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Hello everyone I am new to this site and am enjoying it very much. I came across this site interestingly enough while researching a ship that sank Dec 7,1909 in Lake Erie named the Marquette & Bessemer2. All of the crew perished and a lifeboat with 9 frozen crew members was brought in to Erie Pennsylvannia. I have been researching the ship as well as the crew and this is how I came to be here. A John Hart was one of the nine crew found and because no relatives could be located he was buried in Erie. Born in 1871 in Ireland he came to America and ended up in Chicago. A book called Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes written by Dwight Boyer has written a chapter about the trip and he mentions John "Paddy" Hart joined the Colonel Arthur Lynch Brigade which left at the time of the second Boer War to help battle the British in South Africa.I don't know how to either prove the story or disprove it. I have used the search surnames and seems like a lot of J Harts but don't know if I am looking at British forces or Boer Forces? I have looked on computer for list of men leaving Chicago and have not had luck with that either. If anyone can steer me in the right direction or know how I can get some answers I certainly would appreciate it! Thanking you in advance. Matt Jones

Nothing here that mentions Hart, I'm afraid, but might be of interest.

www.limerickcity.ie/media/Media,4131,en.pdf

www.jstor.org/stable/25156683?seq=1

This link relates to Blake's "Ambulance Corps" of Irish-Americans from Chicago.
medium.com/history-matters/a-group-of-ch...-africa-a0b83bcde71a

Thank you for sending those links, very interesting! I will keep searching, I see he isn't listed under american volunteers, looked under irish volunteers and there is no names. I am not sure if he would have fallen under category american or irish? I hope the story wasn't just made up. My goal is to prove it's true. Next summer I am going to visit his gravesite in Erie PA. Matt

The John Hart who died was a single man, an oiler, from Conneaut, Ohio. I'd guess that the nearest newspaper could have been from Ashtabula, OH - try the public library there, and the Ashtabula County Genealogical Society, the headquarters are at the library .
www.acdl.info/genealogy

www.conneautohio.us/

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn840264...ype=yearRange&page=1

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn830320...ype=yearRange&page=1

Thanks again. I have all paper articles from the time from papers in Conneaut, Erie and Ashtabula. i know he was there in Conneaut for 6 years but did not have a residence there. He was a live aboard. The only info Conneaut has of him was the shipwreck. He was a man not wanting to be found. My only chance to trace his tracks from before 1903 was in Chicago newspapers covering Col Lynch brigade in Jan 1900 or New York papers covering the departure of the brigade or on this site. Unless someone has a complete list of the brigade before leaving NY it looks like I have come to the end of the road.
Matt