Thanks infosending1
I have the details for him in the UK thanks, He doesn't appear on the English birth records because he was born in Australia. His father James went out to Ballarat for the gold rush in 1852. (Found no gold but made a fortune as a merchant). Eustace lived in Australia and NZ until 1910. Then he appears to have come to the UK. His first British daughter was born to Annie in 1918 before they were married. I don't know where he was between 1910-18, but medal records show him in the Merchant Navy at sometime during WW1 as he was awarded the British War Medal and the Mercantile Marine Medal. I would love to know when he came from Australia to the UK, but I haven't yet found any passenger records for ships leaving Aus between 1910 and 1918. Annie Fish is my grandmother. They had 4 daughters. The youngest was born in 1934, after he returned home from his "missing" ten years. She is now a US citizen with a large family. His past was a complete mystery as he would not ever discuss it. He would not let anyone take his photo, and would disappear if anyone picked up a camera. He would not open the front door or allow anyone into the house, and my Aunt tells me he slept with a knife under his pillow for years. Mum is sure her mother did not know about his first marriage, or his two Australian children, born in 1897 and 1899. Finding out she had two much older siblings was a bit of a shock to her, aged 88. In the past 2 years I have found relatives in Aus. and NZ that we never knew we had, and they did not know about his 2nd marriage, or that the English family existed. He never contacted his Australian family again, and they did not know what became of him. Until I started searching for his past, we did not know about his 8 siblings and 2 children.
I would like to know what connection he had to Chicago, or why he was there, or if his statement about being connected to Al Capone is true. I think if he was there, he would possibly have worked in the Chicago Stockyards for a while as he was an experienced stockman, and had farmed in Australia and NZ. I know he went back to sea in 1927 (claimed his previous discharge book had been lost), but again, I don't know what he did between arriving in NY in 1923 and signing on to another ship in 1927.
Definitely the black sheep of his family.