As Derek Abbott liked to point out (particularly when he was trying to raise Somerton Man crowdfunding from Americans), we can easily imagine the Somerton Man having some US connection. This was not just from the distinctly American feather stitching on his coat, but also from his Juicy Fruit chewing gum, probably a habit picked up at a younger age (when he had more teeth to chew with).
So I’ve been playing around behind findmypast.com.au’s database paywall, seeing what’s there. And it was there that I found four American John Joseph Keanes all born in 1898, thanks to their First World War enlistment records.
These four American draftees should be worth a quick look, right?
JJK #1
Serial Number: 2271 / 3171. Address: 221 Vernon, Wakefield. Born: 28th June 1898. Description: Tall, Medium Build, Blue Eyes, Light Hair. Nationality: Irish. Next of kin: Mrs John Keane, Attymon, Galway. Drafted: Melrose City #28, Massachusetts. Occupation: Lead Busman. Employer: Thompson Scarnitt, Nitro, W. Virginia.
JJK #2
Serial Number: 2376 / 1388. Address: 2123 S. Opal, Phila, Phila, PA. Born: 13th September 1898. Description: Short Height, Medium Build, Gray Eyes, Brown Hair. Nationality: US born. Next of kin: Patrick Keane (Father), 2123 S. Opal. Drafted: Philadelphia City No. 51. Occupation: Assistant Blue Printer. Employer: United States Navy Yard, United States Govt.
There’s a John Keane, born 13th September 1898, who died in Pennsylvania in October 1966 (Social Security Number 164-05-1829): so it looks as though #2 may be fully accounted for. 🙂
JJK #3
Serial Number: 3841 / 5260. Address: 556 Paris St, San Francisco, CA. Born: 19th May 1898. Description: Medium Height, Medium Build, Blue Eyes, Auburn Hair. Next of kin: Ellen Keane, 556 Paris, San Francisco, CA. Drafted: San Francisco City No. 3. Occupation: Heater Boy. Employer: Schawbatchee shipyard, South San Francisco, San Mateo.
There’s a 1910 Census entry for 596 Athens Street, with John Keane (Head, born in Ireland), Ellen Keane (wife, born in Ireland), John J. [12] and James Keane [8] (all born in New York), and Katherine [6], Robert M. [4], Evelyn [3], and William Keane [2] (all born in California).
JJK #4
Serial Number: 1503 / 94638. Address: Brentwood, Suffolk, N.Y. Born: 25th Dec 1898. Description: Medium Height, Medium Build, Blue Eyes, Black Hair. Next of kin: Anna Keane (Mother), Galway Ireland. Drafted: Suffolk County No. 2, New York. Occupation: Farmer. Employer: Sisters, St Joseph, Brentwood, Suffolk, N.Y.
Any Matches?
Here’s the tie linked to the Somerton Man, with the name (T? or J?) Keane on it, which (I have to say) doesn’t look like any of the signatures. And we also know that the Somerton Man was tallish (5ft 11in) and with grey eyes. So it looks like we’re out of luck here, sorry.
But the point I’m trying to make (albeit implicitly) here is that this kind of archival search is extremely random and patchy. For these four draftees, we have a date of birth, a physical description, a next of kin, etc, which is really great: but this is the archival exception rather than anything like the rule. In just about every other case, we have only the tiniest of fragments – for example, marriage details are often little more than a pair of names, a place and a date. Unless you already know what you are looking for, you’re going to be struggling from the start: and that has been true of the research so far.
That Dulwich clerk, at last…
Even so, all my fine-tooth trawling through findmypast’s databases did mean that I found the Australian Electoral Rolls 1939, which (mirabile dictu!) lists:
- 5761 Keane, Clara Maude, 16 Union st, Dulwich, home duties F
- 5762 Keane, John Joseph, 16 Union st, Dulwich, clerk M
So it would seem that we finally have (probably) a wife for our Dulwich bookmakers’ clerk.
