Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Hi I'm posting this on behalf of a group of friends of mine.There was a school reunion last month and as they were chatting a name cropped up,the group had heard that he had emigrated to Australia some time ago,so I'm posting this to see if I can locate him on here.His name is Ian Dawson,he is from the Teesside area of the UK and will be around 60.If anybody has any information could you please pm me,thank you,regards can1.

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Hi there and welcome to British Expats.

I will move this to the Australia forum for you as those in Australia are better placed to advise. It is a big old place and records like electoral rolls etc are not always easily available.

Have you any more snippets of clues please?

When he may have emigrated. If he travelled with his family.

That type of thing.

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Hi Bevs thank you for accepting me,I wasn't sure where to post.I was told that he emigrated sometime in the 90s,I don't know if he was with his family or not,he has a younger brother called Alan.I am on an old schoolfriends website,so if I can get any more information from them I will post it on here.Thank you.

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

It might be useful to publish personal information such as his age when at school (what school, and where?), favourite sport, religious or not, and so on. Also, where in Teesside, exactly?

Was the city called Teesside back 60 years ago? If it wasn't, he'd not claim it as his home, among his Australian friends. A friend of mine just turned 70, came from Middlesborough; I've never heard him even mention the name Teesside! And a cousin of mine in Bath insisted she lived in Somerset till the day she died. For her, the new counties were illegitimate, and fit only to be ignored.

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Any contact with his family? It may be that is the first port of call.

Teesside is a rather large conurbation. Do you feel able to narrow that down a bit ?

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Also, if you Google "Ian Dawson Australia" you'll be presented with dozens of photos. If you can recall what his father looked like, you might recognise him in one of them. Worth a shot.

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Any clues on his occupation or profession?

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Teesside isn't a city, it's an area and was a county name in the 60s

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Hi all thank you for your replies,Ian was from stockton on tees and attended Hardwick secondary school,it was at one of these reunions where his name was mentioned.He lived on hardwick estate in the early 70s and as far as I know he served his time as a plater,thank you.

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Hi - if your friend worked in Australia as a plater, he was probably employed in one of three shipyards, South Australia, Sydney or Perth. Not a lot of help but it might narrow it down a tiny bit :)

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Well, my back yard is an "area" too, so that doesn't help! According to Wikipedia, Teesside is a "conurbation" - although I can't imagine many people calling it that. With a population of only 300,000, I suppose I'd call it a town, if I lived there, if it doesn't have a cathedral anywhere within.

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Thank you,its a big help,as it will give me other places to search,as far we know he was working as a plater in the north-east.

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

Thank you Gordon,I've looked through linkedin,there are a few photos,didn't recognize him,but like I said there are many profiles with no photograph I'm afraid,I'll keep looking.

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

It definitely isn't a town. It is a more general area and most Brits would be very well familiar with what area it refers to.

Re: Finding an old friend who may have emigrated to Australia
 

There is an Ian Dawson on here in a group, down the page . I guess you would have no idea what he might have turned into but this bloke is to do with maritime engineering I think.

http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au...rtrait_aew.pdf

There was also an Ian Dawson who apparently designed the steel work for the Shard in London - he was from Easington though which is a bit far afield but listening to him on the BBC was interesting!

I had a look at the White Pages and there were loads of I Dawsons even in WA alone but one Ian Dawson there, no idea about the other states where there might have been ship building - or he might have taken up surfing, who knows!!

Unfortunately there really isn't enough information to hazard even a vague guess, it's a pretty common name really.