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YouTube Offerings About Charles Fort

Can you please expand on this!
Will have to dig out my notes but I think it’s just a couple of lines somewhere where he says he did a little tour around the UK and one of the places he specifically mentions is Glasgow. Off the top of my head other than saying he visited I don’t think there is any other information but I will check and get back to you.
 
Both the video and the web link are the same location, 39a Marchmont Street, London. About 100 yards away from where I lived for three years.
Way too much information.

You realise I'm now compelled - because you just never know with speculative Google searches - to query, 'marchmont street london gordon rutter'.

I didn't, of course and that's why this quite fabulous 2005 find was never discovered. :)

www.forteana.org/Newsletter.pdf
 
I should have a full set of them somewhere!
Oh please....

q93yna6dbe9r_resize_83.jpg
 
Will have to dig out my notes but I think it’s just a couple of lines somewhere where he says he did a little tour around the UK and one of the places he specifically mentions is Glasgow. Off the top of my head other than saying he visited I don’t think there is any other information but I will check and get back to you.
Ok, one mention I have found of Glasgow is this

”In the summer of 1895, in Nova Scotia, he boarded a ship that left the Bay of Fundy, sailed across to the Firth of Clyde, and arrived in Glasgow, Scotland.” That is a quote from Jim Steinmeyer’s The Man Who Invented Tomorrow.
 
In the summer of 1895, in Nova Scotia, he boarded a ship that left the Bay of Fundy, sailed across to the Firth of Clyde...
That is of tremendous interest (Glasgow born!) - thank you so much.

A contemporary photograph.

https://archives.novascotia.ca/irvine/archives/?ID=65

It was evidently not a passage without risks at the time?

Two references in this respect, one sadly tragic:

https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?37048

https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?33008
 
There's also the following.

Does it make sense, or someone else entirely?

View attachment 40619

View attachment 40618

View attachment 40620
1920 is when he started to live at 15 Marchmont Street for six months. 1921 is when he started to live at 39a Marchmont Street, he returned to America to live in 1928. For both events he arrived in the UK in December so the first two are definitely him. I don’t think the 1923 is our boy. On both occasions he traveled with his wife Anna so she should be on the passenger list for the first two as well.
 
...so the first two are definitely him. I don’t think the 1923 is our boy. On both occasions he traveled with his wife Anna so she should be on the passenger list for the first two as well.
Fantastic! Thank you.

That's what I was seemingly right in worrying about - are they all our Charles Fort...

There is also the following, which presumably is Anna!

Screenshot_20210611-013206~2.jpg


I can not, however, identify any association with the SS Anchonia and the Bay of Fundy.

If his first passage had started from there, it would presumably be a connecting ship to New York?

This is a photograph of the SS Anchonia, from the Anchor Line:

unnamed.jpg


It was a new ship, only built the year before and apparently originated from Barrow-in-Furnace. :)

Screenshot_20210611-064731.jpg
 
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... I don’t think the 1923 is our boy. ...
I tend to think the 1923 entry is indeed "our" Charles Fort, because ...

The age listed (48) is exactly correct given his birthdate of 6 August 1874 and the UK arrival date of 5 May 1923.

The first edition of New Lands was published in New York by Boni & Liveright in October 1923. This edition has an introduction by American novelist Booth Tarkington. Assuming Tarkington wasn't tagged to create the intro until a manuscript was in the publisher's hands, the intervening 5 - 6 months wouldn't be an odd length of time for review, editing, soliciting the intro, print setup, and printing the first run from scratch.

I suspect Fort might well have traveled back to the USA in relation to delivering or consulting on this book.
 
I found some corroboration for the 1923 voyage ...
Anna and Charles had returned to London in May 1923, many months before New Lands was published by Boni & Liveright on October 8, 1923. Unfortunately, it generated only a fraction of the interest of The Book of the Damned and received the usual reviews. The Boston Transcript claimed that it was “an amazingly interesting book.” But the New York Times sniffed ...
Steinmeyer (2009), p. 203 (?)
 
I have a subscription to ancestry.co.uk, thus able to locate these passenger details - just a speculative search and didn't realise you could do that!

The following is also sourced therein and consequential - never thought about this previously and must emphasise I am not a long time researcher as many are.

So, his would be Anna then and born in England, although the date of birth is questionable?

Screenshot_20210611-075358.jpg


I thought she was 4 years older than Charles - Wikipedia confirming same.

The following is from a U.S. census listing inhabitants of Manhattan, as at 1 June, 1905:

Screenshot_20210611-081038~2.jpg


Under the occupation stated for Charles, that looks like, 'does nothing'!

Screenshot_20210611-081059.jpg


Assuming can't possibly be, any suggestion what it is?
 
Under the occupation stated for Charles, that looks like, 'does nothing'!
Assuming can't possibly be, any suggestion what it is?
Assuming those two census illustrations are from the same (horizontal) entry, it would be the daughter (Alice) listed as "does nothing."
 
