Amanuensis Monday: The Will of Alexander Mackay

Earlier this month, Find My Past released New South Wales Will Books 1800-1952 (currently offline for improvements). Seeing as my Australian side of the family is from New South Wales (NSW), I had to take a look. Of the 10 I have found so far, I definitely think the most interesting (and most detailed) one belongs to my Great Great Grandfather Alexander Mackay.

Alexander was born in 1856 at Dungog, NSW to parents Donald Mackay and Jane Gilliban Walker. In 1885, he married Elizabeth Lucilla Gill at Nambucca, NSW. After they married, the family relocated to Bowraville where Alexander was a farmer.

Elizabeth Gill & Alexander Mackay
[Source: Personal Collection]

Alexander & Elizabeth had 6 children -

1. Alice Jane Mackay (1886 - 1979, married Charles Churchill)
2. Eva Florence Mackay (1888 - 1976, married James Albert Dyer)
3. Ethel M Mackay (1890 - 1892)
4. Lottie Mabel Mackay (1894 - 1990, married David Glyde)
5. Archie Burton Mackay (1901 - 1993, married Sylvia Kelsey)
6. Elizabeth Lucilla Mackay (1905 - 1996, married Clarance Lumsden)

Elizabeth died during the birth of their youngest child who was named after her. Because of this, I was curious to see what Alexander's Will would entail and what he would leave to his children. I transcribed it as is and have not added any punctuation to it, other than what was already there. With or without punctuation, it is quite straightforward and easy to understand. Here is the transcription in italics:

[Source: Find My Past]

Mackay, Alexander (sometimes called Alexander McKay)/Late of Bowraville, Farmer.

THIS IS THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT of me ALEXANDER MACKAY (sometimes called Alexander McKay) of Bowraville in the State of New South Wales Farmer I HEREBY REVOKE all former Wills heretofore made by me AND I DECLARE this to be my last Will I APPOINT my son ARCHIE BURTON MCKAY and JAMES ALBERT DYER (hereinafter called my Trustees which expression shall be deemed to include the Trustees or trustee for the time being of this my Will) to be Executors and Trustees of this my Will AND I DECLARE that all trusts power authorities and discretions hereinafter vested in my Trustees be exercised by the survivor of them or other the Trustee or Trustees of this my will I GIVE DEVISE AND BEQUEATH to my daughters EVA DYER LOTTIE MADEL GLYDE ALICE JANE CHURCHILL and ELIZABETH LUSCELLA LUMSDEN share and share alike as tenants in common the proceeds of my life insurance policy or policies and also any money standing at my credit in the Commonwealth Savings Bank I GIVE AND DEVISE to my Trustees two allotments of land in Bowraville and the house standing on one of the said allotments IN TRUST to sell the same and to divide the proceeds between my said four daughters share and share alike I GIVE AND DEVISE to my son ARCHIE BURTON MCKAY all my other property including my other real property upon condition that the said Archie Burton McKay pay each of my four said daughters the sum of Two hundred pounds (£200) each within twelve months after my death and I charge the said real property hereinbefore devised to the said Archie Burton McKay with the payment of the said legacies I GIVE AND BEQUEATH to the said Archie Burton McKay my shares in the Bowraville Co-Operative Society Limited and in the Coastal Farmers Society AND I DECLARE that the share of the said Archie Burton McKay shall bear the costs of my funeral and testamentary expenses duties and fees and the payment of my debts including the mortgage debt on any property devised to the said Archie Burton McKay to the intent that the bequests that I have made to my said daughters shall be exonerated from payment of any part of the said expenses duties fees debts and mortgage debts AND I DECLARE that if any child or children of mine predecease me leaving a child or children surviving them such last mentioned child or children shall take (and if more than one then equally between them) the share which his or her or their parent would have taken under this my will had such child of mine survived me IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand this Ninth day of July One thousand nine hundred and thirty-six.

ALEXANDER MACKAY.

SIGNED by the Testator as and for his last will and testament in the presence of us both present at the same time and we at this request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses. M. Richardson, Law Clerk Bowraville. L. O’Neal, Solicitor, Bowraville.

23^rd February, 1938. PROBATE of the Will was granted to ARCHIE BURTON MCKAY and JAMES ALBERT DYER the Executors named therein. Testator died 1^st November, 1937. Estate sworn at £1814.19.7. Nett.

It seems that Alexander really cared for his children, particularly after his wife died and he was left with a newborn and young children. Before my Nanna died, she told me many times that she remembered her Grandfather Alexander Mackay and the Mackay's in general as people who worked hard for their money. She said that Alexander hoped he taught his children that, and Nanna believed that he had.
  

