Mum and dad's wedding in 1942

We got a box of dad's memorabilia down from the loft one wet afternoon recently. They had kept all their wedding souvenirs; cards, telegrams, invitations, compliments cards.  Lovely!

My parents Lena and Cliff were married during the war. No elaborate outfits as there was rationing on clothes. The ceremony and reception took place in the Gordon Restaurant, at 19 Gordon Street, Glasgow near Central Station on 27 August 1942. My father was stationed at Fort George at the time and they had a brief honeymoon in Nairn. I expect mum returned to Glasgow alone. They lived with my grandparents until 1949.

Bridesmaid was Ethel Sievwright  and best man was David F Graham, a neighbour

I think my mother was in lilac from what I can remember her telling me.
Her bridesmaid was her cousin Ethel Sievwright so I presume that is her seated on the left. I didn't know her very well as she was living in Kent when I was growing up. The lady in the photo looks very like Ethel's sister Amelia (Millie) but I think it must be Ethel. Dad's uniform is far from smart. He should have worn his kilt!

in Lovat Scouts, taken in Inverness ca 1942

m

telegram from Colin Clark, mum's uncle

from mum's aunt Aggie Walker

Hymns were "O God of Bethel" and "O Perfect Love, All Human Thought Transcending"

Industrial Accidents

Having lots of miners among both my and my husband's ancestors it was no great surprise to find a few had perished in mining accidents.  Other occupations were equally hazardous. This is in memory of those whose struggle to earn a living cost them their lives.

To find out the cause of death you need to get the death certificate. All of those included in this post are from Scotland since it is inexpensive to get death certificates from the Scottish national records at scotlandspeople.gov.uk

Andrew McMeekin, uncle of my  husband, was killed by a fall of stone in Garallan Colliery in Cumnock in 1916. He was only 18. I found a report of his funeral in the Cumnock Chronicle, on microfilm in the Burns Centre, Kilmarnock. His brother kept this memoriam card.

2 generations further back, his namesake and great uncle, Andrew McMeekin, was killed in a mine accident in 1864 in Cumnock, also from a fall of stone. He was 26 and had a wife. Their infant daughter had died the previous month.

(This next para added 14 Dec 2013)
Robert Fleming my husband's great uncle was a mine roadsman and was still working at the age of 73 when he was killed by a runaway hutch in 1954. He lived in Ochiltree.

In 1959 2 distant cousins of mine, Aaron Price, 50, and his brother Robert Price, 47, of Kirkintilloch, were among the 47 miners who perished in the Auchengeich pit disater in Lanarkshire.

Blair Dunsmuir married to my second cousin Margaret Price of Ayr Road, Cumnock died of injuries sustained in Whitehill Colliery in 1927.

Andrew Rae, father-in-law of second cousin Ellen Yates, was injured in a fall of of coal in Lanemark no 1 in New Cumnock in 1873. His leg was amputated but he succumbed 9 days later.

Thomas Woods, a distant cousin via the Prices again, lost both his legs in an accident in Barony Colliery in 1930. He was caught in coal cutting machine. He at least survived.

Not only miners had a dangerous job. Harry Clark was a rivetter's heater in a shipyard in Aberdeen.  He fell 19 feet through an open hatch on deck and fractured his skull. He was 14 when he died in 1904. He was my granny's younger brother.

Farm work was not free of danger. Janet McCartney, 47, fell off a grass cart and broke her neck in Auchinleck one afternoon in August, 1867.  She was the mother of John Ross who married Agnes McMeekin, my husband's great grand aunt. 

A cousin of my husband, Andrew Cook Fleming, died when a tractor overturned on him in 1956. He was 15.

(This para added on 7 Nov. 2013)
Matthew Hislop, a wood sawyer, died instantly when caught in a sawing machine. He was 39 when he died in 1870 and left a wife and several children. In the 1881 census I found his wife in prison. I don't know what happened to her after that.  His nephew also Matthew Hislop was married to Augusta Wilson. It was his death I was looking for when I found the uncle's.

I haven't included those who died serving their country as they already have a post of their own.
The Scottish Mining website records mining accidents and will accept submissions. I have added the two Andrew McMeekins.  You can look up your ancestors here on the same site if you know the date of death.

We moan about health and safety regulations, but as a consequence the workplace is a lot safer nowadays.
 

