Today's Topics: 1. Re: Still searching for William Donald Thomas (Dr Beth Leembruggen-Kallberg) 2. Re: Still searching for William Donald Thomas (Julian Lovegrove) 3. Re: Still searching for William Donald Thomas (Coreen & Larry Andresen) 4. Re: Still searching for William Donald Thomas (Cherise Pereira) 5. Fw: Minnie Daisy Willows Pettifer (nee Keelan) (Patricia Johnson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:03:46 +0100 From: "Dr Beth Leembruggen-Kallberg" <ealk(a)wxs.nl&gt; Subject: Re: [SRILANKA] Still searching for William Donald Thomas To: <srilanka(a)rootsweb.com&gt; Message-ID: <001701c997f9$8572e480$1100000a@tagnolocationempid> Content-Type: text/plain; format="flowed"; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type="original" Not sure, but I remember my 83 year old mum talking about the de silva's & penndennis sounds familiar in ceylon lore & legend, so i'll ask her next we chat. Her memories are fairly good still. Not promising anything, but maybe a memory or two will surface. Beth in the Netherlands ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ian & Beverley Dunn" <home(a)bevandian.com&gt; To: <srilanka(a)rootsweb.com&gt; Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:49 PM Subject: [SRILANKA] Still searching for William Donald Thomas > Hi > > I am searching for my great grand father William Donald Thomas born > Colombo > around 1868-1870. William came to live in London UK between 1891 ( no > sign > of him on the 1891 census anyway) and 1893 when he married my great > grandmother in London. William was a printer/compositor who according to > family had worked at the Ceylon Morning Leader and was in England to > learn > more about the newspaper industry. We believe his family were quite > wealthy > as he received regular sums of cash from his parents from Sri Lanka. We > also > believe the family name was actually De Silva, not Thomas ( not sure of > the > spelling) and that they lived in a house called Pendennis. On his > marriage > certificate to my great grandmother he records his father as Joseph > Thomas > a > shop keeper, however on his second marriage he records his father as > William > Thomas (deceased) general merchant. > > Can anyone let me know how I might find him? I have tried the British > Library but they have no records, I have checked incoming passenger lists > and found nothing, I have written to newspaper offices in Sri Lanka with > no > joy. Am I on a wild goose chase? > > Beverley Dunn > St Albans > UK > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SRILANKA-request(a)rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 2286 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len The Professional version does not have this message ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:16:51 +0000 From: Julian Lovegrove <julianlovegrove(a)hotmail.com&gt; Subject: Re: [SRILANKA] Still searching for William Donald Thomas To: <srilanka(a)rootsweb.com&gt; Message-ID: <BAY126-W26D7D89D56347A20BE27F1A3AD0(a)phx.gbl&gt; Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Hello Beverley, You seem to be in a similar position to me, about 3 years ago. 1) go to the rootsweb web site, click on web sites at the top, go down to other places, click on Sri Lanka. This is an excellent site with thousands of pages of information to read through and links. 2) Use the links to the mailing lists, rootsweb Sri Lanka and there's another one Gen Web I think its called. You can search these lists with your surnames, also follow the link to the Dutch Burgher Union pages, where they have many family genealogies, to check out, you'll have to go through them all, to find any with your surnames. 3)Also the History of Ceylon Tea site has copies of Fergusons directories to check through. By now you've realised this might take several years of searching, theres no easy answer, but it can be wonderful when you find something. Good luck! Julian Julian Lovegrove 21 Seafield Road Broadstairs Kent CT10 2DD England Business Website: www.antiqueswestmalling.co.uk _________________________________________________________________ Twice the fun?Share photos while you chat with Windows Live Messenger. Learn more. http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/windowslive/products/messenger.aspx ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:01:59 +1000 From: Coreen & Larry Andresen <larryadsl(a)qld.chariot.net.au&gt; Subject: Re: [SRILANKA] Still searching for William Donald Thomas To: srilanka(a)rootsweb.com Message-ID: <49A692C7.6030003(a)qld.chariot.net.au&gt; Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Ian and Beverly, a couple of things to think about, the Morning leader was not in circulation until 1st July 1907 and ceased publication in 1932. The owners were the de Soysa family. The Ceylon Standard started in 1908 and was owned by the Pieris brothers Charles and Sir James, and Mr W A de Silva, the famous Sinhalese novelist. It went into liquidation within a year or two after the untimely death of its editor, and the proprietary rights were bought by the de Soysa family. The 1928 Green book lists two Thomas names with Ceylon Apothecaries. Optical Dept Manager H R Thomas. Printing Dept Manager R J Thomas. The Thomas name was in Ceylon from at least the 1700s as we have marriage records sighted and recorded from LDS films we have looked at. Of course it is also a common English / Welsh name and came in with soldiers, sailors, railways and planters too. We know this doesn't solve your dilemma, but it may open new avenues and close some family history myths and mysteries. The Colombo birth / baptism may be of help to you if you have access to an LDS library as there are films for this period available. We have seen entries with adoption etc written on them so there is a chance to find an entry that is a little out of the ordinary. Keep On Searching And Hoping. Larry&Coreen in Sunny Queensland....Researchers of British Ceylon Family History, 1798 to 1948. > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 8.0.237 / Virus Database: 270.11.3/1970 - Release Date: 02/24/09 > 13:35:00 > > ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:05:39 +0530 From: Cherise Pereira <cherisev(a)sltnet.lk&gt; Subject: Re: [SRILANKA] Still searching for William Donald Thomas To: srilanka(a)rootsweb.com Message-ID: <C187330EE6404A8C9915D97C19EBA48C@pce1793da25bc7> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:51:56 -0800 From: "Patricia Johnson" <patrace(a)telus.net&gt; Subject: [SRILANKA] Fw: Minnie Daisy Willows Pettifer (nee Keelan) To: <SRILANKA(a)rootsweb.com&gt; Message-ID: <01cf01c9987d$f91f93e0$9401a8c0(a)gateway.2wire.net&gt; Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Greetings Listers, I am hoping some of you can come through for us as we are running into a brick wall. We are trying to find the obituary and grave site for my Great Aunt, Minnie Daisy Charlotte Willows Keelan, born 1865 in Mussoorie, India. Daughter of Henry Nathaniel Kennedy/Keelan, Assist. to Everest for the GT Survey of India and Catherine Marianne Kavanagh, sister to Thomas Henry Kavanagh, VC, Heroe of the Indian Mutiny, 1857. She married Dr. Edmund Pettifer in London in 1886. He predeceased her and is buried in Calcutta, India. We are unsure of her year of death, (sometime after 1910) but we do know she is buried in Columbo, Ceylon as confirmed by her niece and ward, Madeline Agnes Kavanagh Baber, my maternal grandmother. Her Brother-In-Law's father, Henry Fearon Baber owned Tea Plantations in Ceylon and the family often spent the warm weather season there, which might be why she was in Colombo, Ceylon when she died. Could any of you please assist us in obtaining this information? We would be most grateful. Thank you. Patricia Johnson British Columbia Canada ------------------------------ To contact the SRILANKA list administrator, send an email to SRILANKA-admin(a)rootsweb.com. To post a message to the SRILANKA mailing list, send an email to SRILANKA(a)rootsweb.com. __________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SRILANKA-request(a)rootsweb.com with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body of the email with no additional text. End of SRILANKA Digest, Vol 4, Issue 7 ************************************** -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.557 / Virus Database: 270.11.3/1972 - Release Date: 25/02/2009 19:08