You all know how it is. Something comes up unexpectedly while you are
searching for someone/thing else.
Happened the other day when I was Googling someone and came up with a
website on goldfields history at this website
http://www.outbackfamilyhistory.com.au/records/record.php?record_id=445
Which has a story about a rellie called George Vincent Forsythe who joined
the army in WW1 as George Gibson age 18 and 11 months
But really just turned 14. Don't know how he got away with it as he was 5
foot 5 inches and only 121 lbs (55 kg) on 09 Jan 1917.
He was wounded at Passchendaele and went to hospital and then his next of
kin was informed I guess who he said was a friend
But was in fact his mother. She dobbed him in and he was sent back to Oz and
discharged underage. I had looked into this guy before
And someone in the family told me he had been in the Mounties in Canada and
was a bodyguard when the Queen went to Canada.
Turns out he was eventually in the Canadian Navy as a stoker. The story says
he met and married a girl called Eugena in New York
In 1930 and they were living there in 1935. The 1930 US census (available on
FamilySearch) shows a George Forsythe, a policeman, correct age
But born in Montana with a wife Eugenia and two kids, Robert age 3 and
Eugene age 3 months living in New York. Don't think this is the correct guy
Because my George was born in Mount Morgan, WA. I did however find on
FamilySearch and some entries on Ancestry that George Vincent Forsythe,
bachelor,
, sailor,did marry and Ethel May Ackerson at Sydney, Nova Scotia, on 06 May
1925. Also a George Vincent Forsythe Fireman/sailor (stoker), bachelor,
married
On 07 Mar 1930 at Moncton, New Brunswick a Annie Ada Russell. On 15 May 1930
Annie had a stillborn daughter (from a difficult labour) at Halifax,
Nova Scotia. George died in Oct 1962 in Miami Florida and is buried in Vista
Memorial Gardens, Miami Lakes, Florida. I have not been able to find
Out what happened to his two wives (that I know of).
In 1995 I received a phone call out of the blue from a lady called Liz
Henkein, whose name I wrote down carefully and had her spell it. She gave
her address as
U5/ 10A Marine Parade, St Kilda and her phone number was 03 534 9598. She
said she was a grand-daughter of George V and was visiting Australia, had
contacted rellies there
And they had given her my details so she had rung me. We had a quick chat
and she promised to ring back. I tried phoning her without success and so
wrote a letter
To that address without success also. Now had a look at Miami Dade records
and found his wife was Irene in 1961.
Might have to get his death cert to get her maiden name etc.
Malcolm Sears
