Hugh Neil

[speleobat2]

Hi all,

The marriage for Elizabeth Jane to James Adams that I posted earlier is the correct one so she was in Scotland at least through the 1881 census. There are a couple of possible marriages for Mary Jane, but my credits for SP are very limited right now so I didn't check them. I didn't find a marriage for John or deaths for either Mary or John, but those are very common names so I might have just missed them.

Carol

[speleobat2]

Hi again,

On Elizabeth's marriage cert., Hugh was a master baker and Elizabeth was living at 124 Irongate in Calton, Glasgow. She was a book folder.

Carol

[elise]

Thanks Carol.

Elise

[Currie]

The picture of Hugh Neil’s NZ bakery, dated probably not long after the flood of 28 October, 1868, has “Mrs Neil and children outside” http://find.natlib.govt.nz/primo_librar ... Login=true

When I first saw that I thought they would have been the Glasgow children. But if they stayed in Scotland whose children are they? Maybe Mrs Neil No.2 was a widow and that's where the two names, Rogers and Dixon, previously mentioned came from and they were her children. Maybe they were Hugh's and Hannah’s, and, as Maureen suggested earlier, they didn’t marry until Hugh received word it would be legit. Maybe Hugh and Hannah got together in Scotland and ran off to NZ.

Maybe this, maybe that,
Alan.

[SarahND]

That's very interesting, Alan! There look to be three children, one on either side of Mrs Neil and another (the oldest, a girl) off to her right (our left). At least I think that's a small person also on her left side. So, I'd guess a girl about 5, a boy about 3 and a tiny person of undeterminate sex about 18-mos -2yrs. Obviously none of these fit with the Glasgow children, who would have been 16, 13 & 11 in 1868.

Wouldn't the marriage cert in NZ state whether Hannah was previously married?

Regards,
Sarah

[elise]

Hi Alan and Sarah,

Just received Hugh Neil's marriage certificate to Hannah which states they were both widowers. The witnesses were James Neil, miner and Elizabeth Hunt.

Hugh's death certificate states he was a retired Baker; died in 1901 aged 72 and had spent 42 years in New Zealand. It doesn't mention the names of his children with Jane Alexander but states he has three children aged 48, 45 and 31.

Hannah's death certificate says her parents are Joseph Rogers, farmer, and Elizabeth Reynolds. She was born in Swords Ireland and spent 46 years in New Zealand. Her first husbands name was George Dixon and she was 28 when she married him. Once again it doesn't mention what children she has only that there is one who is 42 years old.

Elise

[speleobat2]

Hi all,

That info makes this even more interesting. If Hugh was in NZ for 42 years when he died in 1901, then he was there in 1859. The ages of his children listed compare with Elizabeth b. 1853 and John Rodger b. 1855, but who was the last one age 31 who would have been born in 1870? Frances was born in 1873 according to Elise's first post.

On Jane Alexander's death cert., Hugh is shown as a Seaman. I'm wondering if he was working on a ship in the kitchen as a baker and had a second family in NZ maybe? Also wondering if Mary died because no one her age is mentioned on the certs.

Carol

[momat]

On Jane Alexander's death cert., Hugh is shown as a Seaman.

That is what I found too.

I would say that Hugh and Jane were estranged when he left for New Zealand.
On Jane's Death cert, Hugh's occupation looks like Seaman !

Could be that he went to sea simply to be able to get to New Zealand .
A lot of men jumped ship on arriving in the Antipodes.