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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PScofield" data-source="post: 4099732" data-attributes="member: 128262">Well, with the site down had a chance to do a bit more on Louis.Firstly the 1851 Census tells me two things firstly he was Scottish and second he may have been younger than we thought (ie born c. 1825).So I found a baptism record for a Louis Fraser29 December 1825Reay, Caithness, Scotland, United Kingdom (in the Heart of the Fraser Clan)To Hugh Fraser and Janet MacKayThis record was hidden due to a transcription error (Luis - female).So it is possible that he was baptized years after his birth but given the fact he stated that he was 26 in 1851 suggests to me he probably was born in 1825. The reason for a false date of birth on his marriage certificate is probably because he was not of age at the time of his marriage (1844).I also found that the interpretation that Hugh - Louis's father being a sailor in Wikipedia is slightly incorrect. Louis's marriage record identifies Hugh as a Marine - i.e. a member of The Royal Marines!Now the next new evidence is that he was in England alive in 1867 (street directory) but a Louis Fraser was granted naturalisation in Illinois in 1868.The next unequivocal evidence I can find is a paragraph in Harpers weekly for 24th May 1873:[URL unfurl="true"]https://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Harper_s_Weekly.html?id=4ySERiKHkb4C&redir_esc=y[/URL]also here[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/_/Q-s4AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1[/URL]where it states that our man was elderly and destitute and living in British Columbia and requesting assistance from "Men of Science". The idea he was elderly (when he should have been 48) is odd but there is NO doubt this is Louis Fraser - Naturalist.Then the last record I can find is in the 1881 Canadian Census where I find a record for a Louis Fraser (a Saloon Keeper) in downtown Victoria, BC. So perhaps the "men of science" gave enough to give him a new living? One reason to believe this is our Louis is that he gives his religion as Masonic and Ancestry.com does indeed give evidence that he was a Mason (a member of the St Johns Lodge in 1857).[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40055986#page/10/mode/1up[/URL]By searching Vertnet and the Cambridge University Museum catalogues, I do find records for specimens collected in Florida in 1883 by a Mr Fraser but I do question whether this really could be our chap. Does a destitute elderly "saloon keeper" from BC really travel 5200 miles to collect 3 birds in Florida in 1883? There were several other Frasers collecting in North America in the late 19th C.So I suggest:fraseri • Louis Fraser (?1825-?1883) Scottish zoologist, Curator of ZSL Museum 1832-1846, Curator of Knowsley Collection 1848-1851, Vice-Consul to Dahomey 1851-1853, collector in Nigeria 1841-1842, Ecuador 1857, California 1860, and perhaps Florida 1883.Oscar Louis Fraser was born in the last quarter of 1848 and died in Calcutta on 1 Nov 1894. He is apparently not significant to any etymologies..</blockquote>

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