John Maclean of Helmsdale
It is known that during the 1860s the firm of Henderson, Glasgow, had a branch in Reykjavik Iceland for the purpose of exporting fish products to Britain. It is also recorded that on April 27 1862 the post ship Arcturus arrived in Iceland carrying four scotsmen to work at the plant, one of which may well have been John Maclean of Helmsdale. He was a journeyman cooper and his job may have been the building of barrels for salt fish. He may have left Iceland in late 1863. However,while in Iceland he met María Elisabet Kristjánsdottir and she named him as the father of the child she gave birth to in the Spring of 1864, Charlotta María Jónsdottir. The famous Icelandic book of genealogy, Islendingabók names the father as John MacLean of Helmsdale, born 1840.
I have identified a John Maclean, born Helmsdale 1832, father Alexander a shoemaker. There is reason to distrust the Icelandic date and Helmsdale could have been a general description. He appears to have left Iceland before the child was born and may have left the impression that he would return. If he gave his true date of birth 1840, I cannot find any other John MacLean of Helmsdale. In naming the child, María comes from the mother and it is possible that the father suggested the name Charlotte/charlotta, as the letter 'C' does not exist in the language. John Maclean may have had a relative with that name or often mentioned such a person.
The CV of John MacLean born 1832 is known until he died in Wallsend on Tyne in 1906 and there is a gap when he could have been in Iceland, but this is not proof. I would be obliged if someone can suggest another John Maclean born in the general area of Helmsdale born around 1840 and known to have gone to Iceland or who was related or connected in some way with someone called Charlotte, as that name seems to have been quite common around Helmsdale.
Regards,
Helmsdale