Heirloom

Two "leopardskin ottomans" were left to Helen Sievwright in the 1874 will of Marjory Sievwright of Brechin, her maiden aunt. I wrote about the will here.

Helen married Henry Speid in Quebec in 1880 and had one son Arthur Speid (read about the Speids here) who had 3 daughters.

The last surviving daughter Janet Speid Motyer who died last year, aged 93, gifted one of them to Lennoxville-Ascot  Historical and Museum Society in Sherbrooke.

I have been corresponding with Janice Fraser the Collections and Exhibitions Coordinator at the museum which is in the former Speid home of Uplands. She has kindly taken photos of the stool and a close up of the bullet hole which killed the poor leopard. Someone, probably Janet, had recovered the stool in plain fabric. Janice understands the leopard was shot by a family member. She doesn't know what became of the other stool.

The stool has on the underside "Gavin Patrie 1844" which I believe  to be Gavin Petrie of 6 Raeburn Place, Edinburgh a cabinet maker. (Gray's Almanac 1837- 8 and the1841 census) His son, also Gavin, was an upholsterer.

close up of the bullet hole

Many thanks to Janice at the museum for sending the photos. I am thrilled to see them.

Link to my family tree

McFedries family in Ayrshire (and Eaglesham)

McFedries was my mother-in-law's middle name so I was interested in where it came from.
It was her maternal grandmother's maiden name. Interestingly, it was also her paternal grandmother's maiden name. Could her parents be cousins? Oh yes. Isabella McFedries b 1839 and Marion Mcfedries b 1842 were both born in Dailly to David McFedries and Isabella McJannet.

David was born in Eaglesham, in Renfrewshire in 1803 to David McFedries of Girvan (not so far from Dailly) and Margaret Hunter of Eaglesham. The couple were married in Eaglesham in 1800. What David was doing in Eaglesham which is a fair distance (50 miles) from Girvan is a mystery. He was a cotton weaver; presumably he was there for work.

Girvan David's father was David born in Dailly about 1757 and I think, by process of elimination, his father was Gilbert born Dailly 1725.  There was another David born in 1759 but I traced him. He was an unmarried shoemaker and died in Kilmarnock in 1868.**

The name McFedries had a number of variant spellings:  McFedreis, McFedris, McPhedris, McFaedres, McFeadrie, McFaries, McFadrish, McFeatherish, not to mention bad transcriptions of bad handwriting: McLudres, McFeddelo, McFedrio even McJedrics!


Eaglesham David McFedries here


Any McFedries researchers/descendants, please get in touch!

** a reader has pointed out the discrepancy here. The David who died in 1868 was born in 1790 - maths was never my strong point - so back to the drawing board re David's birth somewhere around 1758. It's quite possible that it was never recorded!

Recurrent family names

A way of being sure you have the right family is from descendants sharing grandparents names. The downside is that more than one grandchild can end up with the same name! They are cousins, for example:-

I have 2 Elizabeth McMeekin McKays 1890 and 1898 and 2 Amelia Clarey Burleys 1902 and 1903.

This weekend I worked out who these people were from their descendants.
I came across some Sievwrights in Brechin in the 1841 census via ancestry.co.uk  (I know, they are a bit of an obsession)
1841
Cadger Wynd, Brechin
Helen Sievwright     35  linen HLW (handloom weaver) born Scotland (but not Angus)
Joseph Sievwright     13
Andrew Sievwright     3
Jane Sievwright     70
Jess Porter     20 linen HLW
others all born Angus

The 1841 census does not give relationships. The original available on scotlandspeople would tell me whether or not they were married, but I hang off spending any more money!

I find some of them in 1851 census at the same address
Helen Seivwright     46  born Edinburgh
Joseph Seivwright     22 journeyman tobacconist b Brechin
Jean Seivwright     83 receiving parochial relief b Brechin

