Anyone fancy a mystery?

[ActonBell]

I’m trying to track down what happened to my great aunt. I’m named after her at my Grandfather’s request (and because my parents thought it was a nice name!) but this has always been a bit odd since she disappeared as far as he knew in about 1930, a year after the death at age 16 of my Grandfather’s only other sibling.
Nothing untoward suspected as such - she just stopped contacting her family and never did ao again but they heard through mutual acquaintances that she was still around in London for a while after. I have found her on a 1934 electoral register so I know she was still around then but after that the trail goes cold.

I have found her birth certificate and marriage certificate. She married at 17 a man twice her age with a thankfully very unusual surname (though it’s spelt at least 3 different ways in the records). He appears to have been from South Africa and they went to live in Portuguese East Africa as it was then (Mozambique) for a couple of years. Then they came back and settled in London.

They’re living together in Wembley in 1931 but in 1934 she’s living in a boarding house in Ealing without him. Maybe he had sailed ahead of her back to South Africa/Mozambique? I can’t find him on any shipping records for that time though.

After that I can’t find a trace of either of them. I’ve been working with Ancestry and Find my Past. Any thoughts on what I could try next?!

I really think DNA should be part of your search. If she didn’t want to be traced then she wouldn’t submit to it but it’s an easy way to open a door and has massive potential to help your search.

Are there any records of who was issued with ration cards during the war? I have never heard of it but wondered because that was comprehensive.

Was that not what the 1939 register was for? We found various family members displaced, staying with extended family or friends out of London or evacuated.

OP you mentioned Mozambique which was a Portuguese colony at the time and "minors" where only allowed to travel with family's consent. Maybe she "tweeked" her age in order to be able to travel freely?
I also don't think she would have been able to get married at that age without parental consent either and this could have posed an issue given Portugal was a dictatorship with quite strict "effing rules". If the husband was potentially from Mozambique, Portuguese rules applied and her being older would help.
On another note a lot of people were born in mainland Portugal and then moved to Mozambique or Angola as life was amazing there, until the 70s. So maybe you could write to the Portuguese Embassy and ask for help in getting information about the "husband" who might be Portuguese.
There was also a lot of Portuguese people who moved to/fro South Africa, so I see another potential link to Portugal there.
Good luck!
P.S. Can you post the husband's name or his surname? I might be able to say whether it's Portuguese or not.

There was a family rumour that they once owned a shop on Finsbury Pavements but I’m finding it hard to find any evidence of whether or not that was the case.

Try locating the relevant Kelly's Directory - like a trade phone directory.

There are a number of public records available for free on familysearch.org for South Africa. I have a few relatives who i have been able to find death certificates for, who lived in SA. These gave a number of details: where they lived, who they were married to and names of children.

I have never found travel documentation for them to SA.

The records I have found date from the 1950s onwards, so if she died there, I think you have a reasonable chance of finding her. Also do try and look for the husand.

Good luck.

Was the husband Portuguese or British?

Also, as pp's say, she may well have lied about her age. Or been desperate to get away from her family / situation for some reason - was she promised to someone else? Such a puzzle

Has there been any update on the search?