According to the Williams family bible, James Edwin Williams was born in Studley, Calne, Wiltshire, England on 8 August 1863. He is listed on the Hudson ship's manifest as being 9 months old... which would have been correct if the boat left England sometime in May or early June 1864. Since the passage took about 6 weeks at that time, that's easily acceptable. Ship manifests were recorded usually at the beginning of the trip or sometime during the trip. Then the manifest was dated when the boat arrived in the United States and often it was used as people came off the ship to check names, health, etc.
In the family bible, James Edwin's (known as Edwin on the ship manifest) death is listed as 3 July 1864. That date seems a little off just 'cause they didn't arrive in New York until July 20th... and on the manifest there is no "Died at Sea" next to Edwin's name (as there are next to others). The family bible (which Jean Nelson Tuckfield has in possession) offers another clue. It says that he died at Castle Garden. Well... I had learned about Castle Garden mainly from www.castlegarden.org. Castle Garden was the "Ellis Island" in 1864. All new immigrants came through Castle Garden, purchasing tickets for further travel, exchanging currency, etc. So... if he died at Castle Garden - that would not have happened on July 3, 1864 since they didn't arrive in New York until July 20th. Two options - he either died on July 3rd on the boat and his body hidden until they arrived at Castle Garden or the July 3rd date is off. I'm willing to go with the second option. Just creeps me out a little bit to think of hiding the body of an 11month old (by this point) for more than 2 weeks. Not saying it's impossible, but highly improbable.
More a bit later... just in the last 15 minutes I've found some answers about Edwin. Thank you Heavenly Father for answering my prayers.
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