In 1851 William Henry Emptage signed on with the Hudson Bay Company and sailed to north west America, making the long and perilous journey around Cape Horn.
Despite sustaining a life changing injury, he was described as a “colourful and useful man” in the British Columbia Historical Quarterly, October 1945.
The brigantine ‘Druide of Cardiff’ was driven ashore on rocks opposite Fore Point, Margate. Subsequent events led to the shaming of Edwin Robert Emptage, second coxswain of the lifeboat Quiver and the awarding of Sea Gallantry medals to Albert John Emptage and six others. Did Edwin deserve to be pilloried or were political forces at work, using him as scapegoat?
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.”
I wanted to identify William, the father of two sons, Peter Wootton Emptage (born in 1830) and Erasmus Sympson Emptage. It should have been relatively simple, shouldn’t it?
Then I discovered there were fifteen baptisms of William Emptage between 1793 and 1838….
This is the story of three generations, two couples in each generation and five men named Henry Emptage.
Plus conjecture and unsolved conundrums.
If it is to be done properly, researching family history takes time and effort. What is the point of compromising the results by taking short cuts and replicating errors which are found on other people’s trees?