I pursue Joseph as the ladies appear to have died before 1855 (statutory registration begins then).
In 1861 he is a hotel keeper age 32 in Edinburgh. In the summer of 1861 he marries Alice Tonge an English girl of 20 who was working at the hotel in 1861.
I find her in Liverpool at the Bull Hotel, Dale Street in 1871 but Joseph has died in 1870. He left a fair bit of money, at least.  Two of their children are called Helen Porter Sievwright and Jean Carr Sievwright. Are they named after the ladies in the earlier censuses?
I get the 1861 marriage cert to be sure. Joseph's parents are Helen Porter and George Sievwright, weaver. I find their marriage in 1834 and there is a marriage of Jean Carr to Andrew Sievwright in 1801.
I deduce that Jean is Helen's mother-in-law and Joseph's granny.  Joseph also had a son who died a few months old called Joseph Andrew Norman Sievwright in 1870. I think Andrew could be a son of the Rev Norman. Andrew's wife Jean Carr was born about 1768 (from the 1851 census). Andrew could be the seventh child born in 1767 from John Garden's letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Whatever his parentage, he is bound to be related!

Joseph on my tree

My brick wall

Solomon Sievwright is my great, great, great, grandfather born about 1776 in Angus, probably in Brechin. You'd think with such a distinctive name he would be easy to track!

The first record I can find for him is his marriage in 1816 to Martha Burnett in Brechin.

In 1841 Solomon 65 is a linen handloom weaver in Cadger Hillock in Brechin. Nothing out of the ordinary, so far.

Their son, my ancestor Colin, was born in 1819. He was a weaver but strangely also a published poet so must have had some education.

One of his sons went to New Zealand and a cousin there sent me a copy of a letter dated 1886 which outlines his family line for his grandchildren. His father Solomon was an officer in Nelson's navy on a man o' war. His father was John a lawyer and his grandfather was Rev Norman Sievwright an Episcopalian minister in Brechin. This ties in with what my granny told me. The Scottish Episcopalian Church is part of the Church of England.

The problem is Colin doesn't mention Solomon's mother. He is too old to be the son of John's marriage to Helen Lowe, so either John was married before or Solomon was illegitimate. I think it must be the latter since if he was the oldest son and heir he would have been mentioned in the will of Helen Lowe who survived husband John the lawyer and died in 1838. She was very wealthy while Solomon was working as a weaver just  along the road.

Buying him a commission in the navy would have got him out of the way but I can find no record online for him as an officer in the navy. His return to marry in 1816 fits in with the end of the Napoleonic war.

I found another letter tying him in to the line of Rev Norman Sievwright. His great grandson had his ordination papers. I wonder if Solomon was brought up in his grandfather's household. There he would have got an education. Rev Norman was an esteemed scholar, but was not in the least wealthy. I found some correspondence from 1767 which said he had £40 a year and the Archbishop of Canterbury sent him £10 to help out.

The family wealth came from John the lawyer and his wife Helen Lowe.

I would love to find some earlier reference to Solomon, a birth, a mother, naval record, a burial. He died in 1843 according to Colin's letter to New Zealand. This is before statutory records began in Scotland, so no help there.

Solomon on my tree

Any suggestions as to next steps appreciated!

Update April 2016
Findmypast has released Royal Navy pension and service records and I found Solomon mentioned in 10 records. Most of them are paybook entries.

He served for 15 years and 1 month in the 1st DRM division of Royal Marines and was pensioned out in 14 Sep 1815 when he was 39 years old. The last record has a date of 25th June 1844 and I reckon this was his date of death after which the pension would cease. Son Colin had said in the 1886 letter that he died in 1843 so this seems right.

http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-Records/british-royal-navy-and-royal-marines-service-and-pension-records-1704-1919?_ga=1.58663018.1364849508.1435153211

Update 2018
A cousin found this blog and had a note of Solomon's birthdate on his old family records. The value of sharing information online!

The love rat?

I was looking for the birth of William McMurtrie in Glasgow about 1856 and there were 2 that looked right. It turned out neither was for the correct William, but were very interesting nonetheless.

The first William was born on 1 January 1856 at 24 Hospital Street, Hutchesontown, Glasgow, father Peter McMurtrie, shoemaker, journeyman, mother Elizabeth McMurtrie maiden name Killen, registered by Peter McMurtrie father. The second William was born 24 January 1856 also at 24 Hospital Street, father Peter McMurtrie shoemaker, journeyman, mother Christina McMurtrie maiden name Lawson. This one was registered by the mother Christina.

First I wondered if 24 Hospital Street was a hospital but it seems to be a tenement address. It seems very unlikely that there were 2 Peter McMurtrie shoemakers at the same address and both having children. Did Peter have a ménage à trois? 

