On Familysearch I have found Thomas Holmes, born 1885 Sheffield, crossing from Canada into the United States on 20/07/1933. His previous address was Hong Kong and this was where his wife had died a few months earlier. I believe his daughter Norah born 1909 was with him. Unfortunately there is no image available so I wondered if someone could look it up on Ancestry as I only have FMP. There may be two other family members with him too.
I just assumed the family either stayed in Hong Kong or returned to England at some point so I was pleasantly surprised when I found this information.
On Family Search there are two entries for Norah Holmes, both have images.
One is for the manifest of the ship S.S. Empress of Asia, passengers sailing
from Hong Kong, issued 25 June 1933.
Thomas Holmes, 48, Civil Engineer, born Sheffield, England, last permanent residence
Victoria, Hong Kong.
Norah Holmes, 24, Housewife. All other info the same as Thomas.
The other is a card for Norah saying her father Thomas has paid her fare an she
has 50 dollars in money.
Name and address of nearest relative or friend in county whence alien came;
L. W. Amps, Logan & Amps, 8 a Des Voeux Rd, Hong Kong, China.
Destination and name and complete address of friend to join there:
C. Ripley, Temple Court, High Holborne, London, England.
There are other bits of info but you should be able to view them youself.
For the 'country' box, enter United States, not Hong Kong.
Jenny and Moira
You can find a lot of the same info on Ancestry., and more. even without subscription. If you. sign in to ancestry (do not subscribe). and search for Norah in their migration records you will discover that Thomas and Norah travelled from Hong Kong to Vancouver then across Canada then to New York and finally sailed New York to Southampton, all in July August 1933. In London Norah boarded a ship back to Hong Kong on 1st Sep 1933.
Dave
Thank you Moira and Dave for your replies. I'll take a look at what you suggested now. At least I know that they came back to England and Norah then went back to Hong Kong.
thank you for the image. Norah Jane snr was my grandmother's sister and the family story suggested they were missionaries but having spent a wonderful morning looking at ship manifests, I've found that her husband was an engineer. However I am now following the life of son George Fox Holmes and have found that it was he who was a medical missionary. He married Ellen Nobilet in 1938 in Cheshire and shortly afterwards left for India where they had 5 children.
By asking the original question so much has opened up.