Alexander Mackay & his children, 1930s
L-R: Elizabeth, Alice, Alexander, Eva, Lottie & Archie
[Source: Personal Collection]

The Gow Siblings: Isabella Gow

Isabella Gow, my Great Great Aunt, was born on April 9, 1859 in Cairn Farm, Muthill, Perthshire, Scotland. She was the third child of William Gow and Jean Drummond (her older siblings being John & Robert). Isabella lived on the family farm until she was 18 and married John Reddoch on January 22, 1878.

Isabella Gow, 1869, Scotland
[Source: Personal Collection]

Isabella & John lived in Kinross at a house called Tullibardine. I forget if John built it for her or if he bought it. I think that information is written down in a letter my Aunt has. I have often searched for information on Tullibardine House such as where it was in Kinross, but have not been able to find anything solid.

Isabella & John had 9 children together -

1. Jean Drummond Reddoch, born 1879, Govan
2. John Drummond Gow Reddoch, born 1880, Muthill
3. William Gow Reddoch, born 1881, Dalginross
4. Robert William Reddoch, born 1883, Ardoch
5. Isabella Gow Reddoch, born 1885, Ardoch
6. Helen Christie Reddoch, born 1887, Ardoch
7. Charles Gow Reddoch, born 1889, Ardoch
8. Jessie Gow Reddoch, born 1892, Orwell
9. James Gow Reddoch, born 1895, Kinross

As you can see, most of the children were given either Gow or Drummond for their middle name. There were two more children, however both were stillborn. 

Isabella died on October 13, 1897 at Tullibardine House at the very young age of 38, as a result of complications during childbirth in which the child was stillborn - the second of the two. I do not know where she is buried, but in some family history information that a distant cousin wrote, apparently the two stillborn children she had are mentioned on her gravestone.

Siblings John & Isabella Gow with Mrs Lawson, 1862.
I have no idea who Mrs Lawson is.
[Source: Personal Collection]

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Ahnentafel Roulette

It's time for another round of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, well Sunday morning for me! This week's challenge from Randy at Genea-Musings is Ahnentafel Roulette.

Here's the challenge:

1. What year was one of your great-grandfathers born? Divide this number by 80 and round to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2. Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel" - your software will create this - use the "Ahnentafel List" option, or similar). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?

3. Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

4. Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on this blog post.

5. NOTE:  If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then "spin" the wheel again - pick a great-grandmother, a grandfather, a parent, a favorite aunt or cousin, yourself, or even your children!  Or pick an ancestor!

Here's mine:

1. Dividing each of my Great Grandfather's birth years by 80 gave me either 23 or 24.

2. This led me to a couple of unnamed people. Instead, I picked my Great Great Great Grandmother Matilda 'Tillie' Gowan (1840 - 1908) who married John Young (1836 - 1888) in 1860 in Mississippi, USA.

Matilda 'Tillie' Gowan Young
Approx 1880's
[Source: Personal Collection]

3. Three facts about Matilda 'Tillie' Gowan Young

a) She was born on December 18, 1840 in Mississippi, USA to Richard Gowan & Susan Peacock. She had 9 siblings.

b) She and John Young had 7 children - Emma Rosalie Young (1861 - 1868), Matthew Garret Young (1864 - 1933), Mary Gowan Young (1867 - 1927), Susie Fannie Young (1870 - 1928), Matilda May Young (1873 - 1936), Terri Pearl Young (1875 - 1959), & Frank Richard Young (1878 - 1958).

c) She is buried in White Church Cemetery, Blooming Grove, Texas. Her grave says she died on August 20, 1908, but her death certificate says she died on August 21, 1908.

Grave of Matilda 'Tillie' Gowan Young
White Church Cemetery, Blooming Grove, TX.
[Source: Personal Collection]

Look out Rootstech! I'm coming!

Last year, I made it my goal to attend Rootstech in 2015, and now it's happening! I'm going to Rootstech! Two weeks ago my Aunty & I booked our hotel room at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel. Currently, my Aunty is coming with me to Salt Lake City and she will do her own thing while I am conferencing it up. 

I am so excited y'all!!! Booking the hotel room has made it all so real. This is actually happening. I am going to be at Rootstech! You can expect many blog posts and videos about my preparation for Rootstech. I am also going to be needing lots of advice from you all too.

I want to meet as many of you as possible! I know it's going to be a blast and I want to soak up the experience as much as possible. DearMyrtle mentioned in her latest Mondays with Myrt that she is excited to meet me and will have to do another open house like she did this year. Woo! :D  

Here's my video that I did right after the hotel room was booked. I'd only woken up about 45 minutes prior, but I was like, I need to tell you all right NOW.

