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In 1860, Benjamin Wilson Hallifax and Mary Ann Cox were married at the Church of St. John, Calcutta.  Benjamin was from Islington, London and Mary Ann was from Tiverton, Devon.  Where did they meet?  On a boat to India?  Which boats and when?  Was Mary Ann on her own?  Was this an elopement?  So many questions and no answers!

We know Benjamin, born 1833, got a job as Assistant to the Bengal Secretariat when he got to India sometime in the 1850s.  He later became a prosperous manager and proprietor of a 400-acre tea plantation and left nearly 30,000 Pounds when he died in 1906 back in England.  We know nothing of Mary Ann, born 1836, apart from the census records up to 1851 when she lived with her mother and father, Robert and Maria, in Tiverton.

If anyone has access to passenger lists to India in the 1850s, can you please either do a look-up for me or give me the sites so I can search myself.

Many thanks.
Chris

Kathy, I've had another look at the ebook "The Thanage of Fermartyn..."   You need to get to the pages 17-20 of the 72 pages shown.  As with many of these ebooks, letters and numbers are missed out and/or replaced with other symbols.  Alexander Morison of Bognie married Elizabeth Gairden (Garden) and they had two sons, George and Alexander.  I am told that Alexander Morison (1590-1660) had no known heirs.

George Morison (1620-1699) married Christian, Viscountess Frendnaught (nee Urquhart, and a Crighton widow) and had a son Theodore (c1685-1766) who married Catharine Maitland (c1695-1743).  They had three sons, Alexander, George and William.

Alexander Morison (c1723-1801) married Catharine Duff (c1722-1803) and had four sons, Theodore, John, George and James.  Theodore (c1754-1834) didn't marry and passed on the Bognie title to his brother, John (1757-1835), who had married a Fraser girl.  He died a year later and passed on the Bognie title to his son Alexander, who married into the Duffs and died in 1874.

I won't go any further - you can get the rest from the book - so I hope this is of help.  Sites you may want to explore include www.anesfhs.org.uk  This is the website of the Aberdeen and North East Scotland Family History Society and they have a mountain of information on this part of Scotland.

Chris

Hi Guys,

I've been away from this forum for a while.  Came back today to find the MORRISON family name has taken over!  All very interesting, with many names familiar to me from my researches elsewhere, but where have the MURISON families gone?

If readers would like to scroll back a few pages, they will find a few posts from me, one in particular giving dates and relationships of my Gamrie and Alvah MURISON forebears.  Indulge me while I up-date these Banffshire MURISONS:

John Murison (Moorison, Muirison also in 18th century documents of the family)was a crofter at Crossford/Cross-slacks.  He married twice, but there appears to be no record of the ladies' names.  John (c1690-c1760) and his wives had at least seven sons and maybe a daughter or two.  There was William (c1716-  ), George (  -1772), Alexander, John, Francis (1723-1801), James (1727-1803) and Andrew (1730-1809).

Francis married Elspet Wood (1725-1801) and had one son and four daughters.  They were James (1757-1841, Anne (1760-  ), Elspet (1755-c1772), Margaret (1755-1820) and Mary (1764-1806).  Anne married John Reid; Margaret married George Rankin (1755-1812) in 1793 and Mary married James Rankin (1746-1824).  This completes this line as I know it.  I am not sure the relationship between the two Rankins - brothers?

James married Sophia Bruce late in life (around 1775) and had three daughters and one son.  They were Sophia (1780-  ), Margaret (1781-  ), Jean (1785-  ) and James (1776-1833).  James married Ann Waddell (  -1858) and had four daughters and five sons.  They were James (1812-  ), Andrew, Jean, John (1803-1822), Margaret, Cathrine, Mary, Alexander and Francis (1810-1880).  Francis married Isabella Cameron (1811-1877) and one of his sons, Francis (1837-1907), married Margaret Garrow (1834-1897).  The Garrow family became seriously entwined with the Murison tribe, even emigrating to Canada together in the early 1870s.  More of this in another posting.

Andrew (see para. 3 above), married Mary Herdman (1740-1824) in 1763 and they made a decision to change the patronym of their children to MORISON!  Mary was a descendant of the Forbes family of Kincardine and could trace her ancestry back to the Blackhalls of that Ilk and Barra.  A possible reason for the change could be that an early owner of Barra Castle had been a George Morison.  Who knows?  Anyway, their children married into the Farquhar, McCrae and Cushnie families and a whole slew of lawyers, doctors, artists and poets resulted, many emigrating to Australia.  One was knighted for his services to royalty, among other things.  More of this in another posting.

Chris

If you haven't already found it, there's a book "Memorials of the Families of Strachan and of Wise" written by Rev. Charles Rogers and published privately in 1873.  Enter it in your browser.  ElectricScotland has a good copy which can be read easily online.  The Strachans were the owners of Thornton Castle for many generations and its history of the families who bought and sold the castle is well told.

Chris