The Challenge of Walter Todman’s Identity

The earliest we have been able to locate my great grandfather Walter Todman in Australia is 1890 when he applies for a patent for his design improvement on shearing equipment, an application that was duly reported in “The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser” on the 27 December 1890[i]  

So I was very excited when I recently found an advertisement in Evening Journal newspaper column for MISSING FRIENDS[ii] on TROVE.

“Willoughby, or Todman (James), left Millwall in 1884; last letter from Sydney, N.S.W., in 1888. Mother asks.”

Family legend states that Walter changed his name from Willoughby to Todman.  The only marriage that my cousins and I have been able to find between a Willoughby and a Todman occurred in 1854 when Charles Willoughby married Mary Ann Ramsey Todman in Gillingham Kent. They had a son James Lincoln Willoughby.  On Walter’s marriage certificate his mother was Mary Ann Willoughby, although the father was listed as Walter Todman[iii].

So now I am seeking to make contact with anyone who might be able to shed light on the mystery. 

---

[i] "Patent Office Transactions," The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 27 December 1890, p. 1446, col. 3; digital images, TROVE (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article163648327 : accessed 18 Oct 2015), The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912). 

[ii] MISSING FRIENDS. (1901, April 13). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 - 1912), p. 6. Retrieved October 21, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207944213

[iii] Registry of Birth, Death and Marriages, Victoria, "Certificate of Marriage  Walter Todman & Martha Ellis 16 January 1892 Reference# 345" (Original in the family papers of  Myrtle Sharp.)