And this Clara Maude Keane in turn led (via the inevitable long string of intermediate dead-ends) to the following Family Notice in the Adelaide Chronicle of 23rd January 1941:
KEANE. —On the 20th of January [1941], John Joseph, dearly beloved husband of Clara Keane, of Gurney road, Dulwich, and loving father of Kevin and Ronald, beloved brother of Rita, Josie, and Kevin. Aged 44 years. Requiescat in pace
And so, I believe, this search ends.
Not sure if it got posted (lately some of my rants comments have been getting chopped off – not sure if it’s your anti-spam, or something this end (which it could well be)), but in a recent comment, I discovered Victoria has recently released some S&M almanacs, although they weren’t yearly like they were in in SA (or at least they haven’t released yearly ones). In the nerest I could get to 1948 without going over, I skimmed over looking for KEAN/Es (as well as Harkness and Thomson – not sure exactly when they were in Vic, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that they had been). From memory (I’ll have to dig it up again) there was a few J (and even Jno/Jos) Keane’s floating around, but specifically one JJ Keane if anyone’s interested…
I only looked for them in Vic because the generic narrative seems (for very little reason other than train timings, I think) to suggest that SM had arrived from Melbourne that morning (and the potential connection to the nitpicker etc)
Nick, I can imagine very few contexts in which a grown man would write his name on his clothing; laundry marks were usually written by the laundry and were less obtrusive (or so I’m told) and often no more than a code number for that customer. Mothers wrote the labels for school uniforms (thought the done thing was to buy a length of tape, pre-embroidered by a single one old firm whose name escapes me). Persons sent to a hospital might write their own name-tags I suppose, but in those days it would be more likely done in the hospital laundry where the tape and special ink was available. Maybe in a doss-house or ?in the army? or ?in prison? an adult might have to write their own. But no necessary connection with signatures, I’d say, except to the degree that Americans, Australians and English might have a different standard script taught in schools. I moved to another state when I was young and had to re-learn the ‘right’ form to give the copperplate T, F, and K.
And going back to the sickbed idea, clothes of persons who died were regularly given to charity shops (op-shops) and at the time the de-mob centres were handing out civilian clothes to former soldiers and their families, just as friends might give a few old clothes away.
On the subject of labels, I think it’s also a bit of a leap to imply removal of brand- and/or size-labels from ready-made clothes means anything in the 1950s.
I know that it was the first thing we did, after removing the wrapping, as late as the 1960s. The labels were considered irrelevant to the customer – useful only for the shop. Though perhaps some stigma still attached, even in the post-war period, to buying off-the-peg.
Even today, I can’t bring myself to wear anything emblazoned with the manufacturer’s name; makes me feel like a walking sandwich-board.
@Diane: If removing the labels meant nothing in that day, why would the media of the time raise it as a significant point. The first report comes 18th Jan 1949 I think the day after the suitcase was discovered, where the Advertiser reports:
‘A puzzling feature about the clothing found in the suitcase
was that with the exception of the names “T. Keane” and “Kean” on a singlet, all name tabs had been removed from the garments. ‘
(and also ‘Mutilated name tabs on other pieces of clothing in the suitcase were placed under an infra-red ray lamp yesterday in an unsuccessful effort to read them.’)
To me the first of those implies that it was considered unusual to remove tags, and the second that police thought people would be in the habit of writing their names on them.
Off topic, but it bothered me the other day that we rarely hear mention of PCC D Bartlett (and probably other coppers) who would’ve been involved in the case to varying degree (granted, he would have been a junior to Leane and Brown, but he appears in some of the pics (although in other’s he’s cropped out (not deliberately, I think)).
Bartlett (PCC)
Moss (Constable)
During the early 1980’s, while in ” Boot Camp ” recruits were made to remove all tags from their clothing that was issued to them. The tags read, ” Made in China ” or ” Peoples Republic of China “. If you did not do so you were in trouble. You also had to stencil your Name and Social Security Number(Service Number) on your clothing.