William Douglas's Page

Hi sorry for the delayed reply, regarding Daniel Douglas and 

Letitia Dorsett (Dossett) they are my paternal 2nd Great-grandparents born 1854 and 1849 respectively. They are also my current brick wall as i have been unable to find any birth or baptism records for either of them, So far! 

May i ask how their names came to be listed on your site?

I actually came across the listing on your site while doing my research which prompted me to “bite the bullet” and join up, TBH i should of joined sooner,

Thanks also for the group suggestion, gonna have look tomorrow, if i can be of assistance regarding rural St Andrew Douglas’s let me know. 

 Simon

Hi William, 

Thank you for your welcome. I just discovered this last week through spending time with my eldest brother (middle name Douglas, same as our father) that my mother's parents were from Ireland. I had no idea. I never had a grandmother as one died 6 months before I was born and one died six months after I was born in 1952. News to me this week that I had Irish ancestry as well, must be the Celtic side of me. 

I know I am 2/3rds Viking by DNA and our family surname Pink is linked to the Douglas Clan and we use the Douglas tartan as and when appropriate. Roughly about 25% comes via the Douglas route as far as I can tell.  I did get my mother to write out her family tree as much as she could remember whilst still alive, not sure what book I put it into now. I need to do a search of books to find it again.  

I have found Mr Edwin T. Douglass...the man in the picture you sent and the man after whom the ship was named. Here is a link to show it:

https://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/GreatLakes/Documents/Scanner/10/01/default.asp?ID=s006

My next step is to identify where the ship sailed to and from on its 6 monthly trips.

Many thanks for your assistance.

Tony Baynes

1944%20death%20John%20William%20Anderson%20S.S.%20Edwin%20T%20Douglas.png1944%20death%20J.W.%20Anderson%20re%20Edwin%20T.%20Douglass.pngRe earlier conversation:

Good Morning William,

The information you sent has put me on a new track which changes my supposition sent earlier of the Edwin T. Douglass being permanently in the harbour at Lyness. I have my father's Log Book and below are the dates of him signing on and off ship. Each voyage was 6 months. The question now is where did he go to. Wherever it was, you will see that he was with J.W. Anderson.   Incidentally, Engineer Anderson was married to a woman from Amble where he was buried. I shall continue to follow up later in the day. As I mentioned earlier, I am on holiday in Austria and must go sight-seeing with the family....

South Shields 10/02/1944  Sign On Edwin T. Douglas 146334 ***

Lyness 08/08/1944  Sign Off Edwin T.Douglas

Lyness 09/08/1944  Sign On Edwin T. Douglas

Lyness 07/02/1945  Sign  Off Edwin T.Douglas

Lyness 08/02/1945  Sign   On Edwin T.Douglas

Lyness 08/08/1945  Sign   Off Edwin T.Douglas

Lyness 08/08/1945  Sign  On Edwin T.Douglas 

Kirkwall 05/02/1946  Sign  Off Edwin T.Douglas 

Kirkwall 06/02/1946  Sign On Edwin T.Douglas 

Kirkwall 06/05/1946  Sign Off Edwin T.Douglas

Kirkwall 07/05/1946  Sign On Edwin T.Douglas 

Blyth 25/08/1946  Sign Off Edwin T.Douglas

Apologies for the typos. I am on holiday with a poor internet signal and a poor keyboard.

WoW! Many many thanks for your immediate reply. The picture is a great help as ius the extra "s" in Douglass.

FYI , I was the former Chieftan of the Athens (Greece) St Andre's Societyabout ten years ago. My mother was a McMillen, my father a Baynes.My DNA is 53% Northern Scotland, Highlands and Islands, 17% Viking, 14% Irish with the balance North West Europe and England. During the war, my father was one of only 3 survivors on a ship called the Empire Airman when it was torpedoed in a convoy in the Atlantic Ocean.

A few months later after a spell at home, he was on another convo, this time to Murmansk in 1943 onboard a ship called the Empire Portia. She was hit by a Stuka dive bomber. at ancorage in Murmansk. Again he survived and returned home to South Shields on the north east coast. He was discharged and the Empire Portia saild to the south coast where she hit a mine and was sunk. Lucky Baynes lived again!  Then for some reason his next shipwas the Edwin T. Douglass which lay in Lyness then later Kirkwall. In all he spent more than 2 year there on the same ship which I do not believe ever left the harbour except for the journey from Lyness to Kirkwall. I want to know more. Why was this ship there, who was Edwin T. Doiuglass, did it ever leave harbour etc etc. The other reason is that whilst in Orkney, he apparently fathered a child. I would like to find out who that child was and what happened to them.

Any tiny clue, like the letter 's' would be more than helpful.

A final note, my son it currently attending Glasgow University to become a vet.

I am trying to find more information about the Edwin T. Douglas.

Update: If the information on familysearch and ancestry is correct, then James Monroe Douglas was born James Monroe DouglasS!!

Hi William, thank you for your message! Here is what I have found in addition to a few other census records