...it would be the daughter (Alice) listed as "does nothing."
Of course!

Fort's occupation in the 1905 census is listed as:

Screenshot_20210611-120053.jpg


Could that be, 'literary', as compared with a 1910 census?

Screenshot_20210611-121232.jpg


By the time if a 1920 census, ancestry co.uk translates the contents and claims:

Screenshot_20210611-123813.jpg


Because the writing is so faint, could it actually still be, 'literary'?

This is, astonishingly, the contents of an 1875 census, showing the household of our nascent Charles!

Screenshot_20210611-120949.jpg
 
Have I found Charles and Anna on a passenger list from 1927?

They apparently returned on the SS Olympic, from Southampton on 18 May 1927, arriving in New York on 24 May:

Screenshot_20210611-134315.jpg



Screenshot_20210611-133522.jpg
 
Regarding Anna, I was merely curious why a Hampshire girl ended up in New York.

Having now become more familiar with ancestry.co.uk and realising it also encompassed archives for the U.S., I noted that Anna's maiden name was Filing:

Screenshot_20210611-140324.jpg


This resulted in finding Anna's passport application, endorsed by Charles, dated November 1920:

Screenshot_20210611-144023.jpg


So, Anna was born in Sheffield and not Hampshire?

Her exact date of birth is kind of, 'scored out' and presumably unknown.

I wondered if this document might be of interest because Fort details his periods of absence in England:

Screenshot_20210611-144358.jpg
 
All brilliant stuff Comfortably Numb!

I’ve got temporary access to ancestory as well and it’s an incredible resource, I could totally lose myself in it. At the moment I am mostly using it to chase up information about another interest, a magician called The Great Lafayette. This is via their partnership with newspaper archives which is allowing me to trace his career and appearances.
 
This is a summary of the shipping records I am aware of and seem relevant:

1894-1895
Arrival: Glasgow
Departure: New York
Name: Chas H Fort
DOB: "abt 1872"
Birth Place: (not shown)
Ship: Anchonia


19 August, 1894
Arrival: Philadelphia
Departure: Liverpool
Name: Chas H Fort
DOB: "abt 1874"
Birth Place: (not shown)
Occupation: reporter
Ship: Ohio


4 December, 1920
Arrival: Southampton
Departure: New York
Name: Charles H Fort
DOB: "abt 1874"
Birth Place: (not shown)
Ship: Olympic


13 June, 1921
Arrival: New York
Departure: Southampton
Name: Charles Hoy Fort
DOB: 6 August, 1874
Birth Place: New York
Ship: Finland


17 December, 1921
Arrival: Southampton
Departure: New York
Port of voyage: Cherbourg
Name: Charles Fort
DOB: "abt 1874"
Birth Place: (not shown)
Ship: Olympic


14 June, 1922
Departure: Southampton
Destination: New York
Name: Charles Fort
DOB: "abt 1875"
Birth Place: (not shown)
Ship: Olympic

21 June, 1922
Arrival: New York
Departure: Southampton
Name: Charles Fort
DOB: 6 August, 1874
Birth Place: New York
Ship: Olympic


5 May, 1923
Arrival: Southampton
Departure: New York
Name: Charles Fort
DOB: "abt 1875"
Birth Place: (not shown)
Ship: Olympic


18 May, 1927
Departure: Southampton
Destination: New York
Name: Charles Fort
DOB: "abt 1875"
Birth Place: (not shown)
Ship: Olympic

24 May, 1927
Arrival: New York
Departure: Southampton
Name: Charles Fort
DOB: 6 August, 1874
Birth Place: New York
Ship: Olympic
 
I’ve got temporary access to ancestory as well and it’s an incredible resource,
I have hardly used same, as there was zero information coming up about my parents, or grandparents.

As an experiment, I ran a search last night for any records regarding myself.

The only one which came up, anywhere, was an electoral register entry from 2010.

It did indeed have my corect full name and address...

...with my son's date of birth, instead of my own. :)
 
I have deleted last post re references to Anna's date of birth, as there are now so many different dates coming up - I have 6 documented variations.

According to census documents over the years, it does seem she arrived in the U.S. during 1887,or 1888 - both stared.

Shall see if I can definitely clarify - doesn't help that she was known as both Anna Elizabeth Filing and Anna Elizabeth Filan.
 
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According to the Charles Fort Institute's biography:

1893 - Aged 19. Made editor of a Long Island paper. Quit to hitchhike around the world.
1896 - Aged 22. After travelling through Southern USA, Scotland, Wales and London, he reached Capetown, South Africa. Contracted malaria. Returned to NY. Married Anna.
(End)

If we do have the same person, then according to shipping records, he arrived back in the U.S. on 19 August, 1894.

It seems that he arrived in Glasgow during either 1894, or 1895, which must presumably be 1894.

This would mean that even if Fort arrived in Glasgow on 1 January, 1894, then he could only have spent 8 months abroad.

