|
You are contacting the submitter of the query:
Looking for birth / marriage / census / university / death / obituary / will records for Dr William Henry Bradley (1862-1924)
It sounds like I'm looking for someone to do all of the work for me here, but I have literally spent hundreds and thousands of hours looking for records of my wife's great grandfather and have still not found any of the records above (apart from a 95% sure 1900 census record). I have found several other kinds of records and here is what I know:
William Henry Bradley - Born Fort Wayne, Indiana Jan 1862
Married to Minnie Hulett (daughter of Nehemiah / Mack Hulett and Lizette nee Potter). Minnie and William appear together the Hulett household in Schuyler Cty, NY in 1900 census. They were apparently married in 1888 and had 1 child that is no longer living with them. Bradley is listed as a physician at that time.
2 years later, Bradley has emigrated to Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana -- apparently going down to work as a physician to railroad / gold mining company managed by Howard Ashley Pedrick (according to Pedrick's book Jungle Gold).
Bradley serves as US Consular Agent in Paramaribo from 1905-1909.
He is also credited with building the first 61 miles of railroad in Dutch Guiana, owned several gold mines and at least one plantation (called Mon Sort). He is described in one book as knowing "more about gold placer mining in South America" than any other American.
I found a 1906 passenger record showing Dr Bradley heading to his "brother" 's apartment at 71 Cranberry St, Brooklyn, but I have no idea what his brother's name was and have had no luck finding any Bradley's at this address (though I did find one at #81 Cranberry St that hasn't otherwise matched up)
I also know that Dr Bradley married or "married" a woman from Georgetown, Demerara / British Guiana (named Mary Josephine Massiah) in about 1909 and they had 4 children in Paramaribo from 1910 through 1915.
Sometime around 1924-1925, Dr Bradley died of some strange disease (he reportedly operated on himself!) and his family was left with no money. They are recorded as having arrived in Canada in Oct 1925 with $350 US that I assume they must have borrowed from Mary's family to get here. Her immigration record shows her having stopped at Barbados for several days on the way from Demerara to Canada, for her passport was issued from Barbados and her declared relative is given as her Uncle Edward George Massiah of Stuart Villa, Hastings, Barbados.
Another interesting footnote is that Dr Bradley is recorded as having helped hundreds of French convicts escape from Devil's Island (of Papillon fame). One of the men he helped to escape was a famouns Chicago gangster and American Express robber named Eddie Guerin -- who wrote 2 books about his ordeal and was widely publicized when he miraculously returned to the US in 1906.
I would love to find out what happened to Dr Bradley's mines and railroad and plantations and to find out when and how he died and who his birth family was. I'm totally stumped on this.
The only lead I have is someone from the reference dept at the University of Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana) who has offered to search for records there. Apparently most of the Surinames records are in very poor condition and are stored in the Hague, Netherlands
I've also tried the Schuyler Cty records office and they apparently don't keep track of marriage records. I've searched the NY Times for 1923-25 and found nothing that seemed relevant to Dr Bradley.
Thanks for your attention and anything you might be able to find for me or suggest Your personal information will only be used to contact the submitter and will not be saved or used for any other purpose.
|
