Help Needed to Locate Death of James Greenlees

[Elizajb]

Hi All,

I have a wee problem I would appreciate any ideas on.

I am looking for a death for a James Greenlees who was last recorded, that I know of, in Seddon St, Aramaho, Wanganui in the 1905-1906 electoral rolls. In this roll, he is with his wife Emily, but after this date I cannot find any record of him.

He was born in Scotland  about 1854 and emigrated to New Zealand about 1878 with his wife and two children James and Janet. They settled in Wanganui and are fairly easily traceable in this area thereafter. However, after 1905/1906, Emily is living with her children in Wanganui but James is not recorded with them. I have found the couple did not get on well, but Emily states she is married in the two rolls she shows in after 1906, but no James.

Emily died in 1915 and her death printout gives her as 'married', so I am assuming that James must still be alive. However two of their sons died in WW1 and one of the records (for Alexander, 1917) states he was the son of Emily and the late James Greenlees. The New Zealand death index has no death at all for anyone who could be the James in question and neither does the NZ burial locator. I very much doubt if he would have left the country and cannot find any clue to his whereabouts after 1905/6.

Any lateral thinking by chatters would be much appreciated as I am a bit stumped.

Regards,
Eliza.

[Johnf04]

A James Greenlees died in Australia in 1913; unfortunately, as my Ancestry sub has expired, I can't see where, or what his parents names were.

[crisane]

James Greenlees died 9 July 1913 in Queensland
Father William Greenlees, Mother Ellen Cowan
Registration number 004650
Page 9988

Three public trees on ancestry have him born in Queensland 1888.

[maddys52]

James Greenlees died 9 July 1913 in Queensland
Father William Greenlees, Mother Ellen Cowan
Registration number 004650
Page 9988

Three public trees on ancestry have him born in Queensland 1888.

Yes, a memorial notice in the Townsville Daily Bulletin in 1914 (on Trove) is placed by his "sorrowing parents, brothers and sisters" - so seems unlikely to be a match for Elizajb's James Greenlees.

[whiteout7]

I notice on the NZ immigration 03 Jan 1879
James Greenlees was from Renfrewshire 23yrs Farm Labourer (b 1856)
Emily is Emily Margaret Greenlees 24yrs
Janet 1 1/2
James (Infant)
Alexander Pollock 17 years

Was the boat called the Fernglen, entering Westland.

At least you can get Emily's death printout and that will get you her maiden name.

(He could be recorded with a churchyard but not on bdm, like my grgrandmother in NZ and have no headstone)

[Lucy2]

Hi Eliza

I don't have any news of a death for James GREENLEES senior, but I did wonder if the James GREENLEES appearing on the 1905-06 Wanganui electoral roll, might in fact have been James junior ??  [I note that he married in 1906 so may have still been residing with his mother ? ]

I'm a little curious about the following item which appeared in the "Wanganui Chronicle" - 17 October 1903 - Local and General :

... [fined for] failing to send (their) children to school regularly ... Emily GREENLEES ...  [amongst other names].    

That to me suggests that Emily was probably the head of the household at that time, and responsible for the children.  [So James senior may well have left sometime earlier ? ]

    ~  Lu

[Lucy2]

Eliza ... you probably have already seen the death and Bereavement thank-you notices for Emily GREENLEES  > "Wanganui Chronicle" - 14 and 17 August 1915.    The death notice doesn't acknowledge "a husband" ... and the thanks notice is worded from "the relatives of".

Both the sons who died at war enlisted after Emily's death (naming as their next-of-kin a brother-in-law and a brother) ... so it would seem that their father James wasn't in their lives at that time ?
[Alexander GREENLEES' will dated 18 November 1915, only mentions his 3 brothers and two sisters. ]

I wouldn't be too concerned that the word "married" shows on Emily's death printout, nor that she appears as "married woman" on electoral rolls up until her death.   If say she was a deserted wife, then it wasn't altogether unusual to keep up the pretense of still being married (and the informant to her death may only have guessed at her "status" ).

Australia of course is always the first place we look for anyone who "has gone missing" from NZ.

*   Have you checked at all for James returning to Scotland / England ??
*   Do you have marriage certs. for any of the children which might show their father as "deceased" ?

   ~  Lu

[Lucy2]

Just another Australian death (if James GREENLEES left NZ earlier than 1905-6) :
Unfortunately it doesn't have any parental information :

1903
James GREENLEES
Registered at :  Barraba*, New South Wales
Regn. Number:   5207 / 1903

 

[Lucy2]

Hi Eliza

Do you have access to NZ school records ?   [If not then someone on here may be able to assist with a look-up. ]

Might be worth looking for Wanganui school records for the GREENLEES children, prior to 1903 to see when/if, father James is listed as parent/guardian.

   ~  Lu