Furthermore, the earliest 1894 sailing I can find for the SS Anchoria (essentially a passenger ship for immigrants to America) is from Glasgow to New York on 18 April.

That would possbly make sense as the winter weather had sufficiently improved by then?

Assuming he was a passenger on the return journey to Glasgow, consequently, Fort could only have been traveling abroad for 5 months, i.e.:

April 1894
Arrival in Glasgow

19 August, 1894
Arrival in Philadelphia

That naturally doesn't seem to equate at all.

Is it a namesake Chas H Fort, also born, "abt 1874", who returned on 19 August, 1894?

It does record this passenger as a, 'Journalist'.

I have also now discovered, on a different ancestry website, this person's boarding pass, which states:

Brooklyn, N. York. Citizen returning home.

Copy of boarding pass duly uploaded (file size too large for an attachment):

www.forteanmedia.com/Fort_pass.jpg

In indeed Fort, did he venture abroad again to continue his adventures (can find no trace of same), or was it a notably much briefer sojourn than believed?
 
These are high quality copies of Charles Fort's passport applications from 1920 and 1923 respectively.

The former includes a hand-written letter to the passport agency!

In both, his identity has to be verified by an aunt, the latter including an official letter from the Albany registrar to Charles Fort, confirming there is no trace of a birth record for him.

www.forteanmedia.com/1920_1.jpg
www.forteanmedia.com/1920_2.jpg
www.forteanmedia.com/1920_3.jpg

www.forteanmedia.com/1923_1.jpg
www.forteanmedia.com/1923_2.jpg
www.forteanmedia.com/1923_3.jpg
 
April 1894
Arrival in Glasgow

19 August, 1894
Arrival in Philadelphia

That naturally doesn't seem to equate at all.

Is it a namesake Chas H Fort, also born, "abt 1874", who returned on 19 August, 1894?
Does this make more sense; it looks like Fort's arrival in Glasgow was during September 1895, not 1894.

If you find the actual ledger entry for SS Anchoria, which has a sailing for C. H. Fort, there's a signed certificate dated September, 1895.

So, was this Fort's arrival and with no record of a return journey?

Where does that leave us with the August 1894 crossing from Liverpool to Pennsylvania - it certainly seems like Fort?

Perhaps just highly coincidental, indeed maybe both are?

Screenshot_20210615-174502.jpg
 
The following is quoted from:

"Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural"

by Jim Steinmeyer

It's available as a free download here:

https://silo.pub/qdownload/charles-fort-the-man-who-invented-the-supernatural.html

"He didn’t stop, but returned to Brooklyn just long enough to arrange for the next leg of his travel. While in the South, he’d met a cowboy and heard about the opportunities for cattlemen on cattle ships to England. Ships left from New York loaded with consignments of cattle; often a ship would have two consignments, with two separate cattle bosses supervising the herds. The cattle were herded into pens for the journey. Workers were taken on for every voyage to help handle the animals, tie them in place, and feed them through the journey. These workers paid five dollars for the privilege, and for one- way transportation across the Atlantic.

[...]

To Fort, it was too wonderful an opportunity to miss, even if the work was hard and the bosses strict. He applied at a pier on the Hudson, exaggerated his experience, emphasized that he was strong and fit, and paid his five dollars.

[...]

At the end of the journey, the cattle were taken off the ship in Liverpool, and Fort found himself, gloriously, in England.

[...]

Fort deliberately kept no record of his journey beyond the vague impressions of hardship or wonder that lingered in his memory. In London he visited Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey. It seemed a portentous notion for a determined, aspiring writer. He lingered in London, touring government buildings, museums, and libraries, admired the ale, and indulged in roast beef when the bankroll was replenished. Then he tramped through the English countryside and worked his way back to Liverpool.

In September 1894, he boarded a passenger ship, the Ohio, bound for Philadelphia. According to the ship’s log, Charles H. Fort was “a reporter” who was “returning home in Brooklyn, New York.”

Back in Brooklyn, Fort was only a former reporter, with no money and no prospects; he had only “plans for a thousand here and five thousand there when the time should come for the investng of all this accumulating capital.” He felt he still wasn’t ready. After a year on the road, he’d acquired a knack for travel and a taste for life on the road. Still too impatient to sit at a desk and stare at a blank sheet of paper, he set out again, this time headed north.

Fort signed on for odd jobs that would get him from one place to another: dishwasher, fireman, or stoker. In the summer of 1895, in Nova Scotia, he boarded a ship that left the Bay of Fundy, sailed across to the Firth of Clyde, and arrived in Glasgow, Scotland.
(End)

I'm not sure where the Bay of Fundy, in Nova Scotia, fits in with the departure from New York (perhaps a connecting journey?), however, that seems to explain our three passenger list entries:

19 August, 1894
Arrival: Philadelphia
Departure: Liverpool

September, 1895
Arrival: Glasgow
Departure: New York (Bay of Fundy)
 
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