More musings on the Mcleods.....

Photo: Wilmington in South Australia's mid-north.

On the basis that sometimes a detour can get you to where you want to go faster we are looking again at Hannah McLeod and possibly, if it is the same Hannah who arrived on the Eliza in 1840, her brother Daniel.

Kylie has unearthed a marriage record for a Daniel McLeod, living in the mid-north of South Australia who may well be the Daniel who arrived with Hannah.

McLEOD Daniel Par: Donald b: c1826 d: 21.5.1875 Woolundunga SA  Occ Shepherd, Labourer res: nr Pt Augusta, Saltia, Melrose rel: Presb

m: (1/2) 6.3.1862 Saltia SA Mrs? Maria MALONEY nee SIMMONS par: Thos b: 1834 d: 29.1.1864 Baroota SA ch: Danl (1864-1864)

m: (2/2) Louisa nee Domeyer, April 5, 1869 ch: Wm (1870-), Mgt Ann (1872-), Christyannah (1873-), Wm Danl (1875-)

This Daniel lists his father as Donald and the age does not quite fit the Daniel McLeod, 20, who travelled to Australia on the Eliza with Hannah in 1840. However, we know that dates of birth and ages are often wrong and the six years is certainly within the 'possible' realm.

The age given for marriages don't quite fit a birth in 1821 for our Charleville Daniel who sailed out with Hannah.  There is a 13 year age difference with the Daniel McLeod who married at the age of 35 in 1869 and Hannah's Daniel would have been 48 although we know from past experience they often got ages wrong, particularly when they married, when no doubt they wanted to be younger than they were.  Even if you take the date of birth c. 1826, he would still have been 43 and not 35.

He died in Woolundunga, in 1875, which is halfway between Port Augusta, near where he lived at Saltia, and Wilmington, from where his second wife, Louisa came. There was a homestead at Woolundunga so he may well have been working there.  He was a shepherd and labourer as was Hannah's husband, Edward Atkins, at various stages and so from the same social strata.

The records show that Daniel's first wife, Maria, died in 1864, as did her child, Daniel, so we are presuming it was childbirth and neither mother nor child survived. It took another five years before Daniel remarried but then he had no children for which he needed to find a wife and beyond that, may well have been grieving. He and Louisa had four children, and, given the same name for first and last son, it is a good guess that three survived at the time of his untimely death in 1875.


The other possible link with a Hannah is the name Christyannah, which seems a rather 'modern' name for the times and which could easily have been Christy Hannah with the 'H' not registered. It is useful having this Daniel's father's name for future research and it may well be that the name of one of their daughters, Margaret Ann, contained Daniel's mother's name, given that it does not seem to be the name of Louisa's mother if the records we have found are correct, and there is every reason why they should be.


If he was 33 in 1862 then he would have been 40 in 1869 or 48 if it is our boy. Although, given how unreliable birth records were in those days maybe our Daniel was only 15 or 16 when he applied to emigrate and Hannah a mere 14. Age was a moveable feast!
 
There were Domeyers living at Wilmington who had a daughter Louisa Rose born in 1855. Her children were William, Margaret Ann, Christyannah or Christy Hannah and William Daniel (the first one may have died). She had a brother William and a sister Christena - Christy. Her father was Christian, possibly from where Christy comes, and her mother Johannah, which may also be the origin of the 'annah' for 'Christyannah', the child being given the name of both of her maternal grandparents.

The following marriage notice has to be this Daniel and this Louisa although whether it is our Daniel remains to be established:

McLEOD—DOMIER (Domeyer).— On the 5th April, at Beautiful Valley, by licence, by the Rev. H. Mason, of Port Augusta, Mr. Daniel McLeod, of Stony Creek, to Miss Louisa Domier, of the same place.Thursday 8 April 1869 South Australian Register.
As was so often the case, there is incorrect spelling which has Domeyer as Domier. Stony Creek is Wilmington and Beautiful Valley is also Wilmington..