I had a look on familysearch.org for marriages.
I found a marriage to Christian Lawson in May 1848 in New Monkland, (Airdrie).
I can find no marriage for Peter to Elizabeth Killen.

I had a look for Peter McMurtrie in the censuses on ancestry site.

In 1851
at 132 Gallowgate, Gallowgate
Peter McMurtrie 31 shoemaker born Airdrie
Christina McMurtrie 29 wife born Kilchrenan, Argyll
John McMurtrie 20 son born Kilchrenan, Argyll
Clearly, they don't have a son aged 20! It probably should read 20 months, although I can find no record of him.

Statutory registration starts in 1855 so any births, marriages and deaths must be on scotlandspeople.gov.uk

In January 1856 Peter is living with both Christina and Elizabeth at 24 Hospital Street and the 2 Williams.

In 1861
at 24 Wilson Street
Peter McMurtrie 41 shoemaker  b Airdrie
Elizabeth McMurtrie 32 wife b Mauchline, Ayrshire
William McMurtrie 5 son  b Glasgow

He has 4 further children with Elizabeth all of whom died in infancy.
Jane 24 Feb 1858 died 1858
Thomas McMutrie (sic)16 October 1861 died 1861
Christina 19 Jul 1863 died 1863
Peter Hamilton McMutrie (sic) 27 February 1865, died 1865

I can find no death for or further trace of Christina or her son nor can I find a marriage to Elizabeth on scotlandspeople but she died at Wilson Street in 1866. She was the daughter of Thomas Killen and Jean McEwan.

Peter died in 1874 in Glasgow. His parents were John McMurtrie shoemaker and Christina Smith.  His death was registered by son William (presumably the son of Elizabeth) who lists the wives as no 1 Elizabeth Killen  and no 2 Ann Gordon.  I had trouble finding the 1871 census on ancestry (bad transcription - Julis McMartin!!) but got it first on scotlandspeople. Ann is with Peter and his son William in 1871 census at 54 McIntosh Street in Springburn, the same address as on the death certificate. I can find no marriage for Ann Gordon either.

It seems father John was a shoemaker born in Dailly which would make him related to the William I was looking for in the first place! More of him another time.

Second wives

Beware the second wife! It is easy to spot a second wife providing they have a different given name. Some men, inconsiderately to future genealogists, marry a second wife with the same first name. You can sense it is a different person if they are born in a different year or place though. Don't assume it is a mistake.
However yesterday I came across a man who married 2 women called Mary Sinclair. This only became clear on his death certificate where his son helpfully noted that they were cousins. The child I had attributed to Mary no 1 was in fact the child of Mary no 2!

Name variants

I am aware that there are many variants of given names in the nineteenth century in Scotland and England. I am more familiar with Scottish names but will try and include English ones too.

This is to help you unravel who is who in censuses and vital records, for example Jessie and Janet were interchangeable names in the past. I spent a long time hunting for a birth record for a Janet who was registered as Jessie.  Nowadays Jessie could be short for Jessica.

In Scotland there was a fairly limited set of used given names. Perhaps for that reason people liked to vary them, to distinguish them from their cousin or aunt/uncle of the same name.

In the Highlands, in particular, it was common to add an -ina to a male name eg Donaldina, Mathewina, Williamina so Ina could stand for any of those.

Often the initial letter would be changed eg Meg or Peg (Margaret), Molly or Polly (Mary), Maisie or Daisy (Margaret), Bob or Rob (Robert), Billy or Willie (William),  Dick or Rick for Richard.

I do not claim this list to be complete or fool proof. Families often do their own thing. We have a Helen who was also twice recorded as Alice. My husband has an uncle Wug!  Please feel free to share your family's pet names in the Comments below.


