Hi folks.
Once again great work and much faster replies than on my first search. I include an attachment of Murdoch’s complete death certificate for your perusal. The last two columns are interpreted below:
Where and at what age and to whom –
1 Scotland
and
1 Adelaide;
2 Not Known (should be abt 8, Murdoch and Mary Cameron were married on 4 Mar 1845)
2 48 years (corrected by registrar to 45 on cert);
3 Not Known (should be Mary Cameron),
3 Kate Swan (should be Catherine McSwan).
Issue, in order of birth, their names and ages:
By First wife
Kate 40 yrs.
Christina 38 yrs.
Margaret 35 yrs.
Donald dead (died in Cork, Ireland on board HMS Hercules 14 Feb 1853)
By second wife:
Johanna 30 yrs.
Donald 27 yrs.
Mary/May? 26 yrs.
Annie? Dead
Annie 21 yrs.
Samuel dead.
This is definitely my ancestor Murdoch from North Uist as too much of the info on the certificate ties in with data from other sources. Missing or inaccurate info I put down to Annie not knowing for some reason as it was before she was born. This would suggest that she was not in a position to ask her older siblings, or that they could not remember either. Why her mother did not know/remember is a bit more puzzling.
Murdoch seems to have a constant problem with his age even before leaving North Uist. He remained 40 years old for a number of years when he was in reality 35/39 in 1851. I found him in the 1841 Census at age 25, which means that he was between 25 and 29 years old then (they rounded down to the nearest 5 in that Census). He gave his age as 40 in the 1851 Census and was recorded as 40 on HMS Hercules in 1853. He married Catherine McSwan on 2 Aug 1853 at Adelaide and died 9 Oct 1888, which means that he was about 45 years old when he married for the second time and the Registrars correction should be the trusted figure.
Cando, thank you for your invaluable assistance once more and to all the others over there in Oz who have helped my search. I have contacted the Stawell group three times. The first was very kindly replied to by the then ex-Secretary at that time, and he passed my request for help on to the present Secretary along with giving me the new secretary’s name. I did not get any reply, so after a few months I sent a further request to them and have had no reply at all (4 months), not even an automated email reply. So either my emails have gone to the wrong place, or that group is having some sort of troubled times at the moment. It looks like a case of try, try, again, again. That’s life.
Kind regards
Ken
