Why was Regina Mary in South Africa?

[groom]

I think you're right, 3SD, that must have been the reason. She didn't stay with Roland Neilson for long if that's the case as they only married in 1898.

[3sillydogs]

Here is a very informative site for the Anglo Boer War

www.angloboerwar.com

You can do a search by name, the regiments that they were attached to are listed.  May be worth a look.

Could there  have been a reason that Neilson changed his name....

[groom]

Could there  have been a reason that Neilson changed his name....

Could be, but if he did it looks as if he reverted back before he died and she obviously left him. The other strange thing is that her son born Adrian George Freshney Bell also started calling himself Burgess after 1911.

[3sillydogs]

So one would assume then that she married a Burgess somewhere, most likely in SA, but who did she follow there?? 

If she married Burgess in SA, it would be harder to find.  There are records but a lot of them aren't indexed and I didn't find anything for her amongst the indexed ones.  Why would she have left Nielsen to travel to SA on her own? And so soon after her marriage to him.

Is there any mention of what Regina did?   If she was a nurse, she could have gone to SA with a nursing corps?

She must have left shortly after the census was taken in 1901, she would have had to have been in Pietersburg before July 1902 if Elsie was born Apr 1903, doesn't give much time given the voyage and travel across country from either Cape Town or Durban.

[groom]

The more I look into this family the stranger they seem!

I've now found Roland Neilson and his 2 siblings' births with mother's maiden name Philpotte. However as far as I can there is no Neilson/Philpotte marriage and there is no father with them in any census. In the 1891 census the family appear under the name of Foster, but revert to Neilson in 1901 and 1911. Phillis Maud Dorothy Neilson (Regina Mary's daughter) is with her grandmother Neilson in 1911 in Croydon, whilst the rest of her family are in Nottingham. I can't find Roland Neilson in 1911, but he isn't with Regina.

[Christine53]

The more I look into this family the stranger they seem!

. In the 1891 census the family appear under the name of Foster, but revert to Neilson in 1901 and 1911. Phillis Maud Dorothy Neilson (Regina Mary's daughter) is with her grandmother Neilson in 1911 in Croydon, whilst the rest of her family are in Nottingham. I can't find Roland Neilson in 1911, but he isn't with Regina.

The name Foster in the 1891 census is a mistake . The transcriber has carried the surname on from the previous household.

[groom]

I wondered about that, and now I'm on the laptop, I can see that is the case.

[3sillydogs]

Here is a link to unindexed church records for Family Search.  Scroll through the page until you find the Pretoria, Pietersburg ones.  They are mainly for the Anglican Church.  You may be lucky and find a baptism for Elsie. The one's for Christ Church and St Mary's cover the years you will be looking for.  The others are later.
https://familysearch.org/search/image/index?owc=SFV7-3TG%3A44975801%2C52325201%3Fcc%3D1468076

[groom]

Thank you 3SD