Hadden family update

Since writing the original post,  Mary, the granddaughter of the lad James Hadden Welsh, left behind in Cumnock has made contact with some 2nd and 3rd cousins in the United States who have suppled information and photographs and I've been continuing to research. Thanks to Joanne Ferguson and Jeanne Campbell Suehr.

Mary Bruce Hadden

? sister of Mary Hadden 

New information
Alexander Bruce and Mary Doherty also had a son Alexander Bruce born in 1849 in Kilwinning. His birth record does not exist since statutory registration in Scotland only began in 1855. His mother Mary Doherty died sometime between his birth and the 1851 census as she is not with her husband but 2 year Alexander Bruce is an "orphan" living with Irish born shoemaker David Mills and his wife Margaret Miller in Green, Kilwinning near his father.  He wasn't technically an orphan until his father died in 1860 in Dovecot Lane in Kilwinning. But his widowed father needed someone to look after him especially if his mother died in childbirth or soon after.

David Mills seems to have been the first to go to Scranton Pennsylvania as he is there by 1870 census with wife and 2 sons Alexander Mills 20 and Hugh Mills 7 all born Scotland.  The only child I can find born to this couple is David Mills born 1852 and presumably died before 1855 as no further record of him. There is no Hugh Mills born in Scotland in the 1860s.

Two months after  Alexander Bruce died in 1860 in Dovecot Lane in Kilwinning, a child Hugh Bruce was born to Mary Bruce at the same address.  Mary and baby Hugh Bruce are together in the 1861 census in Neilston, Renfrewshire, 15 miles away. By 1863 Mary Bruce is in Cumnock, Ayrshire (25 miles from Kilwinning) marrying John Hadden. No death recorded for Hugh Bruce in Scotland. I am wondering if Hugh Mills could be Hugh Bruce although the age is 3 years out.  I can find no further trace of the Mills family but Alexander reverted to his surname of Bruce and lived until 1925.

Mary Bruce on left, Jane Hadden top, Mary Hadden bottom, Martha Hadden right

After John Hadden died in 1873 Mary Bruce was left with 6 children and pregnant with Martha. She married William Coulter  on 31 st December 1875 in Cumnock according to the birth certificates of their children. This appears to be a fiction as there is no such marriage. A marriage certificate would have given his parents' names. The early birth certificates have him as William or William John Cousar and the 1881 census gives his age and birth place so born 1852 Ireland. I'm guessing by the names of his children (Scottish naming patterns) that is the son of William Cousar/ Coulter and Esther Black.  All the men in the family I should say are miners.

James Hadden (1864) oldest son of Mary Bruce and John Hadden went to Pennsylvania in about 1883.

William Coulter left for the USA on the Devonia in late 1885. It is hard to be certain that this is him, hard to identify a man travelling alone.  Mary and the younger children follow in 1887.  Only the oldest four are  missing: James, Jane, Mary and Alexander Hadden

According to the American cousins, Alexander Hadden (1870) went back to collect Mary and her sons and he is on the Anchoria with them in 1894, I can't find any previous sailing for him but equally I can't find him in 1891 census in Scotland.

Once Mary Hadden (1866) was in the USA she married fellow Scot  James Bell Campbell in 1895 and had 4 more children Robert, Martha, Henry and Lewis as recorded in the Campbell family bible. It also gives James Bell Campbell's birthplace as Edinburgh and I am able to find his birth certificate. A  DNA match to his sister confirms the parents, Robert Campbell and Helen Laird.

Here are the Hadden / Campbells. Back row John Hadden, William Hadden, Robert Campbell, Lewis Campbell with parents seated James Bell Campbell and Mary Bruce Hadden

Unanswered questions
What happened to Hugh Bruce b 1860 Kilwinning?
Who is William Coulter /Cousar and why did they claim to be married on 31 Dec 1875 in Cumnock?