I am just so excited. And to see my family in Texas too of course! 

I'm going to Canberra!

I am on holidays for a month y’all! I am getting back into my much loved genealogy and figuring out which ancestors I would like to spend more time with over the next few weeks.

This Saturday I am off to Sydney for two weeks to hang out with my Aunty. During my schooling years, we went to Sydney 3 – 4 times a year. Now, it is usually one or two. I really love Sydney and know my way around the CBD better than my Dad & Aunt sometimes! My Aunty has all the family heirlooms so I imagine I will be taking some photos, recording details, and scanning while I am there.

One exciting part of my holiday is that my Aunty & I are going to Canberra for a couple of days. For my overseas genea-friends, Canberra is the capital of Australia and is where the Federal Parliament sits. The last time I went to Canberra I was 12 or 13, so I wasn’t really into history or politics then. But now I am, and I’m very excited to check it all out. The initial reason for going to Canberra is that I am going to a Criminology conference at the Australian Institute of Criminology on Friday, July 4^th. As I was going to be in Sydney anyway, I was originally planning to fly to Canberra on Thursday night and fly back to Sydney after the conference or early Saturday morning. However, my Aunty suggested that we make it a road trip of sorts and spend a couple of days there exploring. We are arriving on the 3rd and leaving on the 6th. I am so keen and spent some time procrastinating before my exams by researching the places we must go. So, here is our current to-do list…

1. Australian War Memorial (AWM)

When I began my adventures in genealogy, I discovered that my Great Grandmother’s 1^st Cousin’s name, Alexander Croal, is inscribed in the Roll of Honour. It is the #1 thing on our list.  

2. National Archives of Australia (NAA)

I am really keen to check out the NAA. It is where Shauna Hicks is having the launch of National Family History Month this year. After reading a recent post of hers about her visit to Canberra and the NAA, I am keen to check it out and see their current exhibition, A Place to Call Home: MigrantHostel Memories.

3. Paperchain Bookstore

Shauna also recommended a bookstore called Paperchain. I love books and reading and cute little bookstores! 

and genealogy! :D

4. National Library of Australia (NLA)

If we have time, I’d like to see the NLA and have a sticky beak at their Treasures Gallery & Canberra: Then & Now exhibition.

5. Cockington Green Gardens

A distant cousin recommended that my Aunt & I visit the Cockington Green Gardens. I had never heard of it before, but after some googling and browsing their website for a good while, we definitely have to go! It looks so cute! Their website states that it is a 'delightful and fascinating display of meticulously crafted miniature buildings set within beautifully landscape gardens.' 

Cockington Green  Gardens
[Source: Google Images]

If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know, particularly food places too as I am sure we will be eating out a lot!

A Milestone: My First Business Cards!

I have just reached a very significant milestone in my life. I am now a super-ridiculously-excited-owner of business cards!

So excited I feel like I'm dancing
on top of the world!

What prompted me to make this decision now?

I had been thinking of getting business cards for a while. Alona tweeted me last year about getting them for my genealogy. So many of you hand them out at conferences and other events, and I have always thought that was really rad. I guess life just got busy and I pushed it to the back of my mental to-do list.

Fast forward to Week 2 of University in March. One of my subjects this semester was Developing Professionally. Essentially, the course was about what happens after we leave Uni, how to find a job and all that scary stuff. Anyway, we had a guest lecturer from the Careers & Employment Service. She was talking about marketing strategies when she said...BUSINESS CARDS! My eyes shot up in an instant. She mentioned how they are a great networking and marketing strategy, and also suggested that we use them as a mini resume so to speak.

At the beginning of this month I started to seriously consider it. My question was though, do I get separate criminology and genealogy business cards or have all the information on the same card? Last week, after discovering that VistaPrint was having a 50% off sale, I ordered them. I was playing around with designs for a couple of hours before I settled on two that I love. Yep, I decided to stick with keeping the two separate. They look much neater, and besides, I highly doubt that that Criminology Professionals would be interested in my genealogy business card (although they should be!).

They arrived tonight and I am so excited! They are very cute! Let me know what you think :)

Ooo yeah! I love them so much!

Genealogy Business Card

Criminology Business Card

Cousins Galore!

Last week, Randy from Genea-Musings posted this Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge:

1)  Take both sets of your grandparents and figure out how many first cousins you have, and how many first cousins removed (a child or grandchild of a first cousin) you have.

