Who was Jean Leighton Ritchie?

[Forfarian]

Seen the mention/possibility of a bigamous marriage between her and Charles.

Charles married Florence Jane Strange in 1901. He petitioned for divorce in 1907. Florence Jane Strange or Mytton married William Arthur Mason in 1910. So that seems to rule out bigamy on Charles' part, at least!

[FionaJWallace]

Hello All

Thanks to ag655 I have been alerted to this thread.  I am a grand daughter of Jean Leighton Ritchie.  (Wallace-Lewis family tree) My mother, Eleanor May Mytton, was the youngest of 4, and was born in Portsmouth in 1916.

My grandmother has also baffled me.  All I remember from my mother was that her mother was a Scot, and Glasgow seems to have figured somewhere.

This is the first I've heard of a petition for divorce from my grandfather re his first wife, and would be most interested in getting those details. 

I'd also be interested to know who started this thread and why.

[Forfarian]

I'm the person who started this thread, and I've sent you a personal message with a fuller explanation.

[FionaJWallace]

Confused.  Forfarian is the same as ag655?

Fiona

[Gali]

Hi Fiona,

Sorry to confuse you!  ag655 is my Ancestry username ... I 'used' some 'clues' from your tree so thought best to alert you to the fact! 

[FionaJWallace]

Dear All-on-this-thread

I am absolutely fascinated that people unrelated to me are researching my enigmatic grandmother.  Thank you all.  Perhaps the "Henderson" clue may be what we've all been looking for.

Best wishes
Fiona
(in very sunny Johannesburg, South Africa)

[MonicaL]

Fiona, welcome to RootsChat 

You'll find RootsChat members a dedicated, curious, knowledgeable bunch! Enjoy your time here 

Monica

[Forfarian]

The mystery deepens.

I now have the details from the Register of Voters of the occupants of 176 Thomson Street, and they only muddy the waters more!

Robert Ritchie married Mary Henderson Robertson, niece of Jane Leighton Henderson, in 1930, so Robert Ritchie was the nephew-in-law of Jane Leighton Henderson. It looks as if he and his wife lived with his in-laws. His father-in-law died in 1944, his wife in 1945, and his mother moved out some time before her death in 1949. Robert too left 176 Thomson Street about that time.

However Robert's birth name wasn't Ritchie! His parents were George L Smith and Janet B Warburton, who were married in Edinburgh in 1898. Robert was born in 1904/5, no more than 5 years before Jean Leighton Ritchie was married. (I did check, and there is no death of a George Smith with other name Ritchie, so it doesn't look as if it was Robert's father who changed the family surname.)

This is doing my head in! Any ideas, anyone?

 

[Gali]

Hi Forfarian,

Gosh, sounds difficult! 

Were you able to trace Robert Ritchie/Smith b. 1904/5 on the 1911 census?  Did  his mother remarry maybe? 

Hope that you have been able to make some progress with Jean herself!