Need help! - Geography

I have a chap who is supposed to have died on the island of St. Catherine, in the Indian Ocean.

Where is/was it? Who owned it in the 19th century?

I can't find it in my big old atlas, or by googling.

Anyone heard of it?

Thanks for any help.

Just looked in the index to the big Times Comprehensive and no sign of it (nor as Katherine).

This is really frustrating. My source for island of St. Catherine (or St. Catherine Island) is about 100 years old. But a book just published repeats the info and throws in the Indian Ocean location.

My guess would be that the reference is to an island where there was a British military presence in the mid-19th century.

Reckon it could have gotten a completely different name at some point in the 20th century. But I can't find any historical reference to it.

There is a St Catherine's Island off the coast of Georgia. I haven't found anything even remotely close to the Indian ocean though.
My first thought was that perhaps the "West Indies" had somehow accidentally become the Indian Ocean but I didn't find a St Catherine's Island in the Carribean. There is a St Catherine's Mount on Grenada.

From tons of googling, I think maybe there's one around Bermuda. Or maybe Jamaica. There is one off the coast of Wales. And off the coast of Brazil. (Santa Catarina.) But Indian Ocean?

I don't think it is going to be easy to ask the author of the new book, but it may end up being my best bet.

I don't suppose anyone has the Kitzmiller book on where regiments were stationed?

There's a St Catherine's Beach in Bermuda.
Going off on a tangent I think my husband just found a photo of my great grandfather during WW1 on ebay!!!!

Oh can we narrow down the time frame any? Might be able to narrow down the location based on a particuar conflict.

Sodapop,

e-Bay: Wow. Does it say where the seller got it?

No, but my Great Grandfather was a captain of a ship that was requisitioned by the Australian government as a troop carrier. The various photos that the seller is auctioning were all taken onboard the ship by an Australian army officer. Most of them are of the troops but there is one of the ship's officers.

#9

e-bay: Neat! You bidding?

Time frame: He was born between 1802 and 1813.

That's all I have. :-( He's one of the mystery men on the tree. Was in the Army (British) and died unmarried. Nothing else known.

I thought if I could find the Island, with some British troops on it, I might be able to find some records. He'd have been an officer, unless he was the first private on that branch of the tree. (His father's cousin (d. 1823) had been a Major-General & KCB.)

I know . . . if he died unmarried there are no descendants to trace anyway. But I hate loose ends. He had a cousin (1811-1841) with the 80th Regiment who died in New South Wales, and I even have the details on his grave. :-) Obsessive compulsive.

myshelves: This is more than a little far fetched but but there is connection between Bombay Island (in the Indian Ocean) and Catherine of Braganza (wife of Charles II). Not a saint as far as I know - so that's a minus. If you google ("Bombay Island" Catherine) without the parenthesis you will get quite a lot of hits. Just a (fairly remote I know) possibility.

PossMan,

All ideas welcome. I'd fell better about it if she had at least been beatified. :-) She was once painted as St Catherine, but I don't think that counts.

Seems likely that people reading my earlier source (1916) were expected to know what place was meant. (Maybe the recent book is just repeating --- but then why throw in the Indian Ocean?) I can't believe I'm not finding anything even in google books. Auugh.

Heck, I have tried googling a French version (Ile Sainte Catherine) and a Spanish version (santa Catalina) and still come up with nothing.
There's a St Catherine's Church in Goa, India but that's on the mainland and there is a Santa Catalina island in the Carribean (off the coast of Nicaragua I think it said).
I've looked at lists of Islands in the Indian ocean that seem to list every single rock that sticks out of the water and not found anything remotely close.

Oh "Am I bidding?" You betcha!

If it is in the Indian Ocean, it might be (or might have been) part of the British Indian Ocean Territories. I would suggest a letter to the British Embassy in Washington, DC. The worst that could happen is they tell you they've never heard of it.