2)  Extra Credit:  Take all four sets of your great-grandparents and figure out how many second cousins you have, and how many second cousins removed you have.
HINT:  Make a Descendants Chart with your genealogy software program!

3)  Tell us the grandparents and great-grandparents names, but don't give the name of living cousins unless you want to. 

4)  Are there any of those lines that you don't know all of the cousins names?  Do you care? 

5)  Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post of your own.  Be sure to drop a comment to this post to link to your work. 

I love my cousins. However, I have no first cousins on my Dad’s side. They’re all on my Mum’s side and live in Texas, so the time that I get to spend with them is rare and extra special for me. The last time I saw my cousins was in June/July 2012, the last time I was in Texas.

Grandparents

1A. William D. D. Gow & Eunice Hazel Dyer had 2 children – my Dad & Aunt. My Aunt has never married nor had children. Hence, no first cousins on this side.

First Cousins & First Cousins 1x Removed
2nd Jan 2011, Texas, USA.
Grandad's 80th.

1B. Nancy Robinson & Herbert K. Renfrow had 3 children – my Aunt, Mum & Uncle.

Aunt Molly has 2 daughters, and my Uncle David has 4 daughters. That’s right, no male first cousins! My brother is the only grandson. Both Molly’s daughters have children. One has 3 boys, and the other has 2 boys. David’s eldest daughter has 2 children – a girl & boy.

1C. My Step Grandmother, Vivian Young, had 2 children – my Step Aunt & Step Uncle.

My Step Aunt has 1 daughter while my Step Uncle has no children.

Total

First Cousins: 7
First Cousins 1x Removed: 7

Great-Grandparents

2A. William Gow & Elizabeth Croal had 2 children – William (my Poppa) & Adam. Adam only lived for 24 hours, so no cousins there.

2B. James Albert Dyer & Eva Florence Mackay had 6 children – Claude, Eunice (Nanna), Earle, Vera, Noel & Enid.

Claude never married nor had children.

Earle had 1 daughter, Lorraine. I met her for the first time at his funeral in 2011. Lorraine has 3 children who I also met at the funeral.

Vera had 5 children – Noela, Shirley, Terry, Peter & Brian.
Brian died when he was 24. I am not sure if he had a child before he died or not.
Noela does have children but I have no idea how many.
Shirley has 2 daughters who both have children and a son who died in his 20’s.
Terry has 2 children, who between them have at least 6 children that I know of.
Peter, well, he has a son that I know of. That son might have children. I think Peter has been married a couple of times so he probably does have more children.

Aunty Vera’s family is huge itself and I have never been able to keep up. I still need to get her to write down a list of all of her descendants for me.

Noel had 3 children – Dawn, Rodney & Stephen.
Dawn passed away a couple of years ago. I am not 100% sure if she had children. I think she did, but not sure. Rodney & Stephen both have children but I do not know how many.

Enid had 4 children – Debbie, Gregory, Kerry & Leonie.
Leonie died when she was a baby.
I think Gregory might have children, but again, not sure.
Debbie has 3 children that I know of.
Kerry has 2 children, one of which has 4 children, and the other I’m not sure about.

Thus far,
Second Cousins (definite): 14
Second Cousins 1x Removed (definite): 10

Who knows what the actual numbers are though!

2C. Wiley Durwood Robinson & Maud Ella Sharp only had one child, my Grandmother, Nancy.

2D. Roscoe Eugene Renfrow & Ethel Eva Thompson had 4 children – Flora Nell, Roscoe Eugene Jr, James Calvin & my Grandad.

The Female Cousins.
Mum is the adorable little girl front right.

Flora Nell had 3 children – Becky, Betsy & Peggy.
Becky has 2 daughters. Between them, they have 5 children.
Betsy has 2 sons. One has 2 children.
Peggy has a daughter and son. The daughter has 1 son.

Roscoe Eugene Jr had 2 children – Terri & Larry.

Larry does not have any children.
Terri has a son and daughter. The son had his own son born in January this year.

James Calvin had 2 children – James Calvin Jr & Michael.

James Calvin Jr. has 3 daughters. One daughter has 2 children, one has 3 and the other has 1.
Michael has 1 son.

Thus far,

Second Cousins: 12
Second Cousins 1x Removed: 15

Total
Second Cousins: 26
Second Cousins 1x Removed: 25

The actual numbers are going to be much higher.

I seem to be more clued up with cousins on my Mum’s side of the family even though I rarely see them! While I was doing this, I updated my tree on Ancestry.com by adding second cousins once removed who I had not listed. I definitely have some homework to do on my Aussie side though.