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| Thought to be a tall red-head. |
Alexander McKenzie, born 5 Dec 1842 in Fodderty, to Kenneth McKenzie and Ann (Annie) Tolmie & Jane Ross, born 30 Dec 1842 in Ardgay, Kincardine, to Donald (Callum) Ross and Ann (Annie) Murray.
The gorgeous book: 'The Chronicles of the Ardchronie Children: Parish of Kincardine' has a beautiful account of Jane (Jennie)'s parents Donald Callum and Annie's wedding and then Jane's birth (both below). Note that Maggie, the author, is Jane's younger sister. More about Donald later.
Alexander & Jane married 28 Nov 1864 in Dundee. He was a Mason and she a domestic servant. It's the first time just now that I noticed they were at the same address and that it's a fair way from home. 3hrs drive today. I suppose that's where they met.
The very next I hear from them is via the birth of their son, named Alexander (of course) born in Shellback Creek, Thames, New Zealand in 1869. Our Alick by now a miner. You will no doubt be aware of the gold rush going on in NZ and Australia. In 1872 my great grandmother Elizabeth (Bessie, no one was allowed to call her anything but Bessie) McKenzie was born in Thames, New Zealand (North Island). Alick was by now a contractor.
The family moved to the Dunedin area on the South Island, though I'm not sure when or what was happening. There is the Deborah Bay tunnel contract in 1874 and Jane much later lived at Palmerston nearby. I assume the family were around Dunedin for much of the time while Alexander travelled for work. The contracts include Alick's brothers Daniel and John. Daniel did aged 51 in 1890.
I had not known of Daniel as he was not present for the 1851 census, however family contacted me to inform me of Annie nee Tolmie (of the wedding story) going to NZ and sent this gravestone picture below. A Daniel McKenzie is found at another property in Tain, as a stable boy (aged 14) and I imagine it was not a terribly common name and explains the gap.
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| Port Chalmers, New Zealand. |
On 5 Dec 1878, in Greymouth, Alexander was struck and killed by a 'lodger' when felling a tree. See article below.
Alexander was part of the Freemasons in Thames. His name is found in their archives and below, the obituaries speak of his character. There are mistakes. For example I have no evidence of the couple ever going to Nova Scotia, though I have no travel records at all so they may have popped over. Alick's brothers John and Daniel McKenzie were over in NZ too. Daniel shows up at a nearby place in the census in Scotland and I had not otherwise known of him, until finding some distant family who confirmed via Ann Tolmie's death. After their father Kenneth McKenzie died in Scotland, Annie followed them down to Dunedin, NZ. I had imagined Alexanders life in NZ to be a lonely one, dying away from his wife and children. However I have found evidence that his brother Daniel had worked nearby not long before his death. With their mother Annie around, Jane, the children, her brother in laws and their families nearby, it will have been quite a family.
John, Daniel and Alexander had the contract for the Deborah Bay tunnel, a railroad tunnel that I think exists today as a walking track.
Jane's father Donald Ross was a road contractor back in Kincardine, where he lived his whole life as far as I can see. He is buried with Ann and their son John at Kincardine Cemetery (below).
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| 5th December 1842, birth of Alexander McKenzie to Kenneth and Anne nee Tolmie. |
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| Jane Ross, daughter of Donald Ross, Ardchronie, and Ann Murray. b 30 Dec 1843, baptised 12 Jan 1844. |
The wedding of Donald (Callum) Ross and Anne Murray (Jane's parents and Alexander's in laws).
Beginning, My father... which is Donald Callum Ross (my g.g.g.grandfather). Near the bottom when the author states: Now for our family... there is mention of Jennie being in NZ ... this was such a moving passage to read and I am amazed to find such detail. Nice stories too.
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| The wedding certificate of Alexander and Jennie (Jane). |
In New Zealand, in 1869 and 1872, Alexander and Elizabeth were born. Father, miner. The district they were born in was a huge gold-rush area. Elizabeth died before I was born but was quite a character. I'll do a separate article on her later.
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| Bessie's original birth certificate. |
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Bessie joined the Salvation Army in Auckland and came to Melbourne, Australia, to study, where she met and married George Armstrong and had five children: Hazel, Laurel, Hilda, George (known as Keith, my gramps) and Ian Alister (Alec). Just a brag... Hilda and Laurel won a competition in 1923, choosing the name 'Vegemite' for a new vegetable extract you may have heard of (yum). Whilst I do have two of the contracts involving the Deborah Bay Tunnel, they are too long (and a bit boring) to add here. I did find this snippet from 1874 and imagine it to be my great, great grandfather, though I know nothing more on the subject:
And then, sadly, we go to his death. This was very difficult to find as the name is so common and NZ BMD doesn't have parents names in their search engine. However, I was contacted by someone who was related to Jenni's second husband (the name change being the reason I could not find her death certificate, nor any trace of her). That wedding certificate, whilst having Alexander wrongly named 'Charles', added up in every other way and gave the date of this, her first husband's death, some 11 years previous. From that I was able to narrow down my search and find my grandfather's death certificate and then found a few newspaper articles.
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I have not found any Nova Scotia connection though as mentioned I have no travel documents at all. He certainly was born in Scotland.
The children were 6 & 9 years old.
Young Alexander became a fisherman like his own father in law. I have yet to find any current descendants. He had 2 daughters and a son (Alexander of course) to Emma Ajen, his wife. One girl Annie Emma and Violet Jane. Annie died aged 14.
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| Jennie and John Shearer Ritchie's wedding. Note Jane's parents. They had no children (she was 45). |
Below is the tombstone of Jane's parents and brother at Kincardine, Scotland. Donald Ross, the Road Contractor my father spoke of as having either been in NZ or being somehow connected to Alexander (his son in law) become a rail tunnel builder. I have no information about any link between their work and it's clear that Donald lived and died in Scotland, though 10 years between census allows for some movement.
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Jane (Jennie) Ritchie's death.
Again, as is common with death certificates, where the recording of information about the deceased is by those around them, some details are incorrect.
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Below is Jennie's parent's gravestone at Kincardine, Scotland.
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| In loving memory of/DONALD ROSS/died 14th Aug. 1909/aged 94 years/and of his wife/ANNIE MURRAY/died 24th April 1910/aged 85 years/also their son/JOHN ROSS/died at Ardcronie/8th March 1929/aged 83 years.
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