The following record reveals the family of Louisa Domeyer:

Name: Christian Heinrich Adrian (Henry) DOMEYER

Birth1822, Clausthal, Hanover, Prussia9295

Immigration2 Apr 1849, ‘Auguste & Meline’9295,11260,6119 Age: 27

Death19 Dec 1892, Wilmington, SA9295,17180,17181 Age: 70

Death Memo18 Dec?

Obituary

South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA) 17181
Friday 23 December 1892

DOMEYER.— On the 18th December, near Wil-
mington. Christian Domeyer, aged 70 years.

Spouses

1Johanna Louisa ROSEN

Birthca 1825, Prussia9295

Immigration2 Apr 1849, ‘Auguste & Meline’11260,6119 Age: 24

Death22 May 1910, Wilmington, SA9295,17182 Age: 85

Marriage14 Oct 1850, Port Lincoln, SA17183

ChildrenLavinia (ca1850-1924)

 Adolphina Wilhelmina (ca1850-)

 Louisa Rose (1855-)

 Charles (1858-1884)

 Heinrich Wilhelm (1860-)

 William Henry (1863-)

 Matilda (1866-1937)
 Christena Mathilda (1868-)

http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~moadfamily/Family/PS76/PS76_142.HTM

Map: Scotland in the 1800's.

If we can establish that this Daniel was the same Daniel who came out on the Eliza with Hannah Mcleod and that the same Hannah was the first wife of our Edward Atkins then we may be closer to finding out more about Edward's first wife and possibly, about Edward himself.


I have also heard back from South Australia's McLeod Clan Society having approached them for possible information about McLeod's living in the Clare Valley at the same time as Hannah. Alex McLeod, secretary of the society wrote, raising some good questions:
progress.

What we will do is publish a line about Hannah McLeod in our local Genealogy Search Table in the hope that someone may cross reference a connection to your family. 

The Jamestown and Clare districts were closely settled by gaelic speaking Scots from the Western Isles. They were strongly Presbyterian, and maintained gaelic services for decades.

They, being some of the earliest settlers, formed their own cemeteries. The McLeod (private) Cemetery just out of Jamestown was a family one and preceded the town cemetery. There is also a Presbyterian cemetery where a church once stood, south of town.

Similarly the White Hut Gaelic cemetery( managed by the MacAskills ) at Clare was a private one.  See link below.I am tossing up the possibility of connections to be discovered there. The rustic Highlanders stuck together.

Also, the assumption that Hannah and Daniel came from Ireland, may have merit as their family could have moved   there in the highland clearances; Why Ireland, as it had its own huge problems? Would we expect Hannah and Daniel to have been brought up Irish-catholic in Charleville in the heart of catholic county Cork?

Would the religious divide have been crossed to the firm Presbyterian protestant tradition of the  Scots?, I note that in your blogs, a Daniel McLeod had married as a Presbyterian.

What is the likelihood of Charelville being wrong ? eg. There are "Charlestons" in Scotland,  in the west. Even "Garryveillie" could come out sounding like "Charleville".

Gaelic pronounciation was foreign to English ears and knowledge, hence we have the diverse spellings of names like "MacLeod" "McCloud",  written by  clerks who had no idea, but recorded the best interpretation.  Towns of origin may have been misrecorded also.

http://headstones2.weebly.com/clare-white-hut-gaelic.html

If you imagine Henry Edward McLeod and Hannah/Daniel could be related, can you trace down Henry & spouse in the 1841 Scottish census?  

There is no doubt that raising questions about the accuracy of Charleville is valid given how easily mistakes were made at the time. We have our own classic example in Clesanthows being recorded as the name of Charlie and Mary Ross's son Chrysantheous, the result no doubt of a heavy Greek accent and the ignorance of the recorder in Clare, in the same way that Charleville may be the 'guesswork' of an English clerk trying to make sense of a broad Scottish accent. The same situation no doubt led to the publishing of Domeyer as Domier, the latter being a phonetic interpretation of a heavy German accent.

