James George Gordon Gammie

[chromecrusher]

Thanks for all your help. We are going to try the SA Archives to see what else we can find.

[chromecrusher]

Thanks to Spider Monkey and Monica I have found Plain old James George Gordon. b.25/2/1858 Huntly Aberdeenshire. Only mother Mary Gordon on BC
m. Alice Middlemass 10/7/1884 Kimberely. South Africa. d. 5/11/1954 Krugersdorp South Africa. He went from repairing shoes on the streets of Aberdeen to become Mayor of Krugersdorp. And in between he was involved in the gold and diamond rush! His wife Alice died in childbirth in 1887 and he never remarried.
I would  now like to find Mary Gordon and her parents, if possible. What are the chances of an illigitimate child being born in her home village? Is Huntly a good starting point

[Spidermonkey]

That is fantastic news!!

I'm off out shortly, but will have a look for Mary Gordon and parents when I get back.

Well done Chromey

[Spidermonkey]

I would  now like to find Mary Gordon and her parents, if possible. What are the chances of an illigitimate child being born in her home village? Is Huntly a good starting point

As far as I can remember, Mary was fairly consistent with her Place of Birth throughout the censuses.  I believe she was born in Inverkeithney, Banffshire.

Her marriage cert to John Stewart should give us her parents names and possibly her father's profession.

[MonicaL]

I was trying to see whether we could find a James Gordon b. Huntly c. 1858 on the censuses. No sign of him under Gordon.....but there is this entry:

Ann Cuthbert Morrison 73 b. Drumblade, Aberdeenshire
Mary C Morrison 38, daughter, Prevates Teacher Of English Seading (as transcribed!) b. Drumblade, Aberdeenshire
Mary I Inglis 5, boarder b. Huntly
James Gammie 3, boarder b. Huntly

Address: Loangerrie, Drumblade, Aberdeenshire

I am going to speculate here    There are three children showing in Huntly as born to a Mary Gordon:

Mary Jane and George Gordon - twins born on 5 July 1855 and then the birth of a James Gordon on 25 Feb 1858.

Could the Mary I. Inglis in the above 1861 entry be perhaps a Mary J. Inglis I wonder on the original image. Not uncommon for illegitimate children to be registered at birth under the surname of the mother and then go by the name of the reputed father in later years.  Might also explain for James the use of the surname Gammie.

If we do have the right entry for James above, likely he (and perhaps sister?) were looked after whist mother was working?

Just theories though at this stage 

[MonicaL]

  Looking for James Gammie and Mary Inglis in 1871. James is a servant working by 1871 and a search for Mary Inglis b. Huntly I think takes us back full circle to potentially mother Mary Gordon. The entry for 1871 that we already had for mother Mary Gordon now married to John Stewart shows in the household:

John Stuart 66
Mary Stuart 40
Lewis Stuart 1
Mary Inglis 15, servant b. Huntly

Address: Pettiesburn, Grange Banff

[MonicaL]

Chromey, one way for you to be as certain as you can that you have the right birth for James in Huntly is to look at the birth of either Mary Jane or George, the twins, in 1855. 1855 was the first year of official registration in Scotland. For that year only, the entries ran over two pages of the register with a wealth of additional info. For births, it very often includes where parent(s) were born, age, how many children they had etc. Might be worth you looking at the image on line to try to verify.

Monica

[Spidermonkey]

ooooh!  I love it when we come full circle!

Good find Monica!

[Stewart 1]

The John Stewart is my great great Grandfather . I am connected to his first wife rather than Mary Gordon.
Forfarian may be interested in this .
Stewart