When running a large one-name study you never know what may appear in your inbox next.
It can sometimes go for weeks between enquiries and of course the occasional "Just wanted to say thanks for all the work you must have put in"
But last Friday I got an email where the title simply said "Enquiry from Uruguay"
This instantly got me wondering as there are not many that went to Uruguay - Argentina (next door of course) is a different matter.
The enquiry was from a journalist and a member of the History Society of Club Atlético Peñarol. He was researching the early members and founders of the club. He said "One of them was a man Halstead, in the records from 1891-1896 appears as R. Halstead, suposedly a cricket player. In newer records, from 1901 and beyond, another appears as J. H. Halstead."
He had found the research website and thought that the R Halstead could be Richard Lucio Halstead (1864-1917) and the second John Henry Halstead (1859-1941) - quite likely as both had connection in South America, travelling there frequently.
With passenger lists prior to 1890 bit surviving tracking people going to South America in the 1880's in not easy and no inbound to there either. Richard was certainly there before 1890 and John Henry went in 1899. Both had connections to the railways as had their father Joshua Halstead (whose death I still can't trace).
I was able to provide him with the details of the brothers, their journeys and deaths, as well the details of the other family members who went to South America. He promised to keep me informed on how things progressed and also sent me this newspaper snippet from 1899
