Mary and Isabella Buchanan.....

[LesleyB]

Hi Graham

I think it is interseting that nobody has found her death and added it to the thread.

If, as you suspect, Isabella Slater died in Bedford in 1946, age 92, Bedford, Volume 3b page 329, in the 2nd quarter, (April, May, June ), then that is all there is to be found on the internet for an English death. As you say, someone would have to go and look the death up or send for the certificate to find any more details and there is no way of knowing if the Bedford death is the correct Isabella unitl that step has been completed.

I hope your nephew comes up with the goods!

Best wishes
Lesley

[gpc52]

I wonder if anybody can help me find more details on Isabella Slater's death.

As you know if you have followed this thread, I have details of her death but not a year. I have searched Free BMD, IGI and Ancestry.co.uk but I never find an Isabella Slater. Does anyone have access to another database and might be able to help?

The details are that Isabella Slater, née Buchanan, died at the age of 92 in Bedford, in England. Details were recorded in Volume 3 b, Page 329 of the Bedford register. She was born on South Uist in Invernesshire, though again her family records do not appear to exist.

Now some in the family think she died in 1946 but this would not tally with her being 42 at the time of the 1901 Census when she was living in Dundee. Fifty years later would be 1951.

So if anybody can give me a clue to the year and quarter it would be a great help?

Many thanks for your help

Graham (Norwich)

[sporran]

Hello Graham,


this is something that you can do for yourself. Ancestry (.co.uk) has recently introduced free searching of the BMD records for England and Wales for 1837-2004. You do not need to pay for any subscription but you do need to register and download the image viewer. After that, it is a matter of slogging through the indexes, which have some very odd Ancestry-style quirks.

However, I had a quick look and it was the June quarter (i.e. April, May, June) of 1946, reference and age as given.

Regards,

John

[gpc52]

John

Thank you for the lead to Free BMD on Ancestry. Some success at last.

Also noticed that Ancestry.co.uk has the Scotland 1841 census.

Kind regards

Graham

[angusm]

Apologies if this duplicates what I posted before that seems to have disappeared into the ether. It does seem to be a knotty problem that you folks have been discussing. Nor am I sure quite what is actually known. The Alexander Buchanan = Effie Boyd as I have it produced the following children after their 1842 Protestant marriage: John [c. 1843], Duncan [c. 1844, a law clerk who later had 6 Griminish before handing it over to his sister Mary], Mary [c. 1846 = Angus MacKinnon], Christy [5.3.1850], Catherine [20.7.1852], John [c. 1854], James [17.12.1855-10.2.1856 d. pleurisy] and Donald [c. 1856].This leaves two possible children from the IGI list posted above. Donald here was evidently the James Donald listed as b. 12.12.1856. Then there is the Mary listed as b. 5.8.1848. There is space in the family for this second Mary but no sign of her in Benbecula; it was quite usual for children to be brought up by grandparents e.g. in North Uist but both sets of grandparents in this case were in Benbecula. No-one had much clue about ages but it would have been unusual to make such a big error about a young child such as to confuse age 4 with age 2. It was also quite normal for parents out in th eastern pendicles such as Mianish or Uiskevagh not to register a birth where a day's walk was involved but those in the central townships were almost always registered.

Unless I am misreading what has been written, I think it would be wise to keep open the possibility that Isabella and Mary may not have been children of the Alexander=Effie marriage. There were two more Alexander Buchanans at the time, one married to a MacQueen lady who died; there was one daughter that remained in the island but it is possible from the duration of the marriage that there were other children and in this case one set of grandparents will have been in North Uist. There was also an Angus Buchanan whose children were born in this period and who left for Glasgow, conceivably having further children there. Finally, I wonder if they could be children of Alexander's brother James, who had the croft before leaving for Ontario in the early 1850s; his family could well have returned and answered Benbecula to a question about origins despite actually being born in Williams Twp, M'sex Cnty, ONT?

Incidentally, Alexander Buchanan's grandparents were my own 3x g'grandparents John MacPherson and Flora MacDonald. Hope this stimulates a little thought even if it doesn't actually help much. There is a Buchanan still in Torlum who is remarkably good on the history of the family so you might look there next. Good hunting. Angus

[gpc52]

I think that you are correct in saying that Alexander and Effie are probably not the parents of Isabella and Mary.

I have proven that Mary came from Benbecula and Isabella from South Uist, although for census purposes I think they are just about one and the same. Mary and Isabella also had a brother who went to South Africa which I think I have explained in the thread.

Last Sunday I looked at all the Buchanans in South Uist in 1841 and 1851 and found that they lived at Griminish, Torlum and Linaclate. So I perhaps have 34 Buchanans in 1841 and 41 in 1851, obviously many are the one and the same.

So at the moment I am a bit stuck. Perhaps I would get a lead if I can find Isabella Buchanan's and Frederick Slater's marriage in Canada between 1881 and 1890.

There is an Isabella Buchanan in Toxteth, Liverpool in 1881 and it is interesting that in 1895 my grandmother Alice May Slater was born in Toxteth. So I think the Isabella is one and the same, may be. So how did she get from South Uist to Toxteth.

Finally I have ordered Isabella's death certificate from the GRO so should have that soon.

[angusm]

Graham thanks for the posted response and private message. Do contact me again once you have the death info. Meanwhile, just a couple of things. Iain dhoti [Buchanan] at 17 Torlum is very knowledgeable about the family; I will see him next month and will see what he knows. I guess that he would know about a family member who went to South Africa. That connection and a Toxteth one do crop up in various island families. Finally, if the brother in South Africa was actually 80 in 1919, this would mean he could not be a product of the 1842 Alexander Buchanan=Effie Boyd marriage?

[gpc52]

I have now received the death certificate for Isabella. She died on the 20th June 1946 in Bedford, UK. The death was registered by the Coroner of Bedford after an inquest held on the 21st June.

Isabella at the time was living with her daughter Alice May Cooper (née Slater) my paternal grandmother. She died of pneumonia following a fall in which she fractured her right femur.

Age is given as 92 but i believe this to be up to 5 years wrong and perhaps her age should have been 87 on the certificate if it is to tie with Scottish census information in 1901. At that time the census gives her age as 42.

Isabella was the widow of Ernest Frderick Slater a confectioner. Refreshment Rooms/ Shopkeeper.

Now the search is on to find Isabella Buchanan in the 1871 Scottish Census.

[gpc52]

Hello

Is anybody able to do an online look up for me and see if Isabella Buchanan's and Ernest Frederick Slater's marriage is in a Canadian marriage register / database?

Isabella and Frederick are said to have married at Niagara Falls between 1880 and 1892 and they would have been about 20 years old in 1880.

Isabella came from South Uist as proven in the Scottish Census of 1901. She was living with her husband in Dundee in 1901. Frederick Slater is said to have come from Lincolnshire in England.

If you can point me at the record then I am more than happy to purchase it or if you can tell me any details about the marriage, date where they came from, that would be a great help.

Many thanks if you can help.

Graham (Norwich UK)