The Lennies/McClellans

 

In the last few weeks Ive learned a lot more about my Orkney ancestors since my earlier posts

One of my biggest finds/and frustrations  is in regards to my 2x G Grandmothers older sons.

 

Recap:

 

Betsy( Elizabeth) Brodie married John Lennie in Stronsay Orkney and they and their family of 3 children ( David, John and Catherine) immigrated here and settled in Pleasant Point in 1870 .

Betsy and John had a further 2 more children, Lizzie, and  Louisa ( who seems to have been registered as Letitia at birth)

 

Some time around March  1876 John Lennie died ( we know he was buried then but cant find any record of the death ever being registered)

Their second son John Lennie died in 1883.

The eldest son David Married Lucretia Peake in 1887  and they lived in Pleasant Point. He was a pound Keeper and ranger there in 1897, and had trained as a Blacksmith

David and Lucretia didnt have much happiness in regard to child rearing. They lost a baby ( David) in 1889, then lost a baby ( Samuel in 1898  and a son Eric aged 7 in 1901 .  They had  a daughter and  2 sons who survived to adulthood, Lucretia Jeanette , William Henry, and  Francis David, and   At some time between 1897 and 1900 David and Lucretia moved to Wellington and Lucretia was once again pregnant . 

 

Unfortunately the baby, Margaret, was stillborn and Lucretia died soon after the birth due to complications of childbirth.

 

What I knew next was that David remarries in Australia, and I found both Francis and William both on Australian Electoral Rolls but all 3 had taken the surname McClellan ( that of Betsy’s second husband and my Great Great Grandfather)

 

Fast forward to this month and my cousin Rachel has found an old photo album belonging to my Great Grandfather and there are many photographs in there we need to identify so I took the scans to one of my mothers older cousins to get some opinions

 

 

 

She immediately said the top right photo was Dave ( having never met him she must have been told this at some point )

She gave me a copy of the bottom left photo which says Yours Truly  W H McClellan

Very quick research proved that indeed David McClellan did serve in the Australian 5th squadron 2nd Mounted Regiment as a Shoe Smith ( he lied about his age – taking at least 5 years off his age I assume to get in)

William Henry McClellan was indeed in the British Merchant Navy and Royal Navy – his medal card I found at British Archives this morning

It seems to me that the man on the top right – supposedly David – is the same man who is seen sitting in the top left photo . ( That would make the boy my G Grandfather who was 12 years his junior)

I think the younger man in the bottom right photo is extremely similar looking to William Henry in his Naval uniform beside him – dont you??

If its not William then it probably is his brother Francis . ( Francis also served in WW1 for Australia)

The older man though I dont know- he is still a mystery.

 

What do you think? – Am I grasping at straws here – ?

 

On a side note… What happened to the daughter Lucretia Jeanette – well Ive talked about her in a previous post  – .

Whether she kept in touch throughout her life with her Uncle ( My G Grandfather) or whether they found each other later in life I don’t know but I do know that in their twilight years, after the death of their respective spouses, they became great companions . I suspect she knew very little of her brothers family in Australia as I have found a Red Cross letter attached to Francis’ war file, dated 1952  enquiring for his whereabouts , as family in NZ hadnt heard from him since before the First World War.

Mother and Daughter–Mary Jane Middlebrook and Ellen Winifred Middlebrook

 

 

These two gorgeous photos are of Mary Jane Middlebrook ( nee Rea) and her daughter Ellen Winifred Middlebrook.( My Great Great, and Great Grandmothers)

Mary Jane Rea married Samuel Middlebrook at “Riversdale” in Katikati on 23rd May 1882

They had 6 children of whom Ellen was the third, being born in 1887.

I loved how similar the poses were in these photos and how alike Mother and Daughter look, though is it just my imagination or does Mary Jane look  a little like she has more of a “wild” personality than her more proper looking daughter. I personally think the Irish rose certainly shines through in Mary Jane’s photo, with the choker and the slightly ruffled hair and the eyes gazing into space as if imagining all the better things she could be doing rather than posing for a photograph.

I am however most grateful she did pose as this, so far is the only photo of Mary Jane that we know of.

A Photo Tree

 

Here is an example of a  custom made personalised photo tree that we are going to be selling  at Memories in Time

 

Over the next few weeks we will be starting to add some products that might be of interest to Genealogists so keep checking back regularly

 

This photo tree can be customised to fit up to 12  photos but looks best with between 7 and 10.

Cost $30+p&p for 8x8 inch print ( or digital copy if preferred) . Framing in dark walnut box frame can be provided at additional cost if required.

