Help please, a difficult one here.

[solidrock2]

Hi guys, I've been working on this one for a couple of weeks and getting no where. John Watson Parker 1906 - 1974.

PARKER, JOHN WATSON CAMPBELL GRO Reference: 1906 D Quarter in SUNDERLAND Volume 10A Page 747
Deaths Jun 1974
PARKER John Watson 26oc1906 Paddington 141192

It's a long and complicated story but I'll try to keep it brief.
It appears that John went to Iceland and had a child there with a Puríður Sigurjónsdóttir in 1941, they were not married and he deserted her. He was arrested in 1942 for refusing to join up, he was taken to a ship and sent to Main and spent two years in prison. This is when the trail goes cold apart from a few news clippings that don't help that much. Apparently he became a band leader going by the name Jack Quinet. It is aid in one clipping that he eloped to Gretna Green to marry but I have not found any evidence of that, also that he was once a police man. He died in Paddington, London living at Inglewood Road, the informant was Norah Ethel Watson Parker., got no idea who she was, no trace of her online. Trying to find his movements between 1944 and 1974 also any possible marriage or children.

 

[DaveHam9]

I searched for Norah Ethel Watson Parker and made no progress.

No marriage in Scotland on SP that would fit.

I searched for Jack Quinet and got hits about why people kill.

 

[solidrock2]

I searched for Norah Ethel Watson Parker and made no progress.

No marriage in Scotland on SP that would fit.

I searched for Jack Quinet and got hits about why people kill.

That's what I got Dave, Nothing. There is one article about him online but not much help as it's in Icelandic and Google does not translate it very well.
https://www.ismus.is/.../uid-c7f90995-a8af-4c97-bc79...

 

[DaveHam9]

I searched British newspapers and got one hit that is not him. Gibbo might do better ??

 

[gibbo]

You may have already seen these, they don't help much tho

Published: Wednesday 16 April 1930
Newspaper: The Era
County: London, England
... some good instrumentalism. An outstanding individual performance is given Harry Warde. and Jtctty Hull, t'harlcs Donald. Jack Quinet and Harry Hraithwaite arc useful in their spheres throughout, '•he road way Hovs and the Alhambra (lirls merit apnlanso ...
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Published: Wednesday 16 October 1935
Newspaper: The Era
County: London, England
... COLUMBUS?—JUST AN “ALSORAN ”! By JACK QUINET QUINET is the brilliant ance-band leader, and one of most versatile men in his •ssion. He was the first ishman to take a dance-band •land, and, while there, spent >d deal of time in studying history and folk-lore ...
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Published: Wednesday 22 April 1936
Newspaper: The Era
County: London, England
The ballet had a cordial reception, and it should become a popular part of the Wells repertoire. JACK QUINET Hot Music for Iceland TACK QUINET with his Band are J leaving Leith on Saturday for Iceland. They are taking plenty hot ...
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Published: Tuesday 28 April 1936
Newspaper: Daily Mirror
County: London, England
. . Now on his way to Iceland—Jack Quinet, popular band leader. He was the first English band leader to Jack Quinet, take a dance band into Iceland, in 1933, and now has renewed his contract with the ...

 

[gibbo]

Can John and Norah be picked up on the ER?

 

[gibbo]

??

Daily Mirror - Thursday 02 March 1967

 

[gibbo]

This must be the marriage that was not legal.

Free bmd
Marriages Dec 1950
Parker John W - spouse Watson-Parker - district H.Hempstead 4b 127
Parker John W - spouse Suckling - district H.Hempstead 4b 127
Suckling Lilian A M - spouse Watson-Parker - district H.Hempstead 4b 127

 

[gibbo]

Not sure how many John Watson Parkers there are, may or may not be your fella your chasing. This one was a Insurance broker in 1939.

Gloucestershire Echo - Friday 15 December 1939

 

[solidrock2]

??

Daily Mirror - Thursday 02 March 1967

That's very useful gibbo thank you. Do you know where I would find the Gretna marriages, I've look but nothing

 

[solidrock2]

This must be the marriage that was not legal.

Free bmd
Marriages Dec 1950
Parker John W - spouse Watson-Parker - district H.Hempstead 4b 127
Parker John W - spouse Suckling - district H.Hempstead 4b 127
Suckling Lilian A M - spouse Watson-Parker - district H.Hempstead 4b 127

I found that one but not sure if it was him.

 

[DaveHam9]

I can't find a marriage in Scotland that fits.

I also can't find Norah as a wife or daughter or sister.

 

[solidrock2]

On his death cert it says he was a horticulturalist, I'm asuming that he gave up his musical career after he came out of jail as all the reports of Jack Quinet are in the 1930's.

 

[gibbo]

Shame the 1967 article didn't name his first wife.

edited.. 1967 article states marriage 40 years ago so first marriage around 1927

 

[solidrock2]

Shame the 1967 article didn't name his first wife.

edited.. 1967 article states marriage 40 years ago so first marriage around 1927

But at least we know it was about 1927.

 

[gibbo]

Is there a will for John? Wondering if it might have a mention of Norah.

 

[gibbo]

OH might explain why we can't find a record of his first marriage at Gretna Green, you will have to scroll down a bit.

https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/1636/

 

[solidrock2]

Is there a will for John? Wondering if it might have a mention of Norah.

Can't find one.

 

[Elwyn]

Do you know where I would find the Gretna marriages, I've look but nothing

Scotland used to have forms of marriage known as “irregular marriages.” These were situations where the law regarded you as lawfully married even though you had not been married by a Minister of Religion or a Civil Registrar. (Marriage by Registrar didn’t exist in Scotland till 1940).

The law could consider a couple validly married if they lived together for a while and friends and neighbours regarded them as married. That was called marriage “by habit & repute”. Alternatively if you acknowledged each other as man and wife in front of a couple of witnesses, then the law considered you to be married “by consent”. There were also marriages by promise. (Details in the link below).

The key element was that you didn’t need a Minister or a civil Registrar to validate or record them. These irregular marriages were abolished in 1940, and replaced by Register Office ceremonies.

So in 1927, marrying "by consent," in front of a couple of witnesses, at the Blacksmiths in Gretna Green (or in other towns along the Scottish border) was a common form of irregular marriage. It was possible to later appear before a Sheriff and swear oaths as to the fact you were married, and if satisfied, the Sherriff would then order the marriage to be recorded in the statutory registers (which are now on the Scotlandspeople site). Such certificates will normally show that the marriage was recorded by Sheriff’s warrant, as opposed to the usual wording of “according to the forms of the Church of Scotland”, or the Roman Catholic church etc.

Unless your couple chose to swear oaths before a Sheriff, the marriage won’t appear in any official records. But it would still have been valid in law provided that they had witnesses able to testify to it. And in this particular case the judge in 1967 evidently ruled that it was valid.

You can still get married in Gretna Green today but nowadays the Civil Registrar performs the marriage, so it goes straight into the civil records.

See:

http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/social...medicine/scottishwayofbirthanddeath/marriage/


Today we might call that type of irregular marriage a “common law” marriage, though that actual term has no legal meaning in the UK. But it describes the concept.

 

[solidrock2]

OH might explain why we can't find a record of his first marriage at Gretna Green, you will have to scroll down a bit.

https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/1636/

Yes that could be it but I'm sre that I found a Gretna marriage some time back but I can't remember where.