Alice Selina (Howes) Wilson (1865 - 1942)

I have some news on the Raven Wilson front. For Shirley's benefit: John Raven Bray Wilson was the husband of Alice Selina Howes (another of your great grandfather's younger sisters). Like many of the sisters of that generation she appears to have married out of the Yarmouth area. She also appears to have married up as the Wilson family seem to be monied - at least in the census records under occupation the men are "gentlemen" and the women are "of independent means" (question: have any of us actually traced the Wilson family back and figured out where their wealth came from?). Anyway, Raven seems to have gone to South Africa early on in their marriage with Alice and their two daughters following on prior to the 1901 census and after the death of Raven's mother in 1893. Raven kept in touch with Alice's family writing to both my grandparents. In one postcard to my grandfather he laments the fact that business is slow though he doesn't say what that business is.

Finally found a website, Ancestor.co.za, which allows you to access an index of South African death records (late 1600's to 1995). The index shows that a John Raven Bray Wilson married to an Alice Selina Howes died in South Africa in 1948. There is no  death record in the index for Alice herself. It is possible that she went home to England to die. Found a possible match for her in the FREEBMD death records for 1949. Alice S. Wilson aged 84 though in Cambridge. Only the certificate will confirm if it's  our girl or not.

Don't know about the two daughters at the moment but given the fact that Raven spent his life living there it is probable that the daughters did too. The rumours that we have South African cousins may in fact hold true down to the present.

That's pretty much where I am at the moment in researching the Wilson line of our family.

- email "Family History", 25 Nov 2015 TCH.

I remember Dad mentioning once that he had an aunt in South Africa. Alice Selina (Howes) Wilson is the only aunt that fits that description. Can not find her nor her daughters in UK records after the 1891 census so it is plausible that they joined Raven in South Africa.