Geddes & Bowman

[Fordyce]

Janet Bowman was a daughter of Laurence Bowman, a coalmaster in Buckhaven, Fife, who, in 1865 when she was only 17, married George Geddes, a school teacher in Cowdenbeath, later in Dysart Burgh School. They had a family of eight, youngest born 11 Feb 1881 at Buckhaven.

Later in 1881, George Geddes had a petition brought against him by various creditors. He failed to appear before Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on 12 Oct 1881, and in fact after the 1881 census when he's at home in Dysart with wife and family, seemingly all normal, he simply disappears. His wife records herself as still married (not widowed) in 1891, 1901 and 1911, although she's a widow when she died in 1923. Her estate was worth over £56K from investments and property.

I'm intrigued, when the Bowman family as a whole was clearly well off, why George Geddes should seemingly 'do a bunk' over money he owed. Where did he go? And exactly why? There must be more to it.

I've noticed an old Rootsweb posting which shows that Janet's brother Robert Bowman murdered his wife Isabella Gordon in 1875, so the Bowmans weren't all sweetness and light.

George Geddes came from the Enzie in Banffshire and I've only just established that he is distantly related to me on my maternal side via John Geddes & Elspet Robertson in Portsoy.

[rosie17]

This looks like him going to Australia
George Geddes age 50 schoolmaster
B 1839 Scottish
Departing from Glasgow
Arrival 10/8/1889 Melbourne Australia
Ship Loch Lomond

[Fordyce]

Brilliant! There are no other teacher George Geddeses in the 1881 census in Scotland, so given his age, yes, it has to be him. Well done for finding it - I used every search criteria I could think of in Ancestry and didn't come across that record - I have now!

His debts back in 1881 must have been settled, but then I found this on the excellent Trove website:

"An old resident of the district, in the person of Mr George Geddes, died on Tuesday morning at the residence of Mr James Lawson [of Blue Bell Park?]. Deceased, who was 75 years of age, was a school teacher by profession, but before coming to Australia was sub-editor of a Glasgow daily paper. When the late Mr J. W. H. Wyse conducted the 'Pastoral Times' Mr Geddes was a frequent contributor to that journal. The funeral took place on Wednesday afternoon, the remains being interred in the Presbyterian portion of the local cemetery." -  The Independent (Deniliquin NSW) Fri 2-4-1915.

With no headstone in Deniliquin Cemetery, and apparently no family involved, it seems to me he and his family were estranged. The comment about being a sub-editor in Glasgow is intriguing - true during the 1880s, or a story to cover his background?

I wonder what sort of contributions he made to the 'Pastoral Times'?

[rosie17]

Yes thought it was him going by his profession death registration also on Ancestry 1915
matches the record in the newspaper