Photo: Sailing ships in Germany in the 1800's.

So previous conjectures revolving around Charleville and Hannah and Daniel being Irish may be thoroughly wrong, as such guesses often are. The other McLeod connection in the Clare Valley was Mary McLeod who married Donald McKinnon and one of Hannah McLeod and Edward Atkin's daughters married one of their sons. Mary was born in the Gorballs, Lanarkshire and Donald in Argyll. If there were a connection between Hannah and Mary I am guessing the Charleville?? would be somewhere around here.

We have only just decided that Henry Edward McLeod might be connected also as he ended up in the same part of South Australia as Hannah and Mary and checking the Scottish census is a good way to begin.


Kylie came up with the following in response to the latest information on the McLeods:

 I also wondered if there was a section of London that they were living in before emigrating and have asked the London Metropolitan Archives Family History section if they know of such an area.  They promise to answer all questions within ten days so we await an answer.

Now back to Hannah.  Scotland has excellent records at Scotlandspeople.  I am a member and have done several searches but have been unable to find a family with both a Daniel and a Hannah or Ann.  That was with father Donald.  I will do some more searches without the father’s name in case that is not our Daniel.  What I have found is that no-one named their child Hannah only Ann and that Daniel is a common name so we may be able to identify them by the combination of names alone.

This week also brought the following report from the Clare Historical Society following a request from Kylie for clarification of information:

As you have found Edward Atkins married Hannah (Anne) McLeod in Holy Trinity Church in Adelaide in 1843 and later married Elizabeth Mashford in 1857 in St Marks C of E at Penwortham - small village 10 minutes south of Clare. His son, Edward William, married a Mary Ann Wise in St Patricks Church, Adelaide in 1904. There is also a marriage of one Sarah Atkins in St Marks at Penwortham in 1872. I will have to look up this one on micro-fiche.

N.B. We are checking on this but the researcher seems to have assumed that Mary's illegitimate son was the son of Edward Atkins as well when, while this has been raised as conjecture and incest, there is as yet no firm ground for it.

BAPTISMS - a James Haynes Atkins in St Michael's C of E Bungaree church in 1862 and his birth is on state records as 2 January 1862 at Charlton which is in the district of Wirrabarra with Elizabeth as the mother. Three others baptised in St Barnabas C of E in Clare - child of Edward & Anne with no name or date shown in 1850 father shown as a labourer, abode Clare;  Joseph baptised 30 August 1851 son of Edward and Hannah, still a labourer and still Clare;  Emily baptised 11 August 1854 and born 10 March 1854, daughter of Edward and Hannah, abode Bundaleer and Edward is now a blacksmith. Rev.William Wood officiated at this last one. The other two were baptised by Rev. Bagshaw. These are from the original church records.

BURIALS - Henry Edward Atkins son of Edward buried in St Barnabas C of E cemetery (no headstone) February 1851 aged 7 years; Joseph of Bundaleer also in St Barnabas, 28 November 1854, aged 3 years & 3 months, no headstone. These 2 are from the original church records and no other details are given except for the officiating ministers. These 2 are not listed on the state CDs.

So many births and deaths for babies were never registered which makes it hard to trace people. It is strange there is no death showing for Anne (Hannah) before 1857 when Edward married Elizabeth in January 1857.

Sarah Atkins married James Stacy on 8 April 1872 in St Marks C of E at Penwortham. She was 22 and her husband was a teamster of Bundaleer, Sarah is shown as living at Clare and a spinster. Wirnesses to her marriage were Alex McKinnon, labourer and Harriet McKinnon both of Hillriver, Clare. From the original register which we hold here. No need to look on microfiche for that one.

 So as things stand we have found out a little more about a possible Daniel McLeod which might open the door to something more. Or it may not.

Perhaps the most important thing to emerge from this week's work is the reminder that a name may not be all that it seems and that 'accents' and illiteracy made such mistakes very common in the 19th century.