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Interesting.  Maybe Minnie isn't a daughter of William John afterall.

I've also seen a marriage record of 21st November 1855 in Aghalee (village next door to Aghagallon where my Gilberts were from) a Sally Gilbert, daughter of Stephen Gilbert marrying Robert Gilbert, son of Thomas Gilbert.

If this Sally Gilbert is a sister of Stephen Gilbert (brother of William J. Gilbert, and therefore also son of a Stephen Gilbert), and it was her that had a daughter Mary, it would explain why Stephen referred to a niece Minnie Weir in his will when he died in 1902.


[I feel bad for hijacking this thread- maybe I should make my own??]

Ooh, thank-you.  How did you find that?  (I'm fairly new to this) 

How do you think I could go about trying to find out if this Mary Gilbert's parents were indeed William John Gilbert and Ellen Orr Killen?

So what I'm interested to know is if anyone has any more information on Margaret Anne Gilbert's siblings and her parents, Stephen and Anne Jane/Jones.  I believe they had 7 children, but I'm only sure of three and I have conflicting information about the rest:

- Margaret Anne: c1818-1903.  Apparently she is described as a second daughter in the marriage record with Meredith Rountree.

- Eliza Jane: May have been born in either 1819 or 1834.  Married James Gilbert (probably a cousin) on 5th May 1852.  Had at least one child, Sarah Maria borth 6th August 1858.

- William John: My g g grandfather.  He married Ellen Orr Killen in 1851.  He was born in 1822 and died in 1880.  He had 10 children.

- Stephen: c1830-1902.  Married Sarah Anne Bell on 3rd April 1857.  In his will he mentioned his sister Margaret Rountree (presumably the only sibling still alive at that stage) and rhymes off his nieces and nephews (mostly, if not all, children of William John).

- Depending on who I believe there may also have been a Sarah, Frances, Jonathan and/or another Stephen (died in infancy).

I'd be particularly interested on hearing from Fizzyross and whether their family bible has any information about Margaret Anne's family.  If anyone else has information please contact me.  Hopefully I've made enough posts now to be allowed to use the PM system

I mentioned that someone had Margaret Anne's birth year as 1818 on Ancestry.com.  They also have some information about her son Meredith and his descendants:

Meredith ROUNTREE (1817-1870) m. Margaret Anne GILBERT (1818-1903)
 - Meredith ROUNTREE (1857-1926) m. Annie Matilda BARNES (1862-1951)
    -- Edward ROUNTREE (b. 1896, died in infancy)
    -- Ivy Marriner ROUNTREE (1897-1983) m. Samuel Trevor Dibble (1893-1983)
    -- Nora Margaret ROUNTREE (1900-1976) m. Edgar Palgreve DAVY
    -- Faith ROUNTREE (1902-1904)

Some more of the information that I've gleaned from this thread, along with some of my own:

• Meredith ROUNTREE married Margaret Anne GILBERT in 1826

• Margaret Anne GILBERT was 84 when she died on 17th January 1903 in Auckland, meaning she was born in about 1819 (1818, according to an entry on Ancestry).  She was the daughter of Anne Jane/Jones (d. 1861) and Stephen GILBERT (c1780-1836) of Aghagallon, near Lurgan, Northern Ireland.  Her paternal grandparents were probably Stephen GILBERT (c1746-1825) and Margaret/Marget BULLICK (1752-1784), also of Aghagallon.

• Meredith (Of Roundtree Hill) was born c1815 at Mulladry, Co Armagh, Northern Ireland.  He was the son of Jones ROUNTREE (b. 1781) and Alice (?)MULLADRY (1780-1866).

• According to Oakleigh: in 1865 Meredith ‘Rowntree’ sponsored, with others, Elizabeth Carlin, servant, of Rowntree Hill, County Armagh as an assisted passenger to New Zealand.  They arrived on the Silver Eagle on 5th March 1866.

• Meredith and Margaret Anne had 7+ children (see previous post).

• Their daughter Margaretta died in infancy.  Their son Joseph died of an accident aged 9 (newspaper report), 12 (Fizzyross' bible) or 14 (Early Northland Pioneers - J.T.Stephens) on 14th February 1867.  He was apparently buried on the family farm in Ruarangi because the roads were too bad to take him to the cemetary.

• Meredith staked himself in the abdomen while trying to draw water from a well in 1869.  He was bedridden for 20 months and died on the 11th November 1870 (6th November according to the Daily Southern Cross).  He was buried with his son Joseph with a marble headstone to mark the grave.  (Early Northland Pioneers - J.T.Stephens.)