Gordon Blair - Mystery? or Not!

[sparrett]

Thanks Ruskie. I'll next try and find how Gordon's sister got here as she isn't listed on the 
I'm just looking for the truth of it whatever it may be.

If you had read the links posted by Wivenhoe, you would know haw she got here
Sue

[majm]

Please list in chronological order each lie so that we can perhaps address each one.  For example I am not at all convinced  that the lad who arrived in 1861 was your lad.   

Not everyone who settled in Queensland came by ship direct to Qld, and not all passenger lists survived.  Those who came to Queensland before 1859 can also be found listed on passenger lists as though they arrived in NSW, for Qld was still part of NSW in those earlier years. 

Not everyone who arrived in Qld is actually listed on passenger lists anyway.  Some steerage passengers may well be simply numbers rather than named.... 

I am not yet convinced that your chap who came to Qld was previously married to anyone in Scotland.


JM   

[Ruskie]

Divorce would have been a rarity in the mid 1800s. He is more likely to have been a bigamist.

His "family" at home may never have known, but his sister must have.

[OZScot]

Thanks Sparrett. I intend to shortly. Another thing I'm not good at is doing 3 things at once at the moment.

I'll take anything I can so I can show this lovely lady about her Ancestry - good and bad - with proof.

[OZScot]

I'm afraid you maybe right Ruskie but certainly not definite. When all the avenues are exhausted and crossed off ... it still won't be certain. It just may not be the evidence anywhere. Just present the evidence and make up your own mind.

Thanks Wivehoe I just haven't got to it yet. Much appreciated.

[sparrett]

Thanks Sparrett. I intend to shortly. Another thing I'm not good at is doing 3 things at once at the moment.

I'll take anything I can so I can show this lovely lady about her Ancestry - good and bad - with proof.

Ok.
I just mean that real information is coming your way and you need to take it into account in your thinking.

At present, I am having difficulty linking the immigrant to your lost Gordon BLAIR.
For one thing, his sister's father was William.  This information was furnished at her death and possibly it came from her son William KIPPEN.

ADDING Information re the name William as father of Jane MARKS has come from an online tree. Struck through.
Unverified on BMD

We are all working towards a nice solid picture

Sue

[majm]

Bigamy etc ...

Certainly convicts were allowed to remarry if they'd been 'out of/away from the marriage' for more than seven years - but I don't think this was considered bigamy - the more so as they had very little hope of ever returning to England.   
Their partners in England could also remarry if their convicted OH's had been gone for more than 7 years  . . .  so, not just occurring in Australia.  The marriage was considered void is my understanding, so not bigamy.

No doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong.

Wiggy

You are correct Wiggy
The law "An Act to restrain all Persons from Marriage until their former Wives and former Husbands be dead" was introduced in 1604.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~framland/acts/1604.htm

Section 2 of this 'bigamy' act allowed partners to remarry if the other was overseas for at least 7 years or if they had no knowledge of their partner being alive for 7 years.
The wording of section II puts it like this :

"II. Provided always, That this Act, nor any Thing therein contained, shall extend to any Person or Persons whose Husband or Wife shall be continually remaining beyond the Seas by the Space of seven Years together, or whose Husband or Wife shall absent him or herself the one from the other by the Space of seven Years together, in any Parts within his Majesty’s Dominions, the one of them not knowing the other to be living within that Time. "

Cheers
Guy

Divorce in Colonial Australia
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/34360/20050715-0000/www.aifs.gov.au/institute/seminars/finlay.html     Qld divorce laws date from 1864 but like many other colonies, if the impediment to marriage was with the female, well ... read on ! ....

ADD
Scottish marriages .... https://academic.oup.com/jsh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/jsh/sht041

JM

[majm]

Re Gordon’s wife Julia DROUGHTON.

Looking at Qld BDM marriages in the 1860s and 1870s there’s perhaps some possibles for siblings for Julia.   I wonder if she may have been a witness at those marriages….  Anyways, here’s a newspaper cutting for one of those marriages, giving info about origins for possible  DROUGHTON family/ies

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130840661 25 June 1870 Qld Times, Ipswich Herald
23rd June, St Pauls, Ipswich….  Elizabeth, third daughter of the late Henry DROUGHTON of County Westmeath, Ireland…

I wonder if Julia was sister to Elizabeth …. Afterall, the Qld BDM online index for Julia’s 1906 death has her father recorded as Henry DROUGHTON and mother as Elizabeth LOME….  I also wonder if among the DROUGHTON family there’s a family history buff with information about Julia DROUGHTON and her Gordon BLAIR.

I may have missed it, but I cannot recall noting the denomination of the clergy for the 1876 marriage for Gordon and Julia.    My scribbled notes have it as Manse,  Ann St.    I guess this would be Presbyterian, and Ann St, Brisbane. 

I wonder if the witnesses were related to Gordon or Julia.

JM

[Ruskie]

Something which may have already been mentioned (apologies if it has and I missed it), is that you say Gordon's birth was not registered in Scotland, however Statutory registration did not commence in Scotland until 1855. Prior to that you only have Parish Registers.

Have you checked Scotland's People for baptisms in the years you believe this Gordon was born? You might need to expand the search years and places to allow for a late baptism and this possibly occurring elsewhere.

There may be some data on SP regarding the availabilty of parish registers in these areas and time frames, and if there are any gaps.