Girls' names

Name	for Name	Notes
Annie	Ann Anne
Bel, Belle, Bella	Isabella, Isabel
Betsy	Elizabeth
Betty	Elizabeth
Christian	Christina	old Scottish variant of Christina
Cissy	Sarah, Catherine
Daisy	Margaret
Ella	Helen, Ellen
Eppie* Etta	Henrietta
Euphan	Euphemia	old Scottish, interchangeable
Fanny	Frances
Grizzel, Grissal	Grace	old Scottish variant of Grace
Hannah	Ann	English, interchangeable
Hattie	Harriet
Hettie	Henrietta
Ina	Williamina, Donaldina etc
Janet	Janette, Jeanette
Jean	Jane	Scottish, interchangeable.
Jeanie	Jean, Jane
Jennie	Jennifer, Janet
Jessie	Janet	Scottish, interchangeable.
Kate, Katie	Katherine, Catherine, Kathleen
Kitty	Katherine, Catherine, Kathleen	English
Lizzie, Liz	Elizabeth
Madge	Margaret, Marjory, Margery	English
Maggie	Margaret
Maisie	Margaret	Scottish
Mary Ann	Marian, Marion	spelling variation
May	Mary	Scottish variant of Mary or a name in its own right
Meg	Margaret
Mina	Williamina, Wilhelmina
Minnie	Marian, Marion
Molly	Mary
Nan	Agnes, Ann
Nancy	Agnes
Nell, Nellie	Helen, Ellen
Nessie	Agnes
Netta, Nettie	Janet
Peg, Peggy	Margaret
Polly	Mary
Rena	Catherine
Rita	Margaret
Sadie	Sarah
Senga	Agnes	Senga is a modern 20th C variant. It is Agnes backwards!

*Eppie for Elspeth

Boys' names

Name	for name	Notes
Alex, Alec, Eck	Alexander
Andy	Andrew
Archie	Archibald
Bert, Bertie	Robert
Bill, Billy	William
Bob, Bobby	Robert
Drew	Andrew	modern
Ed, Ted, Ned	Edward	modern
Harry	Henry, Harold
Jack	James
Jim	James
Patrick	Peter	Irish/Scottish interchangeable
Rab, Rabbie, Rob, Robbie	Robert
Sandy	Andrew
Shug	Hugh
Will, Willie, Wull, Wullie	William

A boy named Ruth?

I was puzzled to find a son named Ruth McConnell in the 1881 census. "Ancestry" is confused about this, too, and thinks it is a girl. I looked at the original and it definitely says Ruth and son. Strange!

I was looking at a Dreghorn family called both McConnell and Connell. Some of the children called themselves Connell and others McConnell. I have see this sort of thing previously before standardisation of spelling. The father David was a coal miner (1851 census and on 1858 marriage cert of daughter) ) who became a seaman (1861 census wife at home as "seaman's wife"). This is quite an unusual change of occupation. One of his sons, Allan Bone McConnell, became a sea captain.

Seamen can be hard to track as they are often at sea during the censuses. Sometimes you can find them with "vessels" as a location but it is hard to be sure since they are not with other family members. Allan B McConnell, since he was a captain, was easier to find. Masters and mates certificates can be viewed via the ancestry website. They give date of birth, address and vessels sailed on.
He started off on the City of Ningpu in Feb 1866 and served on the City of Glasgow and the City of Florence to gain his Second Mate's certificate on 1 April 1871. His address was West Portland Street Troon which is also what is on the 1871 census. He was living with his mother, the seaman's wife.
He continued on the City of Florence and gained his First Mate's certificate in November 1872.
In 1876 he was living in Glasgow when he gained his Master's certificate. He had also served on the City of Benares, City of Cambridge and City of Poonah.

Pictures of some of the ships of the SG line on which Allan served:
http://www.findboatpics.net/zpsg.html

In 1881 census he is married with children and living in Bristol
In 1891 census the family in in Falmouth with son "Ruth" 3 months, born at sea. Being born at sea makes it impossible to find a birth record.
I can't find the family in the censuses after 1891. But I do find Allan's sister living with a nephew Ruthwell in 1901 in Barrhead, near Glasgow. So it is definitely a boy! But where did the name Ruthwell come from?

The answer I find in another mariner's record. In 1891 Allan reapplies for his master's certicifate. it seems the original one was lost when he abandoned his ship the SV Wamphray on 19 Oct 1891. Listed amongst ships he had sailed on was the Ruthwell from Aug 1885 to 31 Dec 1890.   Baby "Ruth" was named after the ship he was born on.

The address on the 1892 certificate is 12 Corunna Street, Glasgow. Allan died in 1918 in Glasgow. Son Ruthwell registered the death.

