11th: BIDGOODs

Contact from a Ross in Australia asking what I knew about the Richard BIDGOODs in my tree.
He had a Richard, supposedly from New Jersey, and 2nd son of a Richard BIDGOOD to try and track, and the nearest candidates in his search were my extended BIDGOOD family there.
Not that there was a Richard, 2nd son of a Richard, in the expected timeframe to marry in Australia in 1884.
Nearest was Richard son of Jacob, who had not been traced in America beyond 1880.
As the 1900 census implied 3 of Jacob and Jane's children had died by then, that may have been his fate.
Not so.
With all the records now available on FamilySearch I was able to identify several births, marriages and deaths for the family from the New Jersey records indexed there, and Richard wasn't amongst them.
However, the Australian chap being investigated was several years older, although well within the normal error rate for forgetful ancestors who never seem to know their ages, and there were still rather too many unanswered questions.
Although Ross is still none the wiser, the Richard son of Jacob and Jane does look to have survived, and continued living in New Jersey as I found a mis-indexed record (as MEYER !!), in the 1900, and subsequent, censuses for Rockaway, New Jersey.
Thankfully a daughter was indexed correctly as BIDGOOD, which helped find him.
Several new twigs will therefore appear in my next WorldConnect db update, which should be soon.
Related names that have turned up in this bout of research include a wonderfully named Seaman Garfield DOGGETT, with son Seaman Leroy DOGGETT.

This activity did make me realise that I hadn't tracked several of the family still in the UK in the 1911 census.
This time round, I've found a few wills and deaths, included one registered Lanchester (Durham), indexed as Lancaster!