An Easter Wedding

 

The photo below is one of a number that my cousin scanned from the photo album of our Great Grandfather William McClellan.

Many of the photos are unidentified but this one was easy to pick. We knew that her Grandfather Keith was the best man in this wedding, and my Grandmother Bettie is a flower girl along with her sister Mollie. It was an easy deduction from there that this was the wedding of their eldest brother Mervyn ( William John  Mervyn )McClellan to Elsie Lillian Hammond ( known as Lil)

A search of paperspast bought up a wonderful description of the wedding which I used for my journalling for the layout below

An Evening wedding took place on Easter Monday at Trinity Methodist Church, Wellington South, when Elsie Lillian, daughter of Mr and Mrs H Hammond, Island Bay, was married to Mervyn, eldest son of Mr and Mrs W McClellan, Wellington South. The Bride wore a dainty frock of white French georgette, with radium lace and silver beads; a long tulle veil formed the train, and was work with a coronet of silver lace and orange blossom ( lent to her by her cousin, Mrs Giblin).
The wedding bouquet was of white cactus dahlias, roses and begonias. The bridesmaids were Misses Reita Hammond ( chief) and Elsie Croskery, wearing pretty frocks of flame and cyclamen georgette, trimmed with crystal beads, and coronets to tone with their frocks. They also carried beautiful bouquets to tone with their frocks.
‘Two smaller maids, Mollie and Bettie McClellan, were in frocks of eau-de-nil georgette and silver lace, with coronets to match and they carried pale pink Victorian posies.
Mr K. McClellan was best man and Mr L. Clark was groomsman.
A reception was afterwards held at the Newtown Library Hall, where the guests were received by Mrs Hammond( mother of the bride) wearing a frock of black French crepe de chine, trimmed with radium lace and hat to match, and carried a bouquet of red roses. Mrs McClellan ( mother of the bridegroom) was in grey embossed marocain and georgette and a hat to match, her bouquet being of lavender flowers. The bridegrooms present to the bride was a white fox fur, and each of the bridesmaids gold armlets
Evening Post April 19 1926

PLEASANT POINT

I had this photo sitting in my pile of unidentified photographs for years. Periodically I would try and identify where the photo was taken to try and discover what the significance of it was to my family. For years I was unsuccessful, then on a totally unrelated google search I spied a photograph of Pleasant Point Railway station which I noticed had a large shed in front of the station. A Google Street view trip to Pleasant point showed me that the church in the photo still stands though significantly altered from how it looks in this photo, but the placement of the small spires and the raised edge of the back wall were a confirmation that I had discovered the correct location. Pleasant Point was the town settled by my 2x Great Grandparents Betsy Brodie and William McClellan.

A New Discovery–Brodie Cousins

 

Discovering a whole new branch of my family tree rates among one of my bigger discoveries in my family history research journey.
The find came about with a chance search of the entire passenger list of the Merope, the ship in which Elizabeth Lennie( nee Brodie) and her family sailed on to New Zealand from their previous home in the Orkney Islands. I was surprised to see another passenger with the name Brodie. Jessie Brodie, aged 19, Dairy Maid travelled as a single woman on the same ship. I suspected there must be a connection between the two women , but how to prove it?
I started by researching the name Jessie Brodie in the Scottish Census records and quickly discovered Jessie's story.
Jessie Brodie , born in 1851 was the daughter of Andrew Brodie and Eliza Sandison .
At the time of the 1851 census she was 7 months old and was living in Rothiesholm, Stronsay with her parents and her half brother James Petrie, aged 3. However by 1861, Jessie and James are no longer living with their parents, but are working for the Stevenson family at Kirbist Farm ,on the tiny island of Elgisay as servants, aged just 13 and 10 .
Some hours of research and many emails later I made contact with Eddie Sinclair, who turned out to be a 4th cousin. Still living in the Orkneys he had a family tree with links yet unknown to me.
He confirmed the relationship between Elizabeth and Jessie as first cousins.
Andrew Brodie was the youngest son of William and Betsy ( Miller) Brodie and Elizabeth's father , John, Elizabeths father was the first son of the same couple.
Eddies family tree had much detail on Jessie's family right down to current generations the same age as my children, and through the names on that tree I was able to make contact with another “new to me ” cousin Ian, who is a Great Great Grandson of Jessie Brodie and lives here in New Zealand.
I learned from the new information I received that Elizabeth and Jessie were not the only Brodies to make the long journey from the Orkneys to New Zealand , William, Jessie's younger brother also joined them in New Zealand. He worked as a blacksmith , married but had no children. He returned three times to the Ornkey Islands during his lifetime. It was perhaps on one of those visits he convinced his brother Andrew to emigrate. Andrew arrived around 1881 . Andrew didn't marry and died at Sunnyside in 1906 of Pneumonia.
Jessie's half brother James Petrie also emigrated on the Merope with Jessie and Elizabeth . I'm yet to research his life in New Zealand.
There are many other Brodies who settled in the South Island and I suspect some of these may be other relatives of Elizabeth and Jessie who followed them to a new life at the bottom of the world.
What struck me immediately was how alike Jessie and Elizabeth were in their looks. What we discovered was a definite Brodie “look” - with many of the Brodie descendants having the same heavy brow and deep set eyes.
So far Ive found no evidence that Jessie and Elizabeth had much contact after their arrival in New Zealand. Elizabeth and her husband John Lennie settled in Pleasant Point, near Timaru and Jessie initially worked for the Hay family in their home Annadale in Pigeon Bay , Canterbury before marrying George McKay and joining him on the family farm also at Pigeon Bay Canterbury.
Elizabeth suffered several tragedies during her life in New Zealand. with her first husband John Lennie dying prematurely in 1876.
She remarried William McClellan in 1877, and moved at some point in the 1890s to Woodville where her second husband also passed away in 1894.
She spent her latter years living with her daughter
Lizzie in Wellington. Elizabeth died in 1924 aged 86.Jessie died 2 years later aged 75.