As for the abandonment of the SV Wamphray, it seems it was carrying coal from Glasgow to San Francisco and went on fire in the Weddell Sea near Cape Horn. The crew were all picked up by another vessel.
http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?195656

Catherine Sievwright from Brechin to Paris to New Orleans

Link to Catherine in my tree

Catherine Sievwright, the third child of John Sievwright, writer in Brechin, and Helen Low to be mentioned in Helen's will, (see previous post)  was hard to track. Helen died in 1838. In the hand-written will it looks like Catherine married "Lewis Pollorou Mouhaut". Fortunately both her birth and the marriage are recorded in Scottish Old Parish records. The "Mouhaut" is Merchant!

Catherine was born in 1798 in Brechin, Angus, Scotland and married a French merchant Louis Appollinaire Pellerin of Paris in Brechin in 1823 *. I wonder how they met. The Sievwrights and Lows had interests in London, but Paris?  In the will Catherine and Louis are said to be living in Paris although by the time of the death of Helen Low they were in America.

They had 2 children born in Paris: Helene Pellerin baptised 1825**  and Henri Pellerin about 1830.  Helen Lowe widow Sievwright was godmother at Helene's baptism. Father Louis was a cashier (caissier).

I suspected they moved to Louisiana from a naturalisation record for a Louis Appolinaire Pellerin in 1849 and a court case in 1845. But Pellerin is quite a common French name.

I am indebted to Lucretia Ramsey Bishko*** for filling in the gap.
In 1833 Louis (Lewis A Pellerin) and his wife and two young children set sail for Florida with a letter of recommendation from General Lafayette. Louis had suffered financial losses in the July Revolution of 1830****. Louis hoped to buy land in the Lafayette township in Florida. After 6 unsuccessful attempts to buy land,  during which time they "lived in a cabin like savages" Louis gave up and they moved to New Orleans about 1837 where he owned a cotton press yard (1850 census and 1845 court case). I hope Catherine got her share of her mother's estate in 1838!

Catherine died between the 1840 and 1850 censuses. Louis died in 1859. Son Henri died age 36 in 1866. Helene married Benjamin S Harrisson, a builder, in 1851 and they had 3 children. She died aged only 33 in 1859 and is buried in Lafayette Cemetery in New Orleans. Louis's funeral notice mentions Benjamin S Harrison, proving the link between the two families. Helene died in the January and her father Louis in the August of 1859.

* "Scotland, Marriages, 1561-1910," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XTRF-Z93 : accessed 16 May 2013), Louis Appollinaire Pellerin and Catherine Sievwright, 09 Sep 1823.
** (France, Protestant Church Records, 1612-1906 004340993 Image 192)
*** from a research piece entitled A French Would-Be Settler on Lafayette's Township published by the Florida Historical Society, accessed 6 Aug 2012.  It was gleaned from a series of documents and letters in the Dean Collection of Lafayette.
**** He was awarded the Croix de Juillet in 1831  Bulletin des lois de la République Française Issues 86-134 Page 16

Bennies from Ayrshire to New Zealand

I have been tracing the family of David Bennie and Margaret Sym
tree here  who were married in Stevenston in Ayrshire in 1814.

I've found 9 children of whom 2 died in childhood. There may have been others who never made it into the record books.

Boyd Miller Bennie (child no 6) married Janet McDonald in 1850 in Dreghorn. He was a coal miner. They had 16 children. Boyd died in 1879 of chronic bronchitis.  Their youngest child David was only 3 at the time.  However there were older children bringing in money by then so it was maybe not too desperate a situation. In the 1881 census Janet 50 is at Overton a mining hamlet north of Dreghorn with 10 children ranging from 23 to 5 with  3  boys working as coal miners. Two of Janet's brothers, William and Andrew, were in New Zealand according to some Poor Relief applications on behalf of their mother Elizabeth McDonald ms Murchland in 1886.

First Bennie in New Zealand*
Their son Boyd Bennie must have left sometime after his father's death on 1 March 1879 which he registered, signing his name. On 15 Oct 1880 he was elected an office bearer (SW senior warden) in St Thomas Kilwinning Lodge in Kaitangata. (Kilwinning in Ayrshire is the Mother Lodge  of Scotland). Boyd married Janet Holden in New Zealand in October 1881. That seemed like pretty quick work and I wondered if she too stemmed from Ayrshire and, lo and behold, she is also in Overton Rows, Dreghorn a few doors away from the Bennies in the March 1881 census. Janet was a steerage passenger on the SS Jessie Readman which left Greenock 15 Jul 1881 and arrived 14 September in Port Chalmers. No other Holdens aboard. Janet's uncle David Holden was married to Grace Bennie, daughter of Mathew Bennie and Cummings Littlejohn, but I have yet to connect them to Boyd's line although it does seem a bit of a coincidence. Some of this family also went to New Zealand.

