Where Lee Jarvis went

[Phoenix]

John Jarvis and Elizabeth nee Benton had an enormous family. They married in Kettlestone, Norfolk 27 October 1831. Lee was the eldest son, bp 15 July 1832 in Thursford and Arthur the youngest, bp in 1854 in Brinton, with at least 13 others in between and no multiple births.

John was a farmer and Lee followed in his father's footsteps. By the age of 18 he was a farmer of 100 acres, in Thursford. He then took on White Ollands Farm, Briston.

He married Elizabeth Rebecca Cooper in Brinton in 1855. The marriage lasted a mere four years and her gravestone leaves a sad blank side, still waiting for his details.

They had a daughter, Sarah, who is aged 3 on the 1861 census. With a huge number of younger sisters, Lee had a wide selection to chose from for housekeepers. In 1861, it was Sarah. In 1871, it was Elvina. There is no trace of Lee's daughter.

Elvina got married on 30 January 1877. Her husband was in the army, so she was off and away, settling ultimately in Scotland.

And Lee simply disappears. No subsequent marriage. No entry on any subsequent censuses. No death. And nobody left to value him sufficiently to carve a memorial on that gravestone.

England in the 1870s was suffering an agricultural depression. Lee's younger brother John left the family farm and headed off for Burton on Trent. Nobody was staying in Norfolk.

The obvious conclusion was that Lee emigrated. But where? He wasn't visible in the Americas.

On Thursday (3 May) I went to a lecture on tracing your overseas migrants. And frankly, I despaired. So many things to look at.

Yesterday, I Googled. For the umpteenth time. And there was a tree! A tree, moreover, created on 3 May 2012. This shows that Lee emigrated to Sydney in 1877. Moreover, he travelled with his daughter Sarah (so where is she in 1871?!) and she married and had heaps of children, so there should be living descendants out there.

I could have sworn that I looked at NSW deaths years ago, but there is Lee, dying a century ago.

So I can now put him to bed, with all his brothers and sisters. I had had a vision of him, alone and uncared for, in a foreign country. Of course I don't know what his private life was like, but I feel far happier now about his final days.

[Phoenix]

Now that I know that little Sarah survived, I went back to look for her.

She is, of course, Bessie Jarvis, a pupil boarder in Holt. A sensible choice for a widowed father - she's in the local market town, with far more activity, being brought up in the company of other little girls.

[ElizabethHerts]

Phoenix, what a relief to find out what happened to Lee and his daughter. I think that headstones with blank spaces are very sad - I have seen a few with a blank left for the surviving spouse, then nothing.

[Phoenix]

It's only taken thirty years! What I couldn't get over was the fact that that website was put up on the very day I was being urged look a bit harder.

[kiterunner]

What an amazing coincidence! Glad to hear you've found him at last.

[Merry]

Yes, well done Phoenix!