | Block this user
on 2011-12-07 08:31:41

Scrabbe , from Western Australia, has been a Family Tree Circles member since Jan 2011. is researching the following names: MITCHELL, CRABBE, BERTRAM and 2 other(s).

Do you know someone who can help? Share this:

Comments

by Pmitch on 2012-11-20 20:20:19

HI Stephen
I am also a great grandchild of William West Mitchell and have recently been looking into family trees. I have run into blind alleys looking for WWM. My grandfather was John Henry Parkes [Park?] Mitchell, sone of WWM, and he was according to my cousins brought up by a family called the Goldings, which fits with Elizabeth Turner's next partner, a Mr Golding. I have a copy of WWM's death certificate, which gives little extra info except that he died in Port Pirie of bronchitis, was a labourer, and his usual place of residence was Port Pirie. I remember my father taking us as kids to Solomontown in Port Pirie because his father was born there. I also seem to remember my father telling us that his grandfather {William West Mitchell] had jumped ship there in Port Pirie, and I have vague recollection that he might have changed his name because of that. If that's the case, we are probably stymied, so I hope not! I have a bit more info. re our great grandmother, Elizabeth Turner.

Cheers
Peter Mitchell
Adelaide

by boo_book on 2016-06-19 06:50:12

Hi there
I have been researching my Grandfather Alfred James Richards, son of Elizabeth Turner.
See my link
http://boards.ancestry.com.au/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=580&p=localities.oceania.australia.sa.general

My father told me that grandfather Alfred was an older brother to William Mitchell and he knew him as an adult. They were very similar looking.

Family recollections say there appears to be connection to Western Australia with him however I have not been able to pinpoint how...

I recently came across this newspaper notice (re Elizabeth Golding) from Alfred and William
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5187553

Regards
Michelle Richards
boo_book@yahoo.com.au

Register or Sign in to comment on this journal.