Shipwrecked
On the 12th January 1883 son John Bennie, his wife Janet and their baby Janet along with 9 of his siblings set off from the Tail of the Bank (Greenock) for Otago on the Wild Deer. It was a disastrous trip as the Wild Deer ran aground on a rock just off the coast of County Down, Ireland.  Fortunately there were no fatalities and all were taken ashore to Cloughey and returned home. Undaunted, they set sail again on 19th February on the Caroline. This time mother Janet and sons William and David 7 joined the original group. It seems that young David had the flu which is why they weren't with the others the first time around.  They landed in Port Chalmers on the 23rd May 1883.


4 of the 16 children had died before they left for New Zealand. A memorial stone to them stands in Dreghorn cemetery near the church.

Alexander, James and William Bennie were miners in Kaitangata, Otago. Alexander was killed in the mine in a rock fall in 1906.
Boyd Bennie was also a miner then a government inspector of mines.
Daniel Bennie b 1874 was at gardener in the Botanical Gardens in Dunedin. His son Ronald founded Bennie's Honey.
David b 1876 was a trucker. 
Agnes married William Taylor from Dreghorn in New Zealand, had a few children then they returned to Ayrshire by 1901 only to move on to Michigan, USA in 1923!
I'm still working on the other daughters.

Many descendants were named Boyd, and there are Boyds still living.

A Bennie from New Zealand reconnects with his past in Dreghorn Cemetery in 2013!

References
Newspaper report of the loss of the Wild Deer
Papers Past
Janet Holden's arrival in New Zealand
Boyd's Installation at the Lodge
Bennie's Honey
Poor Relief record (no 816) for  Elizabeth Murchland.
1850 map of Overton and Warwickdale in Dreghorn Parish
1850 map of Springside, Kirkland and WestThornton in Dreghorn Parish


 * Boyd's cousin Margaret McDonald d/o Ann Bennie & William McDonald was in New Zealand by 1873 when she married James George Hay, a native of Inverness. 


Story of Boyd's brother David Bennie (child no 9) and Helen Gillies in a future post.

Joseph Alexander Sievwright

Joseph Alexander Sievwright  1795 - 1856 is my ggg grand uncle. His half brother Solomon Sievwright is my ggg grandfather.

Joseph Alexander was born in Brechin, Angus, Scotland on 15 April 1795 to John Sievwright, a lawyer in Brechin and Helen Lowe.

He was mentioned in his mother's will as residing in "the island of Demerary" ca 1830. This I suspected was British Guiana, now Guyana in Central America, well known for sugar plantations. Was my ancestor a slave owner?

Today a new data base was published online of people who claimed compensation from the British government after the abolition of slavery in 1833 and there he is, guilty as charged. He made 3 claims and  received over £700 in compensation, a small fortune in those days. British Guiana claim no. 697 suggests that Jos. Alexander Sievwright was a resident attorney.

At the age of 46 he married Catherine Howe the daughter of the late John Howe, Deputy Postmaster General of Canada on 23 November 1841 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was a bachelor and she a spinster (although gravestone information suggests she was previously married to Samuel Hoyt)

In 1851 census he was a farmer living at King's Norton with wife and 3 daughters, 4 Irish lodgers, servants, and his unmarried sister Marjory. One of the Irish servants was 12 year old Bridget Blaney whom Joseph took on from the Saint John Almhouse in New Brunswick on the 17th May 1848, her father and mother were in hospital. They had arrived in 1847 on the Portland. This information is from Peter D Murphy in Poor Ignorant Children click here will download a pdf file

1851 census

He died on 7 July 1854 and is buried at St Paul's Anglican Church Cemetery, Lakeside, Hampton, New Brunswick.

Here he is on my tree

Too many McLeods

This investigation revealed a lot of McLeods in Scotland who turned out to have another name entirely.

