Lysaught take 2 | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Lysaught take 2

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Submitted by patricia on Sat, 2011-02-05 17:01

Thanks for the tip, David.  For starters, here are William Lysaught's children who include:

Particularly concerning the daughters, aside from a few baptism notes (usually at St Joseph's Garden Rd) I've got very little further information.

John Joseph Lysaught died in 1918

Any ideas or leads about this family would be reallly great, thanks!

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Submitted by David on Sat, 2011-02-12 18:15.

Hi Patricia,

That's better from a "Googlability" rating! I'd have added "Hong Kong" in the text somewhere, as that's a likely part of a search you'd be interested in. This comment takes care of that.

For local resources, it'll be good to know which of the tools under "Where to find Hong Kong's history" you've tried. eg have you looked at the online copies of old newspapers?

I searched for "Lysaught", and it returned four matches:

The China Mail, 1893-09-02, page 2:

The first wedding from the Naval Yard took place this morning, Miss Lysaught, eldest daughter of the Inspector of Police, being married to Mr A. Ramsay, engineer, of the Douglas Steamship Co.

The Hong Kong Telegraph, 1910-06-24, page 12:

Death of Mr Wm. Lysaught

An Old Hongkong Resident

21st inst.

The death took place at his residence this morning of Mr William Lysaught, an old Hong Kong resident. He was a native of Newmarket, County Cork, in Ireland, and was born in 1836. He came to Hongkong in 1864 and therefore been a continuous resident in the Colony for close on fifty years. The late Mr Lysaught never once left Hongkong since his arrival here forty-six years ago. For thirty years, during 1864-1894, Mr Lysaught was in the service of the Naval Yard Police, retiring into private life after his long service in the Naval Yard. Mr Lysaught suffered from an affection of the heart to which he succumbed this morning.

The funeral took place this afternoon. The remains of the late Mr Lysaught were laid to rest in the Roman Catholic cemetery at Happy Valley. Numerous floral tributes and the large circle of friends at the grave side testified to the esteem in which deceased was held.

The Hong Kong Telegraph, 1923-10-31, page 3, &
The China Mail, 1923-10-31, page 8

Both carry similar reports. Here's the one from the China Mail:

WEDDING

Dorling - Lysaught

At St. Joseph's Church yesterday, the wedding took place of Mr. A. J. M. Dorling, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. Dorling of Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, and Miss Kathleen Lysaught, the second daughter of Mrs Lysaught and the late Mr J Lysaught of "Burnkank" Shaukeiwan.

The Rev. Father Augustin officiated.

The bride was given away by her uncle Mr T Murphy, and was attired [clothes details...]

Her two sisters, Margaret and Eileen, were bridesmaids and were dressed in [clothes details...]

The duties of best man were carried out by Mr Simpson of the Water Police.

A reception was held at the Kowloon Hotel. The honeymoon is to be spent at Macao. [More clothes details...]

The couple received many presents and among them were the following. From members of the Water Police, silver cruet set and entree dishes; CID Staff, silver tea service and spoons.

[Details of gifts between Bridegroom, Bride, and Bridesmaids]

I'm guessing you have the earlier details already, but hopefully the wedding piece brings the family history a bit closer to the present. So John Joseph Lysaught & Norah Murphy had three daughters, Kathleen, Margaret and Eileen, and we know Kathleen married a Mr. A. J. M. Dorling.

With gifts from the Water Police and the CID, it looks as though the family was still closely connected with policing in Hong Kong.

And a bit of Trivia - the Kowloon Hotel had just opened in June of that year, so was brand new and still had a clear view across the harbour to Hong Kong island. (Later the Peninsula Hotel was built in front of it, blocking the view!)

Searching the newspapers for names is always worthwhile, but it's never very accurate as the quality of the scanned documents isn't great. So the other way to use them is to read issues for certain dates.

Obviously you're not going to read several years of papers, but if you have a date for a birth, death or marriage, it's worth reading the papers for that date and a few days afterwards, to see if it was reported.

I'll be interested to hear what else you find out about them,

Regards, David

Submitted by patricia on Sat, 2011-02-12 22:26.

Yes I've fairly scoured (and am still scouring) the newspapers ... AJW Dorling was in the Hong Kong Police himself, and rose to Inspector (by memory - without checking the blue books).

I have also found the adverts for W Lysaught and sons machinery godown in Wanchai, importing heavy machinery from Europe, including winding gear etc. The papers are a fabulous source.  V interesting about the Kowloon Hotel - great photos, thanks 

regards, Patricia 

 

Submitted by jessicalejeune on Fri, 2020-01-03 16:44.
Hi I am the great granddaughter of Elizabeth Lysaught and Emerson Gibson. Please let me know if you have found any other information about this side of the family. My ancestry.ca DNA kit says I am 8% Asian mostly Chinese of the 8. I would love to know who the person is tied to the heritage. Thanks, Jessica Lejeune (Hall)

Submitted by Admin on Sat, 2020-01-04 18:18.

I've made pages for your great-grandparents at https://gwulo.com/node/47844 and https://gwulo.com/node/47845. Please leave comments on those pages if you can add any information about their time in Hong Kong and when they left.

Regards, David