The puzzle was solved when I contacted Mrs Whitaker. Her family tree showed that gt grandfather had an older brother, Thomas Collins Storer b1852. He had nine children, six of them sons so it was no wonder that there were many references.
A mail shot to Storers listed in Burke’s Peerage plus phone book entries eventually led to John Campbell Storer b1931 who lives with his wife Brenda in Cullercoats. His gt grandfather was Thomas Collins Storer and his mother Ailsie Storer was born in 1903 and is still going strong.
Storers in Australia
Grandfather was part of a large family and in the early 1910s five of his siblings emigrated to Western Australia. They were :- John Hudson Storer - 1912
Polly Storer 1912
Nellie Storer 1913
Harry Storer 1914
Thomas Storer 1914
They all settled in and around Perth. Nellie married David Graham and in 1914 he was beseeched by his ex employer in Shields to return as he was sorely missed. They left Australia on a German ship, the SS Ziete on 19th July 1914, and when war broke out they were interned on the ship.
After lengthy negotiations they were released and made their way to England after 14 weeks “ under arrest”
They all raised families in Australia and some contact was maintained down the years. The link with the original immigrants was broken recently when Stan Storer died. He was the son of Harry Storer, the 11th child of George Lowes Storer.
Around 1958 (I think) my cousin Billy Storer, son of grandfather’s eldest child emigrated to West Australia, where he and his family live near Perth. Their son John is researching for us.
My youngest brother Harry and his family moved to Sydney some eight years ago. In June of 01 he did a mail shot to all the Storers he could find and they had a great gathering in October of that year. Descendants of the original immigrants got together and a great time was had by all.
Outside North Shields this is the largest clustering of our family that I know of.