The cousin who married a Greek/Turkish/Canadian

As you know, I am a sucker for an interesting name, so when looking at marriages of my mother-in-law's cousins on scotlandspeople, one jumped out at me.

Margaret McFedries McInnes married Earnest (sic) Raicos in Crosshill, Ayrshire in 1919.

I googled the name Raicos and results suggested he would be Greek. What on earth was he doing in rural Ayrshire in 1919?

I found his army enlistments dated 11 Nov 1917 (he wasn't to know the war was almost over) - he was with the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/
and it gives his birth on the 15th May 1890 in Constantinople, Turkey.
It also gives his occupation: cook and his address of the Central Hotel, New Westminster, British Columbia.

His next of kin was his brother Nick Raicos of the Paris Cafe, Edmonton, Alberta.

Is this the same Ernest Raicos?   I shelled out for Scottish marriage certificate - not a lot of money, just over £1.

His address was Kilkerran Camp and he was a cook. His age tallied as well. Margaret was a housekeeper at Kilkerran Cottages. Both his parents were deceased. The names look like Tomos Raicos storekeeper and Marca (Maria?) Paepis. The date of the marriage was March 1919.

Canadians were based in Kilkerran as foresters http://www.maybole.org/

I looked on the ancestry site for any evidence of him. I found him on the Saturnia in September 1919 returning to Canada with the troops. Did he leave his wife behind? I looked for her separately and she was on the same ship, just under a separate list from the troops. She was heading to Edmonton, Alberta.

I can't find much evidence of them in Canada except their deaths in the 1940s in Edmonton. The brother Nick appears in the 1911 census in New Westminster and in the electoral rolls in Edmonton with a wife, variously described as a storekeeper, restaurateur, candy maker, confectioner. Their naturalisation records from 1925 are here (click will download). The brothers are from Turkey (Greece). Nick's wife is Marie.

There are still Raicos in Edmonton.

Lavinia Allen

Following on from the Chynoweths in Mexico this is the story of their  cousin Lavinia Allen.

She was born in Helston in Cornwall in July1841. Her parents ran the New Inn in Church Street in Helston. Her father Henry died before the 1851 census leaving mother Mary (Harris) Allan as the licensee. Lavinia married George Lory a draper of St Keverne in 1861 and had 4 sons. In the 1871 census George Lory is the innkeeper and his mother in law is living with them.  However by the 1881 census he is missing. In 1891 I pick up 2 of the Lory sons in London and with them their mother Lavinia Arthur.
I am indebted to a wonderful story which appeared in Australian newspapers in 1882 to fill in what happened.
George left and went to Tasmania after some "unpleasantness", around 1876, I think.  Meanwhile Lavina found comfort with a neighbour in Church Street, James Colenso Arthur, whose family were shoe makers.  It seems Lavinia fell pregnant and she and James married in Plymouth in the third quarter of 1881. Their son Allan was born on 1st January 1882. On the same day a letter arrived from her real husband in Tasmania! Oops! It seems that he was being sought so that the licence of the pub could be transferred to Lavinia.  I can't find what happened re the bigamous marriage but they were living apart in 1891.  Poor Lavinia. Allan was with his father in the shoemaker's and Lavinia was in London with 2 of her sons George and  Ernest Lory.  I expect the gossip was too much for her to stay in Helston. In 1901 Allan Arthur was in London with his mother and half brother Ernest Lory.  James Colenso Arthur died in 1906 in Helston.  George Lory senior died in New South Wales in 1907  and Lavinia died in London in 1911.



Sources:
censuses via ancestry.co.uk

online parish clerks for Helston 

trove digitised newspapers Australia trove.nla.gov.au

Australia death index : via ancestry.co.uk

Name:	George Lory
Death Date:	1907
Death Place:	New South Wales
Father's Name:	Richard
Mother's Name:	Elizabeth
Registration Year:	1907
Registration Place:	Granville, New South Wales
Registration number:	13811

freebmd.org

Marriages Sep 1881   (>99%)
ARTHUR	James Colenso		Plymouth	5b	472
LORY	Lavinia		Plymouth	5b	472

Deaths Jun 1906   (>99%)
Arthur	James Colenso	60	Helston	5c	113

Deaths Sep 1911
Arthur	Lavinia	70	Islington	1b	282