Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Hi all.

I'm researching my family history and want to find some more information about my great great grandfather, Henry John Nolan, born about 1894 in Ireland.

He moved to Liverpool some time before 1916 and worked as a seaman all his life. In the early 1960s he got a job as a night watchman on the Alexandra dock in Liverpool. On December 14th 1963 he went missing. His body was found in the March of 1964, floating face down in the dock. My family have always suspected murder as the body was found with bruising and broken ribs.

Anyway, i was wondering where I could find information about the ships he may have worked on and then also find information about his death... police reports, court reports etc.

If anyone can help me it would be much appreciated. I have other info on him such as family member names etc.

Many thanks,

Dan

Hi and welcome to the forum.

This is a very recent date for us, however if I can give you some general guidelines if anybody else has any more suggestions I'm sure they will add them on here.

As for the ships he worked on - you would need to know the company he worked for and apply to them for any records they may have kept.

Then looking for reports of his death I would start with the local newspaper - the Liverpool Echo for around the date the body was found and I suspect there would be mention of which court any investigation would have taken place at.

Are Coroner's Records for that date already lodged with the Liverpool Record Office? this might be an enquiry worth making as I don't know what date they would go up to.

Please don't post any family member names etc. as at this date they may still be living and we don't publicise names on this forum.

Records of coroners inquests held are on microfilm at Liverpool RO. 1892-1994 347 COR This will narrow your search down to the date a inquest will have been held you can then look in the Liverpool Echo/Post for a report of the inquest. Seamans Records are held at Kew so a trip there will be in order to find out what ships he served on.

Thanks for the replies and the warm welcome.

Katie, do you know what information is held on the microfilms? I know that the coroner was requesting more information from the police.

The seamen's records held by the National Archive are on their catalogue. Put Nolan into their search engine and BT into the Department series code. They are indexed surname then initial.

If his is not there and they only have some, you will find that other seamen's records are held at Southampton Archives and all the rest ( a great deal) are held in Newfoundland.

I would have thought the inquest would have been reported in the local paper. The date of inquest should be on the death certificate which would make it easier to search for the information.

OK great thanks. I've ordered the death certificate so hopefully something should show up on there.

Thanks again

A very touching post.
Good luck with cert dlh1.
Tina

Hi,
My family lived next door to your gt gt grandparents until 1970's.
Good Luck with your search.
Regards Pauline and Joe

Thank you for your help. I have now purchased the death certificate. It declares the cause to be unascertainable due to body decomposition. I'm currently waiting to hear back from the coroner.

I'm just trying to find as much information about Henry John Nolan as possible. We can't even find his DOB because he was born in Ireland. If anyone has any information and would like to help me then it would be much appreciated.

Daniel

p.s the date of inquest was the 2nd of April. Where would I go now to find more information. I've contacted the coroner but had no reply so far.

There may be a report in the Liverpool Echo. You will have to wait to access these records until the microfilm department is relocated in the World Museum.