RootsChat.Com

Hi Dorothea,

I just joined RootsChat and found your posting very interesting. I am a great granddaughter of David Mckenzie who was a brother of your grandfather Robert McKenzie.

David married Margaret Watson in Condorrat in 1872. They had 13 children born in the Dunbartonshire/Stirlingshire area, 3 dying in infancy. Like their father David, all 7 sons worked in the mines. One of them was killed in a mining accident at Longcroft. The 3 surviving oldest sons emigrated to New Zealand in 1902 and settled & worked in the Ohai/Nightcaps coal mining area of Western Southland. The rest of the family followed in 1907 - David & Margaret and their 5 remaining children aged 11 - 25 (a teenage daughter had recently died of pnuemonia). Again all male members of the family worked in the mines. Three more sons were killed in mining accidents. My grandfather Alexander (Alec) was the youngest of the family. He subsequently founded some new coal seams and ended up having substantial shares and interests in the mining in that region. In 1924 he married Agnes Ferguson, who's family had emigrated from Stirlingshire in 1909. They had 3 children, my father James McKenzie was born in 1928.

My cousin has done some research and found the marriage record of James and Jean (Jane) Gray. He also identified Jean's parents as Robert Gray and Elizabeth Shanks. Like you we have only found James father (also James), not his mother. So I can't add any new information apart from the story of your great uncle David (my great grandfather).

Heather Rea (nee McKenzie)