Some Detective Work

Recently a cousin got hold of the photo album which had belonged to our McClellan Great Grandparents. She set to work scanning the photographs which turned out to be a real treasure trove.

There has been a lot of detective work done and close comparisons of the photos to find people who appear in more than one photo, of which there are many, but some were complete mysteries

 

One such mystery was this wedding photo

 

Between the two of us and our parents we couldnt identify anyone in the photo at all.  We named it the Mystery Wedding photo and it intrigued us.

As part of the research Ive been doing in regards to the McClellan/Brodie/Lennie family, I made contact with another couple of new to me relatives, and on a totally unrelated note I asked one if he knew who it was who my G Grandfather lived with after his wife died.

We knew it was a relative and we thought perhaps a cousin and the name bandied about was Jean Lennie, but I couldnt find a Jean Lennie anywhere in my tree who fit. It was suggested that perhaps it was Lucretia Jeanette Lennie and maybe she went by the name Jean which is certainly less of a mouthful.

 

Lucretia has a bit of a sad story and I need to fill you in on that to explain further.Her father was David Lennie , ( 1865-1949) . He was the eldest son of John and Elizabeth Lennie ( who became a McClellan on remarrying after Johns death)

David married Lucretia Peake

April 1887 Marriage LENNIE - PEAKE - On April 27th, at St. Mary's Church, by the Ven,. Archdeacon Harper, David Lennie, of Pleasant Point, to Lucretia, only daughter of Samuel Peake, Timaru (Timaru Herald )

Lucretia and David had 5 children. Lucretia Jeanette was the eldest, then followed Francis David, Eric Cecil ( who died aged 7) Samuel Joh ( who died aged 5 months

LENNIE. At Wellington, on July 13th, 1898, Samuel John, the beloved son of David and Lucretia Lennie, aged 5 months. Deeply regretted.

And finally Lucretia died from complications of childbirth giving birth to the last unnamed child with whom she is buried. It appears that Francis, aged less than 12 at the time, ran away from home, perhaps stowed away on a ship because next he his heard of he is in Tasmania .David left his daughter in the care of her maternal Grandparents, Samuel and Lucretia Peake, and followed Francis to Australia, remarrying there in 1903

 

So back to my detective work, when I realised that there might be even more of a connection with Lucretia Jeanette, I wondered if this in fact could be her wedding photo, after all there appears to be only one set of parents, the other set much older and possibly grandparent age. I learned her wedding was in 1913 which fit the fashions in the photographs quite well.

A theory developed in my head that perhaps this was her wedding and so I did a bit of googling of the name of her husband Charles Stanley Hawkey, and with some research I found his father Tom Hawkey had in fact been Mayor of Timaru in 1913 .

Today I emailed the Timaru Council asking if they could perhaps identify Tom Hawkey from my wedding photo and the passed the request on to the South Canterbury Museum.

I was elated to find that indeed this was Tom Hawkey – who appears as Father of the Groom in our mystery wedding photo

 

So the mystery wedding is no more a mystery. The Old couple on the left must be Samuel and Lucretia Peake, I suspect the best man is a brother of Charles, and the woman to his right , his mother Priscilla Hawkey

We may never know the identity of the bridesmaid however this doesnt deter me from continuing to pore over these photos until  more of our mysteries are solved