Tracing Family Branches

  Today's post concerns the engagement of my husband's paternal Grandparents William Allardyce Martin and Violet Helen Marguerite Murray in Singapore in July 1927. The engagement is announced between William Allardice, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Martin, of Scotland, and Violet, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Harvey Murray, of Singapore. Source: NewspaperSG.  The Straits Times, 29 July 1927, Page 8.  Retrieved from  http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19270729-1.2.36.2

After recently finding a death notice for my husbands Great Grandfather James Harvey Murray (see post here ) through the  Singapore Newspaper Archives my husband got in touch with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission with this information and after an investigation they have updated the date of death for James Harvey Murray in their official files (see here ).  It is wonderful for us to know that his date of death is now the correct date rather than what had previously been recorded, which was ‘Between 01/03/1943 and 31/03/1943’.  More of my posts mentioning him can be found here , here , here , here , and  here . Source: Commemorative Certificate for James Harvey Murray.  Retrieved from  https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/3171212/murray,-james-harvey /

I am very excited to say that thanks to the University of Cambridge Digital Library (see here ) I have finally found some records pertaining to my husbands Grandfather William Allardyce Martin and his time as a civilian prisoner of war at Changi during World War Two.  William was a prison officer at Changi before the fall of Singapore and while he was captured, he did manage to get his wife and son safely out of Singapore with them ultimately living at Barrow in Furness in England for the duration of the war.  William survived the war and in 1945 arrived in England on the Tegelberg , the stay was not a long one as he returned to Singapore in mid 1946 on the Mauretania .  With his health ultimately compromised from his time as a prisoner of war he died at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore in August 1949 and was buried at Bidadari Cemetery. Changi internment camp: nominal roll of internees, June, 1942 This record mentions that his wife was Eurasian and was p...

A while back I posted about my husband's Great Grandfather James Harvey Murray (see here ) and how I was trying to confirm that his wife Helen was the daughter of Baron Raimund Von Stillfried-Rathenitz and his Japanese partner.  My research proved to be correct and Helen was indeed the daughter of Baron Raimund Von Stillfried-Rathenitz and Nishiyama Haru.  Helen and her two sisters Mary and Anna were left in a convent school in Singapore in 1883, prior to the Baron returning to Europe from Japan permanently.  I have found newspaper articles, shipping records and other records with regards to Helen and family and have shared this with other researchers and hope to find more in the future. One record of interest that I intend to follow up is here . An interesting family story that I have been told is that after the end of the second World War when Helen and her daughter Dorothy wanted to go to England to meet up with surviving family members at Barrow in Fur...